LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

A MAP OF London

Front Endpaper

(From a Drawing by B. C. Boulter)

THE HORSE GUARDS, WHITEHALL.

Frontispiece

A MAP OF THE GREATER London Area, etc.

(From a Drawing by A. E. Taylor)

(From an Engraving by Robert Pricke)

OLD LONDON BRIDGE

OLD TEMPLE BAR

(From an old Engraving)

ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL.

TRAFALGAR SQUARE FROM AN AEROPLANE

(Photograph: Aerofilms, Ltd.)

THE CENOTAPH, WHITEHALL

(Photograph: "Daily Mirror ")

THE ROYAL EXCHANGE.

LONDON BRIDGE FROM SOUTHWARK

THE MALL LOOKING TOWARDS BUCKINGHAM PALACE

THE MARBLE ARCH FROM AN AEROPLANE

(Photograph: Aerofilms, Ltd.)

THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT

GATEWAY OF ST. JAMES'S PALACE .

YORK HOUSE, ST. JAMES'S

OLD HOUSES, HOLBORN.

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108

124

128

WESTMINSTER ABBEY FROM THE WEST

ST. JOHN'S CHAPEL, THE TOWER OF LONDON (Photograph: F. Frith & Co., Ltd.)

CIRCULAR NAVE OF THE TEMPLE CHURCH

WESTMINSTER ROMAN CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL.

(Photograph: J. Valentine & Sons)

HALL OF THe Middle TEMPLE

(Photograph: W. S. Campbell)

THE READING ROOM, BRITISH MUSEUM

(Photograph: Donald Macbeth)

NOTE.-Except where otherwise acknowledged the illustrations are

from photographs by Photochrom Co., Ltd.

THE English are the worst people in the world, the most obstinate, and the most presumptuous, and of all England the Londoners are the leaders; for, to say the truth, they are very powerful in men and in wealth they are bold and courageous, and the more blood is spilled the greater is their courage.

...

Froissart, the French Chronicler (A.D. 1337-1410)

LON

INTRODUCTION

I. AREA, POPULATION

ONDON, the Capital of England, the mother City of the British Empire and the greatest city in the world, lies 50 miles above the mouth of the river Thames and on each side of its banks. It is capable of three definitions and may be visualized as three circles: a small inner circle and two large outer circles :

I. The historic City of London, roughly one square mile in extent, its boundaries limited by the Roman wall which once surrounded it. The City has retained its ancient privileges and its political identity throughout history. It is governed by a Lord Mayor as it was in mediaeval days. Its night population is only 13,706, mostly caretakers.

II. The County of London, a wide circle with the small square mile of the ancient city as its centre. Formed of 28 great Metropolitan Boroughs, it is an administrative entity ruled by the London County Council created in 1888 after London had burst its bounds in the great industrial era, the nineteenth century. It has an area of 117 square miles and a population of 4,484,523.

III. Greater London, a wider circle still, includes the city and the county, the whole of Middlesex and parts of Essex, Kent, Surrey, and Hertford. It has an area of 693 square miles and a population of 7,480,201.

The London of this book is that historic inner ring