'Sir Walter Besant knows London as no one has known it since Charles Dickens.... He has given a lifetime to the acquisition of his knowledge of the great city. He was grey before he attempted to write his monumental works on "London," "Westminster," and "South London"--books which have earned him his title as the historian of London--and he has postponed his book on "East London" until his sixty-fifth year.... Crammed with antiquarian lore mingled with human interest and saturated with genuine sympathy for the people is this study of "East London."... A thoroughly masterly book.'--_Literary World._ Crown 8vo. cloth, 3_s._ 6_d._ FIFTY YEARS AGO. With 144 Plates and Woodcuts. 'A series of entertaining chapters, to which the droll illustrations of George Cruikshank and the inimitable portraits by Daniel Maclise lend additional effect.... The book is full of movement and colour, and presents a vivid and interesting picture of the great reign of Queen Victoria.'--_Speaker._ Small 8vo. cloth (in the ST. MARTIN'S LIBRARY), gilt top, 2_s._ net each; feather, gilt edges, 3_s._ net each. LONDON. WESTMINSTER. SIR RICHARD WHITTINGTON. JERUSALEM. GASPARD DE COLIGNY. London: CHATTO & WINDUS, 111 St. Martin's Lane, W.C. * * * * * [Illustration: F. S. Walker, R.E. S^t. Saviour's, Southwark.] SOUTH LONDON BY WALTER BESANT AUTHOR OF 'LONDON' 'WESTMINSTER' 'EAST LONDON' ETC. [Illustration] A NEW EDITION WITH AN ETCHING BY FRANCIS S. WALKER, R.E. AND 119 ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON CHATTO & WINDUS 1912 PREFACE In sending forth this book on 'SOUTH LONDON,' the successor to my two preceding books on 'LONDON' and 'WESTMINSTER,' I have to explain in this case, as before, that it is not a history, or a chronicle, or a consecutive account of the Borough and her suburbs that I offer, but, as in the other two books, chapters taken here and there from the mass of material which lies ready to hand, and especially chapters which illustrate the most important part of History, namely, the condition, the manners, the customs of the people dwelling in this place, now, like Westminster, a part of London: yet, until two or three hundred years ago, an ancient marsh kept from the overflowing tide by an Embankment, joined to the Dover road by a Causeway, settled and inhabited by two or three Houses of Religious: by half a dozen Palaces of Bishops, Abbots, and great Lords: by a colony of fishermen living on the Embankment from time immemorial, since the Embankment itself was built: and by a street of Inns and shops.