Collins' Illustrated Guide to London and Neighbourhood: Being a Concise Description of the Chief Places of Interest in the Metropolis, and the Best Modes of Obtaining Access to Them: with Information Relating to Railways, Omnibuses, Steamers, &c.Anonymous
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Collins' Illustrated Guide to London and Neighbourhood: Being a Concise Description of the Chief Places of Interest in the Metropolis, and the Best Modes of Obtaining Access to Them: with Information Relating to Railways, Omnibuses, Steamers, &c.
Anonymous
London (England) -- Guidebooks
the Soho, Baker Street, and London Crystal Palace Bazaars. The once
well-known Pantheon is now a wine merchant’s stores.
The residences of the nobility and gentry are chiefly, as has been said,
in the western part of the metropolis. In this quarter there have been
large additions of handsome streets, squares, and terraces within the
last thirty years. First may be mentioned the district around Belgrave
Square, usually called _Belgravia_, which includes the highest class
houses. North-east from this, near Hyde Park, is the older, but still
fashionable quarter, comprehending Park Lane and May Fair. Still farther
north is the modern district, sometimes called _Tyburnia_, being built on
the ground adjacent to what once was “Tyburn,” the place of public
executions. This district, including Hyde Park Square and Westbourne
Terrace, is a favourite place of residence for city merchants and other
wealthy persons. Lying north and north-east from Tyburnia are an
extensive series of suburban rows of buildings and detached villas, which
are ordinarily spoken of under the collective name St. John’s Wood:
Regent’s Park forming a kind of rural centre to the group. Standing
higher and more airy than Belgravia, and being easily accessible from
Oxford Street, this is one of the most agreeable of the suburban
districts.
[Picture: Bunyan’s Tomb, Bunhill Fields]
If, instead of the Strand and Piccadilly route, or the Holborn and Oxford
Street route, a visitor takes the northernmost main route, he will find
less to interest him. The New Road, in its several parts of City Road,
Pentonville Road, Euston Road, and Marylebone Road, forms a broad line of
communication from the city to Paddington, four miles in length. Though
very important as one of the arteries of the metropolis, it is singularly
deficient in public buildings. In going from the Bank to Paddington, we
pass by or near Finsbury Square and Circus, the buildings and grounds of
the Artillery Company at Moorfields, the once famous old Burial-ground at
Bunhill Fields, St. Luke’s Lunatic Asylum, the Chapel in the City Road
associated with the memory of John Wesley, the old works of the New River
Company at Pentonville, the Railway stations at King’s Cross (Great
Northern), and St. Pancras (Midland),—the vast span of this station’s
roof is noteworthy,—and Euston Square (L. and N. Western), several
stations of the Metropolitan Underground Railway, St. Pancras and
Marylebone churches, and the entrance to the beautiful Regent’s Park.
But beyond these little is presented to reward the pedestrian.
It is well for a visitor to bear in mind, however, that all the routes we
have here sketched have undergone, or are undergoing, rapid changes,
owing chiefly to the wonderful extension of railways. Cannon Street,
Finsbury, Blackfriars, Snow Hill, Ludgate Hill, Smithfield, Charing
Cross, Pimlico, &c., have been stripped of hundreds, nay, thousands of
houses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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