VicLondon-Square Mile
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District Traits
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Notable Locations
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This is the ‘City of London,” the traditional London of the Tudor and Stewart period. It is one of the areas with the most modern amenities. The roads are tar macadam; a test of electric street lighting will go in along the Strand in the 1890s. Many of the businesses tied to banking have their own dedicated telegraph lines, and this allows the banks and businesses associated with nance (and by the mid 1890s, new publications) to switch over to telephonic communications.
Tied for the biggest “industry” in the Square Mile would be the law and the press. The Strand runs into Fleet Street where St. Clement’s Cathedral stands, and on both these roads the grand printing houses reside. Newspapers thrive here, but publishers of cheap ‘penny dreadfuls’ and illustrated newspapers are also doing quite well. Social pages are printed here, and are read not just by Society, but by the middle-class who get a vicarious thrill from reading about their betters. The journalistic quality in Fleet Street runs the gambit from the worst yellow journalism tabloids to the nest in investigative tradition. Bookshops line the streets in Chancery Lane and Fleet Street.
The proximity of the press to the courts is not coincidence. Journalists are constantly seen scuttling about the Courts of Law, looking for scandal to draw readers with. Impartiality is not the watchword of the Victorian Press. There is no attempt to even hide that certain papers have certain viewpoints.
Between Ludgate Hill and Newgate Street is the Old Bailey. The street gives its name to the Central Criminal Court, the main Inn of Courts. The Old Bailey is dedicated to the trials revolving around common criminal cases. If one is nicked for a crime in the East End, this is the most likely place they will be brought for arraignment and trial. The Old Bailey is one of the rst buildings to have telephones in them, with connections to the various newspapers by the early 1890s.
The telephone exchange is in place by the 1888 in the General Post Of ce on Newgate Street. It connects several hundred terminals when it is opened – nearly all of them connected to the business of government. By 1890, home telephone use is already beginning to grow at an unbelievable rate, and the Exchange becomes a major hiring ground for young ladies of good character, but limited prospects. (The female voice is easier, they discovered early on, to hear over telephone and later radio channels).
Fleet Street continues east to Ludgate Circus, a square where Farringdon Street meets with Ludgate Hill. The circus sees the elevated rails that run between Holborn Viaduct Station and Ludgate Hill Station, and at the end of Ludgate Hill to the east is Sri Christopher Wren’s spectacular St. Paul’s Cathedral.
To the north of St. Paul’s, there is St. Bartholomews Hospital and the attendant Christs Hospital between Newgate Street and the markets at Smith eld and Charterhouse Street. The hospital was originally several buildings, but they have grown together over time and remodelling in the 1870s was done to try and make the place easier to get about. St. Bart’s, as it is known, is one of the largest hospitals in the city and specializes in cardiovascular diseases. Just north is Smith eld Market, a massive open air market that parallels Charterhouse Road from Farringdon Street almost to Aldersgate Station, where an elevated train from Farringdon Station and the underground from Holborn Viaduct meet then continue into the East End.
Smithfield Market is one of the main meat markets in the city and the stench is impressive. It is extremely busy; with butchers stalls along the length of the place and the accompanying animal pens make for a riot of noise and activity. The place is a haven for pickpockets, and with the heavy traf c from the East End, criminals do not tend to stand out. Not far away from the market is the last of the original city wall, alongside which the railway runs, stretching from Aldersgate to Moorgate in the East End.
Between the streets that give these stations their name is the district of Cheapside. The main industry here is banking, and in this region you will nd the Guildhall on Gresham Street, a block north of Cheapside. The Guildhall is a gargantuan building built by Henry IV. The great hall is capable of holding thousands of people, and is about the third the size of a football eld. Gothic windows on either side present the gures of the giants, Gog and Magog. Here State Banquets are sometimes held, but it is now primarily for the Lord Mayor’s Feasts. Courts for the Lords and Commons, the Lord Mayor, and the Aldermen are in an attached building. The Guildhall has a monstrously large crypt and a superb library for use by government officials.
