It was during the reign of Charles I. that the first great exodus of the
wealthy and fashionable was made to the West End. The great square or
piazza of Covent Garden was formed from the designs of Inigo Jones about
1632. The neighbouring streets were built shortly afterwards, and the
names of Henrietta, Charles, James, King and York Streets were given
after members of the royal family. Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn
Fields, was built about 1629, and named in honour of Henrietta Maria.
Lincoln's Inn Fields had been planned some years before. With the
Restoration the separation of fashionable from city life became
complete.
When the Civil War broke out London took the side of the parliament, and
an extensive system of fortification was at once projected to protect
the town against the threatened attack of the royal army. A strong
earthen rampart, flanked with bastions and redoubts, surrounded the
City, its liberties, Westminster and Southwark, making an immense
enclosure.
The Plague.
The Great Fire.
Rebuilding: Wren's scheme.
London had been ravaged by plague on many former occasions, but the
pestilence that began in December 1664 lives in history as "the Plague
of London." On the 7th of June 1665 Samuel Pepys for the first time saw
two or three houses marked with the red cross and the words "Lord, have
mercy upon us," on the doors. The deaths daily increased, and business
was stopped. Grass grew in the area of the Royal Exchange, at Whitehall,
and in the principal streets of the city. On the 4th of September 1665
Pepys writes an interesting letter to Lady Carteret from Woolwich: "I
have stayed in the city till above 7400 died in one week, and of them
about 6000 of the plague, and little noise heard day or night but
tolling of bells." The plague was scarcely stayed before the whole city
was in flames, a calamity of the first magnitude, but one which in the
end caused much good, as the seeds of disease were destroyed, and London
has never since been visited by such an epidemic. On the 2nd of
September 1666 the fire broke out at one o'clock in the morning at a
house in Pudding Lane. A violent east wind fomented the flames, which
raged during the whole of Monday and great part of Tuesday. On Tuesday
night the wind fell somewhat, and on Wednesday the fire slackened. On
Thursday it was extinguished, but on the evening of that day the flames
again burst forth at the Temple. Some houses were at once blown up by
gunpowder, and thus the fire was finally mastered. Many interesting
details of the fire are given in Pepys's _Diary_. The river swarmed with
vessels filled with persons carrying away such of their goods as they
were able to save. Some fled to the hills of Hampstead and Highgate, but
Moorfields was the chief resort of the houseless Londoner. Soon paved
streets and two-storey houses were seen in that swampy place. The people
bore their troubles heroically, and Henry Oldenburg, writing to the Hon.
Robert Boyle on September 10, says: "The citizens, instead of
complaining, discoursed almost of nothing but of a survey for rebuilding
the city with bricks and large streets." Within a few days of the fire
three several plans were presented to the king for the rebuilding of the
city, by Christopher Wren, John Evelyn and Robert Hooke. Wren proposed
to build main thoroughfares north and south, and east and west, to
insulate all the churches in conspicuous positions, to form the most
public places into large piazzas, to unite the halls of the twelve chief
companies into one regular square annexed to Guildhall and to make a
fine quay on the bank of the river from Blackfriars to the Tower. His
streets were to be of three magnitudes--90 ft., 60 ft. and 30 ft. wide
respectively. Evelyn's plan differed from Wren's chiefly in proposing a
street from the church of St Dunstan's in the East to the cathedral, and
in having no quay or terrace along the river. In spite of the best
advice, however, the jealousies of the citizens prevented any systematic
design from being carried out, and in consequence the old lines were in
almost every case retained. But though the plans of Wren and Hooke were
not adopted, it was to these two fellows of the Royal Society that the
labour of rebuilding London was committed. Wren's great work was the
erection of the cathedral of St Paul's, and the many churches ranged
round it as satellites. Hooke's task was the humbler one of arranging as
city surveyor for the building of the houses. He laid out the ground of
the several proprietors in the rebuilding of the city, and had no rest
early or late from persons soliciting him to set out their ground for
them at once. The first great impetus of change in the configuration of
London was given by the great fire, and Evelyn records and regrets that
the town in his time had grown almost as large again as it was within
his own memory. Although for several centuries attempts had been made in
favour of building houses with brick or stone, yet the carpenters
continued to be the chief house-builders. As late as the year 1650 the
Carpenters' Company drew up a memorial in which they "gave their reasons
that tymber buildings were more commodious for this citie than brick
buildings were." The Act of Parliament "for rebuilding the city of
London" passed after the great fire, gave the _coup de grâce_ to the
carpenters as house-builders. After setting forth that "building with
brick was not only more comely and durable, but also more safe against
future perils of fire," it was enacted "that all the outsides of all
buildings in and about the city should be made of brick or stone, except
doorcases and window-frames, and other parts of the first story to the
front between the piers," for which substantial oaken timber might be
used "for conveniency of shops." In the winter of 1683-1684 a fair was
held for some time upon the Thames. The frost, which began about seven
weeks before Christmas and continued for six weeks after, was the
greatest on record; the ice was 11 in. thick.
