Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/852

 822 LONDON ^STREETS. various governmental divisions ; and Table IV. the population of the several registration districts at different periods from 1801. Streets. STREETS, BRIDGES, &c. By the non-adoption of Wren s plans the opportunity afforded through, the great fire was for ever lost of constructing a model capital, and within the City limits the streets are still in many cases confused and intricate. The total absence of plan in the construc tion of the nucleus of London has doubtless tended to aggravate the confusion outside the old boundaries. The growth of the immense new outer city was, moreover, for centuries totally unregulated by the control of any central authority. The principal lines of streets formed along the old public highways are insufficient as main lines of com munication for the increased population, and the absence of direct connexion between important points causes traffic to be enormously impeded. The longest line of street communication in London is that which is formed by the junction of the lines of the Edgeware and Uxbridge Roads at the Marble Arch, whence it extends eastward by Oxford Street, Holborn, Newgate Street, Cheapside and other important City streets, Whitechapel Eoad, and Mile End Road to Bow. At Cheapside a branch from it runs westward by Fleet Street, the Strand, Haymarket, Piccadilly, and Knightsbridge to Kensington. Much of the effect of the fine architecture of the City streets is totally lost from promiscuous crowding, and the main con necting streets between the City and the West End dis play, at certain parts, much meanness and incongruity. Eegent Street, the most fashionable thoroughfare of London, possesses ample width, and the splendour of its shops to some extent atones for the plain monotony of its regular architecture. In Oxford Street, which ranks next to it in importance, many buildings of a more ornamental character have lately been erected. Piccadilly, the eastern half of which is occupied chiefly by shops, and the western by dwelling houses and clubs, is a medley of every species of architecture, but is to some extent effective from the variety of its contrasts, and its outlook to the Green Park. Trafalgar Square, wich its fountains, its Nelson column, its statues, and its wide expanse, has an airy and pleasant effect, but the huge erections which surround it are a very miscellaneous group, and few of them are worthy of the site. The clubs and hotels in Pall Mall and its neigh bourhood represent every variety of Grecian and Italian architecture. The private houses in the more fashionable regions are not remarkable for external beauty, but in summer time flowers and foliage give the West End squares and terraces a bright and pleasant aspect. A special characteristic of London is the enormous space covered by the suburban cottages and villas of the middle classes. Close to the most fashionable regions there are many mean back streets tenanted by workmen, but the principal territories of the working classes are compre hended in the dense and dreary districts east and south east of the City. The improvements lately carried out in the City and other central districts, and the substitution of business premises for dwelling houses, have compelled large numbers of these classes to live at a long distance from their work, and also caused undue crowding in the less remote regions. The running of workmen s trains from the suburbs and the efforts of various private build ing associations and of the Metropolitan Board, guided by the Artisan and Labourers Dwellings Improvement Act, have only partially mitigated these evils. Since 1785 the greater part of London within the City limits has been rebuilt, and its streets have been much altered, the principal improvements being the reconstruc- tion of the lines from London Bridge to Finsbury Pave ment, and from Blackfriars Bridge to Farringdon Boad, both intersecting the City from north to south ; the re building of Bartholomew Lane, Lothbury, Threadneeclle Street, and Cannon Street from King William Street to St Paul s ; and the construction, in conjunction with the Metropolitan Board, of the Holborn Viaduct and of Queen Victoria Street from Blackfriars Bridge to the Mansion House. The Metropolitan Board now exercises a certain TABLE IV. Area in Acres. 1801. 1841. 1861. 1871. 1881. Population. Persons to an Acre. Population. Persons to an Acre. Population Population. Population. Persons to an Acre. City of London within the walls 380 668 3,207 3,818 21,587 796 2,190 1,506 1,251 2,672 63,832 128,269 281,541 348,179 746,233 11,604 8,556 63,982 1,881 31,779 168 192 88 91 35 15 4 42 1 12 54,626 123,563 345,805 445,261 1,353,345 40,179 26,834 138,164 25,173 129,763 144 185 108 117 62 m 12 91 20 48 44,400 112,063 362,804 473,540 1,797,433 63,439 70,108 101,680 75,784 198,788 28,093 74,897 318,097 419,297 1,947,509 71,089 120,299 159,254 96,813 221,465 50^526 279,458 501,324 2,098,461 88,101 162,924 155,004 107,098 236,209 76 87 131 97 111 74 103 86 89 City of London within and without the walls London City and Westminster London City, Westminster, and Southwark London witliin the old &quot;Bills&quot; St Luke s, Chelsea Kensington St Marylebone. .. Paddington Limits of Rickman, 1801 30,002 2,287 1,716 638 563 608 4,450 1,574 111 1,741 1,126 804,035 5,600 4,428 1,462 2,101 1,684 7,059 11,349 6,933 14,339 9,826 29 2 3 2 4 3 2 7 62 8 9 1,713,458 13,453 9,319 4,490 4,626 6,154 39,868 ] 8,664 6,953 29,595 25,785 6 5 7 8 10 9 12 63 17 23 2,367,232 24,519 15,539 6,608 11,590 24,077 71,488 37,834 8,139 40,002 41,695 2,616,429 42,691 23,350 9,841 26,055 41,710 111,306 53,714 6,474 40,412 35,557 2,847,797 71,916 42,895 22,780 37,060 64,345 186,555 76,740 7,901 46,623 36,600 95 25 36 66 106 42 48 71 ~J2 Hammersmith Fulham St Mary, Stoke-Newington St Marv, Stratford-le-Bow Bromlev Camberwell Greenwich district: St Paul s. Deptford ,, ,, St Nicholas, Deptford ,, ,, Greenwich ,, ,, Woolwich Limits of Registrar-General, 1833-43 44,816 1,137 2,203 2,433 2,235 566 2,914 928,816 3,864 3,365 4,445 2,428 1,189 2,357 21 3 1 2 1 2 1 1,872,365 12,106 6,617 7,614 4,684 2,840 5,994 42 11 3 3 2 5 2 2,648,723 20,894 19,600 13,346 6,481 2,055 8,027 3,007,539 27,347 54,016 19,783 9,439 2,327 ) 12,148 f 3,441,212 36 378 107,248 28,005 13,221 25,545 77 32 49 11 6 Clapham Battersen Wanclsworth Putney Tooting Streatham Limits of Registrar-General, 1844-46 5fi,304 2,248 1,236 3,388 946,464 4,343 747 1,166 6,143 17 2 6 3 1,912,220 10,093 2,655 2,816 17,543 3,090 34 4 2 8 1 2,719,126 19,106 8,472 24,502 32,783 3,132,599 32,281 7,699 28,259 53,422 3,651,609 45,4M6 10,930 33,252 73,344 65 20 9 10 Ilampstead Charlton-npon-Woolwich Plumstead Lewisham : Kltham, Lee, Lewisham village, ) Sydenham j&quot; 12,186 Police on duty, 1841 London within Tables of Mortality. 1851 75,362 958,863 13 1,948,417 26 2,803,989 3,254,260 3,814,571 51