THE FASCINATION
OF LONDON
HOLBORN AND BLOOMSBURY
IN THIS SERIES.
Cloth, price 1s. 6d. net; leather, price 2s. net each.
THE STRAND DISTRICT.
By Sir Walter Besant and G. E. Mitton.
WESTMINSTER.
By Sir Walter Besant and G. E. Mitton.
HAMPSTEAD AND MARYLEBONE.
By G. E. Mitton. Edited by Sir Walter Besant.
CHELSEA.
By G. E. Mitton. Edited by Sir Walter Besant.
KENSINGTON.
By G. E. Mitton. Edited by Sir Walter Besant.
HOLBORN AND BLOOMSBURY.
By Sir Walter Besant and G. E. Mitton.
The Fascination ofLondon
HOLBORN AND BLOOMSBURY
BY
SIR WALTER BESANT
AND
G. E. MITTON
LONDON
ADAM & CHARLES BLACK
1903
PREFATORY NOTE
A survey of London, a record of the greatest of all cities, that shouldpreserve her history, her historical and literary associations, hermighty buildings, past and present, a book that should comprise all thatLondoners love, all that they ought to know of their heritage from thepast—this was the work on which Sir Walter Besant was engaged when hedied.
As he himself said of it: "This work fascinates me more than anythingelse I've ever done. Nothing at all like it has ever been attemptedbefore. I've been walking about London for the last thirty years, and Ifind something fresh in it every day."
Sir Walter's idea was that two of the volumes of his survey shouldcontain a regular and systematic perambulation of London by differentpersons, so that the history of each parish should be complete initself. This was a very original feature in the great scheme, and one in[Pg viii]which he took the keenest interest. Enough has been done of thissection to warrant its issue in the form