Chapter III: Part 3

Royal Academy, Burlington House.—The Academy was established in 1768, for the encouragement of the fine arts. Until the finishing of Mr. Wilkin’s building, the Academy held its meetings and exhibitions in a small number of rooms at Somerset House. Students are admitted on evidence of sufficient preliminary training, and taught gratuitously; but so far as the public is concerned, the Royal Academy is chiefly known by its famous Annual Exhibition of modern English pictures and sculptures, from May to July. This Exhibition is a very profitable affair to the Academy. Royal commissions and parliamentary committees find a difficulty in investigating the revenues, privileges, and claims of the Academy; it is known, however, that the schools are maintained out of the profits. Concerning the building in Trafalgar Square, most persons agree that the main front is too much cut up in petty detail, and that one of the finest sites in Europe has thus been comparatively neglected. Some have humorously nicknamed it “The National Cruet Stand.”

National Portrait Gallery.—This infant gallery, established by the nation in 1857, is now at Exhibition Road, South Kensington. The object is to be strictly confined to the collecting of a series of national portraits of persons of any note, whether of early or of late days. A sum of £2000 a-year is voted for this purpose. The collection is yet only small, but very interesting, and is yearly increasing. Open free on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Soane Museum.—This closely-packed collection, presented to the nation by the late Sir John Soane, the architect, occupies the house which he used to inhabit, at No. 13, on the north side of Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Every nook and corner of about 24 rooms is crowded with works of art—sarcophagi, ancient gems and intaglios, medals and coins, sculptures, sketches and models of sculptures, books of prints, portfolios of drawings, Hogarth’s famous series of pictures of the ‘Rake’s Progress,’ and numerous other examples of _vertu_, some of which cost large sums of money. The place is open every Wednesday from February to August inclusive, and every Thursday and Friday in April, May, and June, from 10 till 4. Still, these are very insufficient facilities (only 56 days out of the 365 in the year) for seeing a fine collection of treasures. Orders for admission are sent, on application, by post.

Art Exhibitions.—There are always numerous picture exhibitions open in the summer months—such as those formed by the _British Institution_, the _Society of British Artists_, the _Society of Painters in Water Colours_, &c.; concerning which information can be seen in the advertisement columns of the newspapers. At the British Institution there is a spring exhibition of modern pictures, and a summer exhibition of ancient. The price of admission to such places is almost invariably One Shilling. Other exhibitions, pertaining more to entertainment than to fine arts, are briefly noticed in a later section.

COLLEGES; SCHOOLS; HOSPITALS; CHARITIES.

London, as may well be imagined, is largely supplied with institutions tending to the proper care of the young, the aged, the sick, and the impoverished. A few of the more important among them are worthy of the attention of strangers.

Colleges.—The two chief colleges in London are connected with the _London University_. This University is a body of persons, not (as many suppose) a building. The body was established in 1837, to confer degrees on the students or graduates of many different colleges in and about London. It occupies apartments at Burlington House, Piccadilly, lent by the government for examining purposes; but it neither teaches nor gives lectures. _University College_, in Gower Street, was originally called _London University_; but since 1837, the more limited designation has been given to it. [Picture: University College] It was founded in 1828, on the proprietary system, to afford a good middle-class education at a moderate expense, without limitation as to religious tests. Hence it is much frequented by Jews, Parsees, Hindoos, &c. The whole range of college tuition is given, except divinity; with the addition of much fuller instruction in science and in modern languages than was before given in colleges. The building, with its lofty portico, might possibly have presented a good appearance if the plans of the architect had been carried out; but, through want of funds, the wings have never been built, and the structure is ridiculously incomplete. The college possesses a fine collection of casts from Flaxman’s sculptures, usually open to inspection by strangers. _King’s College_, in the Strand, has been already mentioned as adjoining Somerset House on the east. It was founded in the same year as University College, expressly in connection with the Established Church of England. There was some sectarian bitterness between the two establishments at first, but both have settled down into a steady career of usefulness. The teaching of divinity, and the observance of church-service as part of the routine, are maintained at King’s College. _Gordon College_, or _University Hall_, in Gordon Square, is an establishment mainly supported by Unitarians; the building itself, as a modern imitation of the old red-brick style, is worthy of a passing glance. _New College_, at St. John’s Wood, for Congregationalists or Independents; the _Baptist College_, in the Regent’s Park; the _English Presbyterian Theological College_, Guildford Street, W.C.; the _Wesleyan College_, in the Horseferry Road; _Hackney College_; and a few others of less note—are establishments maintained by various bodies of dissenters; some for educating ministers for the pulpit; some for training schoolmasters and schoolmistresses. Of the buildings so occupied, the handsomest is New College. This was established, a few years ago, as a substitute for _Highbury_, _Homerton_, and _Coward_ Colleges, all belonging to the Congregationalists. _Gresham College_: this is not a college in the modern sense of the term; it is only a lecture-room. Sir Thomas Gresham left an endowment for an annual series of lectures, and residences and stipends for the lecturers. The charity was greatly misused during the 17th and 18th centuries. Public attention having been called to the subject, a new lecture hall was built, a few years ago, at the corner of Basinghall and Gresham Streets, out of the accumulated fund; and lectures are delivered here at certain periods of each year. The subjects are divinity, physic, astronomy, geometry, law, rhetoric, and music. The lectures take place in the middle of the day, some in Latin, some in English; they are freely open to the public; but the auditors, at such an hour and in such a place—surrounded by the busy hum of commerce—are very few in number. Among the training colleges for schoolmasters and mistresses may be named the _National Society’s_ at Battersea; _St. Mark’s Training College_, Fulham Road; the _Training Institution_ for schoolmistresses, King’s Road, Chelsea; the _British and Foreign_ in the Borough Road; and the _Home and Colonial_ in Gray’s Inn Road. At Islington is a Church of England Training College for missionaries. The _College of Preceptors_, in Queen Square, resembles the London University in this, that it confers a sort of degree, or academical rank, but does not teach. Many so-called colleges are either proprietary or private schools.

