Belle Isle

More on the lovely air of Belle Isle (the area just north of King Cross station) in the mid-Victorian period ... you can find more about it, including a map, here.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

Sir,- I have read the letter of "Clericus" in your journal of to-day, and I could not conceive that any, excepting either a proprietor of the horse slaughter-house, or one of the Patent Manure Company, would maintain for a moment that these nuisances could be otherwise than injurious to health. I can only meet his statements with facts within my own experience.
    I have resided in Stanmore-street, Caledonian-road, for the last three years, and I must stay another twelvemonth, if I should survive so long in this filthy and offensive atmosphere. The evil has gradually increased until the effect is clearly showing itself by the desertion of the inhabitants of the surrounding neighbourhood, and if it is possible (which I do not believe) that no actual disease arisen, it produces nausea and vomiting to many people, of whom I am one, for on four recent occasions on my return home in the evening from the city, when the stench has been more suffocating than usual, I have positively vomitted in the gutter in the Caledonian-road. On several occasions two of my children, aged respectively 4 and 6, while playing in the back garden, have come indoors and complained about these smells, which often produced retching, and their health, as well as my own, has ben materially affected by those nuisances; and, without pretending to any medical knowledge, it strikes me that an atmosphere which causes nausea and sickness must be prejudicial to health, and that Nature herself indicates that one cannot breathe it with impunity, and it is a positive fact, as stated by one of the correspondent on this subject, that "It has a most deleterious effect upon the health of those who live within the area of its malign influence, rendering their very food unwholesome." Apologizing for the length of my letter,
I have the honours be, Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
THOMAS WATERS. 30, Stanmore-street, Caledonian-road, Sept. 28, 1855

Titles available in commercial/academic newspaper databases

Here's a comparison I've just knocked up of what's available in the new British Newspaper Archive vs. the Thomson Gale produced databases that have been available to academics for some years. This is not exact, and I haven't checked year coverage (although one randomly selected title on the new database did seem to go back much further than Thomson Gale). The result is quite clear - the new BNA all but replaces the Thomson Gale database and add lots of new local titles. How interesting these new titles are, I don't know - my guess is that the Manchester Evening News, for example, is a major addition - are there any proper scholars able to comment?

This, found by Sharon Howard (ta, Sharon), explains the background to this change ... http://digitisation.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2011/11/29/1966/ ... hopefully universities will gain access to the new database shortly ...

Plain = Thomson Gale 19^th Cent. Newspapers

Blue = Thomson Gale Periodicals

Red = British Newspaper Archive

Aberdeen Journal |  Aberdeen Journal

Aberdeen Weekly Journal

Age

Aldershot Military Gazette

Alexandra Magazine and Woman’s Social and Industrial Advocate

Atalanta

Aunt Judy’s Magazine

Ayr Advertiser

Bailey’s Monthly Magazine of Sports and Pastimes and Racing Register

Baner Cymru | Baner ac Amserau Cymru

Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette

Belfast News-Letter | Belfast News-Letter

Bell’s Life in London

Berrow’s Worcester Journal

Berwickshire News and General Advertiser

Big Budget

Birmingham Daily Post | Birmingham Daily Post

Birmingham Gazette

Blackburn Standard |  Blackburn Standard

Boy’s Own Magazine

Boys of England

Boy’s Own Paper

Bradford Observer | Bradford Observer

Bright Eyes

Brighton Patriot | Brighton Patriot

Bristol Mercury

British Mothers’ Magazine

British Women’s Temperance Journal

Bucks Herald

Burnley Advertiser

Burnley Express

Burnley Gazette

Bury and Norwich Post | Bury and Norwich Post

Bury Times

Caledonian Mercury | Caledonian Mercury

Cambridge Chronicle and Journal

Captain: A Magazine for Boy and Old Boys

Carlisle Journal

Champion | Champion

Charter | Charter

Chartist | Chartist

Chartist Circular| Chartist Circular

Chatterbox

Chelmsford Chronicle

Cheltenham Chronicle

Cheltenham Looker-On

Cheshire Observer | Cheshire Observer

Chester Chronicle

Chester Courant

Child’s Companion

Children’s Friend

Chums: An Illustrated Paper for Boys

Cleave’s London Satirist and Gazette of Variety

Cobbett's Weekly Political Register | Cobbett's Weekly Political Register

Cork Examiner

Cornishman

Coventry Evening Telegraph

Cycling: An Illustrated Weekly

Daily Gazette for Middlesborough | Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough

