141-458: The Royal Panopticon of Science and Art was one of the grand social institutions and architectural splendours of Victorian London . It was given a royal charter in 1850 and in July 1851 a lease was taken out on a premium site for 60 years and building commenced. The Royal Panopticon of Science and Art was built on the eastern side of Leicester Square , opening on 18 March 1854. As a showcase venue for
282-550: A car bomb was successfully defused in an underground car park on Park Lane. The road was closed for most of the day for police investigation. The road still attracts notable residents. In 2002, Robert B. Sherman , composer of the musicals Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins , moved to an apartment on Park Lane following the death of his wife. He enjoyed the views of Hyde Park and in 2003 painted an eponymous portrait, Park Lane . The business mogul Mohamed Al-Fayed has offices in 55 and 60 Park Lane. Trevor Rees-Jones ,
423-655: A locked-room murder which took place at No. 427 Park Lane (the old numbering), and which is referred to as the "Park Lane Mystery". The story is set in 1894. The writer Jasper Fforde refers to the street and its Monopoly square in his novel The Eyre Affair (2001), via the character Landen Parke-Laine . The street has several mentions in John Galsworthy 's 1922 trilogy, The Forsyte Saga . The 1967 BBC television adaptation used Croxteth Hall in Liverpool for footage of James and Emily's house on Park Lane. The road
564-547: A pin making machine and a cook stove. Visitors engaged in intellectual improvement as a leisure activity, while at the same time a competitive entertainment industry emerged in London. According to The Athenaeum the Royal Panopticon of Science and Art was the most "delightful lounge in London" which exhibited music, large fountains, interesting experiments and provided opportunities for shopping . Scientists that practiced at
705-547: A byword for extreme poverty. Infamous since the mid 18th century, St. Giles was defined by its prostitutes, gin shops, secret alleyways where criminals could hide, and horribly overcrowded tenements. Lord Byron excoriated the state of St. Giles in a speech to the House of Lords in 1812, stating that "I have been in some of the most oppressed provinces of Turkey, but never under the most despotic of infidel governments did I behold such squalid wretchedness as I have seen since my return in
846-565: A coke-fueled steam locomotive and lit with gas lamps to provide illumination in the tunnels. The line was a success, carrying 9.5 million passengers in its first year of operation. An extension to the western suburb of Hammersmith was built and opened in 1868. In 1884 the Metropolitan was linked with the Metropolitan District Line at Aldgate to form an inner circle encompassing Central London (the modern Circle Line ), with
987-638: A developing tram network which accessed Central London and provided local transport in the suburbs. The first horse-drawn tramways were installed in 1860 along the Bayswater Road at the northern edge of Hyde Park , Victoria Street in Westminster, and Kennington Street in South London. The trams were a success with passengers, but the raised rails were jolting and inconvenient for horse-drawn vehicles to cross, causing traffic bottlenecks at crossroads. Within
1128-507: A drunken man or woman, and the air was obscene with sounds of jangling and squabbling." By the time of Jack London's visit in 1903, the reputation of the East End was at its lowest ebb after decades of unfavourable attention from journalists, authors, and social reformers. The 1888 Whitechapel murders perpetrated by Jack the Ripper brought international attention to the squalor and criminality of
1269-530: A former Governor-General of India , the third Earl of Rosebery , and the Dukes of Somerset . The politician and entrepreneur Richard Sharp , also known as "Conversation Sharp", lived at No. 28. In the 1760s, Londonderry House , on the corner of Park Lane and Hertford Street , was bought by the Sixth Earl of Holdernesse . He purchased the adjacent property and converted the buildings into one mansion known for
1410-515: A multitude of styles and typologies, with an almost endless variation in the layout of streets, gardens, homes, and decorative elements. Suburbs were aspirational for many, but also came to be lampooned and satirised in the press for the conservative and conventional tastes they represented (for example in Punch's Pooter ). While the Georgian terrace has been described as "England's greatest contribution to
1551-625: A penthouse flat at No. 41 in 1923, and stayed there during their theatrical appearances at London's West End . The couple were courted by the social scene in London and enjoyed dancing at Grosvenor House. American film star Douglas Fairbanks Jr. resided at No. 99 when working in England in the 1930s. The black market fraudster Sidney Stanley lived on Park Lane in the 1940s, and became known as "the Pole of Park Lane". The Marriott London Park Lane , at No. 140 Park Lane, opened in 1919. The site
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#17328551750231692-415: A period as Holdernesse House. In 1819, Londonderry House was bought by The Rt. Hon. The 1st Baron Stewart, a British aristocrat, and later, during World War I, the house was used as a military hospital. After the war, Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh , and his wife, Edith Helen Chaplin , continued to use the house and entertained there extensively. After World War II, the house remained in
1833-524: A private police force to patrol Thames shipping in 1798, under the direction of magistrate Patrick Colquhoun and Master Mariner John Harriott . This Marine Police Force , regarded as the first modern police force in England, was a success at apprehending would-be thieves, and in 1800 it was made a public force via the Depredations on the Thames Act 1800 . In 1839 the force would be absorbed into and become
1974-409: A report showed the average monthly rent for a 2-bedroom apartment on the road was £5,200. Rough sleepers also made use of the road's surroundings from at least 2012, with large begging gangs or other homeless groups sleeping in subways or covered shopping parades despite occasionally being cleared or moved on by police. Many of the hotels and establishments on Park Lane are today owned by some of
2115-411: A short stretch running from Aldgate to Whitechapel. In 1880 an extension line to the north-west was opened from Baker Street tube station to the village of Harrow , via Swiss Cottage and St. John's Wood , expanding further over the coming decades and allowing prosperous suburbs to be developed around formerly rural villages. A succession of private enterprises were formed to build new routes after