Great Public Schools.—The chief of these in London is _Westminster School_, not for the building itself, but for the celebrity of the institution; although the college hall, once the refectory of the old abbots of Westminster, is interesting from its very antiquity. The school, which was founded in 1560, lies south-west of Westminster Abbey, but very near it. Some of our greatest statesmen and scholars have been educated here. _St. Paul’s School_, situated on the eastern side of St. Paul’s Churchyard, was founded in 1521, by Dean Colet, for the education of ‘poor men’s children.’ Like many others of the older schools, the benefits are not conferred so fully as they ought to be on the class designated. The presentations are wholly in the hands of the Mercers’ Company. The now existing school-house, the third on the same site, was built in 1823. The _Charter House School_, near Aldersgate Street, is part of a charity established by Thomas Sutton in 1611. Among other great men here educated were the late Sir Henry Havelock, and W. M. Thackeray. There is an Hospital or Almshouse for about 80 ‘poor Brethren,’ men who have seen better days; and there is a school for the free education of 40 ‘poor Boys,’ with many more whose parents pay for their schooling. The chapel and ante-chapel, the great hall and staircase, and the governor’s room, are interesting parts of the building. _Christ’s Hospital_, or the _Blue Coat School_—as it is commonly called from the colour of the boys’ dress—is situated within an enclosure on the north side of Newgate Street, and is one of the most splendid among the charitable foundations of London. The buildings stand on the site of a monastery of Grey-friars, which was granted by Henry VIII. to the city for the use of the poor; and his son and successor, Edward VI., greatly extended the value of the gift by granting a charter for its foundation as a charity school, and at the same time endowing it with sundry benefactions. The hospital was opened, for the reception and education of boys, in 1552. Charles II. added an endowment for a mathematical class; and with various augmentations of endowment, the annual revenue is now understood to be no less than £40,000. This income supports and educates nearly 1200 children, 500 of whom, including girls, are boarded at the town of Hertford, for the sake of country air. The management of the institution is vested in a body of governors, composed of the lord mayor and aldermen, twelve common-councilmen chosen by lot, and all benefactors to the amount of £400 and upwards. The children are admitted without reference to the City privileges of parents; about one hundred and fifty are entered annually. It is undeniable, however, that many children are admitted rather through interest than on account of the poverty of their parents. After instruction in the elementary branches of schooling, the greater number of the boys leave the hospital at the age of fifteen; those only remaining longer who intend to proceed to the university, or to go to sea after completing a course of mathematics. There are seven presentations at Cambridge, and one at Oxford, open to the scholars. The buildings of the institution embrace several structures of large dimensions, chiefly ranged round open courts, with cloisters beneath; and a Church, which also serves as a parochial place of worship. The only part of the establishment, however, worth examining for its architecture is the Great Hall, occupying the first floor of a building of modern date, designed by Mr. Shaw, in the Gothic style. It measures 187 feet long, 51 feet broad, and 47 high, and possesses an organ-gallery at the east end. In this magnificent apartment the boys breakfast, dine, and sup. Before meals, one of the elder inmates repeats a long grace or prayer, at the commencement of which the whole of the boys, in lines at their respective tables, fall on their knees. The boys are dressed in the costume selected for them in Edward VI.’s reign; the outer garments consisting of a long dark-blue coat, breeches, and yellow worsted stockings. The ‘public suppers,’ on Thursdays in Lent, are worth the attention of strangers: (tickets from governors.) _Merchant Taylors’ School_, situated in a close part of the City behind the Mansion House, was founded in 1561 by the Merchant Taylors’ Company. The present structure was built in 1673, with the exception of some of the classrooms, which are much more modern. About 260 boys are educated, wholly on the presentation of members of the Company; and there are numerous fellowships at St. John’s College, Oxford, open to the scholars. _Mercers’ Free Grammar School_, in College Hill, is a small establishment of similar kind. The _City of London School_, in Milk Street, Cheapside, is one of the most modern of these _Grammar_ Schools, as they are called. It was founded in 1835, and possesses several Exhibitions for successful senior scholars.

Other Schools.—The schools established under the auspices of the National Society, called _National_ Schools, are very numerous, but need hardly be noticed here. The _British and Foreign School Society_, in the Borough Road, and the _Home and Colonial School Society_, in Gray’s Inn Road, train up teachers without reference to religious tests; whereas the _National Society_ is in connection with the Church of England. Many very superior schools for girls, under the designation of _Ladies’ Colleges_, have been established in the metropolis within the last few years, in Harley Street and in Bedford Square, &c. The _Government School of Art for Ladies_ is in Queen Square, Bloomsbury. The _National Art Training School_ is at South Kensington.

The London School Board, elected in 1870, under the new Education Act, has its _locale_ at 33 New Bridge Street, Blackfriars. It has, practically speaking, almost entire control of the educational systems of the metropolis, and is armed with inquisitorial powers that remind us of the ancient Star Chamber. Still, the system of election of the members of the Board gives a certain guarantee of responsibility, that makes its prestige, at least, without suspicion.

Schools of Telegraphy are established at 138 Regent Street, W., and 24 City Road, E.C., where the art is fully instructed, to resident and non-resident pupils.

