LONDON (GENERAL DESCRIPTION.) 



the edifices are therefore constructed in such a man- 

 ner as to become ruinous about the period of the 

 expiration of the lease. Such motivesdo not exist in 

 the case of public buildings, which, whether of brick 

 or stone, are seldom deficient in strength and dura- 

 bility. 



All the streets of London are paved with great 

 regularity. The carriage-road is either laid with 

 cub^-s of granite, accurately jointed and embedded in 

 clay, or else Macadamized. Macadamizing is great- 

 ly in vogue in the squares and wider outlets of the 

 West End, but it seems to have failed in the narrow- 

 er and more cart-trodden streets of the city. The 

 number, variety and magnificence of the squares in 

 London deserve a cursory notice. The largest 

 square in London is Lincoln's Inn Fields, its area 

 being computed equal to 770 square feet ; but, the 

 tide of fashion having long set westward, this square 

 is chiefly occupied by members of the legal profes- 

 sion. The college of surgeons forms a prominent 

 object on the southern side, and the eastern is adorn- 

 ed (with the intervention of a garden) by the range 

 called stone buildings, part of Lincoln's Inn. Russell 

 square is nearly equilateral, each side being about 

 670 feet long. The houses are spacious. It com- 

 municates with Bloomsbury square by a street, at the 

 northern extremity of which is a colossal bronze 

 statue of the late duke of Bedford, by Westmacott, 

 opposite to which, at the southern end, is a similar 

 statue of Charles James Fox, by the same artist. 

 Belgrave square, begun on the estate of earl Grosve- 

 nor, at Pimlico, in 1825, is one of the most splendid 

 in architectural decoration. The squares chiefly dis- 

 tinguished by residences of the nobility are Berkley, 

 Cavendish, Grosvenor, Hanover, St James, Man- 

 chester, and Portman squares. 



Within the last twenty years, the use of coal gas, 

 instead of oil, in lighting the streets and public edi- 

 fices of London, has become almost universal. The 

 consumption of coals, by three of the gas companies, 

 amounts to 32,700 chaldrons per annum, and their 

 length of main pipe extends nearly 200 miles, com- 

 municating with more than 40,000 lamps. There is 

 not a street, lane or alley, in this vast metropolis, 

 which is not perforated, so to speak, with arched 

 excavations. Every house communicates, by one or 

 more drains, with the main sewers, which again empty 

 themselves into larger tunnels, and ultimately into 

 the Thames. London is plentifully, though not very 

 purely, supplied with water. The New River com- 

 pany was incorporated under James I., in 1619. Mr 

 Hugh Middleton, a goldsmith and citizen of London, 

 after many obstructions, succeeded in conveying a 

 stream from a spring at Chadwell, near Ware, twen- 

 ty miles from London, by a devious course of forty 

 miles in length, terminating in two capacious basins, 

 which cover five acres, and average ten feet in depth. 

 These reservoirs are eighty-five feet above low- 

 water mark ; but, by means of siphons and steam- 

 engines, water can be raised sixty feet above that 

 level. It is chiefly conveyed by main and branch 

 pipes of cast metal, which communicate with the 

 houses by leaden pipes of an inch diameter. The total 

 supply to 177,100 houses, is 28,774,000 gallons per 

 day. M. Dupin observes, that the water distributed 

 by one of these companies (the New River company) 

 costs the consumer about 2d for every 6300 pints ; 

 and that the system of pipes, for water and gas light- 

 ing jointly, stretches out in a line exceeding 400 

 leagues in extent, beneath the pavement of London. 

 Fuel is sufficiently abundant, but extravagantly dear, 

 in London. Since the great fire of 1667, a duty was 

 imposed on coal, in order to assist the rebuilding of 

 public edifices, and has ever since continued, to ena- 

 ble the corporation to execute improvements in the 



city. The government duty, however, upon ail 

 sea-borne coal was repealed in 1830. The aver- 

 age price of coals in London, winter and sum- 

 mer, is, to the consumers, about 30s per chaldron of 

 28 cwt. About 2,000,000 chaldrons per annum are 

 consumed in Middlesex and Surrey, and, considering 

 the vast supplies required for the steam-engines and 

 manufactures of London, perhaps nearly two thirds 

 of that quantity are devoted to the metropolis alone. 

 The coals brought to the London market are chiefly 

 from Newcastle, in Northumberland, in coasting 

 vessels, to the number of 4500. The average con- 

 sumption of the principal articles of food, iu London, 

 has been calculated as below : 



Oxen, . 

 Sheep, 

 Calves, . 

 Hogs, 

 Milk, . 

 Butter, 

 Cheese, . 

 Wheat, 



1,500 000 



. 



f at Smitbfield 



) market onl > - - 



8,000,000 gallons. 

 ll,000tong. 

 13,000 do. 

 1,000,000 quarters, of which 



4-5ths, made into bread, form 1 5,0011,0110 quartern loaveu. 

 By a return from the corn exchange, it appears that 

 the quantity of British and foreign corn and flour in 

 bond, on the first June, 1830, was as follows : 



Wheat, 295,107 quarters. 



Oats, 430,332 do. 



Flour, . . 173,059 cwta. 

 Foreign ditto : 



Wheat, 21,129 quarters. 



Oats, 13,343 do. 



The value of poultry, annually consumed, amounts 

 to nearly 80,000, exclusive of game, the supply of 

 which is variable. The principal market for live 

 cattle is at Smithfield, held every Monday and Thurs- 

 day. The markets for country-killed cattle, pigs 

 and poultry, are Leadenhall (where skins and leather, 

 also, are exclusively sold); Newgate, on Mondays, 

 Wednesdays, and Fridays ; and Fleet (now Farriiig- 

 don) market rebuilt on a large scale, and opened in 

 1829. The supply of fruit and vegetables is equally 

 abundant. The chief mart is Covent garden, where 

 ranges of handsome shops have lately been erected 

 on the estate of the duke of Bedford. There are at 

 least 2000 acres, in the immediate vicinity of London, 

 continually under spade cultivation as kitchen-gar- 

 dens ; which by judicious management, yield an in- 

 terminable succession of valuable esculents. It has 

 been calculated, that the cost of fruit and vegetables 

 consumed annually in London, exceeds 1,000,000 

 sterling. The fruit-gardens, exclusive of those be- 

 longing to private residences, are computed to occu- 

 py about 3000 acres, chiefly on the banks of the 

 Thames in Surrey and Middlesex. Few cities are 

 more abundantly supplied with fish of every descrip- 

 tion and quality. Turbot and brill of the finest 

 quality are procured from the coast of Holland ; sal- 

 mon in profusion from the great rivers, of Scotland 

 and Ireland, and, occasionally, from the Thames ; 

 mackerel, codfish, lobsters, and oysters, from the river 

 mouth. A calculation makes the supply of fish at 

 Billingsgate, in the year 1 828, as follows : 



Fresh salmon, .... 45,446 



Plaice, skate, &c., . . . 50,754 bushels. 



Turbot, 87,958 



Cod (fresh), 447,130 



Herrings, . 3,336,407 



Haddocks, ....- 482,493 



Mackerel, . . . . 3,076,700 



Lobsters 1,054,000 



And the number of fishing- vessels engaged in furnish- 

 ing this supply, was registered, in the same year, 

 at 3827. The consumption of ale and porter may 

 be estimated from the following facts : It appears 

 by the annual statement of the London brewers, for 

 the year ending July 5, 1830, that the quantity of 

 porter brewed by the ten principal houses, amounted 



