A portraiture of London! It is Babel In greatness, in confusion, and in change; But yet there's order in it.--Babylon the Great.

We have now journeyed together--it is to be hoped pleasantly, and not wholly without profitfor years, traversing by the highways and byways of the metropolis, but always, as we promised, within sight of the cross and ball of Cathedral-objects which, from to last, we have kept steadily in view. We have, nevertheless, rambled over several miles of ground--from Highgate and Hornsey in the north to Norwood and Streatham in the south, and from the river Lea in the east to Chiswick in the far west; and covering altogether an area upwards of square miles in extent. It will, however, be our duty, before we actually part company, to take our stand as it were upon the vantageground of some breezy height, and to give our readers a general view of the vast city which we have traversed in detail, and on which we may be supposed to be looking down: our view extending, in the happy and epigrammatic words of Mr. G. A. Sala, over a sort of panorama-

from where the town begins to where it ends; from the marshy flats below Deptford to the twinkling lights of Putney and Kew.

Standing, then, in this exalted (mental) position, and surveying the expanse before us, we see at our feet London, to use the phrase of the Brothers Percy,

stretching out its arms, like a

second

Briareus, in every direction,

, then, according to a recent estimate, the total length of the streets of London is about miles; whilst the entire number of houses-

inhabited, uninhabited, and building

London according to Act of Parliament,

Groat's, from John o

When we look at the great metropolis from an antiquarian point of view, there is much to interest in its gradual growth. Not to speak of the City proper, which, as a matter of fact, has for centuries been almost stationary, we may gain a general idea of the outlying districts of London under King Henry VIII. from some expressions in an Act of Parliament passed in the year of his reign, and which regulates the extent of jurisdiction given to the wardens of certain City companies with respect to the control of apprentices. Under this Act certain rights were given to these gentlemen

within

two

miles of the City, namely, within the town of

Westminster

, the parishes of St. Martinin-the-Fields, Our Lady in

the Strand

,

St. Clement's

Danes without

Temple Bar

, St. Giles'-in-the-Fields, St. Andrew's,

Holborn

; the town and borough of

Southwark

,

Shoreditch

, Whitechapel parish, Clerkenwell parish, St. Botolph without

Aldgate

, St. Catharine's, near the Tower, and

Bermondsey Street

.

in the Fields,

The suburbs, therefore, in the reign of which we speak, must have been nearly void of buildings. From the map of Ralph Aggas, published about the year , it appears that almost the whole of the metropolis was confined, even at that time, nearly half a century later, within the City walls. Certainly a few straggling houses fringed side of , and a few more stood round about . Open fields were under grass close to the City walls throughout almost its whole northern circumference; while those houses which stood within them were for the most part detached and accommodated with gardens. The village of lay entirely isolated across the open country. A single street led up , almost as far as ; between that point and the space was entirely occupied by fields and gardens. There were also many gardens and open spaces within the City itself, and more particularly along the wall, within which a considerable space was kept clear round the whole circuit, like the Pomerium of ancient Rome. The largest area occupied by gardens was immediately behind . In the eastern and south-eastern parts of the City a great many spots were similarly appropriated. And yet, within this very limited compass of inhabited ground was crowded a population of constant dwellers, amounting to not less than , or perhaps more than twice the number of those who regularly sleep within the same area at the present time.

Carefully, however, as its successive changes may be described, it is hardly possible for words to convey so clear and definite an impression of the alterations which have from time to time been made in our metropolis as may be gained from the inspection of an old map of London and comparing it with of the present day. Thus, for instance, in a map issued between and , the Thames is invested with an unusual degree of importance, and from the number of landing-places and stairs marked down it is evident that the Londoners of that day must have been very fond of the water, and must, moreover, have spent much time upon it. Berkeley House, Albemarle House, and stood in the green fields, which have since been covered over with dwelling-places and christened . Near

So Ho

the road to Oxford,

the road to Hampstead

Passing on a few years further, Lord Macaulay observes, in his

History of England,

whoever examines the maps of London which were published towards the close of the reign of Charles II. will see that only the nucleus of the present capital then existed. The town did not, as now, fade by imperceptible degrees into the country. No long avenues of villas, embowered in lilacs and laburnums, extended from the great centre of wealth and civilisation almost to the boundaries of Middlesex and far into the heart of Kent and Surrey. In the east, no part of the immense line of warehouses and artificial lakes which now stretches from the Tower to

