HOW TO IMPROVE LONDON.----No. 4. BILLINGSGATE MARKET.
With a strange want of sense and consideration, the Corporation of London and the Metropolitan Board of Works have appointed Committees of Inquiry into our Fish Supply, without Beeking the
assistance of the writer of this article. However, the slight thus offered to me shall not be avenged. In spite of the neglect and dis
courtesy of the two bodies above specified, I shall not relax my efforts to make London what it should be—the Pride of England and the Wonder of the World.
For a long time Billingsgate has been a scandal. It must be removed. So the first task we have before us is to find a suitable site.
Looking at the map, St. Paul’s Cathedral seems very central. By removing Sir Christopher Wren’s master-piece, the whole of Cheapside and Fleet Street, Newgate, Christ s Hospital, the General Post-Office, and all buildings north and south of the centre we have chosen, for about a quarter of a mile, we unquestionably Bliould solve the difficulty.
But we have another site ready to hand nearer the more fashionable part of town. Kensington, nowadays, embraces a large district. It is bounded on the north by Kensal Green, on the east by Hyde Park lower, and on the west by Turnham Green. Practically it has no boundary on the south, but may be supposed to fade away in that direction somewhere in the neighbourhood of the Crystal Palace. Very well then, pull down Kensington !
Now that we have a nice open site, half our labour is completed. I have engaged a fresh and unprejudiced intellect to design the plan. He is but a lad at school, and, like his drawing, wants a little touching up occasionally. However, it conveys the idea, and is unfettered by tradition and technicalities.
It, will be seen at a glance that we are very comprehensive in our design. My young friend and I are not contented with fish. We
trifle with meat, dip into vegetables, and soar amongst poultry. We have brought a deep water canal from the Thames (it might start at Gravesend) to our market, so that fish may be supplied from the vessels from which it is caught. The deep water canal might be con
structed by M. de Lesseps, and should be a worthy pendant to the works at Suez and Panama.
On the other side of the picture my young friend and I have schemed a railway, which should pay a good dividend, and of which we willingly would become Managing Directors.
Opposite the Fish Market is the Emporium for Meat, which would be well stored with frozen beef and mutton, brought over by the Australian Company (Limited) in large quantities. The reserve of this food might be used by the lovers of skating, as everything in our model comestible depot should be turned to useful account. Our vegetable and poultry markets have extensive grounds, upon which cabbages and ducks and fowls would be reared with diligence.
In the background are buildings for the use of the salespeople. My young friend and I have provided a theatre, a tavern, a literary institute, a church, and a police-station. Thus all tastes have been equally considered. We have put in a turnpike, partially to show that the rights of the Lord Mayor and Corporation have not been ignored, but principally, I must confess, because we know howto draw it. In like manner my young friend and 1 have added a castle. I did not include it in my original directions, but have consented to its appearance at my colleague’s earnest request. It certainly looks very well, and as I am given to understand that it has a dungeon under the deepest moat.it might be utilised for the incarceration of forestallers, vendors of bad meat, and other disreputable characters.
And now, having removed Billingsgate, 1 am
The Peri-Patetic.
MORE LIGHTS O’ LONDON.
Mr. D’Oyley Carte, of the New Saveloy Theatre, who has lately been very nearly as much before the public as is Mr. Gas Harris
of Query Lane, wrote last week to all the papers to explain that he had “ 1200 lights” in his theatre, without sufficient power on the part of the “Contractors” to light “anything approaching this number,” so that an additional engine would have to be added immediately. “ Contractors ” are evidently too narrow in their views for the breadth of Mr. Carte’s Light Entertain
ment, so they’re going to become “Expanders,” and give him another engine. What sort of an engine f—a Donkey engine with Carte and horse power ? This explanation, though at first pleasantly reminding some fogies (who were boys together,) of the “thousand additional lamps” at old Vauxhall— Consule Simpson—was calculated to have a deterrent effect on nervous people who, if they can’t see a musical piece, in comparative security, without incandescent lamps, concealed electric batteries, currents under the stalls, besides the usual draughts above, and. engines working in different parts of the building, would far rather either Btay at home or patronise some other less improved theatre, until time shall have tested the
latest electric novelties and proved to demonstration that there is no danger, that the house has never risen as one man—blown up by electricity—and gone bang through the roof, These nervous people will not be tranquillised when they are informed that Mr. D’Oyley Carte himself is seldom seen about without a Gunn by his side— unless it is at once explained that this is Mr. D’Oylky Carte’s partner, very safe, and not likely to go off suddenly. Come, Mr. D Oyi.ey Carte, that’s what some friend in Dublin might call a “ doyleycarte compliment,” isn’t it P The house is brightly decorated a little too much in the wedding-cake-sugar and open-tart order of ornamentation ; but the lighting, when under thorough control, will effect brilliancy without heat. The construction of the smoking and refreshment rooms, and of the passages, is decidedly faulty. This, we hope, will be remedied. Patience! and all may yet be wrell. Another time we will say something more about Patience, in her new position, smiling at i oto in the Opfra-Comiquo.
“We will be Boers ! ” shouted the Wexford audience, in answer to Mr. Parnell’s invective. No, no! Be the Pigs that pay the rent.