Daily News

Dart : A Journal of Sense and Satire

Dawn

Derby Mercury | Derby Mercury

Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald

Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette

Dorset County Chronicle
Dumfries and Galloway Standard

Dundee Advertiser

Dundee Courier | Dundee Courier

Dundee, Perth, and Cupar Advertiser

Dunfermline Press

Edinburgh Evening News

Elgin Courant, and Morayshire Advertiser

Elgin Courier

Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine

Englishwoman’s Review

Era | Era

Essex Newsman

Essex Standard | Essex Standard

Evening Telegraph

Every Boy’s Magazine

Examiner | Examiner

Exeter and Plymouth Gazette

Exeter and Plymouth Gazette Daily Telegrams

Exeter Flying Post

Falkirk Herald

Fancy, or True Sportsman’s Guide

Father william’s Stories

Figaro in London

Fife Herald

Fishing Gazette

Freeman's Journal | Freeman's Journal

Friendly Companion and Illustrated Instructor

Fun

Funny Folks

Genedl | Genedl

Girls Own Paper

Glasgow Herald | Glasgow Herald

Gloucester Citizen

Goleuad | Goleuad

Golf

Good Words for the Young

Graphic | Graphic

Halfpenny Marvel Library

Hampshire Advertiser

Hampshire Chronicle

Hampshire/Portsmouth Telegraph |  Hampshire Telegraph

Hastings and St Leonards Observer

Hearth and Home

Hereford Journal

Hereford Times

Hertford Mercury and Reformer

Herts Guardian, Agricultural Journal, and General Advertiser

Horse and Hound

Huddersfield Chronicle | Huddersfield Chronicle

Hull Packet | Hull Packet

Huntingdon, Bedford & Peterborough Gazette

Illustrated Chips

Illustrated Police News | Illustrated Police News

Ipswich Journal | Ipswich Journal

Isle of Man Times | Isle of Man Times

Isle of Wight Observer | Isle of Wight Observer

Jackson's Oxford Journal

John Bull

Journal of the Women’s Education Union

Judy

Juvenile Companion and Sunday School Hive

Kate Greenaway’s Almanack

Kendal Mercury

Kentish Chronicle

Kentish Gazette

Kind Words for Boys and Girls

Ladies Cabinet of Fashion, Music and Romance

Ladies Fashionable Repository

Ladies Treasury

Lady’s Monthly Museum

Lady’s Newspaper and Pictorial Times

La Belle Assemblee

Lancaster Gazetteer | Lancaster Gazette

Leamington Spa Courier

Le Follet

Leeds Intelligencer

Leeds Mercury | Leeds Mercury

Leeds Patriot and Yorkshire Advertiser

Leeds Times

Leicester Chronicle | Leicester Chronicle

Leicester Journal

Leicestershire Mercury

Licensed Victuallers Mirror

Lichfield Mercury

Lincolnshire Chronicle

Little Folks

Little Wide Awake: A Story Book for Children

Liverpool Echo

Liverpool Mercury | Liverpool Mercury

Lloyd's Illustrated Newspaper | Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper

London Daily News

London Dispatch | London Dispatch

London Standard

Louth and North Lincolnshire Advertiser

Luton Times and Advertiser (1856 - 1876)
Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser

