FOOD SUPPLY; MARKETS; BAZAARS; SHOPS.
Food Supply.—The Quarterly Review, on one occasion, illustrated, in a whimsical way, the vastness of the system. The following is described as the supply of meat, poultry, bread, and beer, for one year:—72 miles of oxen, 10 abreast; 120 miles of sheep, do.; 7 miles of calves, do.; 9 miles of pigs, do.; 50 acres of poultry, close together; 20 miles of hares and rabbits, 100 abreast; a pyramid of loaves of bread, 600 feet square, and thrice the height of St. Paul’s; 1000 columns of hogsheads of beer, each 1 mile high.
Water and Coal Supply.—The water used in the metropolis is chiefly supplied by the Thames, and by an artificial channel called the New River, which enters on the north side of the metropolis. The water is naturally good and soft. The spots at which it is raised from the Thames used to be within the bounds of the metropolis, at no great distance from the mouths of common sewers; but it is now obtained from parts of the river much higher up, and undergoes a very extensive filtration. Nine companies are concerned in the supply of water,—viz., the New River, East London, Southwark and Vauxhall, West Middlesex, Lambeth, Chelsea, Grand Junction, Kent, and Hampstead Water Companies. Some of the works, within the last few years, constructed by these companies, up the river, are very fine. Returns furnished to the Registrar-General by the London Water Companies shewed that the average daily supply of water for all purposes to the London population, during the month of May, 1870, was 107,540,811 gallons, of which it is estimated the supply for domestic purposes amounted to about 88,381,700 gallons, or 26 gallons per day per head of population. The metropolis is supplied with coal principally from the neighbourhood of Newcastle, but partly also from certain inland counties; the import from the latter being by railway. Newcastle coal is preferred. It arrives in vessels devoted exclusively to the trade; and so many and so excessive are the duties and profits affecting the article, that a ton of coal, which can be purchased at Newcastle for 6s. or 7s., costs, to a consumer in London, from 22s. to 27s. The quantity of coal brought to London annually much exceeds 5,000,000 tons, of which considerably more than 2,000,000 come by railway. The wholesale dealings in this commodity are managed chiefly at the Coal Exchange, a remarkable building just opposite Billingsgate.
Markets.—London contains nearly 40 markets for cattle, meat, corn, coal, hay, vegetables, fish, and other principal articles of consumption. The meat-markets are of various kinds—one for live animals, others for carcases in bulk, and others for the retail of meat; some, also, are for pork, and others principally for fowls. The New Cattle Market, Copenhagen Fields, near Pentonville, built, in 1854, to replace old Smithfield Market, covers nearly 30 acres, and, with outbuildings, slaughterhouses, &c., cost the City Corporation about £400,000. It is the finest live stock market in the kingdom. The present Smithfield Market, near the Holborn Viaduct, for dead meat and poultry, is a splendid building, 625 feet long, 240 feet wide, and 30 feet high. Wide roads on its north, east, and west sides, accommodate its special traffic. A carriage road runs right through it from north to south, with spacious and well ventilating avenues radiating from it. There are in this market no less than 100,000 feet of available space. It has cost upwards of £180,000 already. There are underground communication with several railways, to bring in, right under the market, meat and poultry from the country, and meat from the slaughterhouses of the Copenhagen Fields Cattle Market. Newgate Market, as a market, no longer exists. Leadenhall Market is a depôt for meat and poultry. At Whitechapel there is a meat market also. The minor meat markets require no special note here. Billingsgate, the principal fish market of London, near the Custom House, was greatly extended and improved in 1849. It is well worth visiting any morning throughout the year, save Sunday, at five o’clock. Ladies, however, will not care to encounter its noise, bustle, and unsavoury odours. The fish arriving in steamers, smacks, and boats from the coast or more distant seas, are consigned to salesmen who, during the early market hours, deal extensively with the retail fishmongers from all parts of London. The inferior fish are bought by the costermongers, or street-dealers. When particular fish are in a prime state, or very scarce, there are wealthy persons who will pay enormously for the rarity; hence a struggle between the boats to reach the market early. At times, so many boats come laden with the same kind of fish as to produce a glut; and instead of being sold at a high price, as is usually the case, the fish are then retailed for a mere trifle. Fish is now brought largely to London by railway, from various ports on the east and south coasts. The yearly sale of fish at Billingsgate has been estimated at so high a sum as £2,000,000.
