320 THE WONDERFUL CENTURY. 



with wider streets and much more light and air. In 1795 the western 

 side of Temple Bar and Snowhill were widened and improved, and 

 soon afterward Butchers' Row, at the back of St. Clement's Church, 

 was removed. Of course, these are only indications of changes that 

 were going on over the whole city; and, coincident with these im- 

 provements, there was a rapid extension of the inhabited area, 

 which, from a sanitary point of view, was of far greater importance. 

 That agglomeration of streets, interspersed with spacious squares and 

 gardens, which extends to the north of Oxford Street, was almost 

 wholly built in the period we are discussing. Bloomsbury and Rus- 

 sell Squares and the adjacent streets occupy the site of Bedford 

 House and grounds, w r hich were sold for building on in 1800. All 

 round London similar extensions were carried out. People went to 

 live in these new suburbs, giving up their city houses to business or 

 offices only. Regent's Park was formed, and Regent Street and 

 Portland Place were built before 1820, and the whole intervening 

 area was soon covered with streets and houses, which for some con- 

 siderable period enjoyed the pure air of the country. At this time 

 the water supply became greatly improved, and the use of iron mains 

 in place of the old wooden ones, and of lead pipes, by which water 

 was carried into all the new houses, was of inestimable value from a 

 sanitary point of view. 



Then, just at the same time, began the great improvement in the 

 roads, consequent on the establishment of mail coaches in 1784. 

 This at once extended the limits of residence for business men, while 

 it facilitated the supply of fresh food to the city. In 1801, London, 

 within the Bills of Mortality, was increased in area by almost fifty 

 per cent., with comparatively very little increase of population, 

 owing to the suburban parishes of St. Luke's, Chelsea, Kensington, 

 Marylebone, Paddington, and St. Pancras being then included; and 

 even in 1821 this whole area had only a million inhabitants, and was 

 therefore still thinly peopled, and enjoying semi-rural conditions of 

 life. 1 The slight increase of population from 1801 to 1821 (about 

 one hundred and fifty thousand), notwithstanding this extension of 

 area, proves that these suburban parishes were almost wholly peopled 

 from the denser parts of the city, and to a very small extent by fresh 

 immigrants from the country. It is also clear that many city inhab- 

 itants must have removed to outlying parishes beyond the Bills of 

 Mortality, in order to explain the verj r small increase of population in 

 twenty years. This dispersion of the former city population over a 



1 These figures are given in the Eighth Annual Report of the Registrar-General, 

 and the parishes included are from the " Encyclopaedia Britannica." 



