E-text prepared by Susan Skinner and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original maps and illustration. See 21218-h.htm or 21218-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/2/1/21218/21218-h/21218-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/1/2/1/21218/21218-h.zip) The Fascination of London MAYFAIR, BELGRAVIA, AND BAYSWATER * * * * * _IN THIS SERIES._ Cloth, price 1s. 6d. net; leather, price 2s. net each. THE STRAND DISTRICT. By SIR WALTER BESANT and G. E. MITTON. WESTMINSTER. By SIR WALTER BESANT and G. E. MITTON. HAMPSTEAD AND MARYLEBONE. By G. E. MITTON. Edited by SIR WALTER BESANT. CHELSEA. By G. E. MITTON. Edited by SIR WALTER BESANT. KENSINGTON. By G. E. MITTON. Edited by SIR WALTER BESANT. HOLBORN AND BLOOMSBURY. By SIR WALTER BESANT and G. E. MITTON. HAMMERSMITH, FULHAM, AND PUTNEY. By G. E. MITTON and J. C. GEIKIE. * * * * * [Illustration: HYDE PARK CORNER] The Fascination of London MAYFAIR, BELGRAVIA AND BAYSWATER by G. E. MITTON AND OTHERS Edited by Sir Walter Besant London Adam & Charles Black 1903 PREFATORY NOTE A survey of London, a record of the greatest of all cities, that should preserve her history, her historical and literary associations, her mighty buildings, past and present, a book that should comprise all that Londoners love, all that they ought to know of their heritage from the past--this was the work on which Sir Walter Besant was engaged when he died. As he himself said of it: "This work fascinates me more than anything else I've ever done. Nothing at all like it has ever been attempted before. I've been walking about London for the last thirty years, and I find something fresh in it every day." Sir Walter's idea was that two of the volumes of his survey should contain a regular and systematic perambulation of London by different persons, so that the history of each parish should be complete in itself. This was a very original feature in the great scheme, and one in which he took the keenest interest. Enough has been done of this section to warrant its issue in the form originally intended, but in the meantime it is proposed to select some of the most interesting of the districts and publish them as a series of booklets, attractive alike to the local inhabitant and the student of London, because much of the interest and the history of London lie in these street associations.