Hospitals and Charitable Institutions.—A small volume might readily be filled with a list of London’s charitable institutions. The charities connected in some way with the corporation of London are _Christ’s Hospital_, for boarding and educating youth, already mentioned; _Bethlehem Hospital_, Lambeth, for insane patients; _St. Thomas’s Hospital_, for treating poor patients diseased and hurt; and _St. Bartholomew’s Hospital_, West Smithfield, for the same purpose. The City companies likewise support a number of beneficiary institutions, such as the _Ironmongers’ Almhouses_ at Kingsland, and others of like kind. The following hospitals are the most important among the large number founded and supported by private benevolence:—_Guy’s Hospital_, Southwark; _London Hospital_, Whitechapel Road; _Westminster Hospital_, near the Abbey; _St. George’s Hospital_, Hyde Park Corner; _Middlesex Hospital_, Charles Street, Oxford Street; _University College Hospital_, Gower Street; _St. Luke’s Hospital_, for the insane, City Road; _King’s College Hospital_, near Clare Market; _Small-Pox Hospital_, Highgate Rise; the _Foundling Hospital_, Great Guildford Street; the _Consumption Hospital_, Brompton; _Charing Cross Hospital_, Agar Street; the _Lock Hospital_, Harrow Road; and the _Royal Free Hospital_, Gray’s Inn Road. Besides these, there are several Lying-in hospitals, a Floating hospital on the Thames, now substituted by a part of Greenwich Hospital being devoted to a similar use; various Ophthalmic hospitals, and numerous Dispensaries and Infirmaries for particular diseases. Institutions for the relief of indigent persons, Deaf and Dumb asylums, Blind asylums, and Orphan asylums, are far too numerous to be specified. In short, there are in this great metropolis about 250 hospitals, dispensaries, infirmaries, asylums, and almshouses; besides at least 400 religious, visiting, and benevolent institutions for ministering to the various ills, mental and moral, bodily or worldly, to which an immense population is always subject. It is supposed that these several institutions receive in subscriptions considerably over £2,000,000 annually. Some of the hospital buildings above named are large and majestic in appearance. When, for the Charing Cross extension of the South-Eastern Railway, St. Thomas’s Hospital and site, which formerly stood close to London Bridge Station, were purchased for a sum not very much under £300,000, it was arranged to rebuild the hospital between the south end of Westminster Bridge and Lambeth Palace. This hospital, which is now completed, affords a fine object from a steamboat passing up the river, and is certainly one of the noblest buildings of its class in Europe.

THE TOWER; THE MINT; THE CUSTOM HOUSE; THE GENERAL POST OFFICE.

This section treats of four important government buildings situated in the eastern half of the metropolis.

The Tower of London.—This famous structure, or rather group of structures, is a cluster of houses, towers, barracks, armouries, warehouses, and prison-like edifices, situated on the north bank of the Thames, and separated from the crowded narrow streets of the city by an open space of ground called Tower-hill. The Tower was founded by William the Conqueror, probably on the site of an older fortress, to secure his authority over the inhabitants of London; but the original fort which he established on the spot was greatly extended by subsequent monarchs; and in the twelfth century it was surrounded by a wet ditch, which was improved in the reign of Charles II. This ditch or moat was drained in 1843. Within the outer wall the ground measures upwards of twelve acres. Next the river there is a broad quay; and on this side also there was a channel (now closed) by which boats formerly passed into the main body of the place. This water-entrance is known by the name of Traitors’ Gate, being that by which, in former days, state prisoners were brought in boats after their trial at Westminster. There are three other entrances or postern-gates—Lion Gate, Iron Gate, and Water Gate—only two of which, however, are now used. The interior of the Tower is an irregular assemblage of short streets and courtyards, bounded by various structures. The _White Tower_, or _Keep_, is the oldest of these buildings; and the _Chapel_ in it is a fine specimen of a small Norman church. Other towers are the _Lion Tower_, near the principal entrance; the _Middle Tower_, the first seen on passing the ditch; the _Bell Tower_, adjacent to it; the _Bloody Tower_, nearly opposite _Traitors’ Gate_; the _Salt Tower_, near the Iron Gate; _Brick Tower_, where Lady Jane Grey was confined; _Bowyer Tower_, where the Duke of Clarence is said to have been [Picture: Chapel in Tower] drowned in the butt of malmsey; and _Beauchamp Tower_, where Anne Boleyn was imprisoned. These old towers are very curious, but few of them are open to the public. The principal objects of interest are a collection of cannon, being trophies of war; the horse armoury, a most interesting collection of suits of mail on stuffed figures; and the crown and other insignia of royalty. In the _Horse Armoury_, a long gallery built in 1826, is an extensive collection of armour, arranged by Sir Samuel Meyrick, a great authority on this subject. It comprises whole suits of armour, consisting of hauberks, chausses, surcoats, baldricks, breast-plates, back-plates, chain-mail sleeves and skirts, gauntlets, helmets, frontlets, vamplates, flanchards, and other pieces known to the old armourers. About twenty complete suits of armour are placed upon stuffed figures of men, mostly on stuffed horses. Four of the suits belonged to Henry VIII., Dudley Earl of Leicester, Henry Prince of Wales, and Charles I.; the others are merely intended to illustrate the kinds of armour in vogue at certain periods. One suit, of the time of Richard III., [Picture: Traitor’s Gate, Chapel White Tower] was worn by the Marquis of Waterford at the Eglinton tournament in 1839. The gallery also contains some other curiosities relating to the armour of past days. _Queen Elizabeth’s Armoury_ is in the White Tower, the walls of which are 13 feet thick, and still contain traces of inscriptions by state prisoners in troubled times: the armoury contains many curious old shields, bows, Spanish instruments of torture, petronels, partisans, beheading axe and block, thumb-screws, Lochaber axes, matchlocks, arquebuses, swords, &c. Immediately outside these Armouries, in the open air, are some curious cannon and mortars belonging to different ages and different countries. The new _Barracks_ occupy the site of the Small Arms Armoury, destroyed by fire in 1841, when 280,000 stand of arms were destroyed. The _Lions_ in the Tower were among the sights of the place for nearly 600 years; they were in a building near the present ticket-office, but were given to the Zoological Society in 1834. The _Jewel House_, a well-guarded room to the east of the Armouries, contains a valuable collection of state jewels. Among them are the following:—_St. Edward’s Crown_, used at all the coronations from Charles II. to William IV.; the _New State Crown_, made for the coronation of Queen Victoria, and valued at more than £100,000; the _Prince of Wales’s_ and the _Queen Consort’s Crowns_ (the most recent wearer of the last was Queen Adelaide); the _Queen’s Diadem_; the _Royal Sceptre_, _Queen’s Sceptre_, and _Queen’s Ivory Sceptre_; the _Orb_ and the _Queen’s Orb_; _St. Edward’s Staff_ and the _Rod of Equity_; the _Swords of Mercy and of Justice_; the _Coronation Bracelets_ and _Royal Spurs_; the _Ampulla_ for the holy oil, and the _Coronation Spoon_; the silver-gilt _Baptismal Font_, used at the christening of royal children; and the famous _Koh-i-noor_, or ‘Mountain of Light,’ the wonderful diamond once belonging to Runjeet Singh, chief of Lahore, but now the property of Queen Victoria,—it was an object of great interest at the two great Exhibitions in 1851 and 1862. Strangers, on applying at an office at the entrance from Tower-hill, are conducted through a portion of the buildings by warders, who wear a curious costume of Henry VIII.’s time—some years ago rendered incongruous by the substitution of black trousers for scarlet hose. These warders, or _beef-eaters_ (as they are often called), go their rounds with visitors every half-hour from 10 till 4. The word “beef-eaters” was a vulgar corruption of _beaufetiers_, battle-axe guards, who were first raised by Henry VII. in 1485. They were originally attendants upon the king’s buffet. A fee of 6d. is charged for seeing the Armouries, and 6d. for the Jewel House. From time to time, when foreign politics look threatening, the Tower undergoes alterations and renovations to increase its utility as a fortress; and it is at all times under strict military government.

