London Pictures drawn with pen and pencil ... With ... illustrations

Preface

. The ' Pen and Pencil Series ' has hitherto included, with the exception of Sea Pictures, only volumes devoted to the description of a country. But many representations have been made to the publishers of the desirability of devoting a volume to London. The present book is an attempt to meet adequately that desire. The number of books dealing with the multifarious life and the antiquarian wealth of London is enormous, and the reader may at first be inclined to ask, 'Why add another to the long list?' And the reply must be to the effect that no work exactly suited to the place which this is intended to fill is in existence. The author wishes here to acknowledge his indebtedness to many of the writers who have preceded him in this field. No attempt whatever at original research has been made, but the author has himself carefully inspected almost every place referred to in the volume ; and he has consulted, so far as possible, all the easily accessible books on those portions of London with which he deals.

He has also laid under contribution a great many books not easily accessible. It is hopeless to expect that amid such a multitude of detail all inaccuracy has been avoided, but his constant aim has been to make no statement of fact or history for which good authority is not forthcoming. A superficial glance will show that many things the reader might naturally expect to find in the volume are omitted. This is due first to limitations of space, and secondly, to the author's conviction that it was better to try and treat a few well-defined chapters adequately rather than hastily to glance at a larger number. Hence the reader will find that whole subjects, like the city companies, the great museums, the art life of London, and many others, are entirely omitted. Perhaps, if this volume proves to

PREFACE.

. meet a literary need, these may be included in some future work. The author's aim in this has been to try and give the reader a satisfactory and an accurate sketch of the present condition and the past history ot the great City in relation to such subjects as the civic and commercial life, the Tower, the great ecclesiastical and governmental buildings, the legal and literary life. Each separate item in this list already possesses a library upon its special features, and hence the difficulty of trying to compress them all into a volume of 224 pages. Special acknowledgments must be given to the Library Committee of the City of London for permission to copy some engravings from their Descriptive Account of the Guildhall, to Messrs. Longman & Co., for the use of the wood cuts on pages 118, 120, 121, and 127, to Mr. John Murray for the woodcuts on pages 93, 96, 100, and 101, to the London Stereoscopic Company for the photographs from which the engravings on pages 129, 180, and 202 were reproduced, and to the proprietors of the Graphic for permission to copy the admirable pictures of London scenes by Mr. Logsdail given on pages 12, 34, and 48.

The book goes forth with the author's earnest desire that it may recall many well-known haunts and pleasant experiences to those who already know and love London well, and that it may perhaps stimulate many who live within reach of her nearly inexhaustible stores of interest and information to avail themselves more freely of these treasures. The Foreign Office from St. James's Park. CONTENTS. The White Tower from the South-East ......... Frontispiece St. Paul's ............... title-page No. IO Downing Street ........ ... page 5 The Foreign Office from St. James's Park .......... 7 The Monument .............. 10 The Bank and Royal Exchange ........... 12

Chapter I. First Impressions

London's Waterway .... page 13 A Block of Peabody's Buildings, Spitalrields . 1 7 A London Street Arab 18 The School Board Inspector Abroad ... 19 Old London Bridge ...... 20 The Pool by Night 22 London Bridge ...••• 23 The Victoria Embankment .... 26 The Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street, occupying the Site of the Old Fleet Prison ... 28 St. Thomas's Hospital 29 The Statue to William Tyndale on the Embankment ...... page 30 The Church of Allhallows, Bread Street, demolished in 1877 . . . . . .32 Cheapside and Bow Church Steeple . . 34 The Old Cross in Cheapside .... 35 The Tree in Wood Street, Cheapside . . 36 At the Gate of Christ's Hospital .... 38 Holborn Viaduct ...... 41 A Crowded Crossing. ..... 45 Johnson reading the MS. of the Vicar of Wakes eld CONTENTS. 8

CHAPTER I.