2256-480: A short terrace of houses approximately where Nos. 93–99 are now. Tyburn Lane took its name from the former Tyburn , a village which had declined in the 14th century. At the end of what is now Park Lane was the Tyburn gallows (also known as Tyburn Tree), London's primary public place of execution until 1783. Author Charles Knight wrote in 1843, that by 1738 "nearly the whole space between Piccadilly and Oxford Street
2397-473: A sizable Jewish community , estimated to be around 46,000 in 1882, and a very small Indian population consisting largely of transitory sailors known as lascars. In the 1880s and 1890s tens of thousands of Jews escaping persecution and poverty in Eastern Europe came to London and settled largely in the East End around Houndsditch , Whitechapel , Aldgate , and parts of Spitalfields . Many came to be work in
2538-462: A vital shipping outlet with the great industrial cities of The Midlands . The Regent's Canal became a huge success, but on a local rather than a national level because it facilitated the localized transport of goods like coal, timber, and other building materials around London. Easy access to coal shipments from northeast England via the Port of London meant that a profusion of industries proliferated along
2679-881: A year the outcry was so great that the lines were pulled up, and trams were not reintroduced until the Tramways Act 1870 ( 33 & 34 Vict. c. 78) permitted them to be built again. Trams were restricted to operating in the suburbs of London, but they accessed the major transport hubs of the City and the West End, conveying passengers into and away from the suburbs. By 1893 there were about 1,000 tram cars across 135 miles worth of track. Trams could be accessed in Central London from Aldgate , Blackfriars Bridge , Borough , Moorgate , King's Cross , Euston Road , Holborn , Shepherd's Bush , Victoria , and Westminster Bridge . 19th-century London
2820-417: A year, a 10-fold increase over the 800,000 being received in 1800. Shipping in the Port of London supported a vast army of transport and warehouse workers, who characteristically attended the "call-on" each morning at the entrances to the docks to be assigned work for the day. This type of work was low-paid and highly unstable, drying up depending on the season and the vagaries of world trade. The poverty of
2961-513: Is mentioned in the second stanza of Noël Coward 's patriotic song " London Pride ". In George Orwell 's Coming Up for Air (1939) several conservative and imperialist politicians are derogatively referred to as "the Park Lane riff-raff". The Mini Countryman Park Lane is a high-end four wheel drive sport utility vehicle named after the road, where the company has a showroom. In Walter Lord 's book A Night to Remember , which documents
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#17328551750233102-633: Is the second most valuable property in the London edition of the board game Monopoly . The street had a prestigious social status when the British version of the Monopoly board was first produced, in 1936. On the board, Park Lane forms a pair with Mayfair , the most expensive property in the game. The squares were designed to be equivalents of Park Place and Boardwalk, respectively, on the original board, which used streets in Atlantic City, New Jersey . In 1988,
3243-578: Is used by London bus routes 2 , 6 , 13 , 16 , 23 , 36 , 74 , 137 , 148 , 390 , 414 and night bus routes N2 , N16 , N74 and N137 . The nearest tube stations are Hyde Park Corner on the Piccadilly line near the street's southern end and Marble Arch on the Central line near its northern end. At Brook Gate, partway along the road, there is a traffic signal controlled pedestrian and cycle crossing connecting Hyde Park to London Cycle Route 39,
3384-539: The Dukes of Somerset at Somerset House, and the British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli at No. 93. Other historic properties include Dorchester House , Brook House and Dudley House . In the 20th century, Park Lane became well known for its luxury hotels, particularly The Dorchester , completed in 1931, which became closely associated with eminent writers and international film stars. Flats and shops began appearing on
3525-567: The Great Famine of 1848, giving the area the name "Little Ireland", or "The Holy Land". Government intervention beginning in the 1830s reduced the area of St. Giles through mass evictions, demolitions, and public works projects. New Oxford Street was built right through the heart of "The Rookery" in 1847, eliminating the worst part of the area, but many of the evicted inhabitants simply moved to neighboring streets, which remained stubbornly mired in poverty. Mass demolition of slums like St. Giles
3666-569: The Grosvenor House Hotel ) and the Holford family's Dorchester House (demolished in 1929 and replaced in 1931 with The Dorchester ) and the Marquess of Londonderry 's Londonderry House. The philanthropist Moses Montefiore lived at No. 90 for over 60 years, and a blue plaque marks its location. Brook House , at No. 113 Park Lane, was built in 1870 by T. H. Wyatt. It later became
3807-598: The Haymarket to avoid St. James's Square ), and crosses Piccadilly (thus creating Piccadilly Circus ), from where it curves west via the Quadrant and then runs due north, joining with Langham Place and Portland Place to create the link to Regent's Park. The area achieved its intended purpose as a thriving commercial district, lined with shops of every variety to rival the quality of nearby St. James's . 1890 London had 5,728 street accidents, resulting in 144 deaths. London
3948-580: The Hôtel Meurice of Paris. In 1978, a new branch of the Allied Arab Bank opened at 131–2 Park Lane, facilitating the interests of both Arab world and western clients. Mamasino restaurant at 102 Park Lane serves African cuisine and is African-owned. Wolfgang Puck 's restaurant at No. 45 has been described by GQ Magazine as serving one of the best breakfasts in London, with a mixture of American, European and Asian food. Owing to property on
4089-530: The Industrial Revolution gathered pace, an insatiable demand for capital investment in railroads, shipping, industry and agriculture fueled the growth of financial services in the city. The end of the Napoleonic Wars also freed up British capital to flow overseas; there was some £100 million invested abroad between 1815 and 1830, and as much as £550 million by 1854. At the end of the century,
