London From the Great Fire to 1900

Antiques from London on eBay

VINTAGE CABINET PLATE CRIES OF LONDON BLACK CHERRIES
30 Jun 2010 at 5:00am

US $44.65
End Date: Friday Jul-30-2010 3:00:38 PDT
Buy It Now for only: US $44.65
Buy it now | Add to watch list
VINTAGE CABINET PLATE CRIES OF LONDON SWEET ORANGES
30 Jun 2010 at 4:57am

US $44.65
End Date: Friday Jul-30-2010 3:02:29 PDT
Buy It Now for only: US $44.65
Buy it now | Add to watch list

Arthur H. Beavan continued his survey of London's rich history in Imperial London, 1901 with this look at the period after the great fire of 1666 up to the turn of the twentieth century:

Our ancestors were not such slow-coaches or so deficient in energy as many people think, and no sooner had the Fire of London ceased, than plans for the new city were laid before the King by John Evelyn and Christopher Wren; neither, however, being accepted.

It took almost four years to reconstruct London, and although the new streets unfortunately followed too closely upon the lines of the old, they were wider; and brick, instead of timber, was largely employed.

Wren's architectural genius left its mark upon fifty-three city churches (not counting St Paul's Cathedral), and upon other buildings in the metropolis, far too many to particularize.

But it is almost safe to attribute to him or to his pupils, all buildings, ecclesiastical or otherwise, at all ancient looking, within a mile of the Bank.

Bow Church, St Dunstan's-in-the-East, between Tower Street and Upper Street, St Stephen Walbrook at the rear of the Mansion House, and the College of Arms on the same side further east, the southern portion of Kensington Palace, Chelsea Hospital, and Marlborough House, are fair examples, the last named built of Dutch bricks, which can be plainly seen in the lower stories.

These bricks are smaller than those used in England, redder in colour, and in Wren's time, cheaper, so that the thrifty Duke of Marlborough had them brought over as ballast in the hired transports coming and going between Holland and Deptford during his campaign.

After the Great Fire, as wealth increased, the town, in spite of Royal decrees to the contrary, extended its boundaries in a marked degree to the west.

The nobility gradually left the city and the neighbourhood of the Strand, and began to establish themselves round about the Court of St. James', and were not slow to discover the advantages of this district with its coffee and chocolate houses, its fashionable taverns, and its proximity to the Park.

The march towards the setting sun, a peculiarity of most English cities, had commenced; where to terminate, in the case of London, who can tell!

With Soho and St James' (dating from Charles II's time) was ushered in the era of squares, so characteristic a feature of the Queen Anne and Georgian period; and by the time Queen Victoria came to the throne, London was dotted over with these splendid enclosures, which had been in most cases, either pasturages, kitchen gardens, or waste land.

As an example of Queen Anne or early Georgian style, with its blending of red brick with stone dressings, its ornamental and canopied front-doors, and long narrow windows, there is, to my mind, nothing to beat Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster, unless it be Hanover Square (built shortly after Queen Anne's death) with its annex, George Street.

In both these squares, the wonderful scenic effects enable us to realize the fidelity of detail which has made Hogarth's pictures historical.

In the later Georgian period, London became the prey of many architects, who, for good or ill, left their mark all over the town.

Amongst them were the brothers Adam, who immortalized themselves by designing a well-known district off the Strand which culminates at Adelphi Terrace, a striking line of houses when viewed from the river that once laved its base.

Then with the Prince Regent and William IV, came Nash, who, if he had been given a free hand by Caesar Augustus, would, doubtless, have left Rome a city, not of marble, but of its original brick concealed by a coating of stucco.

He had a penchant for columns, of which there are several examples in Waterloo Place; and his tendency to uniformity becomes painfully evident at the beginning of Regent Street, and is apparent throughout the Regent's Park district.

Since the Great Fire it had increased in size to about seven miles from east to west, with a population of 1 1/4 millions, including that of the City, Westminster and Southwark; all beyond being hamlets and villages, now part and parcel of Modern Babylon.

Across the river, spanned by six bridges, was Lambeth, a picturesque village of red-tiled houses, set in the midst of abundant foliage.

Brixton was a town, and Clapham, Camberwell and Dulwich were outlying rural parishes.

On the Middlesex side, Hampstead, Islington, Hackney, Paddington, Ealing, Chelsea, Kensington, Brompton and Fulham were flourishing villages, the gaps between them and the town being filled up by country mansions surrounded by gardens and plantations.

After dark it was dangerous to walk in the unfrequented roads for fear of footpads, and the new police had not been enrolled.

Though gas had been introduced, the lighting of the side-streets was utterly inefficient; the drainage which ran into the unfortunate Thames, was defective; and in many respects, London lingered in what we should now consider a state of semi-barbarism.

The "sixties" and "seventies," however, ushered in a complete revolution, particularly in architecture. Grosvenor Place and the neighbourhood of Victoria Station were built in French Renaissance style, and Mansard roofs became a familiar feature in several other quarters.

The rage for improvement spread. Great hotels sprang up, in keeping with the vast railway termini that engirdled the metropolis. Private houses became mansions in size and luxuriousness. Theatres, offices, clubs, restaurants, and public buildings generally were built on a scale of magnificence undreamt of in 1837.

And so it went on, until in the year 1900, Modern Babylon had become what it was - a Palatial City.