The revocation of the edict of Nantes in October 1685, and the
consequent migration of a large number of industrious French
Protestants, caused a considerable growth in the east end of London. The
silk manufactories at Spitalfields were then established.
During the short reign of James II. the fortunes of the city were at
their lowest, and nowhere was the arrival of the prince of Orange more
welcomed.
William III. cared little for London, the smoke of which gave him
asthma, and when a great part of Whitehall was burnt in 1691 he
purchased Nottingham House and made it into Kensington Palace.
Kensington was then an insignificant village, but the arrival of the
court soon caused it to grow in importance.
Although the spiritual wants of the city were amply provided for by the
churches built by Wren, the large districts outside the city and its
liberties had been greatly neglected. The act passed in the reign of
Queen Anne for building fifty new churches (1710) for a time supplied
the wants of large districts.
7. _Eighteenth Century._--London had hitherto grown up by the side of
the Thames. In the 18th century other parts of the town were more
largely built upon. The inhabitants used coaches and chairs more than
boats, and the banks of the river were neglected. London could no longer
be seen as a whole, and became a mere collection of houses. In spite of
this the 18th century produced some of the most devoted of
Londoners--men who considered a day lived out of London as one lost out
of their lives. Of this class Dr Johnson and Hogarth are striking
examples. The exhibitions of vice and cruelty that were constantly to
be seen in the capital have been reproduced by Hogarth, and had they not
been set down by so truthful an observer it would have been almost
impossible to believe that such enormities could have been committed in
the streets of a great city. A few days after his accession George I.
addressed the representatives of the city in these words: "I have lately
been made sensible of what consequence the city of London is, and
therefore shall be sure to take all their privileges and interests into
my particular protection." On the following lord mayor's day the king
witnessed the show in Cheapside and attended the banquet at Guildhall.
Queen Anne and the first three Georges were all accommodated, on the
occasions of their visits to the city to see the show, at the same house
opposite Bow church. In the time of Queen Anne and George I. David
Barclay (the son of the famous apologist for the Quakers) was an
apprentice in the house, but he subsequently became master, and had the
honour of receiving George II. and George III. as his guests. There was
a large balcony extending along the front of the house which was fitted
with a canopy and hangings of crimson damask silk. The building, then
numbered 108 Cheapside, was pulled down in 1861.
Extension in the 18th century.
Early in the 18th century there was a considerable extension of building
operations in the West End. Still, however, the north of London remained
unbuilt upon. In 1756 and for some years subsequently the land behind
Montague House (now the British Museum) was occupied as a farm, and when
in that year a proposal was made to plan out a new road the tenant and
the duke of Bedford strongly opposed it. In 1772 all beyond Portland
Chapel in Great Portland Street was country. Bedford House in Bloomsbury
Square had its full view of Hampstead and Highgate from the back, and
Queen's Square was built open to the north in order that the inhabitants
might obtain the same prospect.