— continued. Fleet Street, showing the Old Houses and St. Early Morning in Covent Garden . . . page 49 Dunstan's Church" page 48 A Quiet Nook in Regent's Park . . 52 London in the Grasp of a Snowstorm . . 54 >;*<<

Chapter II. Civic And Commercial London

The Coining Press . . . . So The London Custom House . . 81 Billingsgate Market .... . S2 Billingsgate Amenities ..... 83 The Letter Box at the General Post Office at Six p.m. ....... 84 Sorting ....... 85 Stamping. .... .05 The Shoot at Eight P.M 86 The Pneumatic Tubes at the Post Office . . 87 Seals ol the City and of the Lord M ayor . . 56 The New Common Council Chamber . . 57 The Guildhall Chapel 61 The Interior of the Guildhall .... 63 The Crypt of the Guildhall .... 06 Ancient Bosses in the Guildhall Crypt . . 6S The Guildhall Library 73 The Old Boar's Head Sign .... 75 Punching out the Blank Coin .... 78 The Rimming Machine 79 St. Margaret's, Lothbury SS >J*i'

Chapter III. The Tower Of London

Norman Fireplace in the White Tower . . loi Inscription in the Beauchamp Tower, cut by the Earl of Arundel in 1587 ..... 103 Inscription in the Beauchamp Tower, cut by Charles Bailly in 1571 .... 104 Inscription in the Beauchamp Tower, cut by Arthur Poole in 1568 ...... 105 The Interior of the Church of St. Peter ad Vincula in the Tower . . . . . . 10S Bird's-eye View of the Tower of London in 16SS 90 'The Traitor's Gate from the River Front . -91 Plan of the Tower of London .... 93 Vertical Section of the White Tower, East and West 96 A Beefeater ....... 97 The so-called Raleigh's Cell in the White Tower . 98 Ancient Inscription in the White Tower . . 99 Plan of the Third Stage of the White Tower. . 100 The Block, Axe, and Executioner's Mask no ! -K-

Chapter IV. Ecclesiastical London

St. Paul's from the River . . . . H2 Lambeth Palace from the River . . . . 113 London around St. Paul's in 1563 . . . . 114 St. Bartholomew the Great . . . .116 The Old Stone in Panyer Alley . . . 117 Old St. Paul's from the South-west, showing the Church of St. Gregory, and the Chapter House. I iS Interior of the Nave ol Old St. Paul's . . 120 Inigo Jones' Porch to Old St. Paul's, showing the LolLrds' Tower 121 St. Paul's Cross in 1620 .... 124 Interior os St. Paul's, looking East, as it would have been after Wren's First Design . . 127 The Interior of St. Paul's, from Under the Dome, looking East ...... 129 The Deanery, St. Paul's ..... 132 Ground Plan of Westminster Abbey . . 13. The Choir and Nave of Westminster Abbey, looking West 135 The Coronation Chair of Edward III., with the Stone of Scor.e . , . . . . 1 The Chantry of Henry V , and the Entrance to the Chapel of Henry VII. ..... CONTENTS. 9

CHAPTER IV.

— continued. Detail of Henry the Seventh's Chapel . page 142 The Roof of Henry thc Seventh's Chapel . . 143 The South Aisle of Henry the Seventh's Chapel 145 The Tomb os Rahere .... page 159 St. Giles', Cripplegate . . 160 St. Olave's, Hart Street 162 The Monument to the Wesleys in the Nave of Westminster Abbey ..... 148 The Nave and South Transept, St. ■ Saviour's, Southwark ...... 164 The Jerusalem Chamber . . .150 The Lady Chapel, St. Saviour's, Southwark, . 165 St. Margaret's Church, Westminster . . 152 The Old Weigh House Chapel . 166 Lambeth Palace in 1688 .... 155 The New Chapel, destroyed in 1883 . . . 166 St. Helen's, Bishopsgatc ..... 157 Surrey Chapel . ..... 167 The South Aisle of the Choir of St. Bartholomew the Great . ..... 158 Christ Church, Westminster Bridge Road . . 168

