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HERE is not, perhaps, in the whole world a city more difficult to describe than London, the great metropolis of the British empire. This does not arise merely from the vastness of the area necessary to accommodate three millions of people and four hundred thousand houses; it is due also to the fact, that there are no walls, gates, barriers, divisions, visible boundaries-nothing except the Thames. We may go ten or twelve miles east and west, from Stratford or Blackwall to Shepherds' Bush or Hammersmith, and meet clusters of houses all the way, unbroken by any marked lines of separation. Of the ten parliamentary boroughs which represent this huge place in the legislature, we see no boundaries, no sign to shew where one begins and another ends. And so of all other modes of cutting up or dividing the metropolis for practical purposes-the city within the walls,' and the city 'without the walls' (words which had at one time a clear meaning), the city of Westminster, the ten postal districts, the twenty police districts, the thirty-seven registration districts, the numerous parishes which elect delegates to the Metropolitan Board of Works, the forty districts of the Poor-law Unions, the districts of the London Fire Brigade-none of the dividing lines between these districts are perceptible; and hence the metropolis becomes every year more and more a gigantic labyrinthine puzzle to strangers.

In size, the City of London, the original London, barely covers

No. 143.

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one square mile; but the metropolis, as understood by the registrargeneral and by the Metropolitan Board of Works, spreads over nearly 120 square miles, with the City forming a mere kernel in the centre. The Post-office and the Police make their metropolis of much more vast dimensions, extending out twelve or fifteen miles from Charing Cross in every direction; but for most purposes it will be found convenient to treat our metropolis as covering 120 square miles, and as containing (in 1870) about 3,000,000 people and 400,000 houses. The Quarterly Review (1870) gives some curious statistics concerning the mileage of street and road in the metropolis; but as it is in some places left doubtful whether the area adverted to includes only the registrar-general's metropolis, or comprises the whole of the police metropolis, the figures lose much of their value. Kelly's Post-office London Directory contains the names of about 9000 streets, &c.; the editor makes it commercially useful, but it is not certain whether his metropolitan area agrees exactly with any of those above mentioned. The official Postal Guide gives about 7500 names of 'principal' streets and places in the London postal districts.

THE THAMES AND THE BRIDGES.

As the Thames is the only visible line of division in the metropolis, a stranger ought to make acquaintance with it as soon as possible. Rising in Gloucestershire, and passing through and between many counties, this noble river enters the metropolis at the western suburbs. Taking Hammersmith as a western limit, and Victoria Docks as an eastern, the windings of the Thames within this metropolitan area extend in length about 16 miles. At Hammersmith is a pretty Suspension Bridge; next comes Putney Bridge, near which is Fulham Palace (residence of the Bishop of London), and Putney, where the far-famed Oxford and Cambridge boat-race usually begins. Passing Wandsworth on the right bank, and a few remaining market-gardens on the left, we meet the West London Railway Bridge, which connects Kensington and the northern lines with Clapham Junction and the southern lines. Next comes Battersea Bridge (lately rebuilt); beyond it lie Chelsea on the left, with the old red-brick Hospital for soldiers; and the nicely laidout Battersea Park on the right. After passing under Chelsea Suspension Bridge and Victoria Railway Bridge, we proceed eastward to Vauxhall Bridge, having the Grosvenor Road Embankment on the left, and Nine Elms on the right. A farther reach of river, spanned by Lambeth Suspension Bridge, presents on the left hand the Milbank Penitentiary and the magnificent Houses of Parliament, and on the right the new Southern Embankment, and the noble new pile of St Thomas's Hospital, with its seven blocks of building united by corridors. Next, for about two miles, we

have that part of the Thames which is most likely to be seen by visitors. Crossed by Westminster, Waterloo, Blackfriars, Southwark, and London Bridges, it possesses ample means of communication from the Middlesex to the Surrey shores; while the beauty of all these bridges (those of Westminster and Blackfriars having been recently rebuilt) renders them very attractive. Three other bridges are connected with railways those at Charing Cross and Cannon Street belonging to the South-eastern line, and that at Blackfriars to the Chatham and Dover. The left shore is crowded with objects of interest the whole way along. Fronting the river, is the grand Victoria Embankment, lately finished and opened, with its granite river-wall; its flights of steps and landing-stages for four steam-boat piers; its double line of broad foot-pavements, its row of trees, its low-level sewer (deeply buried underneath), and the Metropolitan District Railway (mostly out of sight). This noble Thames-side improvement ends at Blackfriars Bridge. Backing the embankment are Montague House, the Charing Cross Railway Station, Adelphi Terrace, Somerset House, King's College, and the Temple. Where the embankment ends, wharfs and warehouses begin, dingy enough all the way to London Bridge, but towered over by the worldrenowned St Paul's, the thickly congregated city churches, and the huge Cannon Street Railway Station. The right hand, or Surrey side of the river, however important in a manufacturing and commercial sense, possesses little to attract a visitor.

THE THAMES BELOW BRIDGE.