4230-708: The London Smallpox Hospital in St Pancras (moved to Highgate Hill in 1848–50), were all that existed to treat smallpox victims until the latter part of the century. This changed with the creation of the Metropolitan Asylums Board in 1867, which embarked on the building of five planned smallpox and fever hospitals in Stockwell , Deptford , Hampstead , Fulham and Homerton to serve the different regions of London. Fearful residents succeeded in blocking
4371-642: The Thames Division of the Metropolitan Police . In addition to theft, at the turn of the century commercial interests feared the competition from rising English ports like Liverpool and Plymouth . This spurred Parliament in 1799 to authorize the first major dock construction work of the 19th century, the West India Docks , on the Isle of Dogs . Situated 6 miles east of London Bridge, shipping could avoid
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4512-547: The wallpaper was changed frequently and displayed Arabic script . The interior design of the Royal Panopticon of Science and Art emerged from the contemporary taste for recreational learning, which had been pioneered in London through the Great Exhibition in 1851. In 1854 the work on the building that was to house the Royal Panopticon of Science and Art was completed. Visitors of the Royal Panopticon of Science and Art could view changing exhibits, including vacuum flasks ,
4653-614: The "artisans and laboring poor" on Commercial Street in 1864. The Metropolitan Board of Works (the dominant authority before the LCC), was empowered to undertake clearances and to enforce overcrowding and other such standards on landlords by a stream of legislation including the Labouring Classes Dwelling Houses Acts of 1866 and 1867. Overcrowding was also defined as a public health 'nuisance' beginning in 1855, which allowed Medical Officers to report landlords in violation to
4794-683: The 11,500 Italians living in London in 1900, Soho accounted for 6,000, and Clerkenwell 4,000. Most of these were young men, engaged in occupations like organ grinding or selling street food (2,000 Italians were classed as "ice cream, salt, and walnut vendors" in 1900). After the Strangers' Home for Asiatics, Africans and South Sea Islanders opened on West India Dock Road in 1856, a small population of Chinese sailors began to settle in Limehouse , around Limehouse Causeway and Pennyfields. These men married and opened shops and boarding houses which catered to
4935-422: The 1950s, motor traffic levels along Park Lane had reached saturation point. A 1956 survey by the Metropolitan Police reported "at peak hours it is overloaded", with traffic surveys showing 91,000 and 65,000 vehicles travelling around Hyde Park Corner and Marble Arch respectively in a twelve-hour period, making Park Lane the link between the busiest and third busiest road junctions in London. Between 1960 and 1963,
5076-525: The Abyss , described the bewilderment of Londoners when he mentioned that he planned to visit the East End: many of them had never been there despite living in the same city. He was refused a guide when he visited the travel agency of Thomas Cook & Son , which told him to consult the police. When he finally found a reluctant cabbie to take him into Stepney , he described his impression as follows: "Nowhere in
5217-577: The Admiralty's warships in service in 1866. The largest shipbuilder on the Thames, the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company , produced the revolutionary broadside ironclad HMS Warrior (1860), the largest warship in the world and the first iron-hulled, armor plated vessel, alongside its sister HMS Black Prince (1861). Over the next few years, five out of the nine armored ironclads commissioned by
5358-633: The Board of Health. In 1890 the shortcomings of the existing legislation were refined and condensed into one comprehensive piece of legislation, the Houses of the Working Classes Act. This empowered the LCC to construct its own housing on cleared land, which it had been prohibited from doing before; thus began a social housing building program in targeted areas like Bethnal Green and Millbank that would accelerate in
5499-455: The Chinese which abounded in the 19th and early 20th centuries exaggerated both the criminality and the population of Chinatown. London was both the world's largest port, and a major shipbuilding center in itself, for the entire 19th century. At the beginning of the century, this role was far from secure after the strong growth in world commerce during the later decades of the 18th century rendered
5640-547: The East End, a third of whom lived in poverty. The Cheap Trains Act 1883 , while it enabled many working class Londoners to move away from the inner city, also accentuated the poverty in areas like the East End, where the most destitute were left behind. Prostitution was rife, with one official report in 1888 recording 62 brothels and 1,200 prostitutes in Whitechapel (the real number was likely much higher). The American author Jack London , in his 1903 account The People of
5781-514: The East End, while penny dreadfuls and a slew of sensational novels like George Gissing 's The Nether World and the works of Charles Dickens painted grim pictures of London's deprived areas for middle and upper class readers. The single most influential work on London poverty was Charles Booth 's Life and Labour of the People in London , a 17-volume work published between 1889 and 1903. Booth painstakingly charted levels of deprivation throughout
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5922-483: The Metropolitan inaugurated the world's oldest mass transit system , the London Underground ; it was created by the cut-and-cover method of excavating a trench from above, then building reinforced brick walls and vaults to form the tunnel, and filling in the trench with earth. The Metropolitan initially ran from Farringdon in the east to Paddington in the west. The open wooden passenger cars were propelled by
6063-641: The Navy to follow the example of the Warrior would be constructed in London. The Thames Ironworks was employed not just in shipbuilding, but in civil engineering works around London like Blackfriars Railway Bridge , Hammersmith Bridge , and the construction of the iron-girded roofs of Alexandra Palace and the 1862 International Exhibition building. London engineering firms like Maudslay, Sons and Field and John Penn and Sons were early developers and suppliers of marine steam engines for merchant and naval ships, fueling
