On the site now occupied by Thorne's Brewery there used to be a Tan Yard and Fellmonger's Establishment. When the ground was opened for the purpose of drainage some old tanks were discovered in which the hides were soaked containing remains of lime and hair. In the rear of the Brewery there was a Hop Garden where that bitter plant much used for brewing was cultivated. The only regular vehicle that passed through Nine Elms Lane was the carrier's cart--the few inhabitants of the place used to "turn out" to see it pass--a marked contrast to the present hurried and incessant traffic! Facing the Railway Terminus were two Steamboat Piers for landing and taking up passengers. At race times the excitement between the rival steamboat companies was intense--"touters," men hired expressly by each of these companies to induce passengers to go down their respective piers, became at times so exasperated with each other that they fell to blows, a sight which the baser sort of the crowds assembled on such occasions enjoyed to their hearts' content. Many things have been said by way of disparagement of Battersea and not at all reflecting credit on certain localities within the parish. Battersea has been called "the Sink Hole of Surrey." Europa Place, Bridge Road, has been designated "Little Hell," and the spot where Trinity Hall has been erected at the end of Stewart's Lane, received the epithet of "Hell Corner." Persons in the habit of receiving stolen property were said to reside in the neighbourhood; moreover, there was a gang called "Battersea Forty Theives!" "Sharpers" are said to have abounded in every direction, so that strangers going to Battersea would be "cut for the simples." But we who know something of London life know that other Metropolitan parishes have their "dens of infamy" and localities of "Blue Skin," "Jack Sheppard," and "Jonathan Wild" notoriety, that beneath the shadow of St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, our Houses of Parliament and Mansions of the Nobility and Aristocracy, squalor and crime, vice and grandeur walk side by side, and oftentimes hand in hand.