Covent Garden Market (connected by Southampton Street with the Strand) is the great vegetable, fruit, and flower market. This spot, which is exceedingly central to the metropolis, was once the garden to the abbey and convent of Westminster: hence the name Convent or Covent. At the suppression of the religious houses in Henry VIII.’s reign, it devolved to the Crown. Edward VI. gave it to the Duke of Somerset; on his attainder it was granted to the Earl of Bedford; and in the Russell family it has since remained. From a design of Inigo Jones, it was intended to have surrounded it with a colonnade; but the north and a part of the east sides only were completed. The fruit and vegetable markets were rebuilt in 1829–30. The west side is occupied by the parish church of St. Paul’s, noticeable for its massive roof and portico. Butler, author of Hudibras, lies in its graveyard, without a stone to mark the spot. In 1721, however, a cenotaph was erected in his honour in Westminster Abbey. The election of members to serve in Parliament for the city of Westminster was held in front of this church: the hustings for receiving the votes being temporary buildings. The south side is occupied by a row of brick dwellings. Within the square thus enclosed fruit and vegetables of the best quality are exposed for sale. A large paved space surrounding the interior square is occupied by the market-gardeners, who, as early as four or five in the morning, have carted the produce of their grounds, and wait to dispose of it to dealers in fruit and vegetables residing in different parts of London; any remainder is sold to persons who have standings in the market, and they retail it to such individuals as choose to attend to purchase in smaller quantities. Within this paved space rows of shops are conveniently arranged for the display of the choicest fruits of the season: the productions of the forcing-house, and the results of horticultural skill, appear in all their beauty. There are also conservatories, in which every beauty of the flower-garden may be obtained, from the rare exotic to the simplest native flower. The Floral Hall, close to Covent Garden Opera House, has an entrance from the north-east corner of the market, to which it is a sort of appendage as a Flower Market. Balls, concerts, &c., are occasionally given here. The Farringdon, Borough, Portman, Spitalfields, and other vegetable markets, are small imitations of that at Covent Garden.
The cultivation of vegetables in the open ground within ten miles surrounding London, has arrived at great perfection; and so certain is the demand, that the whole is regularly conveyed by land or water to the metropolis; insomuch that persons residing in the neighbourhood of those well-arranged gardens are really less readily accommodated than the inhabitants of the metropolis, and have no supply of vegetables but such as have already been sent to London, and thence back to retailers in their own locality. There are also large supplies of foreign fruit and vegetables. The annual produce of the garden-grounds cultivated to supply the London markets with fruit and vegetables has been estimated at the enormous weight of 360,000 tons, or 1,000 tons per day.
Corn.—The greater part of the corn used for bread and other purposes in the metropolis is sold by corn-factors at the Corn Exchange, Mark Lane; but the corn itself is not taken to that place. Enormous quantities of flour are also brought in, ground at mills in the country and in foreign parts.
Malt liquors.—The beer and ale consumed in the metropolis is, of course, vast in quantity, though there are no means of determining the amount. If, by a letter of introduction, a stranger could obtain admission to Barclay & Perkins’s or Truman & Hanbury’s breweries, he would there see vessels and operations astonishing for their magnitude—bins that are filled with 2,000 quarters of malt every week; brewing-rooms nearly as large as Westminster Hall; fermenting vessels holding 1,500 barrels each; a beer-tank large enough to float an up-river steamer; vats containing 100,000 gallons each; and 60,000 casks, with 200 horses to convey them in drays to the taverns of the metropolis!
Shops and Bazaars.—The better-class London retail shops, for wealth, variety, and vast number, are among the greatest wonders of the place. They speak for themselves. The wholesale establishments with which New Cannon Street, Wood Street, and the south side of St. Paul’s Churchyard—noticeably the gigantic warehouses of Messrs. Cook & Co.—abound, if, by a letter of introduction, an order of admission can be obtained, would strike a stranger—in spite of less external display, save as regards size—as more wonderful still, so enormous is the amount of their business operations, and of capital incoming and outgoing.