6204-839: The Regent's Canal, especially gasworks, and later electricity plants. Within a few years, the West India Docks were joined by the smaller East India Docks just northeast in Blackwall, as well as the London Docks in Wapping . The St Katharine Docks built just east of the Tower of London were completed in 1828, and later joined with the London Docks (in 1869). In Rotherhithe , where the Greenland Dock
6345-532: The Royal Albert Dock adjoining the Victoria; this new quay was 1.75 miles long, with 16,500 feet of deep water quayage. It was the largest dock in the world, the first to be electrically lit, featured hydraulically operated cranes, and like its sister the Victoria, was connected to the national railways. This feverish building obtained clear results: by 1880, the Port of London was receiving 8 million tons of goods
6486-571: The Royal Panopticon of Science and Art also taught interested students. For example, George Frederick Ansell taught chemistry at the Royal Panopticon and his student Herbert McLeod went on to study at the Royal College of Chemistry . Two years after opening the amateur science panopticon project closed and the building was sold in 1856. The grand building re-opened as the Alhambra Theatre of Variety . The Royal Panopticon of Science and Arts
6627-467: The Thames, and held the record as the largest ship in the world by tonnage until 1901. Despite the astonishing successes of the shipbuilding industry in the first half of the century, in the last decades of the 19th century the industry experienced a precipitous decline that would leave only one large firm, the Thames Ironworks, in existence by the mid-1890s. London shipyards lacked the capacity, and
6768-591: The Thames, forcing their closure in 1869. The City of London 's importance as a financial centre increased substantially over the course of the 19th century. The city's strengths in banking, stock brokerage, and shipping insurance made it the natural channel for the huge rise in capital investment which occurred after the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. The city was also the headquarters of most of Britain's shipping firms, trading houses, exchanges and commercial firms like railway companies and import houses. As
6909-536: The Victoria Embankment reclaimed over 37 acres (15 hectares) of land from the Thames, allowing a broad east–west boulevard to be built and a series of public gardens. All three sections of the Thames Embankment are faced in grey granite, mounted with handsome cast iron lamps, and lined with London planes . In 1878, the lamps of the Victoria Embankment were converted from gas to electric light, making it
7050-598: The World Monopoly Championships were held at the Park Lane Hotel, sponsored by Waddingtons , manufacturers of the British version. Since the game's original production, prices on the real Park Lane have held their value, though average rent costs have been overtaken by Bond Street . In Arthur Conan Doyle 's short story " The Adventure of the Empty House " (1903), Sherlock Holmes investigates and solves
7191-512: The ability to expand, for building the large vessels in demand by the later 19th century, losing business to newer shipyards in Scotland and the North of England, where labor and overhead costs were lower, and iron and coal deposits much closer. The ancient Royal Dockyards at Woolwich and Deptford , founded by Henry VIII in the 16th century, were too far upriver and too shallow due to the silting up of
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#17328551750237332-685: The appearance of the riverside between Chelsea and Blackfriars . There were three different sections: the Victoria Embankment , built between 1864 and 1870; the Albert Embankment (1866–70); and the Chelsea Embankment (1871–74). The embankments protected low-lying areas along the Thames from flooding, provided a more attractive prospect of the river compared to the mudflats and boatyards which abounded previously, and created prime reclaimed land for development. The Victoria Embankment
7473-558: The aspirational middle classes, and later with the lower middle classes in more industrial areas of London such as the East End . While many areas of Georgian and Victorian suburbs were damaged heavily in The Blitz and/or then redeveloped through slum clearance , much of Inner London 's character remains dominated by the suburbs built successively during Georgian and Victorian times, and such houses remain enormously popular. In contrast to
7614-496: The automation of modern steelmaking, was originally established at No. 11 Park Lane in June 1944. It has since moved to No. 24 Buckingham Gate. The contact lens pioneer Keith Clifford Hall held a practice at No. 139, later expanding to No 140, from 1945 to 1964. The site of his practice is now commemorated by a green heritage plaque. The film and stage actress Anna Neagle lived at Alford House on Park Lane between 1950 and 1964 with her husband Herbert Wilcox ;
7755-449: The ballroom and gallery, though the building was partially restored. However, the strength of construction of the Dorchester Hotel gave it the reputation of being one of London's safest buildings, and it was a safe haven for numerous luminaries. General Dwight D. Eisenhower took a suite on the first floor in 1942, and later made it his headquarters. The British Iron and Steel Research Association , an institution responsible for much of
7896-415: The building of the Hampstead hospital, and residents in Fulham obtained an injunction preventing all but local cases of smallpox from being treated in their hospital. Thus, with only three hospitals in operation when the epidemic of 1881 began, the MAB was overwhelmed. HMS Atlas and Endymion were leased as hospital ships and entered service in July 1881, moored at Greenwich . The following year
8037-399: The center of English commerce. The working population swelled from some 200,000 in 1871 to 364,000 by 1911. London's great expansion in the 19th century was driven by housing growth to accommodate the rapidly expanding population of the city. The growth of transport in London in this period fueled the outward expansion of suburbs, as did a cultural impetus to escape the inner city, allowing
8178-440: The century contained £20 million worth of gold reserves. It employed over 900 people and printed 15,000 new banknotes each day by 1896, doing some £2 million worth of business each day. The result of the shift to financial services in the city was that, even while its residential population was ebbing in favor of the suburbs (there was a net loss of 100,000 people between 1840 and 1900), it retained its historical role as
