“The commissioners shall from time to time cause the houses and buildings in all or any of the streets[122] to be marked with numbers as they think fit, and shall cause to be put up or painted on a conspicuous part of some house, building or place at or near each end, corner, or entrance of every such street the name by which such street is to be known; and every person who destroys, pulls down, or defaces any such number or name, or puts up any number or name different from the number or name put up by the commissioners, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding 40_s._ for every such offence” (10 & 11 Vic. c. 34, sec. 64). “The occupiers of houses and other buildings in the streets shall mark their houses with such numbers as the commissioners approve of, and shall renew such numbers as often as they become obliterated, or defaced; and every such occupier who fails within one week after notice for that purpose from the commissioners to mark his house with a number approved of by the commissioners, or to renew such number when obliterated, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding 40_s._; and the commissioners shall cause such numbers to be marked or to be renewed as the case may require, and the expense thereof shall be repaid to them by such occupier, and shall be recoverable as damages” (10 & 11 Vic. c. 34, s. 65). Some difference even now exists as to the manner in which streets are named, there being considerable diversity in the sizes, colours, and materials of the name plates, as well as in the spaces allowed for the letters. The following list is given to show how this diversity existed in the metropolis even so late as the year 1870. Table taken from a “Memorandum by the Superintending Architect of the Metropolitan Board of Works, relative to the enforcement of the Law regulating the naming of Streets and numbering of Houses in the Metropolis” (1871): Parish A. Parish B. Names on houses at corners of streets 237 281 „ on piers of railings 24 36 „ on iron plates 6 44 „ on wooden boards 18 36 „ on enamelled plates 1 2 „ impressed in terra cotta 2 3 „ in cement letters 14 9 „ in Minton’s china letters 2 1 „ engraved on stone 5 13 „ on porcelain plates 1 1 „ with raised letters on iron girder 1 „ on board on posts 11 „ on zinc 2