street in London. At a point a short way up we cross Piccadilly, and enter a curve in the thoroughfare, called the Quadrant; at the corners of which, and also in Upper Regent Street, are some of the most splendid shops in London, several being decorated in a style of great magnificence. Regent Street, during the busy season in May and June, and during the day from one till six o’clock, exhibits an extraordinary concourse of fashionable vehicles and foot-passengers; while groups of carriages are drawn up at the doors of the more elegant shops. Towards its upper extremity Regent Street crosses Oxford Street. The mass of streets west from it consist almost entirely of private residences, with the special exception of Bond Street. In this quarter are St. James’s, Hanover, Berkeley, Grosvenor, Cavendish, Bryanstone, Manchester, and Portman Squares—the last four being north of Oxford Street; and in connection with these squares are long, quiet streets, lined with houses suited for an affluent order of inhabitants. In and north from Oxford Street, there are few public buildings deserving particular attention; but a visitor may like to know that hereabouts are the Soho, Baker Street, and London Crystal Palace Bazaars. The once well-known Pantheon is now a wine merchant’s stores.
The residences of the nobility and gentry are chiefly, as has been said, in the western part of the metropolis. In this quarter there have been large additions of handsome streets, squares, and terraces within the last thirty years. First may be mentioned the district around Belgrave Square, usually called Belgravia, which includes the highest class houses. North-east from this, near Hyde Park, is the older, but still fashionable quarter, comprehending Park Lane and May Fair. Still farther north is the modern district, sometimes called Tyburnia, being built on the ground adjacent to what once was “Tyburn,” the place of public executions. This district, including Hyde Park Square and Westbourne Terrace, is a favourite place of residence for city merchants and other wealthy persons. Lying north and north-east from Tyburnia are an extensive series of suburban rows of buildings and detached villas, which are ordinarily spoken of under the collective name St. John’s Wood: Regent’s Park forming a kind of rural centre to the group. Standing higher and more airy than Belgravia, and being easily accessible from Oxford Street, this is one of the most agreeable of the suburban districts.
If, instead of the Strand and Piccadilly route, or the Holborn and Oxford Street route, a visitor takes the northernmost main route, he will find less to interest him. The New Road, in its several parts of City Road, Pentonville Road, Euston Road, and Marylebone Road, forms a broad line of communication from the city to Paddington, four miles in length. Though very important as one of the arteries of the metropolis, it is singularly deficient in public buildings. In going from the Bank to Paddington, we pass by or near Finsbury Square and Circus, the buildings and grounds of the Artillery Company at Moorfields, the once famous old Burial-ground at Bunhill Fields, St. Luke’s Lunatic Asylum, the Chapel in the City Road associated with the memory of John Wesley, the old works of the New River Company at Pentonville, the Railway stations at King’s Cross (Great Northern), and St. Pancras (Midland)—the vast span of this station’s roof is noteworthy—and Euston Square (L. and N. Western), several stations of the Metropolitan Underground Railway, St. Pancras and Marylebone churches, and the entrance to the beautiful Regent’s Park. But beyond these little is presented to reward the pedestrian.
It is well for a visitor to bear in mind, however, that all the routes we have here sketched have undergone, or are undergoing, rapid changes, owing chiefly to the wonderful extension of railways. Cannon Street, Finsbury, Blackfriars, Snow Hill, Ludgate Hill, Smithfield, Charing Cross, Pimlico, &c., have been stripped of hundreds, nay, thousands of houses.
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