8319-509: The charge. The western extension was removed in January 2011. In November 2008, the mayor of London , Boris Johnson announced plans to build a tunnel beneath the street, allowing land to be released for development and green spaces. The traffic improvements and remodelling have diminished the appeal of Park Lane as a residential address since it became one of the busiest and noisiest roads in central London. In 2011, Johnson introduced spot fines for coaches idling on Park Lane. The widening of
8460-471: The city during the Victorian era , with many of the newcomers refugees from the Great Famine (1845–1849) . At one point, Irish immigrants made up about 20% of London's population. In 1853 the number of Irish in London was estimated at 200,000, so large a population in itself that if it were a city it would have ranked as the third largest in England, and was about equal to the combined populations of Limerick , Belfast , and Cork . London also became home to
8601-436: The city stood at just 37 years in midcentury. The most serious disease in the poor quarters was tuberculosis , until the 1860s cholera , as well as rickets , scarlet fever , and typhoid . Between 1850 and 1860 the mortality rate from typhoid was 116 per 100,000 people. Smallpox was a dreaded disease across London: there were epidemics in 1816–19, 1825–26, 1837–40, 1871 and 1881. A speckling of workhouse hospitals and
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#17328551750238742-437: The city, painting a bleak but also sympathetic picture of the wide variety of conditions experienced by London's poor. The extreme population density in areas like the East End made for unsanitary conditions and resulting epidemics of disease. The child mortality rate in the East End stood at 20%, while the estimated life expectancy of an East End labourer was only 19 years. In Bethnal Green , one of London's poorest districts,
8883-405: The closest bridge was Battersea Bridge , three miles upstream. The four stone bridges grew progressively more decrepit as traffic increased: Westminster Bridge was badly subsiding by the 1830s, and several piers collapsed in 1846. Blackfriars was structurally unsound, requiring substantial repairs between 1833 and 1840. Old London Bridge, whose 20 piers dated back to the 13th century, so impeded
9024-403: The conspicuous wealth of the cities of London and Westminster, there was a huge underclass of desperately poor Londoners within a short range of the more affluent areas. The author George W. M. Reynolds commented on the vast wealth disparities and misery of London's poorest in 1844: "The most unbounded wealth is the neighbor of the most hideous poverty...the crumbs which fall from the tables of
9165-404: The dangerous and congested upper reaches of the Thames. The three West India Docks were self-contained and accessed from the river via a system of locks and basins, offering an unprecedented level of security. The new warehouses surrounding the docks could accommodate close to a million tons of storage, with the Import and Export basins able to moor almost 400 ships at a time. The Commercial Road
9306-519: The development of the hotel, concerns were raised that Park Lane would soon become New York City 's Fifth Avenue . The Dorchester quickly gained a reputation as a luxury hotel and one of the most prestigious buildings on the road. During the 1930s it became known as a haunt of numerous writers and artists, such as poet Cecil Day-Lewis , novelist Somerset Maugham , and painter Sir Alfred Munnings , and it became known for its distinguished literary gatherings, including "Foyles Literary Luncheons", an event
9447-417: The dock workers and growing trade union activism coalesced into the Great Strike of 1889 , when an estimated 130,000 workers went on strike between 14 August and 16 September. The strike paralysed the port and led the dock owners to concede all of the demands of the strike committee, including a number of fairer working arrangements, the reduction of the "call-on", and higher hourly and overtime wages. During
9588-411: The eclipse of the sailing ship by the steamship in mid-century, tonnages grew larger and the shallow docks nearer the city were too small for mooring them. In response, new commercial docks were built beyond the Isle of Dogs: the Royal Victoria Dock (1855), the Millwall Dock (1868), the Royal Albert Dock (1880), and finally, the Port of Tilbury (1886), 26 miles east of London Bridge. The Victoria
9729-493: The entrances to Hyde Park at Stanhope, Grosvenor, and Cumberland Gates were refurbished, and the park's boundary wall was replaced with iron railings. Park Lane subsequently became an in-demand residential address, offering views across Hyde Park and a position at the most fashionable western edge of London. No. 93, at the junction of Park Lane and Upper Grosvenor Street , was built between 1823 and 1825 by Samuel Baxter . The British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli lived at
9870-489: The first half of the 19th century, the shipbuilding industry on the Thames was highly innovative and produced some of the most technologically advanced vessels in the world. The firm of Wigram and Green constructed Blackwall frigates from the early 1830s, a faster version of the East Indiaman sailing ship, while the naval engineer John Scott Russell designed more refined hulls for the ships constructed in his Millwall Iron Works . London shipyards had supplied about 60% of
10011-411: The first street in Britain to be electrically illuminated. Walter Thornbury praised the new construction in his Old and New London of 1878: "not only has the [Victoria] Embankment added a handsome frontage to the side of the Thames, which previously had been a public eyesore, but it has also been the means of getting rid of the unequal deposits of mud in its bed, assisting the removal of the scour of
10152-435: The flow of the river that it formed dangerous rapids for boats, and its narrow width of 26 ft could not accommodate modern traffic levels. It was the first to be replaced, by a 49-foot (15-metre) wide granite bridge with five supporting arches. "New" London Bridge was built from 1824 to 1831, with the adjacent "Old" London Bridge fully dismantled by 1832. New Westminster Bridge, made of cast iron and resting on seven arches,
10293-704: The formation of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1855. They included the Embankment from 1864, Northumberland Avenue , Clerkenwell and Theobalds Roads all from 1874. The MBW was authorized to create Charing Cross Road and Shaftesbury Avenue in the Metropolitan Street Improvement Act 1877 ( 40 & 41 Vict. c. ccxxxv), the intention being to improve communication between Charing Cross, Piccadilly Circus , Oxford Street , and Tottenham Court Road . This required extensive demolition in
