LONDON ILLUMINATED: THE VIEW WESTWARD FROM BLACKFRIARS BRIDGE.
Holland Tringham, R.B.A.]
THE MANSION HOUSE ILLUMINATED.
Holland Tringham, R.B.A.]
THE BANK OF ENGLAND ILLUMINATED.
On every side of the route down Ludgate Hill, Fleet Street, and the Strand, and more westward still, through Pall Mall, St. James’s, and Mayfair, iridescent stars and crowned monograms glowed like titanic jewels from a thousand buildings. Fleet Street and the Strand were garlanded across with festoons of many-coloured globes, and the streets of this part of the town resembled nothing so much as an unending triumphal arch of rainbow-hued fire. Observed from Waterloo Place, Pall Mall seemed literally ablaze with general conflagration, so lavishly were the Clubs illuminated. The beautiful floral arches which crossed St. James’s Street at every few feet were beaded with numberless electric glow-lamps, and these were to have been set alight by the Princess of Wales touching a button in Marlborough House. But on the previous day some unexplained defect in the electric circuit had resulted in the ignition of a portion of the illuminations, and it was considered unsafe to try the experiment again. Marlborough House had over the entrance gates a branch of laurel of various natural tints, interspersed with red berries, forming one main arch over the gateway, and two side arches over the doors. The main laurel arch supported an oval medallion, surmounted by a crown, and bore the monogram “V.R.I.” surrounded by a garter. The side arches carried a Prince of Wales’s plume and badge. The whole of this was in cut crystal. The residence of the Duke of York had a pretty wreath of white rose and pink may (the former the emblem of the Royal House of York, the latter prettily suggestive of the Duchess’s name), with the monogram, “V.R.I.” in the centre. This device was carried out in gas jets. Piccadilly, Regent Street, and Oxford Street were not so generally illuminated as those thoroughfares we have already mentioned, but individual establishments approached very closely to the high level attained elsewhere.
