Comments on: Vanishing London

By: David Sherlock

David Sherlock — Sat, 28 May 2022 13:13:05 +0000

The houses in Millbank Street are not shown after snow!That is called sunlight and shade!So sorry to be commenting years later but I am sure that’s sunlight and shadow we are looking at not a dusting of snow..

By: Paul Leopold

Paul Leopold — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 21:17:53 +0000

According to E.V. Lucas, Nevill’s Court was still standing well after 1914. The following description of it is from his “Adventures and Enthusiasms, ‘In and about London’ ”(1920)-

My third little street, which also is an alley untrodden by the foot of horse, is not a new discovery but an old resort: Nevill’s Court, running eastwards off Fetter Lane, the Nevill (if Wheatley and Cunningham tell the truth) being Ralph Nevill, Bishop of Chichester, in the thirteenth century: much of the property about here, it seems, being still in the possession of that see. The great charm of Nevill’s Court is that it has, right in the midst of the printing world, gardens; within sound of countless printing presses, the Nevill Courtiers can grow their own vegetables. Each house has its garden, while the centre house, a stately double-fronted Jacobean mansion, has quite a big one. The Court has also a fruiterer’s shop, presided over by one of the most genial and corpulent fruiterers—I almost wrote the fruitiest fruiterers—in the world (what a wonderful word “fruiterer” is!), and a Moravian chapel. But these things are as nothing. The most precious treasures of Nevill’s Court that I observed as I walked through it one day in late February were its buds. On each shrub in each garden were authentic green buds: trustworthy promises that some day or other another spring was really coming. And they were the first buds I had seen. It is an exciting experience, worthy of London, that one’s first earnest of the renaissance should be given by a court off Fetter Lane.

By: David Wenk

David Wenk — Sun, 04 Oct 2020 13:39:13 +0000

Thank you very much for the Spiers pictures. There is a caption on one that I am not sure is quite correct:

“Nevill’s [Court], Fetter Lane, March 1910, demolished 1911, photographed by Walter L Spiers”

I believe that at least parts of Nevill’s Court must have still been standing in 1914, as Keir Hardie, one of the founders of the Labour Party and the namesake of the current Labour leader, appears to have had rooms at number 10 Nevill’s Court off Fetter Lane.

In fact, on the eve of the Great War, Hardie wrote a letter to the editor of the Manchester Daily Citizen, pressing for peace, which was published on Monday, August 3rd, 1914. The address he gave in this letter was

10, Nevill’s Court, London

For this reason I believe the date of demolition of Nevill’s Court may be later than 1911. That, or he sent his note in using old letterhead!

By: Paul Johnson

Paul Johnson — Thu, 19 May 2016 06:54:53 +0000

Shawdian I totally agree .

By: F Curzon

F Curzon — Wed, 18 May 2016 13:56:38 +0000

to Alex Knisely-
I think the white on the ground is sunlight rather than snow- the sun is actually high in the sky over the buildings on the right and it is their shadow on most of the pavement. I suspect the dark areas of the road surface have perhaps been hosed down- or just “horsed” down. 1903 still saw crossing sweepers on duty.

By: Shawdian

Shawdian — Tue, 17 May 2016 17:23:52 +0000

What a Fantastic set of photographs of ‘Another Word’ totally wiped out. What a shame that we have very few almost none of these beautiful scenes left. Yes London is a continul changing City, but now a modern one which does not hold much to the eye anymore other than an ‘Eyesore!” Most of the modern buildings look out of place and a mess. Thank you for sharing so I can imagine all those ghosts who walked before us, with their little streets and little shops in Top Hats, Bustles and Pinafores and Flat Caps. Wish I could go back in time for a day.

By: John Linquist

John Linquist — Tue, 17 May 2016 03:26:12 +0000

Mr Price’s comments could have been given at a meeting thhis century rather than the last.

By: gkbowood

gkbowood — Mon, 16 May 2016 17:53:33 +0000

I wonder how long before brick and mortar buildings are completely gone and replaced with steel/glass which, in their turn, will be replaced with the latest and greatest building materials?
Ever Upward London Grows and where She Will Stop Nobody Knows.

By: pauline taylor

pauline taylor — Mon, 16 May 2016 17:32:19 +0000

These are all of great interest to me as various branches of my family lived and worked in most of the areas shown including Lambeth High Street. The Lambeth family was the Tearoes who worked for the Archbishop of Canterbury for generations starting as watermen on his barge way back in the 16th century. They, Malcolm, were some of those who so opposed the building of Westminster Bridge, and who can blame them, rowing was their living. The Archbishop, of course, did very well out of the compensation eventually paid to him!

Change is inevitable in a city, but it is sad to see how much character has been lost for one reason or another, and the wholesale destruction now is just heartbreaking. What a terrible legacy Boris is going to leave.

By: Annie G

Annie G — Mon, 16 May 2016 16:40:24 +0000

It isn’t often that I come across old photos of London that I haven’t seen before – I have been avidly seeking them out for over forty years. But! Lots of these were a revelation. I am booking myself into Williamson’s Hotel and ordering a plate of hot buttered crumpets forthwith. Imagine the comfy beds. Sterling work, GA.