CONTENTS. II. PALACES OF THE SOVEREIGN AND HOUSEHOLD OFFICES 37 XVII. INNS OF COURT AND CHANCERY XXVII. EMINENT PERSONS BURIED IN LONDON AND VICINITY XXVIII. HOUSES IN WHICH EMINENT PERSONS HAVE LIVED XXXI. OUT-DOOR MONUMENTS AND PUBLIC STATUES XXXII. PRINCIPAL THOROUGHFARES, SQUARES, AND LANES . 277 Upper and Lower Thames-st. 292 278 High-street, Southwark 293 281 Belgrave-sq., Grosvenor-sq. 299 St. James's-sq., Hanover-sq. 301 Cavendish-sq., Leicester-sq. 302 Soho-sq., Bloomsbury-sq. INTRODUCTORY INFORMATION. 1. Situation and Fogs 2. Population and Traffic. of 3. Consumption Food, Coal, Clothes, &c. &c. 4. Political and Municipal Divisions. 5. Social Divisions- 6. The City. running 9. Railway Stations. 10. How to see London quickly. 11. How to see London leisurely. 12. Its great Architectural Centres. 13. The Parks. 14. The Thames-its reigners. 33. Newspapers. 34. Sunday Services and Popular Preachers. 35. Studios of the Principal Artists. 36. Metropolitan Improvements. 37. London and Suburban Railways Metropolitan, Underground, Circuit. LONDON, the Metropolis of Great Britain and Ireland, is situated upon the River Thames, about fifty miles from its mouth; the northern and larger portion lying in the counties of Middlesex and Essex, the southern in Surrey and Kent. By the Metropolis Local Management Act of 1855 (18 & 19 Vict. c. 120) the Metropolis is held to include the cities and liberties of London and Westminster, the borough of Southwark, and the parishes, precincts, townships, and places mentioned in a Schedule attached to the Act, including among others the extreme points of Hampstead, Islington, Stoke Newington, and Hackney to the north; Stratford le Bow, Limehouse, Deptford, Greenwich, Woolwich, Charlton, and Plumstead to the east; Camberwell and Streatham to the south; and Kensington, Fulham, Hammersmith, and Putney to the west. The site is generally healthy, the subsoil being, for the most part, gravel. The Fogs which occur in winter, especially in November, are due, mainly perhaps, to the large expanse of water in the Thames being, often at that season, warmer than the air, and giving forth vapour until the air is densely charged. If the atmosphere be still, on such occasions, the smoke from so many thousand chimneys is absorbed by the suspended vapour, and at times becomes so thick a cloud as to involve London in darkness even at midday. A moderate wind rising speedily disperses the fog, which has no dangerous unwholesome qualities, however disagreeable it may be. § 2. The population of London, including the 40 or 50 hamlets and villages once separate, now absorbed in it, according to the last census, was 2,803,034. § 3. The Metropolis is supposed to consume in one year 1,600,000 quarters of wheat, 240,000 bullocks, 1,700,000 sheep, 28,000 calves, and 35,000 pigs. One market alone (Leadenhall) supplies about 4,025,000 head of game. This, together with 3,000,000 of salmon, irrespective of other fish and flesh, is washed down by 43,200,000 gallons of porter and ale, 2,000,000 gallons of spirits, and 65,000 pipes of wine. To fill its milk and cream jugs, 13,000 cows are kept. To light it at night, 360,000 gas-lights fringe the streets, consuming, every 24 hours, 13,000,000 cubic feet of gas. Its arterial or water system supplies the enormous quantity of 44,383,328 gallons per day, while its venous or sewer system carries off 9,502,720 cubic feet of refuse. To warm its people and to supply its factories, a fleet, amounting to upwards of a thousand sail, is employed in bringing annually 3,000,000 tons of coal,* exclusive of 2,000,000 tons brought by rail. The smoke of this immense quantity of coal has been often traced as far as Reading, 32 miles' distance. At Slough it was often so dense that the elder Herschel was unable to take observations. The thirsty souls of London need have See COAL EXCHANGE. |