There are about 7,400 streets, lanes, rows, &c., in the metropolis. From Charing Cross, within a six miles radius, there are something over 2,600 miles of streets. As regards trades generally, it is hard even to get anything like an approximate notion of their numbers. As the Post Office London Directory says, new trades are being added to the list every year. Thus, we are told, 57 new trades were so added in the year 1870. But to specify a few, there are, say, about 130,000 shopkeepers, or owners of commercial establishments, who carry on more than 2,500 different trades. Loss of much of London’s shipping trade, &c., has indeed driven hundreds of emigrants of late from our east-end waterside neighbourhoods. But London has gone on growing all the same, and trade with it. Among these trades are, without counting purely wholesale dealers, about 2,847 grocers and tea dealers, 2,087 butchers, 2,461 bakers, 1,508 dairymen, &c., 2,370 greengrocers and fruiterers, more than 595 retail fishmongers, 891 cheesemongers, (this computation does not include the small shops in poor neighbourhoods which sell almost everything,) 2,755 tailors, (not including about 500 old-clothesmen, wardrobe-dealers, &c.,) about 3,347 bootmakers, about 450 hatters, and so forth. All these are master tradesmen or shopkeepers, irrespective of workmen, foremen, shopmen, clerks, porters, apprentices, and families. We may add, that in the pages of that very large book the London Post Office Directory, no less than 52 columns and over are occupied by the long list of London publicans.
The principal Bazaars of London are the Soho, London Crystal Palace, (Oxford Street,) and Baker Street bazaars, to which should be added the Burlington Arcade, Piccadilly, and the Lowther Arcade, (famous for cheap toys,) in the Strand. The once celebrated Pantheon, in Oxford Street, is now a wine merchant’s stores. Many small bazaars exist.
The Bazaar system of oriental countries, in which all the dealers in one kind of commodity are met with in one place, is not observable in London; yet a stranger may usefully bear in mind that, probably for the convenience both of buyers and sellers, an approach to the system is made. For instance, coachmakers congregate in considerable number in Long Acre and Great Queen Street; watchmakers and jewellers, in Clerkenwell; tanners and leather-dressers, in Bermondsey; bird and bird-cage sellers, in Seven Dials; statuaries, in the Euston Road; sugar-refiners, in and near Whitechapel; furniture-dealers, in Tottenham Court Road; hat-makers, in Bermondsey and Southwark; dentists, about St. Martin’s Lane; &c. There is one bazaar, if so we may term it, of a very remarkable character—namely, Paternoster Row. This street is a continuation of Cheapside, but is not used much as a thoroughfare, though it communicates by transverse alleys or courts with St. Paul’s Churchyard, and, at its western extremity, by means of Ave-Maria Lane, leads into Ludgate Hill. Paternoster Row, or ‘the Row,’ as it is familiarly termed, is a dull street, only wide enough at certain points to permit two vehicles to pass each other, with a narrow pavement on each side. The houses are tall and sombre in their aspect, and the shops below have a dead look, in comparison with those in the more animated streets. But the deadness is all on the outside. For a considerable period this street has been the head-quarters of booksellers and publishers, who, till the present day, continue in such numbers as to leave little room for other tradesmen—transacting business in the book-trade to a prodigious amount. At the western extremity of Paternoster Row a passage leads from Amen Corner to Stationers’ Hall Court, in which is situated Stationers’ Hall, and also several publishing-houses.
Mudie’s Library.—While on the subject of books, we may remind the visitor that the most remarkable lending library in the world is situated in London. Mudie’s, at the corner of New Oxford Street and Museum Street, affords a striking example of what the energy of one man can accomplish. At this vast establishment the volumes are reckoned by hundreds of thousands; and the circulation of them, on easy terms, extends to every part of the kingdom. The chief portion of the building is a lofty central gallery, of considerable beauty.
CLUBS; HOTELS; INNS; CHOP-HOUSES; TAVERNS; COFFEE-HOUSES; COFFEE-SHOPS.
Club-houses.—During the last forty or fifty years new habits amongst the upper classes have led to the establishment of a variety of Club-houses—places of resort unknown to our ancestors. There are at present, including many fifth-rate clubs, about 84 clubs in London. A London club-house is either the property of a private person, who engages to furnish subscribers with certain accommodation, on paying a fixed sum as entrance-money, and a specified annual subscription; or else it belongs to a society of gentlemen who associate for the purpose. Of the first class, the most noted are Brookes’s and White’s, both situated in St. James’s Street, The second class of clubs is most numerous: the principal among them being the Carlton, Junior Carlton, Reform, Athenæum, Oriental, Conservative, Travellers’, United University, Oxford and Cambridge, Army and Navy, Guards’, United Service, Junior United Service, Union, Arthur’s, and Windham clubs. The houses belonging to these clubs respectively are among the finest at the West-end of London, and may easily be distinguished in and about Pall Mall, St. James’s Street, and Waterloo Place. No member sleeps at his club; the accommodation extends to furnishing all kinds of refreshments, the use of a library, and an ample supply of newspapers and periodicals in the reading-room. The real object of these institutions is to furnish a place of resort for a select number of gentlemen, on what are really moderate terms. The Athenæum Club, (near the York Column,) which consists chiefly of scientific and literary men, is one of the most important. It has 1,200 members, each of whom pays thirty guineas entrance-money, and seven guineas yearly subscription. As in all other clubs, members are admitted only by ballot. The expense of the house in building was £35,000, and £5,000 for furnishing; the plate, linen, and glass cost £2,500; library, £5,000; and the stock of wine in cellar is usually worth about £4,000. The other principal clubs vary from nine to thirty guineas entrance-fee, from six to eleven guineas annual subscription, and from 600 to 1,500 members. During part of the life of the late M. Soyer, the kitchen of the Reform Club-house was one of the sights of the West-end. The Garrick Club, in Garrick Street, W.C., consists chiefly of theatrical and literary men. The same remark applies to the Arundel, in Salisbury Street, Strand. The Whittington Club, in the Strand, was the humblest of its class, and bore little resemblance to the others; it was rather a literary and scientific institution, with a refreshment department added.