Blackwall

had even been projected. On the west, scarcely

one

of those stately piles of building which are inhabited by the noble and wealthy was in existence; and

Chelsea

, which is now peopled by more than

forty thousand

human beings, was a quiet country village, with about a

thousand

inhabitants. On the north, cattle fed and sportsmen wandered with dogs and guns over the site of the borough of Marylebone, and over far the greater part of the space now covered by the boroughs of Finsbury and of the Tower Hamlets.

Islington

was almost a solitude; and poets loved to contrast its silence and repose with the din and turmoil of the monster London. On the south, the capital is now connected with its suburb by several bridges, not inferior in magnificence and solidity to the noblest works of the Caesars. In

1685

a single line of irregular arches, overhung by piles of mean and crazy houses, and garnished, after a fashion worthy of the naked barbarians of Dahomy, with scores of mouldering heads, impeded the navigation of the river.

We pass on to the London of Queen Anne's reign, and find that its expansion, though considerable, had not been very rapid during that half century.

A New Map of the Cityes of London,

Westminster

, and the Borough of

Southwark

, together with the Suburbs, as they are now standing,

Cock and Pye-fields.

the prodigious increase of building and other alterations of ye Names and Situation of Street, etc., in this last Sentry (century).

All Gate,

Ye Goounefownders hs.

muscular

Under the Georges, however, more rapid strides were made in the gradual extension of the metropolis, the erection of new houses being no longer prohibited by jealous legislation, and free trade being established in building for the necescities of the growing population. The great increase in our national manufactures and commerce which followed the establishment of peace, in , brought a large access to the population of London, and these persons required to be accommodated with houses near the scene of their daily labours. Hence , and Kensington, and South , and Hackney, and Dalston were each doubled in population and in houses; and the introduction of railways in the and quarters of the present century has more than doubled the entire London over which George III. was king.

The population of London and its suburbs was calculated by Sir William Petty, in , to be ; Gregory King, in , by the hearthmoney, made it ; and yet, by actual census in , including , , and the adjacent hills, it proved to be only . from to -that is, in years-the population of London advanced from to . In years the metropolis had increased above a million, or more than through all the previous history of the kingdom. In years more it had swelled to , or nearly half a million more; and it was calculated, as far back as , that the annual increase of the population of London was at the rate of souls. Accordingly, in it had risen to , being an increase in years of souls. In , again, this number had swelled to , to which, if the average yearly rate of increase has been maintained since that date--of which there is little doubt-we may now add, at least, another half million.

Comparing the population of the metropolis with that of other cities, it may be stated that London contains nearly twice as many people as Pekin ( of the most densely populated capitals in the world); almost thrice as many persons as Jeddo; and treble the number of the inhabitants of Paris; more than times as many as there are in New York; nearly times as many as St. Petersburg; times as many as Vienna, Madrid, or Berlin; times as many as Naples, Calcutta, Moscow, or Lyons; times as many as Lisbon, Grand Cairo, Amsterdam, or Marseilles; not less than times as many as Hamburg, Mexico, Brussels, or Copenhagen; and very nearly times as many as Dresden, Stockholm, Florence, or Frankfort. Further, in comparison with our own large cities, it contains nearly times as many people as the united towns of Manchester and Salford, and the same proportion as regards Liverpool; times as many as Glasgow; times as many as Birmingham; times as many as Dublin; and upwards of times as many as Edinburgh. In England the following are the largest towns: Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol, Wolverhampton, Newcastle, Plymouth, Bradford, Portsmouth, Stoke-upon-Trent, Hull, Oldham, and Sunderland; and yet their joint population is less than that of London by nearly souls. This may not be surprising when we are told that births occur every hour, and that in week nearly are added to the inhabitants of the metropolis.

