- The Embarkation of Henry VIII. from Dover, 1520
(From the original painting at Hampton Court.) - Coaches in the Reign of Elizabeth
Coaches in the Reign of Elizabeth I (From 'Archcæologia.') - South-east Part of London in the Fifteenth Century, showing the Tower and Wall
- Shipping in the Thames, circa 1660
(From Pricke's 'South Prospect of London.') - Sir Francis Drake, in his Forty-third Year
- The Globe Theatre
The first theatre was built in 1570. Thirty years after there were seven. The Queen had companies of children to play before her. They were the boys of the choirs of St. Paul's, Westminster, Whitehall, and Windsor. The actors called themselves the servants of some great lord. Lord Leicester, Lord Warwick, Lord Pembroke, Lord Howard, the Earl of Essex, and others all had their company of actors—not all at the same time. The principal Houses were those at Southwark, and especially at Bank Side, where there were three, including the famous Globe - Civil Costume about 1620
(From a contemporary broadside.) - A Countryman and Countrywoman
Ordinary Civil Costume ; temp Charles I (From Speed's map of 'The Kingdom of England,' 1646.) - Costume of a Lawyer
(From a broadside, dated 1623.) - A Citizen and his wife
Ordinary Civil Costume ; temp Charles I (From Speed's map of 'The Kingdom of England,' 1646.) - A Gentleman and gentlewoman
Ordinary Civil Costume ; temp Charles I (From Speed's map of 'The Kingdom of England,' 1646.) - Paul Pindar's House
- Coach of the latter half of the Seventeenth Century
(From Loggan's 'Oxonia Illustrata.') - Ordinary Dress of Gentlemen in 1675
(From Loggan's 'Oxonia Illustrata.') - Waggon of the second half of the Seventeenth Century
(From Loggan's 'Oxonia Illustrata.') - Dress of Ladies of Quality
(From Sandford's 'Coronation Procession of James II.') - Ordinary Attire of Women of the Lower Classes
(From Sandford's 'Coronation Procession of James II.') - Temple Bar, London
(Built by Sir Christopher Wren in 1670; taken down in 1878 and since rebuilt at Waltham Cross.) - A Coach of the Middle of the Seventeenth Century
(From an engraving by John Dunstall.) - Early British Pottery
- Roman London
- Martyrdom of St. Edmund by the Danes
(From a drawing belonging to the Society of Antiquaries.) - Saxon Horsemen
(Harl. MS. 603.) - Saxon Church at Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts
- City Gates
Let us examine into the history and the course of the Wall of London, if only for the very remarkable facts that the boundary of the City was determined for fifteen hundred years by the erection of this Wall; that for some purposes the course of the Wall still affects the government of London; and that it was only pulled down bit by bit in the course of the last century. You will see by reference to the map what was the course of the Wall. It began, starting from the east where the White Tower now stands. Part of the foundation of the Tower consists of a bastion of the Roman wall. It followed a line nearly north as far as Aldgate. Then it turned in a N.W. direction just north of Camomile Street and Bevis Marks to Bishopsgate. Thence it ran nearly due W., north of the street called London Wall, turning S. at Monkwell Street. At Aldersgate it turned W. until it reached Newgate, where it turned nearly S. again and so to the river, a little east of the present Blackfriars Bridge. It ran, lastly, along the river bank to join its eastern extremity. The river wall had openings or gates at Dowgate and Bishopsgate,{39} and probably at Queen Hithe. The length of the Wall, without counting the river side, was 2 miles and 608 feet. This formidable Wall was originally about 12 feet thick made of rubble and mortar, the latter very hard, and faced with stone. You may know Roman work by the courses of tiles or bricks. They are arranged in double layers about 2 feet apart. The so-called bricks are not in the least like our bricks, being 6 inches long, 12 inches wide and 1½ inch thick. The Wall was 20 feet high, with towers and bastions at intervals about 50 feet high. At first there was no moat or ditch, and it will be understood that in order to protect the City from an attack of barbarians—Picts or Scots—it was enough to close the gates and to man the towers. The invaders had no ladders. - Remains of the Wall
The City was thus protected by a great wall pierced by a few gates, with bastions and towers. At the East End after the Norman Conquest rose the Great White Tower still standing. At the West End was a tower called Montfichet's Tower. - Part of the Roman Wall at Leicester
- Tower in the Earlier Style. Church at Earl's Barton
- A Norman Ship
(From the Bayeux Tapestry.) - Building a Church in the later Style
(From a drawing belonging to the Society of Antiquaries.) - Costume of Shepherds in the Twelfth Century
- Lay Costumes in the Twelfth Century
- Ecclesiastical Costume in the Twelfth Century
- Royal Arms of England from Richard I. to Edward III
(From the wall arcade, south aisle of nave, Westminster Abbey.) - Old London Bridge
Houses were erected in course of time along the Bridge on either side like a street, but with intervals; and along the roadway in the middle were chain posts to protect the passengers. As the Bridge was only 40 feet wide the houses must have been small. But they were built out at the back overhanging the river, and the roadway itself was not intended for carts or wheeled vehicles. Remember that everything was brought to the City on pack horse or pack ass. The table of Tolls sanctioned by King Edward I. makes no mention of cart or waggon at all. Men on horseback and loaded horses can get along with a very narrow road. Perhaps we may allow twelve feet for the road which gives for the houses on either side a depth of 14 feet each. - The Tower of London
