Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 12.djvu/479

* LONDON. 423 LONDON. dull, tlie whole of Jliildlescx, and parts of Surrey, Kent, Esse.x, and Hertfordshire. For the Gov- ernment postal and telegraphic service, the Jlctropolitan area is divided into eiglit postal districts, the Eastern, Northern, Xorthwestern, Western. Southwestern, Southeastern, East Cen- tral, and West Central, which arc respectively designated by their initial letters. While extend- ing heyond the boundaries of the administrative county of London, the postal districts do not enil)race the whole area covered by the Metro- politan police districts. As in all large cities that include in their limits opportunities for further growth, a con- siderable percentage of the surface of Greater London is not yet utilized for streets and build- ing-sites. The area luider crops and grass in 180!) was 12,054 acres. Aspects of the City. There is no point of vantage in London where the whole city nia- be seen even on the clearest day. The view from the top of the Fire Monument, in the centre of the cit_v, still reveals the roofs of numberless houses on the horizon. London has grown not like most great cities around a centre, but is the out- come of the merging together of many towns and villages. These various centres ditfercd from one another, and gave much of their distinctive personality to the districts in the great city which they occupy. Thus London is an assem- blage of urban districts, each differing from the other and having its distinctive appearance and history. Warehouses are the predominant feature in one region ; banks or factories, palaces, villas, or tenement-houses each give a distinct individuality to other districts. The impres- sion which the city as a whole makes upon the visitor is not entirely favorable. The streets are narrow and the more densely peopled districts in particular lack sun and air. It is a giant among cities, but in beautiful, attractive aspects it is far inferior to many others. It has many line buildings, but in its larger features it is positively xigly when compared with Paris, for example — which, particularly under the regime of Xapoleon III., waxed not only in size and im- portance, but also in its jpsthetic aspects. Love for the practical and useful predominated over love for the beautiful in the making of London. The prevailing cloud, mist, and fog in the atmos- phere of England, due to the neighboring seas, are intensified in this enormous aggregation of houses and inhabitants; and the exclusive use of bituminous coal both for domestic and industrial purposes fills the air with smoke which smirches the house walls and gives the whole cit}' a dingy aspect. The greatest development of the city from the small original nucleus near the Tower has l)een to the north and west, the Surrey or southern side of the Thames embracing only about one-third of the present Metropolitan Dis- trict. C'lui.vte. London is an exceptionally healthful city apart from the imperfections still existing in the sanitary system, an<l the somewhat deleteri- ous infiuences of smoke and fog which aggravate diseases of the respiratory organs. Tlvese influ- ences, however, are not no-- believed to be so unfavorable as was formerly supposed. The mean annual temperature is about .50° F.. rang- ing from .'in. 9° for the quarter ending in JIarch to 00.4" for the quarter ending in September. The annual fall of rain is nearly 25 inches, while at Plymouth, in the west, it is" 40 inches. Stheets. Most of the streets are narrow and many of them are inadequate, particularly in the large business districts, where the congested conditions of the street traffic are a great disad- vantage. Some of the most important streets arc being widened, but no comprehensive scheme to relieve the uncomfortable crowding in the Strand, Fleet Street, Oxford Street, Holborn, Chcapside, and other leading streets has yet been adopted. The finest promenade in I-ondon is along the Thames Embankment, which is buttressed up by a wall of large granite blocks, and atl'ords one of the most spacious thoroughfares in London. Regent Street, where the most fashionable shops are situated, has ample width, but its architec- ture is plain and monotonous. Buildings of more imposing quality have been erected in consider- able numbers on Oxford Street, which ranks next in importance among the business thoroughfares. Piccadilly is famous for the shops that line its eastern half and the fine dwellings and club- houses along its western extension. Among other familiar stieets, many of which are treated under separate titles, are Fleet Street, •mainly devoted to the newspaper trade ; Paternoster Kow, near Saint Paul's Cathedral, the headquarters of the book trade; Downing Street, containing the new Government offices ; Jlolborn Viaduct, an elevated street overcoming the steep <lescent of Holborn Hill between Xewgate and Hatton Garden, and lined with fine stores; Bow Street, with its cele- brated police court; the Haymarket. with its the- atres and hotels; Bond Street, the seat of the retail jewelry trade, with fine stores; and Pall Mall, a street of handsome buildings and the centre of club life. Buildings. The greatest recent innovation in the building enterprises of London is the multi- plication of very large and handsome hotels, the increasing numberoftheatreswhickfar surpass the old buildings in architecture and in the safety, convenience, and beauty of their interior arrange- ments and fittings, and the construction of apart- ment houses and flats, formerly unknown in Lon- don. All parts of London arc alike in the fact that most of the houses arc built of brick, and all are blackened by the smoke-laden fogs, though the West End suffers least from this discomfort. There are no quarries in the neighborhood, and for this reason the ordinary houses are of brick, while the stone for the finer buildings is brought from a great distance. The buildings in 1!)0I, in the administrative county of London, included 571,708 inhabited and 40,000 uninhabited struc- tures and 4024 in course of erection. London has expanded principally toward the west, as the purifying winds usually blow from that direction. The fashionable and wealthy live in the West End (the neighborhood of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens), and thus escape most of the smoke-laden air of the factory dis- tricts. Here are the palatial residences of the aristocracy who deserted their residences farther east in the districts now occupied by commer- cial London. Just east of the old City, now the financial centre of London, and immediately in contact with it. are the poorest quarters of Lon- don (the East End), where myriads live in pov- erty and many in misery: here the annual death- rate is from 30 to 60 for every 1000 persons, want of work and bread greatly increasing the