Chapter V. The Imperial Government And The Royal Palaces

The Great Seal 170 The Horse Guards from St. James's Park . . 1S1 The New Palace of Westminster, from Lambeth Bridge 171 The Cabinet Room, Downing Street . 182 The Gateway to St. James's Palace . . . 184 Westminster in 1647 . . . . 173 Kensington Palace, the Room in which Queen Victoria was born ..... 1S5 The Lobby of the Old House of Commons . 1 74 The House of Commons in the time of James I. 175 Eliot Defending the Rights of the Commons. . 176 The Facade, Buckingham Palace . .186 The Pillar Room, Buckingham Palace 187 A Drawing-Room, Buckingham Palace . 188 Westminster Hall at the close of the Eighteenth Century ....-■■ 178 The Marble Staircase, Buckingham Palace 189 The Interior of the House of Commons . . 180 Queen Victoria (1887) ..... 191 >^S'

Chapter VI. Legal And Lherary London

The Royal Courts of Justice .... 194 Samuel Rogers' House, No. 22, St. James's Place 195 The Interior of the Temple Church. . . 198 The Great Hall of the Middle Temple . . . 202 The Chancery Lane Gate of Lincoln's Inn . 206 Staple Inn from Southampton Buildings . . 208 Barnard's Inn 209 The Publishing Depot of the Religious Tract Society, at No. 56 Paternoster Row . .211 The Retail Department of the Religious Tract Society, No. 6j St. Paul's Churchyard . 212 The Offices of the British and Foreign Bible Society, in Queen Victoria Street . . .214 Milton's House in the Barbican (pulled down in 1S64) 216 Milton and his Daughters ..... 218 Dr. Johnson's House, No. 17, Gough Square . 220 Dr. Samuel Johnson . . . . . .221 The Old Charterhouse ..... 222 Zoar Chapel, Southwark ..... The Monument The Bank and Royai, Exchange London's Waterway

Chapter I

First Impressions THE great orator, Mr. John Bright, once said, in the writer's hearing, in the course of a famous speech : ' A great many of you have been to London, but you know nothing about it. I have spent six months there every year for nearly forty years, and I know nothing about it. It is so large that nobody knows much about it. I don't believe there is a man in it who is fairly acquainted with all the parts and districts of that vast city. You have over four millions of people there.' In these words the speaker touches upon those phenomena connected with London which are the first to strike the most superficial observer, and which also appear even more impressive and more marvellous to the observer who has spent many years in their close contemplation and study. We may study the enormous figures that represent the population of London ; we may know in square miles the area occupied by its palaces and mansions and hovels ; we may cull whole galleries of pictures, either from the endless panorama of human life, with all its strange vicissitudes and contrasts, or from the succession of famous buildings extending from the Tower of William the Norman, down to the great buildings of the Victorian era ; we may scan the history of social development as expressed in Act after Act of Parliament passed with this object in view ; and yet with those who think they know it best, and who have passed long years of their life in the very centre of its ceaseless struggle and turmoil, we shall have at last to admit, like John Bright, that in the sense of full and adequate knowledge we know nothing about it.

In 1 88 1, when the last official census was taken, the population amounted to 4,766,661. The normal annual increase can hardly have been less than 100,000 per year ; hence in 1890, Larger London almost certainly includes within her borders over 5,600,000 human beings. These figures form a hieroglyph of which we are apt to think we know the meaning, but which can never be grasped in any complete sense by the mind. And hence to make it easier the census students break it up into some of its many component parts. They tell us, for example, that Kensington alone — a mere drop in the ocean of London life — contains more people than Bradford, York, and Scarborough combined ; that the total inhabitants of Newcastle might be dropped down in St. George's, Hanover Square, and yet fall some thousands short of the present population ; that the Tower Hamlets with its 500,000 inhabitants could fill to overflowing ten such towns as Reading, and that you could fill four or five New Yorks with London's millions.

Never before in the life of the globe have so many human beings been compressed into so small a space. Larger London — that is, speaking roughly, a circle having Charing Cross for the centre, and a circumference running through the counties of Middlesex, Hertford, Essex, Kent and Surrey, at a distance of fifteen miles from Trafalgar Square — includes six hundred and ninety square miles. This area, as mapped, really forms a square of over twenty-six miles each way. In walking or driving these twenty-six miles, whether from east to west, or from north to south, for much the larger half of the distance the appearances presented are those of a crowded city. The wayfarer who starts from Stratford, in the east, may walk — with hardly a break in the streets of houses, through Whitechapel, the City, the West End, Kensington and Hammersmith — through twelve or fourteen miles of houses.