Of all the prisoners who suffered death at the termination of their captivity in the Tower, there is none whose fate was so cruel as that of Lady Jane Grey. Her story belongs to English history. Recall, when next you visit the Tower, the short and tragic life of this young Queen of a nine days' reign. - A Bed in the Reign of Henry III
- The Lepers Begging
Leprosy is supposed to have had its origin in Egypt: the laws laid down in the Book of Leviticus for the separation of lepers are stringent and precise: it was believed, partly, no doubt, on account of these statutes in the Book of the Jewish Law, that the disease was brought into Western Europe by the Crusaders; but this was erroneous, because it was in this country before the Crusaders. Thus the Palace of St. James stands upon the site of a lazar house founded before the Conquest for fourteen leprous maidens. - London before the Spire of St. Paul's was burned; showing the Bridge, Tower, Shipping, &c
- Old St. Paul's, from the East
- Old St. Paul's on Fire
- Christ's Hospital
- Chepe in the Fifteenth Century
The streets and lanes of London within the walls were very nearly the same as they are at present, except for the great thoroughfares constructed within the last thirty years. That is to say, when one entered at Lud Gate and passed through Paul's Churchyard, he found himself in the broad street, the market place of the City, known as Chepe. - A Sea-Fight
(From the 'Life of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick'; drawn by John Rous about 1485.) - Bear-baiting
(From the Luttrell Psalter.) - Tomb of Edward III. in Westminster Abbey
- House in Stoke Newington in which Edgar Allan Poe Lived
Stoke Newington is connected with the name of Edgar Allan Poe. It was here that he was at school, where he was brought over by the Allans as a child. The house still stands; it is at the corner of Edward’s Lane, which runs out of Church Street. Let us hope that the eccentricities of this wayward poet were not due to the influences of Nonconformist Newington. - The Shooting-Gallery
- Toynbee Hall and St. Jude’s Church
- The New Whitechapel Art Gallery
(The building to the right is a free library.) Some of the people, but not many, go off westward and wander about the halls of the British Museum. I do not know why they go there, because ancient Egypt is to them no more than modern Mexico, and the Etruscan vases are no more interesting than the “Souvenir of Margate,” which costs a penny. But they do go; they roam from room to room with listless indifference, seeing nothing. In the same spirit of curiosity, baffled yet satisfied, they go to the South Kensington Museum and gaze upon its treasures of art; or they go to the National Portrait Gallery, finding in Queen Anne Boleyn a striking likeness to their own Maria, but otherwise not profiting in any discoverable manner by the contents of the gallery. And some of them go to the National Gallery, where there are pictures which tell stories. - The East London Mission
- The New Model Dwellings
- Dr. Barnardo’s Home, Stepney Causeway
Those who have read Defoe’s “Colonel Jack” will remember the wonderful picture which he presents of the London street boy. That boy has never ceased to live in and about the streets. Sometimes he sleeps in the single room rented by his father, but the livelong day he spends in the streets; he picks up, literally, his food; he picks it up from the coster’s barrow, from the baker’s counter, from the fishmonger’s stall, when nobody is looking. For such boys as these there are Barnardo’s Homes, where waifs and strays to any number are admitted, brought up, trained to a trade, and then sent out to the colonies. Five thousand children are in these homes. The history is very simple. Dr. Barnardo, a young Irish medical student, came to London with the intention of giving up his own profession and becoming a preacher. He began by preaching in the streets; he picked up a child, wandering, homeless and destitute, and took it home to his lodgings; he found another and another, and took them home too. So it began; the children became too many for his own resources; they still kept dropping in; he took a house for them, and let it be known that he wanted support. The rest was easy. He has always received as much support as he wanted, and he has already trained and sent out to the colonies nearly ten thousand children. - Mile End Almshouses
Homes and schools for the boys and girls, hospitals for the adult, there remain the aged. Dotted about all over London there are about a hundred and fifty almshouses; of these about half are situated in and about East London. Not that the people of East London have been more philanthropic in their endowments than those of the west, but, before there was any city of East London, almshouses were planted here on account of the salubrity and freshness of the air and the cheapness of the ground. Some of these have been moved farther afield, their original sites being built over. The People’s Palace, for instance, is built upon the site of the Bancroft almshouses, founded in 1728 for the maintenance and education of one hundred poor. Their original house has gone, but the charity is still maintained. - The Bridge of Hope
“The Bridge of Hope,” a Well-known East End Night Refuge. - Brother Brushes
First R.A. (who hates to be interrupted in his hobby but is doing his best to be polite).—“Done any work to-day?” Second R.A.—“No, confound it. That stupid ass Brown came to the studio and talked all the afternoon,—couldn’t do a stroke of work. What do you do when some idiot comes and interrupts your work?” First R.A.—“Oh, I go on weeding.” - Brother Brushes
“Do you want a Muddle. Sir.” - Costers and Cockneys
“Ow I s’y, look at ’er frills. Got ’erself hup like a bloomin’ ’am bone!” - Costers and Cockneys
Fat Party (after a war of words).—“If you come down our court to-morrer and bring a bit o’ fat with yer, I’ll bloomin’ well eat yer.” - Costers and Cockneys
“What price this for Margit.”