Manchester Evening News

Manchester Mercury

Manchester Times | Manchester Times

Merry and wise

Monrthly Pack of Evening Readers for Younger Members of the English Church

Moonshine

Morning Chronicle | Morning Chronicle

Morning Post | Morning Post

Morpeth Herald

Motherwell Times

Myra’s Journal of Dress and Fashion

Newcastle Courant | Newcastle Courant

Newcastle Guardian and Tyne Mercury

Newcastle Journal

Norfolk Chronicle

North Devon Journal

North Wales Chronicle | North Wales Chronicle

Northampton Mercury

Northants Evening Telegraph

Northern Echo | Northern Echo

Northern Liberator | Northern Liberator

Northern Star | Northern Star

Nottingham Evening Post

Nottinghamshire Guardian | Nottinghamshire Guardian

Odd Fellow | Odd Fellow

Operative | Operative

Our Little Dots

Our Young Folks Weekly Budget

Owl

Oxford Journal

Pall Mall Gazette | Pall Mall Gazette

Passing Events at Home and Abroad

Penny Illustrated Paper

Penny Satirist

Perry’s Bankrupt Gazette

Peter Parley’s Annual

Pick Me Up

Picture Politics

Pierce Egan’s Book of Sports

Pierce Egan’s Weekly Courier

Poor Law Unions’ Gazette

Poor Man's Guardian | Poor Man's Guardian

Portsmouth Evening News

Preston Chronicle | Preston Chronicle

Punch

Racing Illustrated

Racing Times

Reading Mercury

Reynolds's Newspaper | Reynolds's Newspaper

Rochdale Observer

Routledge’s Every Girls Annual

Royal Cornwall Gazette | Royal Cornwall Gazette

Salisbury and Winchester Journal

Salopian Journal

Satirist

Sheffield Daily Telegraph

Sheffield Evening Telegraph

Sheffield Independent | Sheffield Independent

Sherborne Mercury

Shield: The Anti-Contagious Diseases Acts Association’s Weekly Circular

Shields Daily Gazette

Southampton Herald

Southern Star

South London Press

Southern Star

Sporting Gazette

Sporting Times

Sportsman’s Annual

St. Nicolas Scribner’s Illustrated Magazine for Girls and Boys

Staffordshire Advertiser

Staffordshire Gazette and County Standard

Staffordshire Sentinel
Staffordshire Sentinel and Commercial & General Advertiser

Stamford Mercury

Standard

Star | Star

Stirling Observer

Storm-bell

Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette

Sussex Advertiser

Tamworth Herald

Taunton Courier, and Western Advertiser

Tiny Tots

Tomahawk

Trewman's Exeter Flying Post

Union Jack

Walter’s Theatrical and Sporting Directory

Wells Journal

West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser

West Kent Guardian

West Middlesex Advertiser and Family Journal

Western Daily Press

Western Gazette

Western Mail | Western Mail

Western Times

Westmorland Gazette

Woman at Home

Woman’s Advocate

Woman and Wort

Women’s Penny Paper

Women’s Union Journal

Worcester Journal

Worcestershire Chronicle

World of Fashion and Continental Feuilletons

Wrexham Weekly Advertiser | Wrexham Advertiser

York Herald | York Herald

Yorkshire Gazette

Soho Drains

You wouldn't necessarily want an attic room in Soho in the 1850s:

"The number of houses inspected has been 207, in which are situate 218 waterclosets, most of them fixed over cesspools, 20 open privies, 88 dustbins in yards, 78 ditto in vaults or areas, and 25 in kitchens under the stairs; these dustbins are kept in a comparatively clean state. 
    Throughout the neighbourhood it is important to observe that the houses are for the most part let out in lodgings; a separate family, and in some cases even two, are living in one floor, whereas but one watercloset or privy in the yard or area exists for the use of the whole house; consequently, in the rooms above the ground floor, portable cesspools or slop-pails are kept, into which night soil and dirty water and all refuse are thrown, and these are emptied about once a-day, either down a sink or into the watercloset or privy, and not unfrequently into a gully in the street. On the top or attic floor the occupants generally make use of the gutter for the emptying of these accumulations, which find their way down the rain water pipe into the paving in the yard at the back of the house, and sometimes into the footway in the street in front. It is a fact worthy of notice, that the greatest mortality has taken place in the upper floors of nearly all the houses. "

Report on Cholera in Westminster, 1854

Ten Years

10

My compendious website of Victoriana www.victorianlondon.org is officially ten years old this week. So here's some not-so-fascinating facts about the site, and (not really) a competition for the artistically inclined ...