10434-442: The great railway terminals developing to connect London with its suburbs and beyond, mass transport was becoming ever more important within the city as its population increased. The first horse-drawn omnibuses entered service in London in 1829. By 1854 there were 3,000 of them in service, painted in bright reds, greens, and blues, and each carrying an average of 300 passengers per day. The two-wheeled hansom cab , first seen in 1834,
10575-498: The highest in London. Its prestigious status has been commemorated by being the second-most expensive property square on the London Monopoly board. Park Lane is about 0.7 miles (1.1 km) long, and runs north from Hyde Park Corner to Marble Arch , along the eastern flank of Hyde Park . To its east is Mayfair . The road is a primary route, classified A4202. The street is one of the key bus corridors in Central London. It
10716-415: The hotel still hosts. From World War II onwards, the hotel and Park Lane became renowned for accommodating numerous international film stars, and it was closely associated with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in the 1960s and 1970s. During World War II, several properties on Park Lane were hit by bombs. Dudley House , at No. 100, suffered major structural damage, including the destruction of
10857-546: The house from 1839 to 1872. In 1845, a house on Park Lane was advertised as "one of the most recherché in London". Much of the land to the east of Park Lane was owned by the Grosvenor Estate, whose policy was to construct large family homes attracting the nouveau riche to the area. The road became lined with some of the largest privately owned mansions in London, including the Duke of Westminster 's Grosvenor House (replaced by
10998-402: The inner city areas. The new railway lines were generally built through working class areas, where land was cheaper and compensation costs lower. In the 1860s, the railway companies were required to rehouse the tenants they evicted for construction, but these rules were widely evaded until the 1880s. The displaced generally stayed in the same area as before, but under more crowded conditions due to
11139-446: The late 18th century, including Breadalbane House, Somerset House , and Londonderry House . The road grew in popularity during the 19th century after improvements to Hyde Park Corner and more affordable views of the park, which attracted the nouveau riche to the street and led to it becoming one of the most fashionable roads to live on in London. Notable residents included the 1st Duke of Westminster 's residence at Grosvenor House ,
11280-472: The location of which is now marked with a green heritage plaque. The hotel trade continued to prosper; construction of the London Hilton on Park Lane at 22 Park Lane began in 1960 and opened in 1963 at a construction cost of £8m (now £212,000,000). On 5 September 1975, a Provisional IRA bomb exploded at the hotel, killing two people and injuring over 60. The blast also damaged neighbouring properties. At
11421-515: The loss of housing. The first railway to be built in London was the London & Greenwich Railway , a short line from London Bridge to Greenwich , which opened in 1836. This was soon followed by great rail termini which linked London to every corner of Britain. These included Euston (1837), Paddington (1838), Fenchurch Street (1841), Waterloo (1848), King's Cross (1852), and St Pancras (1868). By 1865 there were 12 principal railway termini;
11562-404: The mid-19th century. Various road enlargement schemes have taken place since then, including a major reconstruction programme in the early 1960s that transformed the road into a three-lane dual carriageway by removing a 20-acre (8.1 ha) section of Hyde Park. Improved crossings for cyclists appeared in the early 21st century. Despite the changes, property prices along the road are still among
11703-427: The mortality rate stood at 1 in 41 in 1847. The average for Bethnal Green between the years 1885 and 1893 remained virtually the same as that of 1847. Meanwhile, the mortality average for those same eight years in the wealthy boroughs of Kensington and Paddington stood at roughly 1 in 53. London's overall mortality rate was tracked at a ratio of roughly 1 in 43 between the years 1869–1879; overall life expectancy in
11844-451: The net total of British foreign investment stood at £2.394 billion. The 1862 Bradshaw's Guide to London listed 83 banks, 336 stockbroking firms, 37 currency brokers, 248 ship and insurance brokerages, and 1500 different merchants in the city, selling wares of every conceivable variety. At the centre of this nexus of private capital and commerce lay the Bank of England , which by the end of
11985-600: The new bridges included Lambeth Bridge (1862), which replaced a centuries-old cross-river ferry service, Vauxhall Bridge (opened 1816), Victoria Bridge (opened in 1858 and later renamed Chelsea Bridge), and Wandsworth Bridge (1873). Park Lane Park Lane is a dual carriageway road in the City of Westminster in Central London . It is part of the London Inner Ring Road and runs from Hyde Park Corner in
12126-506: The next century. The East End of London , with an economy oriented around the Docklands and the polluting industries clustered along the Thames and the River Lea , had long been an area of working poor. By the late 19th century it was developing an increasingly sinister reputation for crime, overcrowding, desperate poverty, and debauchery. The 1881 census counted over 1 million inhabitants in
12267-438: The noise from buses. The first flats were built at Nos. 139–140 in 1915 despite local opposition, with shops following soon afterwards. However, buildings were redeveloped to allow penthouse flats , which became popular. The politician and art collector Philip Sassoon lived at No. 25 in the 1920s and 1930s and held an extensive collection of objects at his house. Dancing partners Fred and Adele Astaire moved into
12408-399: The north (which had reverted to Crown ownership in 1811). The new road had several benefits: it cleared a warren of narrow streets in Westminster in favor of a symmetrical, aesthetically pleasing street which not only relieved traffic congestion but, by providing a direct north–south route, allowed the rural area around Regent's Park to be profitably developed for residential use. Regent Street