A writer in the () observes that

our metropolitan population is nearly

three

times as large as that of the Papal States, nearly

three

times as much as the whole population of Norway; it exceeds by

300,000

the whole population of Portugal, by

1,300,000

that of Switzerland, by

200,000

that of Roumania. It exceeds that of Canada by

80,000

, and surpasses that of the Netherlands by more than half a million. Yet these

two

countries include independent states, strong and stable monarchies, while London is but a city: still, she is the Niagara of cities. The roar of her population is heard afar off; and, as

one

man is as another in these days, she is, at the lowest estimate, even by the rule of counting heads, the most important place in the world.

Again, a writer in the pointed out, in , that the population of Londons would equal that of all Great and Ireland; and that of Londons would people the whole globe.

Every

eight

minutes of every day of every year,

one

person dies in London; and in every

five

minutes of every day in the year

one

is born. London contains

100,000

winter tramps,

40,000

costermongers,

30,000

paupers in the unions; with a criminal class of

16,000

, out of whom, in

1867

, it was found that only

7,000

could read or write. Suppose an average town with a population of

10,000

persons; there are in London, on Sunday, as many people at work as would fill

ten

such towns, and as many gin-drinkers as would fill

fourteen

.

Two

such towns London could people with fallen women;

one

with gamblers;

three

with thieves and receivers of stolen goods; and

two

with children trained in crime. It comprises

two

such towns of French people,

four

of Germans,

one

of Greeks, and more Jews than are to be found in all Palestine. It has as many Irish as would fill the city of Dublin, and more Roman Catholics than would fill the city of Rome. It has

20,000

public-houses and beer-shops, frequented by

500,000

people as customers. In London,

one

in every

890

is insane; there is

one

baker for every

1,200

persons,

one

butcher for every

1,500

,

one

grocer for every

1,800

, and

one

publican for every

650

.

To place the matter in another point of view, we may state that the size of

Greater London,

But notwithstanding the alarm which politicians and legislators have at various times expressed, and perhaps felt, at its growth, London has constantly advanced, amidst all impediments and interruptions, to its present gigantic size; and, what is more, it still continues to advance. Conjecture scarcely dares to fix its limits, for every succeeding year we see some waste ground in the suburbs covered with dwellings, some little village or hamlet in the suburbs united by a continuous street to the great metropolis; until what once, and that at no remote period, was a portion of its environs now forms an integral part of great and compact city, likely to verify the prediction of James I. that

England will shortly be London, and London England.

London, then, may well be termed

Babylon the Great;

Greater London

Even during the years occupied in the production of this work the course of events has been travelling on so fast that we have every reason to believe the population of

Greater London

strikes

Cleopatra's Needle

,

Old London

New!

With such a vast and varied population before us, it may be of interest to pass for a moment to the commissariat department, and glance at the food supply for this

noble army

lives and moves, and has its being.

In the Middle Ages, as we learn from Stow, the citizens of London were mainly dependent for their daily bread on the bakers of Stratford-le-Bow, who seem to have enjoyed the privilege of bringing their

long carts laden with bread

London

Post Office

Directory,

The water-supply of London is a subject which has long engaged the serious attention of the Legislature, and frequent official reports are issued, under the auspices of the Local Government Board, with respect to the quality of the water supplied by the several Metropolitan Water Companies. As to its quantity, it will be sufficient to state that the water used in London for the purposes of drinking, washing, street-cleansing, and the extinction of fires, amounts to upwards of gallons daily, supplied by different companies.

Our metropolitan water-supply is apparently well watched by a paternal government. An official report is made monthly by an official inspector as to the condition of the

intake,

Herodotus was thought to be telling fables when he recorded the story of the Xanthus and other rivers in Thrace being dried up by the thirsty souls who composed the invading army of Xerxes; but when we state that in the average daily consumption of water in London was about gallons, or nearly gallons per head of the population, it would almost appear that we are by degrees drifting into a condition when we shall be in danger of drying up our own rivers by the same means.

What other city in the world,

has provided for the comfort, direct or indirect, of

each individual

of its population, a daily supply of so many gallons of this chief article of life?

silvery

Since the introduction of gas for lighting the streets of London, about years ago, of which we have spoken in our account of , both the demand and supply have been on a par with the increase of the population.

