OLD TOWNS BOOKS & MAPS


powered by FreeFind

     
     
XXX XXX
     
   
 
 
  PICTURES  
     
  ARTICLES  
     
   
     
  PURCHASING  
     
  GENEALOGISTS  
     
  CONTACT  
     
  PRIVACY  
     
  EBAY FEEDBACK  
     
     
     
     

 

 

MARKET TOWNS OF MIDDLESEX (from SDUK Penny Cyclopedia)

London in 1839

Part One - Boundaries, Divisions, Area, Houses, Population, Soil & Climate

LONDON, the capital of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, stands at the head of the navigable tideway of the river Thames. The latitude of the centre of the dome of St. Paul's cathedral, which stands nearly in the centre of what is strictly the City of London, is 51 degrees 30 minutes 47.59 seconds, and the longitude is 5 minutes 48.2 seconds west of Greenwich.  The latitude of Greenwich Observatory, according to Mr. Airy’s determination, is 51 degrees 28 minutes 38.07 seconds.  This portion of the metropolis, the City, including the liberties, or the districts into which the municipal franchises and privileges extend, is divided into two portions, London within the Walls, and London without the Walls, a distinction which exists no longer except in name. The original wall of the City is described as having its beginning at a fort which in part occupied the site of the present Tower of London, whence it was carried northward through the street now called the Minories to Aldgate ; thence diverging to the west it cross Bishopgate churchyard to Cripplegate ; then southerly to Aldersgate ; thence to the north of Christ's Hospital ; turning directly south to Ludgate, it then again look a westerly course to New Bridge Street, and accompanied the line of the Fleet River to its junction with the Thames, where another fort marked its termination. The space within the line thus described comprehends London within the Walls, and includes 98 parishes. London without the Walls consists of the following 11 parishes :- St. Andrew's, Holborn ; St. Bartholomew the Great ; St. Bartholomew the Less ; St. Botolph Without, Aldersgate ; St. Botolph, Aldgate ; St. Botolph Without, Bishopgate ; Saint Bride's ; St. Dunstan in the West ; St. Giles Without, Cripplegate ; St. Sepulchre Without, Newgate ; Trinity, in the Minories ; besides inns of court, hospitals, and other extra-parochial districts locally connected with the above named parishes. The whole of London Bridge is held to be within the city, together with a plot of ground at the south end of the old London Bridge on the Surrey shore, and called the Bridge-foot.

These boundaries by no means include what is now understood by the name London. They do not even circumscribe the surface over which its magistracy exercises jurisdiction. The borough of Southwark, on the south side of the Thames, is, for certain purposes, subject to the jurisdiction of the corporate officers of the City of London. A great part of the manor of Finsbury is also held by the corporation by virtue of a lease granted by the prebendary of Haliwell and Finsbury, in the cathedral church of St. Paul, at an annual rent. This lease has been renewed from time to time, and the date of its origin is not recorded ; but it is known that the corporation has been thus interested in the manor from the beginning of the fourteenth century. It is now usual to consider it as forming part of the metropolis, or of London, in the large sense of the term, which comprehends the City of London within and without the walls, the city of Westminster, the borough of Southwark, and the newly-created parliamentary boroughs of Finsbury, St. Mary-le-bone, the Tower Hamlets, and Lambeth. The area of these several divisions, with the number of houses and of inhabitants which they contained at the census of 1831, are computed to be as follows :-

 

City of London : 600 acres ; 17,315 houses ; population 122,395

 

Southwark : 590 acres ; 22,482 houses ; population 134,117

 

Westminster : 2,500 acres ; 21,893 houses ; population 202,460

 

Finsbury : 4,670 acres ; 29,605 houses ; population 224,839

 

St. Mary-le-bone : 5,310 acres ; 27,888 houses ; population 234,294

 

Lambeth : 8,840 acres ; 29,079 houses ; population 154,613

 

Tower Hamlets : 8,988 acres ; 66,777 houses ; population 302,519

 

TOTALS : 31,498 acres ; 215,039 houses ; population 1,375,237

The proportionate increase in the population and number of houses that has been found at each decennary enumeration since 1801 has been as under :-

 

1811 : 16.98 per cent in number of houses ; 16.73 per cent. in population.

 

1821 : 16.19 per cent in number of houses ; 17.66 per cent. in population.

 

1831 : 19.42 per cent in number of houses ; 20.04 per cent. in population.

The rate of increase has been by no means uniform in the different districts. Comparing 1831 with 1801, the total increase in the number of houses has been 63 per cent., and in the population 70 per cent. ; but as regards the city of London there has been, during the same thirty years, a positive decrease in houses of 5.65 per cent., and of inhabitants 4.43 per cent. The great increase has taken place in the newly-created boroughs ; the houses being there augmented in the proportion of 94.5 per cent., and the inhabitants 105 per cent. The area of the City being already fully occupied by houses, there was no room for their increase, and little capacity for receiving an addition to the number of inhabitants. The trifling diminution experienced in both particulars in the city is fully accounted for by the widening of streets, and by the increased value of houses for commercial purposes, which has induced many persons to parcel out their dwellings as offices, and to remove with their families to the suburbs.

