Vanishing London
Four Swans, Bishopsgate, photographed by William Strudwick & demolished 1873
In 1906, F G Hilton Price, Vice President of the London Topographical Society opened his speech to the members at the annual meeting with these words – ‘We are all familiar with the hackneyed expression ‘Vanishing London’ but it is nevertheless an appropriate one for – as a matter of fact – there is very little remaining in the City which might be called old London … During the last sixty years or more there have been enormous changes, the topography has been altered to a considerable extent, and London has been practically rebuilt.’
These photographs are selected from volumes of the Society’s ‘London Topographic Record,’ published between 1900 and 1939, which adopted the melancholy duty of recording notable old buildings as they were demolished in the capital. Yet even this lamentable catalogue of loss exists in blithe innocence of the London Blitz that was to come.
Bell Yard, Fleet St, photographed by William Strudwick
Pope’s House, Plough Court, Lombard St, photographed by William Strudwick
Lambeth High St photographed by William Strudwick
Peter’s Lane, Smithfield, photographed by William Strudwick
Millbank Suspension Bridge & Wharves, August 1906, photographed by Walter L Spiers
54 & 55 Lincoln’s Inn Fields and the archway leading into Sardinia St, demolished 1912, photographed by Walter L Spiers
Sardinian Chapel, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, August 1906, demolished 1908, photographed by Walter L Spiers
Archway leading into Great Scotland Yard and 1 Whitehall, September 1903, photographed by Walter L Spiers
New Inn, Strand, June 1889, photographed by Ernest G Spiers
Nevill’s Court’s, Fetter Lane, March 1910, demolished 1911, photographed by Walter L Spiers
14 & 15 Nevill’s Court, Fetter Lane, demolished 1911
The Old Dick Whittington, Cloth Fair, April 1898, photographed by Walter L Spiers
Bartholomew Close, August 1904, photographed by Walter L Spiers
Williamson’s Hotel, New Court, City of London
Raquet Court, Fleet St
Collingwood St, Blackfriars Rd
Old Houses, North side of the Strand
Courtyard of 32 Botolph Lane, April 1905, demolished 1906, photographed by Walter L Spiers
32 Botolph Lane, April 1905, demolished 1906, photographed by Walter L Spiers
Bird in Hand, Long Acre
Houses in Millbank St, September 1903, photographed by Walter L Spiers
Door to Cardinal Wolsey’s Wine Cellar, Board of Trade Offices, 7 Whitehall Gardens
Old Smithy, Bell St, Edgware Rd, demolished by Baker St & Edgware Railway
Architectural Museum, Cannon Row, Westminster
Images courtesy Bishopsgate Insitute
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Thank you for your ever-fascinating posts and your wonderful writing which I look forward to every day. I wonder if you know – or anyone else knows – the date that Howard Buildings in Deal Street was demolished? I can find much interesting information about its construction and use, also pictures and see that it was ‘Listed’ in 1973 but can find nothing about its removal. My husband has an ancestor (a tailor) who lived there in the 1890s and visited the street to find the area partly redeveloped although old cottages remain. We would be glad to hear if anyone knows about what happened to Howard Buildings.
Such a shame these buildings are gone. Collingwood Street looks like part of a pretty rural village.
WONDERFUL. Thank You.
Interesting, as ever, to see what went before and to realise how, as a youngster, one gave little or no thought to it.
As a student, in 1952, I used to walk down Fetter Lane on my way to Birkbeck College. While one could not avoid acknowledging bomb damage I do not recall ever thinking about the long history of former constructions there, and the same is true more generally: we live in the times we inhabit.
Great pics and story even thou these great buildings have sadly gone from ye streets of older lunden you will always have a record of once was and you’re wonderful story’s capitulate a by gone tyme
A veritable treasure chest that you have unlocked for us. Thank you and the Bishopsgate Institute and not forgetting all the past members of the LT I for the work in preserving this other London which we would never know of otherwise.
These always repay looking at in depth and give an intense and wonderful flavour of what was lost in such a range of buildings, from grand to humble. I love the smithy portrayed in the penultimate picture, and would like to know whether it can definitely be identified as Bell Street NW1. The northward extension of the original Bakerloo Line (Baker Street to Waterloo) did go to Paddington via Marylebone and Edgware Road, and soon after to Queens Park where it linked up with the main line to Watford. But I don’t think the line ever went to Edgware or that there was ever a Baker St to Edgware line.
We lived at 41 Umberston St. in Stepney in the mid-late 1940’s and I well remember the shock when I visited there in summer 1966. The south half of the street, where we lived, had just vanished. So much for childhood memories…..
Derek
(Colorado, USA now)
Thank you GA for sharing another fascinating peep at a London lost to us and without these great photos, some sights we wouldn’t have seen at all.
An amazing collection of so many beautiful and very interesting buildings. Saddened to see such history disappear.