MILESTONES 129 



MILE 



FROM 



WESTMINSTER 



BRIDGE 



This is followed by a long series of stones of one 

 pattern, probably dating from 1800, marking every 

 half mile. The series starts with the stone on the 

 kerb close by the tramway office at the triangle, 

 where the Brixton Road begins. It records on two 

 sides " Royal Exchange 2 J miles." and on a third 

 " Whitehall 2 miles," and is followed, opposite No. 158, 

 Brixton Road, by a stone carrying on the tale by 

 another half a mile. These silent witnesses may be 

 traced nearly into Croydon, with sundry gaps where 

 they have been removed. Those recording the 4th, 

 6th, 8|th, 9jth, and 10th miles from Whitehall are 

 missing, the last of the series now extant being that 

 at the corner of Broad Green Avenue, making " White- 

 hall 9 miles, Royal Exchange 9J miles." The 10th 

 from Whitehall, ending the series, stood at the corner 

 of the Whitgift Hospital. 



These were succeeded by one of the old eighteenth- 

 century series, marking eleven miles from Westminster 

 Bridge and twelve from the " Standard," but neither 

 new nor old stone is there now, and the only one of 

 the thirteen mentioned by the London Evening Post 

 of 1743 is this near Purley Corner. 



This, marking the 13th mile from the " Standard " 

 and the 12th from Westminster Bridge is common to 

 both routes, but is followed by the first of a new 

 series some way along Smitham Bottom, on which 

 Brighton is for the first time mentioned : 



