And godless cabmen call thee—‘Noah’s Ark;’
Majestic vehicle! much slandered friend,
To lowest Tophet we their libels send,
And chaunt thy praises to the City’s end.
An eighth world-wonder thine arrival bodes,
Thou greatest, best, Colossus of our roads.”
Some years prior to the publication of the above satire, a farcical comedy, entitled “The Omnibus,” had been produced at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. A man and his wife, seeking rural quietude, take a house in a charming suburb, only to find that omnibuses run to it from London. Nearly every omnibus brings them a load of visitors, who drive the poor man to distraction.
CHAPTER VIII
The opening of Holborn Viaduct—An omnibus is the first vehicle to cross it—“Viaduct Tommy”—Skid-men.
After a frost or a slight fall of rain, asphalted Victoria Street and Tottenham-court Road, innocent of sand until many poor horses have slipped and fallen and struggled and strained to rise again, are a saddening sight to horse-lovers. But those, and other notorious streets, at their worst never present such a sight as was witnessed daily on Holborn Hill in the first half of the 19th century. It was a cruel, heart-breaking hill for horses to climb, and people who lived on the spot declared that from morning until night, in all weathers, piteous sights were always to be seen. Year after year the cruelty of compelling horses to pull heavily-laden vehicles up the hill was denounced by hundreds of Londoners, and, eventually, the City Corporation put an end to the pitiful sight by building the Holborn Valley Viaduct. The chief stone was laid by Mr. Thomas Henry Fry, chairman of the Improvement Committee of the Corporation, on June 3, 1867, and on Saturday, November 6, 1869, the Viaduct was opened by Queen Victoria, who came, accompanied by Princess Louise, straight from Blackfriars Bridge, where she had just performed a similar ceremony. In spite of the weather, which threatened at first to be a repetition of the previous day, when London was enveloped in a fog, the crowd was the largest which had ever assembled to greet Her Majesty. On the Viaduct, the tiers of seats erected on either side were filled with a brilliant gathering invited by the Corporation. After the Queen had opened the bridge and departed, and the Corporation’s guests had dispersed, the work of clearing away the stands and preparing for the real opening to the public was begun.