Now we come to what is emphatically mercantile London, in its river-side aspects. The term 'below bridge' is a well-understood one in the metropolis, meaning that part of the Thames which is eastward of or below London Bridge, and which allows ships with lofty masts to pass without interruption from bridges. For two miles or so the river is known as the Pool, crowded with vessels to an extent barely equalled in any other part of the world. Some of these vessels are waiting their turn to enter docks, or to draw up by the side of quays and wharfs; while others are moored in the river, to receive or discharge cargo by the aid of barges and lighters. Coal-laden vessels from the Tyne, Wear, and Tees, form a considerable percentage of the whole; while passenger-steamers, bound for about sixteen places down the river, and for a vast number of foreign ports, contribute to the bustle of the scene. Immediately below London Bridge, on the left, we espy the Monument, commemorative of the Great Fire of London; Billingsgate Fish-market, rebuilt a few years ago in a convenient form, but far too small for the immense amount of business transacted there; the Custom-house, the headquarters of one of our great revenue establishments; and the far-famed Tower of London, the only

fortified place in the metropolis, and the only one presenting the castellated Norman features. Below the Tower we come to St Katherine's Docks and the London Docks, always crowded with ships trading to and from the colonies and foreign regions, and having five openings into the Thames by means of lock-gates. Immediately close to the river, for a long distance, is the street called Wapping, every inch of which tells of seamen and sea-life. Next come Shadwell and Limehouse, with warehouses and wharfs fringing the river throughout the whole distance. At Shadwell begins the remarkable horse-shoe bend in the river, made up of Limehouse Reach, Greenwich Reach, and Blackwall Reach, and enclosing on the north the peninsula known as the Isle of Dogs, which is really converted into an island by the West India Docks. The river-side frontage of the Isle of Dogs is becoming gradually occupied by ship-yards and manufacturing establishments on a very large scale, some at Millwall, some at Cubitt Town. Passing Blackwall and the East India Docks, we next come to Bow Creek, at the mouth of the river Lea, where is situated one of the largest iron ship-building works in the world, that of the Thames Company. Finally we reach the entrance to the well-arranged Victoria Docks -at which point the metropolis may fairly be said to end.

In this busy part of the Thames, as elsewhere, the right or south bank is far less diversified by interesting and important buildings than the north. Commencing at London Bridge, the regions of Tooley Street, Bermondsey, and Rotherhithe form one continuous range of warehouses, granaries, and wharfs, many of them on a vast scale, and occupying the sites of some of the most devastating fires in the metropolis—such, for instance, as that in Tooley Street in 1861, when property to the value of nearly two millions sterling was destroyed. Beyond Rotherhithe lie the Commercial and Surrey Docks, the great centre of the timber trade. Next comes Deptford, with its Victualling-yard still kept up, and its Dock-yard lately closed by the government. Lastly, at Greenwich, we find the Hospital, certainly the noblest object on the banks of the Thames, not even excepting the Houses of Parliament. The old naval pensioners have recently been removed, consequent on the adoption of the system of out-pensions instead of in-pensions; but the building itself remains in all its imposing grandeur, and is temporarily occupied as a Merchant Seamen's Hospital.

It is a great convenience to strangers visiting London that the whole of this wonderful scene on the Thames is accessible at nearly all hours of daylight. There are about twenty-five steam-boat piers between Hammersmith and Greenwich, visited by steamers which ply every few minutes, and at fares varying from one penny to fourpence. Charing Cross (or Hungerford) Pier and London Bridge Pier, especially, are the centres of an enormous amount of traffic. For crossing the Thames from one shore to the other, there are the

eleven carriage and foot way bridges, and the five railway bridges, already named. But, besides these, there are two arteries of communication under the water. One is the Tower Subway, from Tower Hill to Tooley Street, opened in 1870. It is an iron tube through which an omnibus or carriage runs on a tram or railway, drawn along by a wire-rope worked by steam-power. The other is the world-renowned Thames Tunnel, from Wapping to Rotherhithe; it occupied the best energies of Sir M. I. Brunel from 1824 till 1843 to construct; it had a languid existence as a foot-way for passengers from 1843 till 1869; but now it forms part of the East London Railway, to connect some of the lines on the north of the Thames with some of those on the south.

RAILWAYS AND STATIONS.

Most strangers, entering the great metropolis for the first time, do so by means of railways; and it is therefore well that they should possess a general knowledge of these arteries of communication, and the stations for arrival and departure.

Beginning at the north-west, and working round in the direction of the hands of a clock, we find the Great Western Railway, the main channel of communication to the west of England and to South Wales, and sharing with other companies the communication with North Wales and the west midland counties. The Paddington terminus, a fine structure, is within half a mile of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, with a noble hotel attached to it. The means of intercommunication between the Great Western and certain minor lines we shall notice presently. The next main trunk railway is the London and North-western, the greatest of all the lines in relation to communication with the north of England, as well as with Scotland, North Wales, and Ireland. The Euston terminus (more than two miles from Paddington) was, until lately, buried in a back street behind Euston Square; but there has recently been made a new opening through the square itself, flanked by neat lodges, and forming a handsome approach to the station, having the Euston Hotel on the one side, and the Victoria Hotel on the other. Half a mile farther east is the terminus of the Midland Railway, one that well answers to its name in giving easy access to all the midland counties, as well as to the north of England. The St Pancras terminus boasts of the largest and finest station-roof in the world700 feet long, 250 wide, and 105 high, unsupported by pillars of any kind; the amount of space beneath this noble roof, for lines of rails and passenger-platforms, is most ample. The station hotel, fronting the Euston Road, is a fine example of domestic Gothic, from the design of Mr G. G. Scott. Almost close to the Midland, indeed separated from it only by a road, is the Great Northern Railway, giving a very direct route to Yorkshire, and, in conjunction with

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