by Antoine Vanner, my Tuesday Talk Guest
I was in London last week and walked along the
Strand. For those who don’t know London, it’s one of the major thoroughfares
that links Whitehall – which from medieval times has the centre of royal and
political power – to the City of London, which was, and still is, the centre of
banking and commerce. It starts at the west at Trafalgar Square and leads on
through a straight succession of variously-named streets, past beautiful
Wren-designed churches, to St. Paul’s Cathedral. I know the Strand well since my secretary’s
first-floor office looked on to it when I worked in London in the mid-1980s. It
was busy then, but traffic flowed easily.
Last week however, just before midday, all traffic
along the Strand was at a standstill – as it so often is nowadays. Walking from
Lancaster Place to Trafalgar Square, a distance of 700 yards, I passed at one
point nineteen red double-decker ‘busses nose to tail, without a single other
vehicle between them. They were virtually stationary, edging forward
intermittently one length at a time. A traffic light half-way, at the entrance
to the Savoy Hotel, allowed one ‘bus past each time the light turned green. Not
only was I faster on foot – so too could have been a toddler barely able to
walk. The Strand is an extreme case, but many other London streets are little
better. I’ve been in some 55 countries worldwide, and only in Lagos, Nigeria,
have I seen a transport system loaded to, and beyond, breaking point in a way
that’s comparable to London.
What struck me most as I walked was the contrast
between the present gridlock and the greater ease with which one could move
about in some cases, but not all, in the 1880s. This is the period in which my latest
novel, Britannia’s Amazon, is set and
its heroine needs to undertake extensive travel not only around Southern
England, but within London itself. A concern for me during the writing was
building in realistic durations for this.
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| Piccadilly Circus, London 1896 |
The first point to note was that travel between
urban centres was rapid and efficient in the 1880s. The railway network was in
place and improved steam-locomotive design ensured speeds of travel comparable
with that of today – and in some cases perhaps better. The vast number of branch
lines – which would be scrapped in the 1960s – connected even very small towns
into the system. Outside major towns, where cab services were available if one could
pay for them, the problem arose of getting to and from the station. For the
affluent middle classes, a privately-owned light vehicle and a horse to pull it,
was a cumbersome and expensive solution. If care of the animal was not to
absorb a major portion of the owner’s time, and if it was to be available at
short notice, then it was essential to employ a groom to look after it and to
have it ready when needed. Accustomed as we now are to going out to our cars,
turning the key and driving off, it is hard to imagine just how much time was
taken up by harnessing and unharnessing horses. When I was a boy in the 1950s my
grandmother had her own pony, Charley, and a trap – a splendid two-wheeled
vehicle. Going with her to a town ten miles away was a splendid treat for me
but catching Charley and getting him harnessed was a lengthy business. Once in
town – where my grandmother would spend the day – Charley would be unharnessed
and lodged at livery stables (all a bit like in a Western movie!). Getting home
again involved the same processes in reverse. The actual travel time was
probably 50% of the total duration of the journey. [Helen: and that is not factoring in the possibility that Charley - or any pony - might not want to be caught from a leisurely afternoon grazing in the field. Ponies are notorious little so-and-sos for not wanting to be caught!]
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| A cab stand – misery for man and horse alike |
Vast numbers of horses (and donkeys) lived in major
towns and cities in the late nineteenth century and, apart from cab-drivers,
large numbers of people were employed to care for them. Grooms were well-paid
and valued employees (Sherlock Holmes an expert at disguising himself as one
when he wanted to gather information). Working conditions for both cab drivers
and for their animals were grim however, especially in winter – a situation so
heart-breakingly described in that most poignant of Victorian classics, Anna
Sewell’s Black Beauty. Yet lower down
the scale the homeless and unemployed picked up meagre tips by holding horses’
heads while the owner had gone in somewhere on business. (The poet Francis
Thompson was reduced to this extremity). Other wretches often ran after cabs to
as to earn a pittance by offloading baggage at their destinations.
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| Typical trap (at the service of Holmes and Watson) |
Horse-drawn trams and ‘busses had made their
appearance by the 1880s, offering a cheaper alternative to cabs. As in so much
to do with Victorian Britain class awareness played a role – affluent boroughs grudgingly
tolerated ‘busses passing through but not trams. The latter demanded laying of
track, which could not be easily removed, whereas ‘bus routes could be stopped
with immediate effect should the transportation system bring “undesirable
people” – typically the poor on their way to and from work – through the area.
Motor and electrically-powered ‘busses and trams were still some two decades
away in the 1880s and the vast numbers of animals used for traction created a
massive problem of droppings on the streets – hence the occupation of the crossing-sweeper
who would clear a path for ladies in long dresses. Some futurologists of the
period theorised that the limiting factor in further urban growth would be ability
to cope with this very unpleasant problem.
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| Horse tram, 1880s |
By the 1880s London possessed an added advantage –
a growing underground railway network. By the middle of the decade most of the
main railway terminuses had been linked. Its drawback – especially for ladies –
was that it was still steam-locomotive hauled. The atmosphere in the tunnels
and stations was generally stifling, smuts and sparks were common, and even a
short journey could result in hair retaining the smell of smoke. Ladies who
could afford it avoided the underground and trusted themselves to cabs instead.
Today, if one can at all manage it, it is also better to stay out of this system,
but for other reasons. The degree of overcrowding is now comparable to that for
which Tokyo alone was once notorious and is often bad not only at rush-hour but
at most times of the day.
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| London Underground 1880s – note the steam engine |
One is struck, when looking at old photographs, by just
how uncongested streets in large cities were in the Late Victorian era. This is
not however surprising in the case of Greater London when one learns that the population
was 4.7 million in 1881 compared with 8.17 million in 2011.
And the price of this growth has been a return to
speed of movement that is little better – and maybe worse – than in the late
Victorian era.
Have we indeed progressed?
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| Discovering Diamonds Review click here |
"My Dawlish Chronicles novels are set in the late 19th Century and reflect my deep
interest in the politics, attitudes and technology of the period. I've been
lucky to have had an adventurous life in every continent except Antarctica and
this had fed my interest. History is a driving passion for me and a major concern in my writing is to make my
characters people of their time rather than 21st Century people in re-enactor
costume. This is especially true of my latest novel, Britannia's
Amazon, in which the constraints that Late Victorian society
laid on intelligent women is a major theme."
Links to website & blog are: www.dawlishchronicles.com and http://dawlishchronicles.blogspot.co.uk/