London affords, in theory at any rate, a good example to other towns as to the removal of street refuse and sewage matter. Since the establishment of the General Board of Health the metropolis has, in this respect, taken and kept the lead. From and after the year the abolition of cesspools and the drainage of houses into the sewers had been made compulsory, and upwards of cesspools were so abolished in the space of years. But the evil was only transferred, not removed, for all the sewers by which the cesspools were superseded flowed directly into the Thames; the result was that in about years from the commencement of this reform the foulness of the river became unbearable, and measures were taken for the construction of a system of main-drainage, by means of which the sewage is conveyed to a more harmless distance. Of this system of drainage we have already spoken at length in our chapter on

Underground London.

From speaking of its sewers, our thoughts naturally pass to the mud and dust of London. In a previous volume we have made mention of the ash-mounds that were once to be seen in the neighbourhood of , the hidden treasures of some of which may perhaps have suggested to Charles Dickens the character of the

Golden Dustman,

Our Mutual Friend.

waste,

It is often said that every man in his lifetime eats a peck at least of dirt; but the Londoner, in all probability, swallows much more than a bushel, if there be truth in the following statement, which we find seriously made in the a few years ago:--

The

300,000

houses of London are interspaced by a street surface averaging about

forty-four

square yards per house, and therefore measuring collectively about

thirteen

and a quarter million square yards, of which a large proportion is paved with granite. Upwards of

200,000

pair of wheels, aided by a considerably larger number of iron-shod horses' feet, are constantly grinding this granite to powder, which powder is mixed with from

two

to

ten

cart-loads of horse-droppings per mile of street per diem, besides an unknown quantity of the sooty deposits discharged from half a million of smoking chimneys. In wet weather these several materials are beaten up into the thin, black, gruel-like compound known as London mud; of which the watery and gaseous parts are evaporated, during sunshine, into the air we breathe, while the solid particles dry into a subtle dust, whirled up in clouds by the wind and the horses' feet. These dust-clouds are deposited on our rooms and furniture; on our skins, our lips, and on the air-tubes of our lungs. The close, stable-like smell and flavour of the London air, the rapid soiling of our hands, our linen, and the hangings of our rooms, bear ample witness to the reality of this evil, of

which every London citizen may find a further and more significant indication in the dark hue of the particles deposited by the dust-laden air in its passage through the nasal respiratory channels. To state this matter plainly, and without mincing words, there is not at this moment a man in London, however scrupulously clean, nor a woman, however sensitively delicate, whose skin and clothes and nostrils are not of necessity more or less loaded with a compound of powdered granite, soot, and still more nauseous substances. The particles which to-day fly in clouds before the scavenger's broom, fly in clouds before the parlour-maid's brush, and next darken the water in our toilet-basins, or are wrung by the laundress from our calico and cambric.

Of the parish churches within the walls of the City at the time of the Great Fire of , only escaped the general havoc which was made by the conflagration. Of those destroyed-- in number--about were rebuilt, several others being united to those of other parishes. Pepys, in his , under date of -, makes the following singular remarks concerning the churches destroyed in the fire :--

It is observed, and is true, in the late Fire of London that the fire burned just as many parish churches as there were hours from the beginning to the end of the fire; and next, that there were just as many churches left standing in the rest of the City that was not burned, being, I think,

thirteen

in all of each; which is pretty to observe.

Guide to the Churches of London and its Suburbs for

1878

,

It is refreshing to know that suffering humanity is not forgotten in this

great world of London;

ills that flesh is heir to.

In such a vast area as London, theatres and other places of amusement are, of course, very numerous, and are capable of containing and affording entertainment to thousands of the inhabitants. Mr. John Hollingshead, lessee of the Gaiety Theatre, in - gave to a Parliamentary Committee an estimate of their number. are the patent theatres, and Covent Garden, each capable of holding persons. Then there are theatres licensed by the Lord Chamberlain, holding in the aggregate about persons. There are also theatres licensed by the divisional magistrates, of which houses is the Court Theatre, at , about yards outside of the Lord Chamberlain's jurisdiction, and these theatres will hold altogether about persons. The Crystal Palace is included, containing theatres and concert-hall under the same roof. Next come the music-halls. The Middlesex magistrates license places, together holding persons. These music-halls include of the -class, holding from to people; -class halls, holding from to ; -class halls, holding from to ; -class halls, holding from to persons; and then there are smaller places, which may be called public-house concert-rooms or harmonic meetings, or whatever they are termed. The Surrey magistrates also license on the south side of the Thames music-halls; are of a smaller type, but are very large places, and altogether these will hold persons. The City of London licenses only places--the Sussex Hall and the