No enumeration has of late years been made of the streets of London ; but it has been computed that, including squares, lanes, courts, and alleys, they amount to between 8,000 and 10,000.  The principal thoroughfares follow the course of the Thames from east to west. The longest line enters from Essex at Whitechapel, and runs in a nearly straight line to St. Paul's cathedral, where it divides into two arms, one of which continues near the river through Fleet-street and the Strand to St. James’s palace ; the other arm continues more to the north, through Holborn to the western extremity of Oxford-street and Kensington Gravelpits.  From a computation made in December 1785, it appears there were then, ‘in and near the City of London, 100 almshouses, 20 hospitals and infirmaries, 3 colleges, 10 public prisons, 15 flesh-markets, 1 market for live cattle, 2 for herbs, and 23 for corn, coals, hay, &c., 15 inns of court, 27 public squares, 49 halls for companies, 8 public or free schools, 131 charity schools, 207 inns, 447 taverns, 551 coffee-houses, 5,975 ale-houses, 1,000 hackney-coaches, 400 hackney-chairs, and 7,000 streets, lanes, courts, and alleys.

From the official returns obtained in 1832 by commissioners appointed to consider concerning the division of counties and the boundaries of boroughs, it appeared that there were at that time in each of the proposed parliamentary divisions the following number of houses rated at the yearly value of £10 and upwards, and the assessed taxes paid within those divisions were as follows :-

City of London : 14,564 houses (£10 and more) ; £205,476 assessed taxes

City of Westminster : 7,681 houses (£10 and more) ; £303,421 assessed taxes

Borough of Southwark : 9,923 houses (£10 and more) ; £51,262 assessed taxes

Borough of Lambeth : 16,405 houses (£10 and more) ; £91.069 assessed taxes

Borough of Finsbury : 23,266 houses (£10 and more) ; £201,027 assessed taxes

Borough of Marylebone : 21,630 houses (£10 and more) ; £282,201 assessed taxes

Borough of Tower Hamlets : 23,187 houses (£10 and more) ; £93,151 assessed taxes

TOTAL : 126,656 houses (£10 and more) ; £1,227,607 assessed taxes

From which it appears that the metropolis contained 28.58 per cent. of the total number of houses rated above £10 per annum value in Great Britain. and that the inhabitants paid 29.61 per cent. of the whole amount of assessed taxes, exclusive of the land-tax.

Soil, &c. :-

The general substratum of London and its vicinity is clay. Beds of clay, from 100 to 200 feet in thickness, proper for making tiles, are found in the immediate neighbourhood of the City, and all around the metropolis brick-making is or has been carried on extensively. The clay is in many parts, especially on the north side of the river, for a distance of more than a mile, covered with a thick bed of gravel.

The mean annual temperature of the air in London, as deduced by Mr. L. Howard from a series of observations carried on during twenty years, is 50 degrees. The mean temperature of each month, during the period here mentioned was -

 

January 36.34
February 39.60
March 42.01
April 47.61
May 55.40
June 59.36
July 62.97
August 62.90
September 57.70
October 50.79
November 42.40
December 38.71

The amount of rain which fell in each of the nine years from 1826 to 1834, in the gardens of the Horticultural Society at Chiswick, and in each month of the year 1834, was as follows:-

(It is not known that there is any gauge kept within the limits of the town upon which perfect reliance can be placed.)

 

1826 : 21.83 inches
1827 : 22.18
1828 : 27.85
1829 : 26.12
1830 : 24.27
1831 : 26.93
1832 : 21.59
1833 : 25.80
1834 : 20.39
Average 24.10 inches

 

1834
January : 2.87 inches
February : 0.37
March : 0.86
April : 0.65
May : 1.19
June : 1.63
July : 6.34
August : 2.73
September : 0.83
October : 0.43
November : 1.75
December : 0.74

According to observations made during a series of years the following table shows the directions in which the wind has blown during each month of the year :-

 

N

NE

E

SE

S

SW

W

NW

January

3.5

4.5

1.5

2.25

1.75

6.5

6.5

4.5

February

1.5

4.75

2.5

2.75

2.25

5

5.5

3.75

March

2.5

4

-

2

2.25

9.5

6.25

4.5

April

2.5

3.25

3

3.5

2.75

4

5.5

5.5

May

3

4

4.5

4

1

6.25

5.25

3

June

5

6.5

2

4

1

3.5

3

5

July

2.5

3

2

4

2.25

7

5

5.25

August

1

2.75

1.5

3

2.25

6

11.5

3

September

2

4

1

4

1

6

6

6

October

3

3.25

2

3.5

2.25

5.75

5

6.25

November

3

3

3

2

3

6

5

5

December

1

2.25

3.5

4

2

8.25

6

4

 

30.5

45.25

26.5

39

23.75

73.75

70.5

55.75