Then again, London is not one, but many towns. Hounslow is for all practical purposes of life, as far away from, and as little known to the dwellers in, say, Blackheath or Aldgate, as Rome or New York. Except for an occasional trip to satisfy a passing curiosity, the ordinary inhabitant of Belgravia knows no more of Deptford or Wapping than he does of Fiji or New Guinea. Myriads of people, even with the enormously increased means of locomotion, but rarely or never leave those districts of London in which their work is situated and in which they reside. And here we touch another peculiarity of this great London Certainly half a million people — according to some estimates 800,000 — daily leave their homes in various parts of the suburbs, and ply their avocations within Lesser London and for the most part within what is known as the City.

The way in which London has become a kind of maelstrom, drawing into its vortex the young and vigorous, the broken-down and criminal, the professional and scientific and literary classes, no less than the cultured and wealthy 'retired' classes, is shown by the fact that only 2,401,955 persons out of the 3,816,483 residing in Inner London in 1881 were born there. That is, no less than 1,414,528 were not born in London. Out of these — we give only round numbers — Ireland sent 80,000, Scotland 49,000, the county of Norfolk 49,000, Somerset 43,000, and the foreigners reach the large total of 60,000. In the last number are included no less than 21,000 Germans and 8,000 French. But with facts and statistics of one kind or another, not only this book but a dozen more like it could easily be filled.

And our object is not to collect these, but to present the reader with some pen and pencil pictures of London life, London buildings, and London history. Undoubtedly the best way to see London is to walk about it, just as the worst way to accomplish this object is to employ the railways, most of which go either underground, where nothing can be seen, or overground, whence only acres of roofs with smoking chimney-tops, and the most prominent towers and steeples can be observed. The hansom cab is a speedy and comfortable vehicle, and its popularity is shown by the fact that London possesses nearly 7,000 of them, as against 4,000 of its slower brother, the ' four-wheeler.' But in fine weather not only the cheapest but the best vehicle for London sight-seeing is the omnibus, and the best point of vantage thereon is the top.

The old-fashioned style, which admitted of two passengers sitting on each side of the driver, and the roof of which could only be reached by a series of gymnastic exercises upon a perpendicular set of narrow steps, is being fast superseded by those which have cross-seats outside, all facing the driver, on the top, and which are reached by an easy staircase. For this reason it has come to pass that whereas a few years since it was com paratively rare to see a lady outside an omnibus, now the fair sex so frequent that part, that Punch's joke is hardly far-fetched when it represents the conductor asking the ladies above him whether one of them will consent to ride inside ' to oblige a gentleman.' Between 2,000 and 3,000 omnibuses ply along the main thoroughfares. Competition has greatly lowered the fares, and also improved the accommoda tion.

This multitude of omnibuses not only renders it possible to ride through most of the leading streets, at the same time doing much to congest the traffic, but it also gives the traveller a ready and pleasant way of visiting not only the nearer suburbs, such as Highgate, Hampstead, Clapham and Hammersmith, but also more distant favourite places of resort, like Richmond and Hampton Court. The stranger who gazes for the first time upon the hurrying crowds of Cheapside, Oxford Street, Whitechapel Road or the Borough, and the old resident who for the thousandth time studies the ever-varying, ever-fascinating panorama of London street life, cannot find and cannot reasonably desire a better point of view than that afforded by the top of a London omnibus. It is in this way that we propose to get our first impressions of the great City.

In the succeeding chapters no less than in this we shall limit our observations for the most part to the area lying between Westminster and the Tower in one direction, and the Angel, Islington, and the Elephant and Castle in the other. This area embraces what may be considered as London's heart. Within it lies the tiny area of Roman London, the larger Saxon, and the still larger Tudor capital. Here are to be found the centres and springs of not only London but Imperial Government, the home of all civic authority and rule, the source and fountain-head of most of the businesses of the richest city in the world. Here are to be seen the palaces of England's monarchs, the stately house of her Parliament, the mighty Cathedral of her patron saint, and the ancient Abbey wherein are interred so many of her illustrious dead.