White Horse;

We have only to lament, in this general view, the extreme paucity of open parks and places of recreation, which add so much to the attractiveness of Paris and other European capitals. For, exclusive of the greater parks of London, which are vested in the Crown but open to the public, there are only about acres of public recreation ground, and these are mostly in distant parts of the suburbs. They are distributed as follows :Black- heath, acres; Hampstead Heath, acres; Finsbury Park, acres; Park, acres; Hackney Downs, acres; (Hackney) Common, acres; North and South Mill Fields, acres; London Fields, acres; Tooting Beck Common, acres; and Tooting Graveney Common, acres. on the Thames and in present acres. The remainder of the acreage is made up of the commons at Clapham, Stoke , and Shepherd's Bush.

The great metropolis, then, being such as we have portrayed it, there have never been wanting those who have felt towards London and its neighbourhood an attraction which nothing could destroy. These, of course, have been the persons in whom the social qualities have predominated. Such, in their day, were Horace Walpole, Dr. Johnson, Samuel Rogers, and Macaulay; and such, too, were Leigh Hunt, Thackeray, and Dickens. Away from London and its surroundings such men would have been lost; here they found their respective . The Boswellian reasons for Dr. Johnson's love of London are of general applicability.

Johnson,

was much attached to London; he observed that a man stored his mind better there than anywhere else; and that in remote situations a man's body might be feasted, but his mind was starved, and his faculties apt to degenerate, from want of exercise and competition. No place, too, he said, cured a man's vanity or arrogance so well as London; for as no man was either great or good

per se

, but as compared with others not so good or great, he was sure to find in the metropolis many his equals, and some his superiors.

It would be almost as easy to cull from English writers a long chain of passages in praise of London as of others written in praise of country scenes. Thus Dr. Johnson remarks:

The happiness of London is not to be conceived but by those who have resided in it. I will venture to say there is more learning and science within the circumference of

ten

miles from where we now sit than in all the rest of the kingdom. The only disadvantage is the great distance at which people live from

one

another. But that is occasioned by the very largeness of London, which is the cause of all the other advantages.

London is nothing to some people; but to a man whose pleasure is intellectual London is the place. And there is no place where economy can be so well practised as in London: more can be had here for the money, even by ladies, than anywhere else. You cannot play tricks with your fortune in a small place; you must make an uniform appearance. Here a lady may have well-furnished apartments and an elegant dress, without any meat in her kitchen.

The same opinion is expressed somewhat more bluntly by

Jack

I have lived too long (he observes) in London, from early life to the present time, to like the country much; you cannot shake off old habits and acquire new ones. I must die (please God!) where I have lived so long. Kemble once said to me,

Depend on it, Jack, when you pass Hyde Park-corner you leave your comforts behind you.

Experientia docet!

London for beef, fish, poultry, vegetables too; in the country you get ewe-mutton, cow-beef, and in general very indifferent veal. London is the great market of England. Why? Because it abounds in customers; and I believe you may live as cheap in London, and nobody know anything about you, as anywhere else. I delight in the country occasionally; but London is your best retirement after long industry and labour.

London has also, in an eminent degree, the great attraction of personal independence and freedom from the eyes of censorious and inquisitive neighbours. This is well drawn out by Boswell, who writes :--

I was amused by considering with how much ease and coolness he (Dr. Johnson) could write or talk to a friend, exhorting him not to suppose that happiness was not to be found as well in other places as in London; when he himself was at all times sensible of its being, comparatively speaking, a heaven upon earth. The truth is, that by those who from sagacity, attention, and experience have learnt the full advantage of London,

its pre-eminence over every other place, not only for variety of enjoyment, but for comfort, will be felt with a philosophical exultation. The freedom from remark and petty censure with which life may be passed there is a circumstance which a man who knows the teasing restraint of a narrow circle must relish highly. Edmund Burke, whose orderly and amiable domestic habits might make the eye of observation less irksome to him than to most men, said once, very pleasantly, in my hearing,

Though I have the honour to represent Bristol, I should not like to live there; I should be obliged to be so much upon my good behaviour.

