Part 7

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.