1. I started the site because I was writing a historical novel, and wanted to compile all the fascinating snippets of Victorian stuff I was finding in books. My original idea was simply to create a meta-index of all the indexes in my non-fiction reading. But that was tedious. So I began scanning the full text of Victorian documents. That was tedious too, but I'm a librarian by training, so I stuck with it. At some point between 2001 and 2011, it started to get out of hand. I will leave you to decide when.
   
   
2. I have written six or seven novels using the site as my electronic brain, but many more successful authors have found it rather handy. For example, it's credited in Michael Cox's The Meaning of Night and, most recently, Anthony Horowitz's The House of Silk. I do not receive their royalties. Boo.
   
   
3. The site was originally hosted on stokenewington.junglelink.co.uk for a few months in 2001 ... sites like this http://www.maberly.name/links.htm may need updating.
   
   
4. My best random connection was when a reader, searching the web, noticed an article on the site. It mentioned in passing a Victorian worthy who kept two inkstands made from the hooves of his favourite horses (as you do) engraved with the horses' names, in his office. The reader in question was the man's grandson and recalled the inkstands very welll from his grandfather's house; but, until then, he had never before understood why his grandfather treasured them, or what the names meant. You perhaps had to be there. Of course, now, I cannot find the article in question. I have the nagging doubt that I may have made this up.
   
   
5. My worst recollection related to www.victorianlondon.org is being persuaded to give what I thought was an informal chat to a class of history students at Dulwich College. It turned out to be the entire lower sixth, although, being Dulwich College, the year was called something antique and intimidating, like 'The Relieve'. More accurate would have been 'The Nose-Picking, Living-Dead-Eyed-Is-it-Lunch-Yet-Who-is-this-schmuck-Hormonal Teens'. I blame the parents. I still cannot pass Dulwich without a brief shudder. Not my finest hour.
   
   
6. The best thing that www.victorianlondon.org has obtained for me, apart from an enormous sense of spiritual peace and physical well-being [*WARNING: Site does not contain an enormous sense of spiritual peace and physical well-being] is two weeks in Perth, Australia, giving lectures to retireees and wandering around the Antipodes. I enjoyed both the lectures and the trip to a guilty degree.
   
   
7. The site currently averages 1,612 visitors a day.
   
   
8. Some recent questions asked of Google that led people to the site:
   
   
   • why was victorian london smelly?
   • who was queen in victorian london?
   • what would a victorian maid call her master?
   • what were the toilet habits of the victorians?
   
   Answers on a postcard to the usual address.
   
   
9. I am pretty sure that site usage peaked in about 2005. I have some stats here http://www.victorianlondon.org/stats.htm which show a clear dip, although the current visitor numbers are not remotely comparable, as Webalizer is infinitely less reliable than Google Analytics, which I now use, and has always seemed to return about x3 what Google tells you. The reason for my certainty is more the numbers of emails which I receive, which is much fewer - my guess is that people spend less time 'browsing' the web at random for interesting and cool stuff, and more time on social media.
   
   
10. That said, site visitors still come from all over the world ... here's a map from the last month ...
    
    
    
    
    
    
    As you can see, Mongolia needs to make more of an effort.

I hope you've enjoyed www.victiorianlondon.org as much as me these last ten years, although that's hardly likely.

Would I do it all again, knowing what I know now? Tragically, I fear I would.