The Mint.—This structure, situated a little north-east of the Tower, is the establishment in which the coinage is in great part made, and wholly regulated. The rooms, the machinery, and the processes for coining, are all full of interest. The assaying of the gold and silver for coinage; the alloying and melting; the casting into ingots; the flattening, rolling, and laminating of the ingots to the proper thickness; the cutting into strips, and the strips into circular blanks; the stamping of those blanks on both surfaces; and the testing to ascertain that every coin is of the proper weight—are all processes in which very beautiful and perfect apparatus is needed. Copper and bronze coins are mostly made for the government at Birmingham. From a statement made in parliament, in August, 1869, by the Right Hon. Robert Lowe, we gathered that _98 millions of sovereigns_ had been coined in the Mint since 1850. But of these no fewer than 44 millions had been lost to our coinage, because many of the sovereigns, being overweight, had been sent to the Continent to be melted down as bullion! There are nearly 500 millions of copper coin in circulation; and of silver coin, from crown pieces down to threepenny pieces, something like the astounding number of 286,220,000. Permission to view this interesting establishment could at one time only be obtained by special application to the Master of the Mint, who has an official residence at the spot; but since the death of the late Master, Dr. Graham, that office will not in future be filled up. A letter to the Deputy Master will probably obtain the required order to view. We should add that the removal of the Mint to Somerset House is now seriously contemplated. It is urged that the price of its present site, if sold, would readily defray cost of removal.

Custom House.—This important building, situated on the north bank of the Thames, between London Bridge and the Tower, occupies a site on which other and smaller custom houses had previously stood. The east and west ends of the present structure were finished in 1817 by Mr. Laing; but the central portion was rebuilt afterwards from the designs of Sir Robert Smirke. The river front is extensive, and although not architecturally fine, the general appearance is effective. One of the few broad terraces on the banks of the Thames is that in front of the Custom House; it is a good position from whence strangers can view the shipping in the river. The ‘Long Room’ in this building is 190 feet long by 66 broad. By way of illustrating the enormous amount of business done here, we may mention, that in the years 1867–68, the amount of Customs’ receipts collected in the port of London was _more_ than [Picture: Billingsgate, Coal Exchange, and Custom House. (Fenchurch Station, behind at the right.)] that of all the _other ports_ of _Great Britain_ taken together, and five times that of the whole of Ireland. In 1867, the port of London gross receipts were £10,819,711; and in 1868, £10,694,494. The vast Customs’ duties for the port of London, amounting to nearly half of those for the whole United Kingdom, are managed here.

[Picture: General Post Office, &c. (Tower, Monument, and London Bridge
in the distance.)]