The Albany.—The Albany consists of a series of chambers, or suites of apartments, intended for ‘West-end bachelors.’ No person carrying on a trade or commercial occupation is allowed to live within its limits. There are two entrances, one in Piccadilly and one in Burlington Gardens. The chambers are placed in eleven groups, denoted by letters of the alphabet, A to L. There are about 60 suites of apartments, many of which are occupied by peers, members of parliament, honourables and right honourables, and naval and military officers. Canning, Byron, and Macaulay, are named amongst those who have lived in this singular place.
Hotels and Inns.—It has been conjectured (though probably in excess of the truth) that at all times there are 150,000 strangers residing for a few days only in the metropolis; and to accommodate this numerous transient population, there is a vast number of lodging and boarding-houses, hotels, and other places of accommodation. There are upwards of 500 better-class hotels, inns, and taverns. There are about 120 private hotels not licensed, and therefore do not keep exciseable liquors for sale. There are about 5,200 public-houses licensed to sell wines, spirits, and malt liquors. There are more than 1,964 beer-shops, where malt liquors only are sold.
The fashionable hotels are situated west of Charing Cross—as, for instance, Claridge’s, Brook Street, Grosvenor Square; Fenton’s, St. James’s Street; Limmer’s, George Street, Hanover Square; the Clarendon, in New Bond Street; the Burlington, in Old Burlington Street; Grillon’s, in Albemarle Street; Long’s, in Bond Street; the Palace, Pimlico; Wright’s, Dover Street; Morley’s, Trafalgar Square; Hatchett’s, Dover Street; Maurigy’s, Regent Street; Marshall Thompson’s, Cavendish Square; the Albemarle, Albemarle Street; the Hyde Park, near the Marble Arch; the Alexandra, Hyde Park Corner; &c. In and about Covent Garden there are several good hotels for single gentlemen; among others, the Cavendish, the Bedford, the New and Old Hummums, and the Tavistock. One or two others, in Bridge Street, Blackfriars, are excellent hotels. Foreign hotels of a medium class are numerous in and about Leicester Square. Another class of hotels or inns are those from which stage-coaches at one time ran, and which were resorted to by commercial and other gentlemen; for example, the Golden Cross, (now renovated and extended,) near Charing Cross; the White Horse Cellar, Piccadilly; the Bell and Crown, Holborn; the Castle and Falcon, Aldersgate Street; and the Bull-in-Mouth, (now called the Queen’s,) opposite the General Post Office, in St. Martin’s-le-Grand. These have all become comfortable middle-class hotels, with railway booking-offices attached; but the fall of the stage-coach trade has lessened their importance to a great extent. To these we may add certain large inn and tavern establishments at other parts of the town—such as the Bridge House Hotel, at London Bridge; the Angel, at Islington; and the Elephant and Castle, Newington Causeway.