In 1737 the Fleet ditch between Holborn Bridge and Fleet Bridge was
covered over, and Stocks Market was removed from the site of the Mansion
House to the present Farringdon Street, and called Fleet market. On
October 25, 1739, the first stone of the Mansion House was laid.
Previously the first magistrates lived in several different houses. A
frost almost as severe as the memorable one of 1683-1684 occurred in the
winter of 1739-1740, and the Thames was again the scene of a busy fair.
In 1758 the houses on London Bridge were cleared away, and in 1760-1762
several of the city gates were taken down and sold. Moorgate is said to
have fetched £166, Aldersgate £91, Aldgate £177, Cripplegate £90, and
Ludgate £148. The statue of Queen Elizabeth which stood on the west side
of Ludgate was purchased by Alderman Gosling and set up against the east
end of St Dunstan's church in Fleet Street, where it still remains.
8. _Nineteenth Century._--In 1806 London saw the public funerals of
three of England's greatest men. On the 8th February the body of Nelson
was borne with great pomp from the Admiralty to St Paul's Cathedral,
where it was interred in the presence of the prince of Wales and the
royal dukes. Pitt was buried on the 22nd of February, and Fox on the
10th of October, both in Westminster Abbey.
The first exhibition of Winsor's system of lighting the streets with gas
took place on the king's birthday (June 4) 1807, and was made in a row
of lamps in front of the colonnade before Carlton House. Finsbury Square
was the first public place in which gas lighting was actually adopted,
and Grosvenor Square the last. In the winter of 1813-1814 the Thames was
again frozen over. The frost began on the evening of December 27, 1813,
with a thick fog. After it had lasted for a month, a thaw of four days,
from the 26th to the 29th of January, took place, but this thaw was
succeeded by a renewal of the frost, so severe that the river soon
became one immovable sheet of ice. There was a street of tents called
the City Road, which was daily thronged with visitors. In 1838 the
second Royal Exchange was destroyed by fire; and on October 28, 1844,
the Queen opened the new Royal Exchange, built by Mr (afterwards Sir
William) Tite. The Great Exhibition of 1851 brought a larger number of
visitors to London than had ever been in it before at one time. The
great and continuous increase in the buildings and the enlargement of
London on all sides dates from this period.
London within the walls has been almost entirely rebuilt, although in
the neighbourhood of the Tower there are still many old houses which
have only been refronted. From the upper rooms of the houses may be seen
a large number of old tiled roofs.
Unlike many capitals of Europe which have shifted their centres the city
of London in spite of all changes and the continued enlargement of the
capital remains the centre and headquarters of the business of the
country. The Bank of England, the Royal Exchange and the Mansion House
are on the site of Ancient London.
In 1863 on the occasion of the marriage of King Edward VII. (when prince
of Wales) the streets of London were illuminated as they had never been
before. Among other events which made the streets gay and centred in
processions to St Paul's may be specially mentioned the Thanksgiving Day
on the 27th of February 1872 for the recovery of the prince of Wales
after his dangerous illness; and the rejoicings at the Jubilee of Queen
Victoria in 1887, and the Diamond Jubilee in 1897.
The first great emigration of the London merchants westward was about
the middle of the 18th century, but only those who had already secured
large fortunes ventured so far as Hatton Garden. At the beginning of the
19th century it had become common for the tradesmen of the city to live
away from their businesses, but it was only about the middle of the 19th
century that it became at all usual for those in the West End to do the
same.
During the first half of the 19th century the position of the City
Corporation had somewhat fallen in public esteem, and some of the most
influential men in the city were unconnected with it, but a considerable
change took place in the latter half of the century. Violent attacks
were made upon the Livery Companies, but of late years, largely owing to
the public spirit of the companies in devoting large sums of money
towards the improvement of the several industries in connexion with
which they were founded, and the establishment of the City and Guilds of
London Technical Institute, a complete change has taken place as to the
public estimation in which they are held.