General Poet Office.—This large building, at the corner of Cheapside and St. Martin’s-le-Grand, was finished in 1829, from the designs of Sir Robert Smirke. It is in the Ionic style, with a lofty central portico; beneath which is the entrance to the spacious hall (80 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 53 feet high), having also an entrance at the opposite extremity; but the central Hall is now entirely enclosed, owing to the recent great extension of the Postal business. A Money-order Office has been built on the opposite side of the street; and the Post Office has been added to in various ways, to make room for increased business. The main building, which contains a vast number of rooms, is enclosed by a railing; and at the north end is a courtyard, in which mail-vans range up and depart with their load of bags, at certain hours in the morning and evening, for the several railway termini. At other portions of the building the foreign, colonial, and India mails are despatched. From six to seven o’clock in the evening a prodigious bustle prevails in putting letters into the Post Office; and on Saturday evening, when the Sunday newspapers are posted, the excitement is still further increased—especially just before six, by which hour the newspapers must be posted. The establishment, some four years ago, employed 20,000 clerks, sorters, and letter-carriers in the various parts of the United Kingdom; and since the Post Office took over the business of the Telegraph Companies, the number of its employés is greatly increased. The postage charged on foreign and colonial letters is too small to pay for the mail-packets and other expenses; profit is derived only from the inland letters. There are now in London and the suburbs about 730 pillar-boxes and wall-boxes; without counting receiving houses. Newspapers and book packets must not be put in town pillar-boxes. A very useful novelty, _Post Office Savings’ Banks_, was introduced in 1861. In the year 1840, in which the uniform rate of one penny per letter of half an ounce weight, &c., commenced, the revenue of the Post Office was only £471,000. Its revenue received during the year 1871–72 was no less than £6,102,900, and every year the receipts are increasing. New postal buildings of great extent have been erected on the opposite side of the street.

THE CORPORATION; MANSION HOUSE; GUILDHALL; MONUMENT; ROYAL EXCHANGE.

It will be convenient to group here certain buildings belonging to the Corporation of London; and to prefix to a notice of them some account of the mode in which the city of London is governed.

The Corporation.—With respect to civic jurisdiction, the city of London is governed in a peculiar manner. In virtue of ancient charters and privileges, the city is a species of independent community, governed by its own laws and functionaries. While all other boroughs have been reformed in their constitution, London has been suffered to remain, as yet, in the enjoyment of nearly all its old usages. The city is civilly divided into twenty-five wards, each of which has an alderman; and with one alderman without a ward, the number of aldermen is 26. Each is chosen for life, and acts as magistrate within his division. The freemen of the various wards elect representatives annually to the common-council, to the number of 206 members. The lord mayor, aldermen, and common-council, compose the legislative body for the city. The lord mayor is chosen by a numerous and respectable constituency, called _the livery_, or liverymen; these are certain qualified members of trading corporations, who, except in electing the lord mayor, sheriffs, members of parliament, &c., do not directly interfere in city management. The Court of Aldermen and the Court of Common-council have certain legislative and executive duties, partly with and partly without the immediate aid of the lord mayor. The revenue of the city corporation is derived from sundry dues, rents, interest of bequests, fines for leases, &c. The magistracy, police, and prisons cost about £40,000 annually; but this is exclusive of large sums disbursed by the court of aldermen. The lord mayor is elected annually, on the 29th of September, from among the body of aldermen. The livery send a list of two candidates to the court of aldermen, and one of these, generally the senior, is chosen by them. He enters office, with much pomp, on the 9th of November, which is hence called Lord Mayor’s Day. The procession through the streets on this occasion attracts citizens as well as strangers. The advocate and legal adviser of the corporation is an official with the title of Recorder. The lord mayor and corporation exercise a jurisdiction over Southwark and other precincts. Westminster, which is not connected in civic matters with London Proper, is under the jurisdiction of a high-bailiff. The city returns 4 members to Parliament, besides the 16 returned by Westminster, Southwark, Marylebone, Tower Hamlets, Finsbury, Lambeth, Chelsea, and Greenwich.

In 1829, the old mode of protection by _Watchmen_ was abolished in all parts of the metropolis except the city, and a new _Police Force_ established by Act of Parliament. This has been a highly successful and beneficial improvement. The new police is under the management of commissioners, who are in direct communication with the Secretary of State for the Home Department; under the commissioners are superintendents, inspectors, sergeants, and constables. The district under their care includes the whole metropolis and environs, with the exception of the city, grouped into 21 divisions, each denoted by a letter. The constables wear a blue uniform, and are on duty at all times of the day and night. Three-fourths of the expenses are paid out of the parish rates, but limited to an assessment of 8d. per pound on the rental; the remainder is contributed from the public purse. The corporation have since established a Police Force for the city on the model of that above mentioned. In addition to two Police Offices for the city, at the Mansion House and Guildhall, there are eleven for the remaining parts of the metropolis,—viz., Bow Street, Clerkenwell, Great Marlborough Street, Thames, Worship Street, Southwark, Marylebone, Westminster, Lambeth, Greenwich and Woolwich, and Hammersmith and Wandsworth. The Thames Police have a peculiar jurisdiction over the river. In 1836, a horse patrol was added to the Bow Street establishment, consisting of inspectors and patrols, whose sphere of action is the less frequented roads around the metropolis. With all these means of preserving the peace and preventing crime, the metropolis is now one of the most orderly cities in the world; and provided strangers do not seek the haunts of vice, but pursue their way steadily, they run little or no risk of molestation. The number of metropolitan police in 1872 was about 9,000; of city police, 700—including, in both cases, superintendents, inspectors, &c., &c. The commissioner of metropolitan police is Lieutenant-Colonel E. Y. W. Henderson, C.B., 4 Whitehall Place, S.W.; the commissioner of city police is Colonel James Fraser, C.B., 26 Old Jewry, E.C.