The almost universal defect of the older class of hotels in London is, that they are too often private dwellings extemporized for purposes of public accommodation—not buildings erected with the distinct object for which they are used. Hence the London hotels, generally, are confined and awkward in their arrangements—a huddle of apartments on different levels, narrow passages, and the offensive odour of cookery being common. Rarely is there anything to parallel the larger hotels of New York, or the Hotel du Louvre at Paris. The nearest approach to these foreign establishments is found in certain hotels adjoining the railway termini, of recent construction. These are the Euston and Victoria Hotels, near Euston terminus; the Great Northern Hotel, adjoining the King’s Cross terminus; the Great Western Hotel, at the Paddington terminus; the Grosvenor Hotel, at the Pimlico terminus; the London Bridge Terminus Hotel, adjoining the Brighton Railway terminus; the fine South-Eastern Railway Hotel, Cannon Street; the Westminster Palace Hotel, Victoria Street, Westminster; the Midland, at St. Pancras; and the Charing Cross Railway Hotel. At these new and extensive hotels the accommodation is on a better footing than in the older and generally small houses. But notwithstanding these additions, it is indisputable that the amount of hotel accommodation is still meagre and defective. The want of large good hotels in central situations, to give accommodation at moderate charges, remains one of the conspicuous deficiencies of the metropolis. The Langham, however, in Portland Place, is an excellent hotel. So is the Salisbury Hotel, Salisbury Square, Fleet Street. The idea of building a large hotel in the Strand, near St. Mary’s Church, was, by-the-by, abandoned in favour of the new Globe Theatre; while that handsome building, the Inns of Court Hotel, in Holborn and Lincoln’s Inn Fields, has never yet been properly finished, and is now (1873) a failure.
In and about London, we may mention, are sundry extensive and highly-respectable taverns, which, though principally designed for accommodating large dining and other festive gatherings, lodge gentlemen with every comfort. Among these may be mentioned the London Tavern; the Albion, in Aldersgate Street; several in Fleet Street, near Blackfriars Bridge; the Freemasons’ Tavern, Great Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields; and so forth. There is, besides, a class of taverns whose chief business is supplying dinners and slight refreshments, also the accommodation of newspapers, and which are resorted to chiefly by commercial men. Each of these has a distinct character. Garraway’s and Lloyd’s, at the Royal Exchange, were once coffee-houses, but now are associated with marine intelligence, stock-trading, and auctions; and in Cornhill, opposite, the North and South American Coffee-house supplies American newspapers; and here also are to be seen the captains of vessels who are preparing to sail to different ports in the western continent and islands. At the Jerusalem and East India Coffee-house, Cowper’s Court, Cornhill, information relating to East India shipping and captains may be obtained. Peele’s Coffee-house, in Fleet Street, is celebrated for keeping files of newspapers, which may be consulted; this accommodation, as respects London papers, may also be had at some other places. Other economical Reading-Rooms are noticed in the Appendix.
Chop-houses, Coffee-shops, and Dining-rooms.—The next class of houses of this nature comprises Chop-houses, but also doing the business of taverns, and resorted to chiefly by business-men—as the Chapter, in Paternoster Row; the Mitre, the Cock, the Cheshire Cheese, and the Rainbow, in Fleet Street. Many such houses are to be met with near the Bank of England, in Cheapside, Bucklersbury, Threadneedle Street, Bishopsgate Street, and the alleys turning out of Cornhill. The Ship and Turtle, in Leadenhall Street, was a famous turtle-house; and others are noted for some specialty.
London contains a very numerous class of Coffee-shops, of a much more humble, though perhaps more useful nature, at which coffee, cocoa, tea, bread and butter, toast, chops and steaks, bacon and eggs, and cold meat, may be obtained at very moderate prices; a few pence will purchase a morning or evening meal at such places; and many working-men dine there also. There are about 1,500 houses of this class in London. There is another class of Eating-houses or Dining-rooms, resorted to for dinners by large numbers of persons. Lake’s, His Lordship’s Larder, and one or two others, in Cheapside; Izant’s, and several others in and near Bucklersbury; the Chancery Dining-rooms, in Chancery Lane; the Fish Ordinary at the Three Tuns in Billingsgate, and at Simpson’s in Cheapside; and several dining-rooms in and near the Haymarket and Rupert Street—may be reckoned among the number. A good but simple dinner may be had at these houses for from 1s. 6d. to 2s. 6d. At the St. James’s Hall Restaurant, in Regent Street; Blanchard’s, Regent Street, corner of Burlington Street; the Albion, Russell Street, near Drury Lane Theatre; the London, Fleet Street, nearly opposite the Inner Temple gate; Simpson’s, in the Strand, opposite Exeter Hall; and last, but by no means least, at Speirs and Pond’s Restaurant, at Ludgate Station of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway; a very fair dinner may be had, at prices varying from, say, a minimum of half-a-crown up to a greater cost, according to the state of the diner’s tastes and finances. At the Gaiety Restaurant, adjoining the Gaiety Theatre, a good dinner may be had. At Cremorne Gardens, too, there used to be a good table d’hôte for 2s. 6d.
Temperance Hotels.—There are several good houses of this character. Among others may be named The Waverley, King Street, Cheapside; Angus’s, Bridge Street, Blackfriars; Anderson’s, Theobald Road; and Ling’s, South Street, Finsbury.