“Always readable and interesting. The chief attraction of the book, which, by the way, is charmingly ‘got up,’ is to be found in the twenty plate illustrations of Old London streets and houses. Four are successful reproductions in colour.”—Antiquarian.
“In this pretty little book ... these notes on the heart of the West End are made to gyrate round Stewart’s Tea Rooms at the corner of Bond Street, called ‘Stewart’s Corner.’ The publisher seems to have felt that to assume this shop to be the hub of the best part of London is sufficiently remarkable to require explanation, so he writes:—‘To begin one’s peregrinations at the corner of Bond Street and Piccadilly seems at first sight a little arbitrary, but one soon realizes that in starting from “Stewart’s” and keeping within a half-mile radius of this centre, one is really covering by far the most interesting portion of the West End.’ The plates, which are mostly reproductions of old prints, are singularly interesting (especially the coloured ones), and are themselves worth the price of the book.”—Athenæum.
“Mr. Chancellor guides the reader round the old streets and houses, introducing him personally, as it were, to the quaint and interesting people who inhabited them.”—The Queen.
“A little book gathering up in a quite popular way some of the associations of the district, with many illustrations of it as it appeared in the past.”—“Times” Literary Supplement.
“The author of ‘The Squares of London’ has in a high degree the faculties of selection and concentration, and in his hundred and fifty pages he has been able to tell us so much and to tell it so well.”—Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News.
“There is no lack of interest, past and present, in the district about which our author discourses. Piccadilly is notorious for its ‘ghosts’; and St. James’s Street, Park Lane, Grosvenor Square, Pall Mall, Albemarle Street, to name a few places at random, have an abundant population of the same kind. This little volume, which is judiciously illustrated, makes good reading.”—The Spectator.
“A pretty little book this, with charming illustrations of the West End in days of old, four of them in colour. The pages are rich in brief anecdote, as well as topographical details of interest.”—The Lady’s Pictorial.
“It is just the book for the Londoner who is always interested in the old spots that are being swept away one by one; and the novice who knows nothing of the subject will be fascinated by these pictures of former days.”—Methodist Times.
“Those who are interested in this class of literature will find Mr. Chancellor’s book interesting, all the more so if they have some acquaintance with the English literature of the last two centuries. The area covered is large, but there is no lack of interest, past and present, in our author’s discoursings about it. The volume is judiciously illustrated.”—Catholic Times.
“Pictures of St. James’s Street in George the Third’s reign, the palace at the foot in the days of the Stuarts, Carlton House during the Regency, together with various old inns, mansions, and other vanished buildings, combine to make an illustrated gallery of a departed era.”—The Bookseller.