The _Drainage_ of London was a matter barely understood at all, and in no wholesome sense practised, till some time after the Board of Works was formed, in 1855, when their best efforts to check a rapidly growing evil—viz., the casting of London’s poisonous sewage into the Thames at our very doors—were called into play. The estimated cost of one of the most colossal schemes of modern times was, at its outset, put down at something over three millions; and when the vast plan for main drainage was commenced, in 1859, a sanitary revolution began. A far greater sum, however, must be expended ere the idea is wholly carried out. It is obviously out of our power, in our limited space, to do anything more than give the reader a mere rough notion of the good to be done and the difficulties to be overcome. The plan was to construct some 70 odd miles of gigantic sewers on either side of the Thames. The north side of the river has three different lines of sewers, which meet at the river Lea, and thereafter go along, in one huge embankment, to Barking Creek, on the Thames, 14 miles below London Bridge. With certain differences, the sewage of the south side of the Thames is amenable to the same kind of treatment. By some returns, furnished in June, 1870, by the engineer of the Metropolitan Board of Works, it appears that the average daily quantity of sewage pumped into the river Thames at Crossness was 170,934 cubic metres, and at Barking 152,808 cubic metres—equivalent to about as many tons by weight. That quantity, of course, will every year, as London grows, increase. As the sewers on the north side of the river get more near to the sea, they can be seen. The south side sewers are nearly all out of sight. As the tide flows, the filth of London, by their means, is poured into the water. As it ebbs, the sewage is carried out to sea. Powerful steam-engines, for pumping up sewage from low levels, are used as they are required. The clerk of the Metropolitan Board of Works, who may be seen at Spring Gardens, Charing Cross, will, we should fancy, oblige any gentleman with engineering proclivities with an order to view what has already been accomplished by marvellous ability and enterprise,—whose results can in no fair sense gain anything like fair appreciation without personal inspection.

London is _Lighted_ by sundry joint-stock gas companies; the parishes contract with them for street lights, and individuals for the house and shop lights. Gas was first introduced into London, in Golden Lane, in 1807; in Pall Mall in 1809; and generally through London in 1814. There are something like 2,500 miles of gas-pipes in and about London.

The first of the public _Baths_ and _Wash-houses_ was established near the London Docks in 1844. The number, of course, has vastly increased. Many of them are maintained by the parish authorities, and are very cheap.

The first public _Drinking Fountain_ in London was erected, near St. Sepulchre’s Church, close to Newgate, in 1859. There are now nearly 200 such fountains and troughs for animals in London.

In 1833, by an agreement among the Fire Insurance offices, there was established a regular fire-suppression police, or _Fire Brigade_, consisting of a superintendent, foremen, engineers, sub-engineers, and firemen; numerous engines are in constant readiness at fifty-four different stations. (The brigade is now placed under public control, supported by a house-rate.) The fires in London exceed 1,500 annually, on an average.

Mansion House.—This is a tall square mass of dark stone building, nearly opposite the Bank and the Royal Exchange, with a portico of six Corinthian columns in front, resting on a low rustic basement. This edifice, which extends a considerable depth behind, is the official residence of the Lord Mayor of London, provided by the city corporation. Besides an extensive suite of domestic apartments, it contains a number of state-rooms, in which company is received and entertained. The chief of these rooms are the Egyptian hall and the ball-room, which have a grand appearance. Some fine sculptures by British artists—the best of which are Foley’s ‘Caractacus and Egeria,’ and Bailey’s ‘Genius and the Morning Star’—have recently been added; the corporation having voted a sum of money for this purpose. The lord mayor’s annual stipend is £5,997 8s. 4d., with certain allowances, we believe, not stated; and in the Mansion House he has the use of a superb collection of plate: he is likewise allowed the use of a state-coach, &c. Every lord mayor, however, expends more than this sum during his year of office in grand banquets.

Guildhall.—This may be regarded as the _Town-hall_, or what the French would call the _Hotel de Ville_, of London; where are held meetings of the livery to elect members of parliament, lord mayor, sheriffs, and others, and where the grandest civic entertainments are given. It is situated at the end of King Street, Cheapside. The building is old, but received a new front, in a strange kind of Gothic, in 1789. The interior of the grand hall is 153 feet long, 48 feet broad, and 55 feet high; it is one of the largest rooms in London, and can accommodate about 3,500 persons at dinner. Two clumsy colossal figures, called Gog and Magog, the history of which has never clearly been made out, are placed at the west end of the hall. Around it are some fine marble monuments to Lord Mayor Beckford, Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, the Earl of Chatham, and his son, William Pitt. Note the stained glass with the armorial bearings of the twelve great city companies; also observe, in the passage leading to the common-council chamber, the portrait of General Sir W. F. Williams, the heroic defender of Kars in 1855. At the top of the council chamber will be seen Chantrey’s statue of George III.; a picture of the siege of Gibraltar, by Copley; and Northcote’s ‘Wat Tyler slain by Lord Mayor Walworth,’ with other pictures and portraits. Near by are several offices for corporate and law courts. The _Library_ contains many valuable antiquities, books, coins, pottery, &c., and some interesting autographs. Note that of Shakespere, on a deed of purchase of a house in Blackfriars. The _Crypt_ is a curious underground vault. On Lord Mayor’s Day the grand dinner usually costs about £2,200. On the 18th June, 1814, when the Allied Sovereigns dined here, the gold plate was valued at £200,000.