An excellent Substitute for Smithfield, Covent Garden, and Billingsgate.
With a strange want of sense and consideration, the Corporation of London and the Metropolitan Board of Works have appointed Committees of Inquiry into our Fish Supply, without Beeking the
assistance of the writer of this article. However, the slight thus offered to me shall not be avenged. In spite of the neglect and dis
courtesy of the two bodies above specified, I shall not relax my efforts to make London what it should be—the Pride of England and the Wonder of the World.
For a long time Billingsgate has been a scandal. It must be removed. So the first task we have before us is to find a suitable site.
Looking at the map, St. Paul’s Cathedral seems very central. By removing Sir Christopher Wren’s master-piece, the whole of Cheapside and Fleet Street, Newgate, Christ s Hospital, the General Post-Office, and all buildings north and south of the centre we have chosen, for about a quarter of a mile, we unquestionably Bliould solve the difficulty.
But we have another site ready to hand nearer the more fashionable part of town. Kensington, nowadays, embraces a large district. It is bounded on the north by Kensal Green, on the east by Hyde Park lower, and on the west by Turnham Green. Practically it has no boundary on the south, but may be supposed to fade away in that direction somewhere in the neighbourhood of the Crystal Palace. Very well then, pull down Kensington !
Now that we have a nice open site, half our labour is completed. I have engaged a fresh and unprejudiced intellect to design the plan. He is but a lad at school, and, like his drawing, wants a little touching up occasionally. However, it conveys the idea, and is unfettered by tradition and technicalities.
It, will be seen at a glance that we are very comprehensive in our design. My young friend and I are not contented with fish. We
trifle with meat, dip into vegetables, and soar amongst poultry. We have brought a deep water canal from the Thames (it might start at Gravesend) to our market, so that fish may be supplied from the vessels from which it is caught. The deep water canal might be con
structed by M. de Lesseps, and should be a worthy pendant to the works at Suez and Panama.
On the other side of the picture my young friend and I have schemed a railway, which should pay a good dividend, and of which we willingly would become Managing Directors.
Opposite the Fish Market is the Emporium for Meat, which would be well stored with frozen beef and mutton, brought over by the Australian Company (Limited) in large quantities. The reserve of this food might be used by the lovers of skating, as everything in our model comestible depot should be turned to useful account. Our vegetable and poultry markets have extensive grounds, upon which cabbages and ducks and fowls would be reared with diligence.
In the background are buildings for the use of the salespeople. My young friend and I have provided a theatre, a tavern, a literary institute, a church, and a police-station. Thus all tastes have been equally considered. We have put in a turnpike, partially to show that the rights of the Lord Mayor and Corporation have not been ignored, but principally, I must confess, because we know howto draw it. In like manner my young friend and 1 have added a castle. I did not include it in my original directions, but have consented to its appearance at my colleague’s earnest request. It certainly looks very well, and as I am given to understand that it has a dungeon under the deepest moat.it might be utilised for the incarceration of forestallers, vendors of bad meat, and other disreputable characters.
And now, having removed Billingsgate, 1 am
The Peri-Patetic.
MORE LIGHTS O’ LONDON.
Mr. D’Oyley Carte, of the New Saveloy Theatre, who has lately been very nearly as much before the public as is Mr. Gas Harris
of Query Lane, wrote last week to all the papers to explain that he had “ 1200 lights” in his theatre, without sufficient power on the part of the “Contractors” to light “anything approaching this number,” so that an additional engine would have to be added immediately. “ Contractors ” are evidently too narrow in their views for the breadth of Mr. Carte’s Light Entertain
ment, so they’re going to become “Expanders,” and give him another engine. What sort of an engine f—a Donkey engine with Carte and horse power ? This explanation, though at first pleasantly reminding some fogies (who were boys together,) of the “thousand additional lamps” at old Vauxhall— Consule Simpson—was calculated to have a deterrent effect on nervous people who, if they can’t see a musical piece, in comparative security, without incandescent lamps, concealed electric batteries, currents under the stalls, besides the usual draughts above, and. engines working in different parts of the building, would far rather either Btay at home or patronise some other less improved theatre, until time shall have tested the
latest electric novelties and proved to demonstration that there is no danger, that the house has never risen as one man—blown up by electricity—and gone bang through the roof, These nervous people will not be tranquillised when they are informed that Mr. D’Oyley Carte himself is seldom seen about without a Gunn by his side— unless it is at once explained that this is Mr. D’Oylky Carte’s partner, very safe, and not likely to go off suddenly. Come, Mr. D Oyi.ey Carte, that’s what some friend in Dublin might call a “ doyleycarte compliment,” isn’t it P The house is brightly decorated a little too much in the wedding-cake-sugar and open-tart order of ornamentation ; but the lighting, when under thorough control, will effect brilliancy without heat. The construction of the smoking and refreshment rooms, and of the passages, is decidedly faulty. This, we hope, will be remedied. Patience! and all may yet be wrell. Another time we will say something more about Patience, in her new position, smiling at i oto in the Opfra-Comiquo.
“We will be Boers ! ” shouted the Wexford audience, in answer to Mr. Parnell’s invective. No, no! Be the Pigs that pay the rent.
An excellent Substitute for Smithfield, Covent Garden, and Billingsgate.