Not far away is Princes Street, where stands the Bank of England. Across Threadneedle Street from the Bank is the Royal Exchange, a Parthenon-like building sitting on a triangular plaza where Princes Street meets Cornhill and Cheapside. The Royal Exchange has an open-air courtyard with a statue of the queen in the centre. The promenade around this courtyard has other busts of important nancial gures from history, and the main purpose of the building is to provide rented space for merchants and traders. The upper oor has larger of ces that house the Lloyd’s Rooms.
Lloyd’s of London is an umbrella group, representing various insurance companies that work together to minimise risk. The members of Lloyds and their subscribers are the only people let into the rooms. A records room holds transactions going back to the founding of the main underwriters in 1688. The main rooms are the underwriting offices themselves, where cargo and ships are insured against loss; and the merchant room, where shipping and commercial intelligence are collated and disseminated to the members and subscribers. A private luncheon room, the Captain’s Room, often sees traf c from the masters of vessels up for auction. There is a telegraph and telephone room here as well, with a host of linguists working to collect information from around the world.
The Bank of England is the main repository for gold in the country, and is tasked by the Chancellor of the Exchequer with carrying out a centralized monetary policy and minting coin for the realm. Having lost the monopoly on direct stock banking, the B of E is now in hot competition with other banks, many of which rival the old institution for pro ts. The main rivals are Barclays, Midlands, and Barings (which will undergo a scandal in the late 1890s and require a bail out by the government), whose London of ces ape the Bank of England’s heavy, Italianate palazzo design (it is thought to provide the appropriate amount of gravitas for a nancial institution). The public conducts business on the ground oor in a main atrium, the board rooms are on the rst oor, rented of ces on the second, and usually an attic for caretakers and night watchmen.
Notable Locales
The Tower of London (x)
Lastly, one of the most famous buildings in the City is the Tower of London. Finished in 1100, the Tower was home to the monarchs of England. A mint and menagerie were built by Henry III and Edward II respectively, and a wharf provides direct access to the Thames. It is infamous for its use as a prison, starting with Richard III’s murder of Henry VI and the imprisonment and assassination of his sons. Other prisoners include two wives of Henry VIII, who also met their end here at the end of the executioner’s axe, and that same king’s daughter Elizabeth, later the queen. Charles used the tower as his headquarters for the English Civil War, and it is the repository of the Crown Jewels, which Queen Elizabeth open to viewing for the paying public. The Tower has been a tourist attraction for the last hundred years. The mint has been moved to the Bank of England, the menagerie to the zoo in Regent’s Park, and the moat lled in for health and safety purposes.
The White Tower is the original piece of the fortress and houses the Royal Armoury, which consisted mostly of the weapons and armour of King Henry VII, as well as some clever medieval torture devices. Attached is the Medieval Palace, where Edward I and the subsequent kings used as their residence. The Tower Green and Scaffold is the site where prisoners were put to death. The Chapel of St. Peter and Vincula is on the Green and was where last rites were administered to the condemned, which included three queens. It is their nal resting place, and their ghosts are rumoured to wander the grounds on the anniversaries of their deaths. Most famous is the ‘Bloody Tower,’ where the Princes were kept by Richard III, and where Sir Walter Raleigh was jailed by James I for plotting against the Crown. Beauchamp Tower is notable for the inscriptions of the varied high-ranking prisoners left in their cells. The walls are considered ‘historical documents’ by the British Museum.
The Yeomanry of the Tower have stood guard since the time of Henry III. The Yeoman Warders, or ‘Beefeaters’, still wear the red and black uniforms from Elizabeth’s time, complete with halberds for weaponry. These guardsmen protect the Crown Jewels, but also are an attraction for the public, who enjoy the ritual changing of the guard. The Crown Jewels are on display from nine in the morning until ve in the afternoon, and include ve royal crowns, tens of thousands of diamonds, the king of which is the allegedly-cursed Koh-I-Noor diamond, recovered from the Sikhs in 1848 and presented to the Queen by General Napier.