Within these somewhat narrow limits are to be seen the greatest extremes and contrasts that life can afford. Hard by mansions in which every luxury is enjoyed and upon the furnishing of which a fortune has been expended, are to be found rooms and tenements in which human beings live a life utterly unfavourable to moral and spiritual welfare. And go where you will in this area for a large part of the twenty-four hours in the day, you will find abundant evidence of active life, hard work, luxurious idleness, outward splendour, mingled with, alas ! far too many traces of suffering, poverty, vicious indulgence and rampant vice. Heinrich Heine's well-known words still remain in many respects as true as when he wrote them : ' I have seen the greatest wonder which the world can show to the astonished spirit.

I have seen it, and am still astonished — for ever will there remain fixed indelibly on my memory the stone forests of houses, amid which flows the rushing stream of faces of living men with all their varied passions, and all their terrible impulses of love, of hunger, and of hatred.' Perhaps the best starting-point for any journey of inspection within this central London is that shown in the engraving on page 12. It represents the open space in front of the Mansion House, a spot which during the hours of daylight is thronged with foot and carriage traffic. Upon it converge Cheapside, one of the most ancient thoroughfares in the capital ; Queen Victoria Street, one of the newest and handsomest of recent streets ; Princes Street and Threadneedle Street, names which at once brinoup associations connected with the greatest financial transactions of the modern world ; Cornhill, Lombard Street, King William Street, and WTalbrook, names which enshrine chapters of the ancient and modern history of the capital.

In the background of the engraving stands the Royal Exchange, the home and the outward symbol of London's commerce. It was founded in Elizabeth's reign by Sir Thomas Gresham, and opened by the Oueen in 1 57 1, and destroyed in the Great Fire. It was rebuilt by Wren, who had only the perverse and short-sighted men of authority in his day allowed it would have caused all the principal streets of London to branch out from it In 1838 fire once again ruined it, and the present structure was erected and opened in 1844. Opposite the Exchange stands the Bank of England, which will be referred to in some detail later on. The engraving on page 1 2 admirably represents the variety of traffic here to be seen. From this point omnibuses will convey the wayfarer to almost every part of London. Passing up Cornhill, a few minutes' ride will bring us to the congested districts of Whitcchapel, Spitalfields, or Bethnal Green.

Here are many of the saddest and some of the noblest features of the great City's life. While by no means confined to the East End, yet here are to A Block of Peabooy's Buildings, Spitalfields. be seen more of struggling life, of poverty, and ot crime, than in other districts. Hundreds of thousands of human beings here spend their lives, dependent upon a weekly wage earned by the hardest toil, and which when it comes in regularly only just suffices to keep them out of the clutches of hunger. It is here that the sweater's victims toil, and here many of the labouring class, who leave the country in the hope of finding London an Eldorado, sink down into lives of hopeless drudgery. And yet in no part of London is Christian philanthropy more active, and nowhere else are the results more cheering.

The great question of so housing these teeming c myriads that at any rate it shall be possible to observe the commonest decencies of life, is coming more and more to the front. Much has been done in the way of erecting artizan dwellings, but much yet remains to be done. The public conscience is, however, aroused, and men of all grades and of all shades of religious opinion are beginning to realise that in this sense they are their brother's keeper. It perhaps cannot be denied that there has been too much indiscriminate charity, and that benevolent effort has not always followed the wisest advice ; but it is incontestable that never before in the world's history have so many devoted Christian men and women been working at the cost of self-sacrifice, money, and even health itself, for the bodily and spiritual welfare of their fellows as are to be found to-day in the east of London.

Institutions like Mr. Charrington's Hall and the People's Palace have been founded. Churches and chapels and mission halls abound. Devoted clergy men, both of the Established and Nonconformist churches, city missionaries, nurses, and a multitude of voluntary workers of both sexes, are proving to-day that the New Testament is a living force. They live among these people, they give of their thought and sympathy and time and strength to the utmost of their power, from no desire, and from no possibility of reward here, but because a time will come, they believe, when the Saviour to whom they have con secrated their lives will say, ' Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.' But to the average Londoner — that is, to the man who spends the working hours of the day in the bank, or counting-house, or warehouse, and then at night rushes off as fast as omnibus or train will carry A London Street Arab. him to the suburbs — the East End is as little known as Kamschatka.