12549-494: The only survivor of the car crash that killed al-Fayed's son Dodi Fayed and Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, briefly recuperated in a flat on Park Lane following the accident. Property prices on Park Lane remain some of the highest in London. In 2006, former Conservative leader of Westminster City Council , Dame Shirley Porter moved into a new £1.5m development on Curzon Square after twelve years of exile in Israel. In 2015,
12690-527: The optimal form of propulsion, and a slew of new battleships were built in London dockyards equipped with the new technology. The largest and most famous ship of its day, the SS Great Eastern , a collaboration between John Scott Russell and Isambard Kingdom Brunel , was constructed at the Millwall Iron Works and launched in 1858. It still holds the record as the largest ship to have been launched on
12831-424: The overcrowded Pool of London incapable of handling shipping levels efficiently. Sailors could wait a week or more to offload their cargoes, which left the ships vulnerable to theft and enabled widespread evasion of import duties. Losses on imports alone from theft were estimated at £500,000 per year in the 1790s – estimates for the losses on exports have never been made. Anxious West Indian traders combined to fund
12972-474: The poor was immortalized by Charles Dickens in such novels as Oliver Twist . One of the most famous events of 19th-century London was the Great Exhibition of 1851 . Held at The Crystal Palace , the fair attracted visitors from across the world and displayed Britain at the height of its imperial dominance. As the capital of a massive empire, London became a draw for immigrants from the colonies and poorer parts of Europe. A large Irish population settled in
13113-471: The population of " Greater London " (defined here as the Metropolitan Police District plus the City of London ) was estimated at 6.292 million. By the 1860s it was larger by one quarter than the world's second most populous city, Beijing, two-thirds larger than Paris, and five times larger than New York City. At the beginning of the 19th century, the urban core of London was bounded to
13254-506: The possession of the Londonderry family, until it was sold to make way for the 29-storey London Hilton , which opened on Park Lane in 1963. The street was not particularly significant until 1820, when Decimus Burton constructed Hyde Park Corner at the lane's southern end, coinciding with Benjamin Dean Wyatt 's reconstruction of Londonderry House and Apsley House . At the same time,
13395-551: The pressure on street traffic were first mooted in the 1840s, after the opening of the Thames Tunnel in 1843 proved such engineering work could be done successfully. However, reservations over the stability of underground tunneling persisted into the 1860s and were finally overcome when Parliament approved the construction of London's first underground railway, the Metropolitan Railway . Begun in 1860 and completed in 1863,
13536-399: The prison, where the victims of a vitiated condition of society expiate the crimes to which they have been drive by starvation and despair; and the workhouse, to which the destitute, the aged, and the friendless hasten to lay down their aching heads – and die!" In Central London, the single most notorious slum was St. Giles , a name which by the 19th century had passed into common parlance as
13677-469: The recommended cycling route from the park to the West End . What is now Park Lane was originally a track running along farm boundaries. When Hyde Park was opened in the 16th century, the lane ran north–south along its eastern boundary from Piccadilly to Marble Arch . In the 18th century, it was known as Tyburn Lane and was separated from the park by a high wall with few properties along it, aside from
13818-480: The residence of Lord Louis Mountbatten and his wife Edwina . Aldford House was constructed in 1897 for the South African diamond millionaire Sir Alfred Beit . Another diamond mining magnate, Sir Joseph Robinson owned and lived at Dudley House at No. 100. The character of Park Lane evolved from its prestigious reputation in the early 20th century, as residents began to complain about motor traffic and
13959-472: The rich would appear delicious viands to starving millions, and yet these millions obtain them not! In that city there are in all five prominent buildings: the church, in which the pious pray; the gin-palace, to which the wretched poor resort to drown their sorrows; the pawn-broker's, where miserable creatures pledge their raiment, and their children's raiment, even unto the last rag, to obtain the means of purchasing food, and – alas! too often – intoxicating drink;
14100-437: The river, and consequently improving the health of the inhabitants of London." There was a flurry of bridge-building along the Thames from the City of London westwards during the 19th century, improving overland communication to Southwark . In 1800 there were only three bridges connecting Westminster and the city to the south bank: Westminster Bridge , Blackfriars Bridge , and the ancient London Bridge . West of Westminster,
14241-523: The road becoming more desirable, traffic began to increase on Park Lane during the 19th century. A short section of the lane was widened in 1851 as part of the redevelopment work on Marble Arch. In July 1866, following the destruction of the boundary railings after a demonstration supporting the Second Reform Bill , the road was widened as far as Stanhope Gate. In 1871, Hamilton Place was widened to allow an alternative traffic flow to Piccadilly. By
14382-562: The road distanced the houses on the east side of Park Lane from Hyde Park itself, access to which is now by underpass. Despite the traffic noise the road is still upmarket, featuring five-star hotels (such as The Dorchester, the Grosvenor House Hotel and the InterContinental London Park Lane Hotel ) and showrooms for several sports car models, including BMW , Aston Martin and Mercedes-Benz . Park Lane
14523-409: The road was widened to three lanes each way either side of a central reservation. This required the demolition of Nos. 145–148 Piccadilly, near Hyde Park Corner, which had previously formed a line east of Apsley House. The work also re-appropriated East Carriage Drive inside Hyde Park as the northbound carriageway, moving the park's boundary westwards. Additionally, a car park was installed under
14664-659: The road, including penthouse flats . Several buildings suffered damage during World War II , yet the road still attracted significant development, including the Park Lane Hotel and the London Hilton on Park Lane , and several sports car garages. A number of properties on the road today are owned by some of the wealthiest businessmen from the Middle East and Asia. Current residents include business mogul Mohamed Al-Fayed and former council leader and Lord Mayor Shirley Porter . The road has suffered from traffic congestion since