In London, a man may live in splendid society at

one

time, and in frugal retirement at another, without animadversion. There, and there alone, a man's own house is truly his

castle

, in which he can be in perfect safety from intrusion whenever he pleases. I never shall forget how well this was expressed to me

one

day by Mr. Meynell:

The chief advantage of London,

said he,

is that a man is always so near his burrow.

But there are other writers of authority besides Johnson whose testimonies in praise of London deserve to be quoted here; for instance, Lord Macaulay, who writes to a friend:

London is the place for me. Its smoky atmosphere and muddy river charm me more than the pure air of Hertfordshire and the crystal currents of the Rib. Nothing is equal to the splendid varieties of London life, the

fine flow of London talk,

and the dazzling brilliancy of London spectacles.

Again, we may summon Leigh Hunt, who writes in his

Table Talk :

London is not a poetical place to look at; but surely it is poetical in the very amount and comprehensiveness of its enormous experience of pleasure and pain. . . . It is

one

of the great giant representatives of mankind, with a huge beating heart, and much of its vice and misery . . . . is but

one

of the forms of the movement of a yet unsteadied progression, trying to balance things, and not without its reliefs.

We have said that to the man of intellectual culture London has attractions beyond all other places. Nor is this position better illustrated and enforced than in the inexhaustible Boswell :--

Of London, Johnson observed,

Sir, if you wish to have a just notion of the magnitude of the city, you must not be satisfied with seeing its great streets and squares, but must survey the innumerable little lanes and courts. It is not in the showy evolutions of buildings, but in the multiplicity of human habitations which are crowded together, that the wonderful immensity of London consists.

I have often amused myself,

adds Boswell,

with thinking how different a place London is to different people. They, whose narrow minds are contracted to the consideration of some one particular pursuit, view it only through that medium. A politician thinks of it merely as the seat of government in its different departments; a grazier, as a vast market for cattle; a mercantile man, as a place where a prodigious deal of business is done upon 'Change; a dramatic enthusiast, as the grand scene of theatrical entertainments; a man of pleasure, as an assemblage of taverns, and the great emporium for ladies of easy virtue; but the intellectual man is struck with it, as comprehending the whole ot human life in all its variety, the contemplation of which is inexhaustible.

Charles Dickens, too, is not far behind his compeers in his love of London. Its society and life was

meat and drink

Put me down on

Waterloo Bridge

at

eight

o'clock in the evening, with leave to roam about as long as I like, and I would come home, as you know.

For a week or a fortnight I can write prodigiously in a retired place, as at Broadstairs; and then a day in London sets me up again and starts me. But the toil and the labour of writing day after day without that magic-lantern (London) is immense.

It would be almost a sin not to add, by way of conclusion to these testimonies to London's character, the merry and good-humoured lines of Captain Morris, the

Laureate of the Beef-steak Club:

In London I never knew what to be at, Enraptured with this and enchanted with that; I'm wild with the sweets of variety's plan, And life seems a blessing too happy for man.

In town let me live, then, in town let me die, For in truth I can't relish the country, not I. If one must have a villa in summer to dwell, Oh, give me the sweet shady side of Pall Mall.

[extra_illustrations.6.572.1] Proposed Method for removing Cleopatra's Needle

[extra_illustrations.6.572.2] Cleopatra's Needle in proposed site

[extra_illustrations.6.572.3] Cleopatra's Needle raising into place

[extra_illustrations.6.572.4] Rescue of crew of Cleopatra

[extra_illustrations.6.572.5] Abandonmentof Cleopatra's Needle

[extra_illustrations.6.572.6] Cleopatra's Needle on Lord Mayor's Day

[] See Vol. III., p. 50.

[extra_illustrations.6.572.8] foundering in the Bay of Biscay

[] See Vol. IV., p. 138.

[] See Vol. II., pp. 179-183.

[] See Vols. II., 491; III, 239; V., 376.

[] See Vol. V., p. 238.

[] See Vols. II., p. 418; V., 234.

[extra_illustrations.6.573.1] A London Dust-yard

[] See Vol. IV., p. 137.

[] See Vol. V., pp. 233-242.

[] See Vol. II., p. 278.

[] See Vol. III., p. 118.