He never goes there. He knows that such a region exists, but his acquaintance with it is limited to what the newspaper reports about its dock strikes and labour troubles, about some crime more than usually atrocious, or about the efforts to help on its progress — efforts which not unfrequently he helps neither by his sympathy nor by his contributions. And yet no London scenes are more interesting or more full of matter for careful reflection than a walk by day through the London Docks, or a walk by night along Whitechapel Road or Ratcliff Highway. In the East End may be seen an abundant variety of the type of street Arab, and here also may be seen the result of the recent development in London of the education movement in the numerous board schools. Over the whole of Larger London there are to be seen these buildings, so full of hope and future promise to the State, and not unfrequently are to be witnessed scenes like that depicted in the engraving.

If we choose King William Street, and take one of the conveyances running southwards from the Bank, we soon reach the great waterway of London, the River Thames. It is here crossed by London Bridge, a name most famous in the City annals, the site of many an exciting and tragic event in London's history, and during twelve hours in the day probably the most crowded spot on earth. There is evidence for the belief that a bridge stood here in Roman times, and it is certain that our Saxon ancestors possessed one. The Sagas commemorate the great battle fought :here in 1008, in which Olaf the Saint, King of Norway, and converter of that land to Christianity, took part. He has left traces of his influence not only in the fact that three City churches were dedicated to him, but also because the Tooley Street on the south bank of the Thames is really St. Olave's Street.

The first stone bridge over the Thames was built in 11 76 by a noted architect, Peter, the curate of St. Mary Colechurch in Cheap. And so well did he do his work that, with patchings and restorations and alterations, it actually stood until the nineteenth century. It took Peter thirty-three years to complete his work, and a very re markable piece of building it was. There were no less than nineteen arches, the piers occupying at low water, it has been calculated, about The School Board Inspector Abroad. 700 out of the 900 feet of waterway. Hence there was considerable obstruction to navigation, many an exciting adventure, and much loss of life and property. Royal personages and State prisoners on their way to or from the Tower by water, had to consult the tide before venturing to shoot the brido-e. One reason for these numerous and substantial piers was that Peter built a little town as well as a bridge.

Upon the central pier he placed a chapel dedicated to Thomas a Becket, 65 feet long, 20 wide, and 40 hio-h. It could be entered from the bridge level, and also by steps from the river. In the crypt of this chapel he himself was buried in 1205. Upon the outer piers there stood for centuries houses of different kinds. A roadway c ran through the centre of the bridge, closed at either end by a massive gateway, and there were three ' vacancies ' or gratings through which the boats passing up or down could be seen. Near the Southwark end was a drawbridge, and the gate at that end was known as the Traitors' Gate, from the fact that here - the heads of many of those who had been executed for high treason were exposed. It was here that the head of Wallace, the Scotch Old London Bridge. (From a print by C. Visclier.) hero, was exposed in 1305, and here, two centuries later, crowds came to gaze upon the disfigured features of Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More.

Across the bridge in 1381 Wat Tyler and his undisciplined crowd of Kent and Surrey men streamed to the sack of the Tower; here, in 1-90, Sir David Lindsay met and defeated, in deadly conflict, Lord Wells ; over these old arches, in 14 15, Henry V., then only twenty-seven years of age, amid the most extravagant civic rejoicings, passed in triumphant state, leading in his train the prisoners taken at the battle of Agincourt, little dreaming that, seven years later, his body would be borne along the same pathway, amid a nation's lamentations, to its final resting-place in Westminster Abbey. In the reign of Elizabeth, the bridge was restored, Nonsuch House, a four-story wooden edifice, was built just to the north of the drawbridge, and a new gate at the Southwark end was put up by the City. Fires in 1632 and 1666 destroyed many of the old houses, but they were not finally swept away until about 1 760.