COMPETITION

This is not really a competition, so don't get excited. It just occurred to me that it would be nice to have a picture of a cake on the site.

Would any of you fabulous artistic people out there be able to draw me a Victorian-themed cake?

The prize will be that it appears on front page of my website. This is not really a prize; but that does not matter.

Soot and Shelter

The "Mall" and "Bird Cage Walk" although much altered are still in their general effect, such as you must remember them, with their long rows of elsm which are now in the first freshness of their young green leaves, and which look particularly beautiful contrasted with the stems and branches, that town smoke has made completely black. The leaves, I grieve to say, will soon feel the same influence, and then woe to the inexperienced wight who takes refuge from a pelting shower beneath their branches, for each leaf, as it is struck by a heavy drop, flings out a little sprinke of soot in its rebound, and this descending with the drop that had disturbed it, daubs, with most inhospitable smuts, the shelteree beneath. But even six weeks of London atmosphere, though it does much to spoil the daylight freshness of those trees, does not prevent them from being very beautiful on a moonlight night.

Familiar Epistles from London, Dublin University Magazine, June 1833

Lanny and the Lion

"Landseer was a most delightful person, and the best company that can be imagined. My father and mother were quite devoted to him, and both of them always addressed him as "Lanny."  My mother going to call on him at his St. John's Wood house, found  "Lanny" in the garden, working from a ladder on a gigantic mass of clay. Turning the corner, she was somewhat alarmed at finding a full-grown lion stretched out on the lawn. Landseer had been commissioned by the Government to model the four lions for the base of Nelson's pillar in Trafalgar Square. He had made some studies in the Zoological Gardens, but as he always preferred. working from the live model, be arranged that an elderly and peculiarly docile lion should be brought to his house from the Zoo in a furniture van attended by two keepers. Should any one wish to know what that particular lion looked like, they have only to glance at the base of the Nelson pillar. On paying an afternoon call, it is so unusual to find a live lion included amongst the guests, that my, mother's perturbation at finding herself in such close proximity to a huge loose carnivore is, perhaps, pardonable. Landseer is, of course, no longer in fashion as a painter."

Frederick Spencer Hamilton, The Days Before Yesterday, 1930

The Finest Water in Mayfair

I think I am right in saying that pumps and wells persisted as a source of water for many Londoners, well into the Victorian period, even as tap water became increasingly commonplace. This was not only in poor areas. The aristocracy of Mayfair might prefer to rely 'spring water'; at least, until they looked into it more closely:-

Parish pump in St. Paul's Churchyard.

We lived then in London at Chesterfield House, South Audley Street, which covered three times the amount of grund it does at present, for at the back it had a very large garden, on which Chesterfield gardens are now built. In addition to this, it had two wings at right angles to it, one now occupied by Lord Leconfield's house, the other by No.s 1 and 2, South Audley Street. The left-hand wing was used as our stables and contained a well which enjoyed an immense local reputation in Mayfair.  Never was such drinking water! My father allowed any one in the neighbourhood to fetch their drinking water from our well, and one of my earliest recollections is watching the long daily procession of men-servants in the curious yellow-jean jackets of the "sixties", each with two large cans in his hands, fetching the day's supply of our matchless water. No inhabitants of Curzon Street, Great Stanhope Street or South Audley Street would dream of touching any water but from the famous Chesterfield House spring. In 1867 there was a serious outbreak of Asiatic cholera in London, and my father determined to have the water of the celebrated spring analysed. There were loud protests at this:- what, analyse the finest drinking-water in England! My father, however, persisted, and the result of the analysis was that our incomparable drinking-water was found to contain thirty per cent. of organic matter. The analyst reported that fifteen per cent. of the water must be pure sewage. My father had the spring sealed and bricked up at once, but it is marvel that we had not poisoned every single inhabitant of the Mayfair district years before.

Frederick Spencer Hamilton, The Days Before Yesterday, 1930