The Monument.—This may be regarded as a corporate structure, although it answers no useful purpose. It is a fluted Doric column, situated in a small space of ground adjoining the southern extremity of King William Street, on the descent to Lower Thames Street. It was begun in 1671, and finished in 1677, at a cost of about £14,500, in commemoration of the Great Fire of London, which began at the distance of 202 feet eastward from the spot, in 1666; and its height has on that account (so we are told) been made 202 feet. It is a handsome column, with a gilt finial intended to represent flames of fire. Visitors are allowed to ascend by a winding stair of 345 steps to the top; fee, 3d. No better place can be chosen from which to view the river, the shipping, and the city generally.

The Royal Exchange.—This is a handsome quadrangular building on the north side of Cornhill, having in the centre an open court with colonnades. The chief entrance faces an open paved space on the west, on which is placed an equestrian statue of the Duke of Wellington. The building was erected from plans by Mr. Tite, and was opened in 1844; it occupies the site of the former Exchange, which was accidentally destroyed by fire. The pediment contains sculptures by Sir R. Westmacott, R.A. The lower part of the exterior is laid out as shops, which greatly injure the architectural effect; the upper rooms are occupied as public offices, one of which is _Lloyd’s_, or, more properly, _Lloyd’s Subscription Rooms_, where merchants, shipowners, shippers, and underwriters congregate. A statue of the Queen is in the centre of the quadrangular area. The busy time on ’Change is from 3 till 4 o’clock, Tuesday and Friday being the principal days.

THE TEMPLE; INNS OF COURT; COURTS OF JUSTICE; PRISONS.

The buildings noticed in this section belong partly to the crown, partly to the corporation of London, and partly to other bodies.

The Temple.—Contiguous to the south side of Fleet Street is a most extensive series of buildings, comprising several squares and rows, called the _Temple_; belonging to the members of two societies, the _Inner_ and _Middle Temple_, consisting of benchers, barristers, and students. This famous old place, taken in its completeness, was, in 1184, the metropolitan residence of the Knights Templars, who held it until their downfall in 1313; soon afterwards it was occupied by students of the law; and in 1608 James I. presented the entire group of structures to the benchers of the two societies, who have ever since been the absolute owners. The entrance to Inner Temple, from Fleet Street, consists of nothing more than a mere gateway; the entrance to Middle Temple was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. _Middle Temple Hall_, 100 feet long, 42 wide, and 47 high, is considered to have one of the finest Elizabethan roofs in London. A group of chambers, called _Paper Buildings_, built near the river, is a good example of revived Elizabethan. A new _Inner Temple Hall_ was formally opened, in 1870, by the Princess Louise. In October, 1861, when the Prince of Wales was elected a bencher of the Middle Temple, a new _Library_ was formally opened, which had been constructed at a cost of £13,000; it is a beautiful ornament to the place, as seen from the river. The _Temple Church_, a few yards only down from Fleet Street, is one of the most interesting churches in London. All the main parts of the structure are as old as the time of the Knights Templars; but the munificent sum of £70,000 was spent, about twenty years ago, in restoring and adorning it. There are two portions, the _Round Church_ and the _Choir_, the one nearly 700 years old, and the other more than 600. The monumental effigies, the original sculptured heads in the Round Church, the triforium, and the fittings of the Choir, are all worthy of attention. The north side of the church has recently been laid open by the removal of adjoining buildings; and in their place some handsome chambers are erected. Hard by, in the churchyard, is the grave of Oliver Goldsmith, who died in chambers (since pulled down) in Brick Court. The Sunday services are very fine, and always attract many strangers. The _Temple Gardens_, fronting the river, are probably the best in the city.

_Lincoln’s Inn_ was once the property of the De Lacie, Earl of Lincoln. It became an Inn of Court in 1310. The fine new hall—worth seeing—was opened in 1845. The Chapel was built in 1621–3, by Inigo Jones. He also laid out the large garden in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, close by, in 1620. Lord William Russell was beheaded here in 1683. In Lincoln’s Inn are the Chancery and Equity Courts.

_Graves Inn_, nearly opposite the north end of Chancery Lane, once belonged to the Lords Gray of Wilton. It was founded in 1357. Most of its buildings—except its hall, with black oak roof—are of comparatively modern date. In Gray’s Inn lived the great Lord Bacon, a tree planted by whom, in the quaint old garden of the Inn, can yet be seen propped up by iron stays. Charles the First, when Prince Charles, was an honorary member of Gray’s Inn, and Bradshaw, who tried him, was one of its benchers.

_Sergeant’s Inn_, Chancery Lane, is what its name denotes—the Inn of the sergeants-at-law. _Sergeants Inn_, Fleet Street, is let out in chambers to barristers, solicitors, and the general public. The last remark applies to the other small Inns of Chancery in and about Holborn and Fleet Street.

Till the new _Law_ Courts are erected in Central Strand, London has no Courts of Law well built or convenient. The _Westminster Courts_ are little better than wooden sheds. So are the _Lincoln’s Inn Courts_. But they still are worth a visit. At the _Old Bailey_, near Newgate, is the _Central Criminal Court_, for the trial of prisoners accused of crimes committed within ten miles of St. Paul’s. Nominally, this court is free; but practically, a small _douceur_ is always extorted by the ushers for a place. In the other courts this practice of ‘tipping’ is less common. The _Bankruptcy Court_, in Basinghall Street, the _Clerkenwell Sessions House_, the _County Courts_, and the _Police Courts_, are other establishments connected with the administration of justice; but the business of the first will shortly be transferred westward.

The Record Office.—Connected in some degree with the Courts of Law and Equity, is the _New Record Office_, Fetter Lane, where is deposited a vast body of unprinted documents belonging to the state, of priceless value, including the far-famed _Doomsday Book_; they having been previously scattered in various buildings about the metropolis. Apply to the deputy-keeper for an order to inspect any but state papers of later date than 1688, for which the Home Secretary’s special order is requisite.

