To the interior of the Stock Exchange the public is not admitted, the
authorities and the members themselves, aided, of course, by the
janitors stationed at the doors, keeping most careful guard. Many are
the stories, generally exaggerated, as to what befalls the stranger who
has the temerity and skill to pass within the sacred portals.
Occasionally, however, distinguished visitors are shown round, and the
list includes the late King Edward VII. Only once have the Managers
given permission for drawings to be made of the interior for
publication, and on one occasion photographs of the interior were taken
and sold for charity.
One of the most common remarks of the clerk who sees it for the first
time is, "How small a place!" The impossibility of taking in the whole
of the building at a glance is responsible for the false impression so
often formed by the disappointed young man newly introduced to a scene
of which he has heard so much. But to take one's stand at the Bar of the
House, which is just inside the door at Capel Court, is to obtain a much
better view than that usually offered by the waiters on effecting the
introduction of a new-comer. One is then in the Consol Market, in some
respects the most important of all, and looks right down the whole
length of the House from west to east. The vista is fine, if not,
indeed, impressive. The massive pillars, so often criticised by the
members for the loss of space they involve at their huge bases, stand
out with a certain solid grandeur, but the dome of what is still called
the New House, the most beautiful feature of the Stock Exchange, is lost
by reason of the lower roof just in front of us. On the left hand or
north side of the Bar is the Parlour, and on the right stands the
Kitchen, names handed down through decades for the two little sets of
desks on each side of the Bar. Moving forward through the Consol Market,
and slightly to the left or north-east, one passes through the Colonial
Stock and Bond Market, and stands upon the threshold of the Grand Trunk
section. It will be understood that there are no lines or barriers to
form boundaries of the various markets. When one talks of a Stock
Exchange market, he has in his mind a mere space in the Stock Exchange
near some pillar or window; or, much more likely, he has in his mind the
group of men who occupy it, dealing, or prepared to deal, in certain
securities. Generally speaking, custom alone forms the barrier between
the various departments, and the consequence is that when one particular
market attracts many members by reason of its animation, the dealers in
the busy part frequently overflow the fancy boundaries and press hard
upon the neighbouring space. Thus it often happened that the American
Railroad Market, touching the Home Railway section on one side and the
Grand Trunk section on another, overlapped the boundaries of each, and
eventually, because of the inconvenience, the home of American Railroads
had to be enlarged.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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