Prisons.—_Newgate_, the chief criminal prison for the city and county, in the Old Bailey, was a prison in the _new gate_ of the city as early as 1218. Two centuries after it was re-built, and in the Great Fire (1666) burnt down. It was re-constructed in 1778–80; its interior burnt in the Gordon ‘No Popery’ riots in 1780; and its interior again re-constructed in 1857. Debtors are no longer confined here; the few who come under the new law—which has almost abolished imprisonment for debt—being sent to _Holloway Prison_ under the new law. Till public executions were abolished, criminals came out for execution in the middle of the Old Bailey, through the small iron door over which is suspended a grim festoon of fetters. They are now hanged privately inside the jail. The condemned cells are on the north-east side of Newgate. To view the prison, apply to the sheriff or the lord mayor. The chief debtors’ prison _was_ the _Queen’s Bench_, in Southwark. It is now a _Military Prison_. The _City Prison_, Holloway, a castellated structure, was built in 1855, as a substitute for other and overcrowded jails in London. Other prisons are the _House of Correction_, Cold Bath Fields, capable of holding 1,200 prisoners; the _House of Correction_, at Wandsworth; the _House of Correction_, Westminster; _Millbank Penitentiary_, near the Middlesex end of Vauxhall Bridge, which could, if wanted, hold 1,200 prisoners, and cost £500,000; _Pentonville Model Prison_; _Female Prison_, Brixton; _Surrey County Jail_, Horsemonger Lane, on the top of which the infamous Mannings were hanged in 1849; and the _House of Detention_, Clerkenwell, which the Fenians tried to blow up. The last prison is for persons not convicted.

BANKS; INSURANCE OFFICES; STOCK EXCHANGE; CITY COMPANIES.

Bank of England.—This large establishment is situated north of the Royal Exchange; the narrow thoroughfare between being _Threadneedle Street_, in which is the principal front. This is unquestionably the greatest bank in the world. The present structure was mostly the work of Sir John Soane, at various periods between 1788 and 1829. About 1,000 clerks, messengers, &c., are employed here, at salaries varying from £50 to £1,200 per annum. The buildings of the Bank are low, but remarkable in appearance. In the centre is the principal entrance, which conducts to an inner open court, and thence to the main building. The Dividend and Transfer Offices, with which fund-holders are most concerned, lie in the eastern part of the building. Thus far the place is freely open to visitors. The whole buildings and courts include an area of about eight acres. The teller’s room shews a scene of great activity—clerks counting and weighing gold and silver, porters going to and fro, and crowds of tradesmen and others negotiating business at the counters. The other and more private parts of the Bank can be seen only by an order from a director. The most interesting departments are the bullion-office, in a vaulted chamber beneath—where there commonly are some 14 to 17 millions in bullion, as a reserve—entering from one of the many open courts; the treasury; the apartments in which the notes of the Bank are printed; and the weighing-office, where coin-balances of exquisite construction are used. In the printing department there is a large steam-engine, which moves printing-machines, plate-presses, and other mechanism—the whole being in beautiful order, and forming a very interesting sight. The Bank is guarded at night by its own watchmen, and a detachment of Foot Guards.

Joint-Stock and Private Banks.—Some of the handsomest modern buildings in London are those belonging to the Banking Companies. The _London and Westminster_, the _London Joint-Stock_, the _Union_, the _City_, the _Australian_, and numerous other Companies, have two or more establishments each, some as many as half-a-dozen—the head bank always being in the busy centre of trade, the ‘City.’ Some of these are elegant structures; and all are planned with great skill in reference to interior arrangements. The private bankers, such as Glyn, Barclays, Lubbocks, Coutts, &c., rival the companies in the architectural character of their banks; and some of their establishments, such as Child’s, near Temple Bar, are curious old places. Many have lately been rebuilt in a substantial and handsome style.

Insurance Offices.—These form another extensive group, which has conduced much to the improved street appearance of modern London. All the best conducted Life and Fire Insurance Companies are wealthy; and they have devoted part of their wealth to the construction of commodious and often elegant offices. The _County_, the _Royal Exchange_, the _Sun_, the _Phœnix_, the _Amicable_, the _Equitable_, the _Imperial_, are among the most noted of these insurance offices. The chief buildings are within a small circle, of which the Royal Exchange is the centre; another group is about Fleet Street and Blackfriars; and a western group lies in and near the Regent Street line.

Stock Exchange.—This building, of which scarcely anything can be seen on the outside, lies up a paved passage called Capel Court, in Bartholomew Lane, on the east side of the Bank of England. Dealers and brokers in the public funds, and in all kinds of joint-stock shares and debentures, meet and transact business here. They buy and sell, not only for themselves, but for the public generally; and the amount of business transacted every day is enormous. The establishment is maintained by about 900 members, who pay £10 a-year each. They endeavour to enforce strict honesty in each other’s dealings; but they sedulously refuse to allow a stranger even to pass the threshold of their Temple of Wealth.

Various Commercial Buildings.—A stranger has only to look at a detailed map or a directory, to see how numerous are the buildings, especially in the city, applied in various ways to commerce and trading on a large scale. The _Trinity House_ on _Tower Hill_; the chambers of the building that was once the _South Sea House_, near Leadenhall Street; those of the large but irregular structure called _Gresham House_, in Bishopsgate Street—are all worthy of a glance, some for their architectural character, and all for the importance of the work transacted in them. The _East India House_, in Leadenhall Street, has been pulled down; commercial chambers in great number, and let at enormous rentals, have been built on the site.