14805-409: The road, which became the largest underground parking area in London. Despite the claims to preserve as much of the park as possible during the widening works; around 20 acres (8.1 ha) of park was removed and around 95 trees were felled. At the time of opening, the project was the largest road widening scheme in Central London since the construction of Kingsway in 1905. The total estimated cost
14946-509: The slums of Soho and St. Giles , with the MBW responsible for rehousing over 3,000 laborers in new-built tenements over the ten-year period it took to construct the roads. One of the most ambitious urban redesign initiatives was the building of Regent Street at the behest of the Prince Regent , who wished to build a grand boulevard linking his Carlton House in the south with Regent's Park in
15087-515: The south end of Park Lane, on the west side, gates in honour of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (widow of George VI ) were erected in 1993. The gates were designed by Giuseppe Lund and David Wynne and bear motifs in an interpretation of her coat of arms. The Animals in War Memorial was opened at the northeast edge of Park Lane in 2004 by Anne, Princess Royal . It commemorates animals that served in wars, and alongside servicemen. In June 2007,
15228-425: The south to Marble Arch in the north. It separates Hyde Park to the west from Mayfair to the east. The road has a number of historically important properties and hotels and has been one of the most sought after streets in London, despite being a major traffic thoroughfare. The road was originally a simple country lane on the boundary of Hyde Park, separated by a brick wall. Aristocratic properties appeared during
15369-518: The stations built along the lines in exurban villages surrounding London allowed commuter towns to be developed for the middle classes. The Cheap Trains Act 1883 helped poorer Londoners to relocate, by guaranteeing cheap fares and removing a duty imposed on fares since 1844. The new working class suburbs created as a result included West Ham , Walthamstow , Kilburn , and Willesden . With traffic congestion on London's roads becoming more and more serious, proposals for underground railways to ease
15510-487: The streets of London may one escape the sight of abject poverty, while five minutes' walk from almost any point will bring one to a slum; but the region my hansom was now penetrating was one unending slum. The streets were filled with a new and different race of people, short of stature, and of wretched or beer-sodden appearance. We rolled along through miles of bricks and squalor, and from each cross street and alley flashed long vistas of bricks and misery. Here and there lurched
15651-512: The success of the Metropolitan, the first being the Metropolitan District Line, opened in 1865. This line extended along the Thames from Westminster to South Kensington at first, but by 1889 it had been extended eastwards to Blackfriars , and south-west all the way to Wimbledon . The next line to be built, and the first true "tube", dug with a tunnelling shield designed by J.H. Greathead rather than by cut-and-cover excavation,
15792-821: The sweatshops and markets of the rag trade , refashioning and re-selling clothing, which itself was centered around Petticoat Lane Market and the "Rag Fair" in Houndsditch, London's largest second-hand clothing market. As members of the Jewish community prospered in the latter part of the century, many left the East End and settled in the immediate suburbs of Dalston , Hackney , Stoke Newington , Stamford Hill , and parts of Islington . An Italian community coalesced in Soho and in Clerkenwell , centered along Saffron Hill , Farringdon Road , Rosebery Avenue , and Clerkenwell Road . Out of
15933-401: The territory of London expand significantly: the city encompassed 122 square miles in 1851 and had grown to 693 square miles by 1896. During this period, London became a global political, financial, and trading capital. While the city grew wealthy as Britain's holdings expanded, 19th-century London was also a city of poverty, where millions lived in overcrowded and unsanitary slums . Life for
16074-451: The three underground railways then in operation, compared to 11,720,000 passengers in 1864 using the lone Metropolitan Railway. Before the century came to a close, a second deep-level tube was opened in 1898: the Waterloo & City Line . The shortest of the London tube lines, it was built to convey commuters between the City of London and Waterloo station . Many new roads were built after
16215-481: The transient population of "Chinese firemen, seamen, stewards, cooks and carpenters who serve on board the steamers plying between Germany and the port of London". London's first Chinatown , as this area of Limehouse became known, was depicted in novels like Charles Dickens ' The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Oscar Wilde 's The Picture of Dorian Gray as a sinister quarter of crime and opium dens. Racist stereotypes of
16356-442: The transition from sail to steam powered locomotion. This was aided by the 1834 invention by Samuel Hall of Bow of a condenser for cooling boilers which used fresh water rather than corrosive salt water. In 1838 the first screw-propelled steamer in the world, SS Archimedes , was launched at Ratcliff Cross Dock, an alternative to the less efficient paddle steamer . By 1845 the Admiralty had settled upon screw propellers as
16497-439: The two ships were purchased along with another, Castalia , and the fleet was moved to Long Reach at Gravesend , where it served 20,000 patients between 1884 and 1902. The floating hospitals were equipped with their own river ferry service to transport patients in isolation from the inner city. The ships enabled three permanent isolation hospitals to be built at Dartford , effectively ending the threat of smallpox epidemics. With
16638-454: The urban form", the increasing rigour with which Building Act regulations were applied after 1774 led to increasingly simple, standardised designs, which by the end of the 19th century were accommodating many households at the lower end of the socio-economic scale. Indeed, more grandly designed examples became less common by this period, as the very wealthy tended to prefer detached homes, and terraces in particular now became associated first with
16779-540: The very best achievements in sciences and arts of the time, it attracted 1,000 visitors per day. The rotunda at the centre of the building was encircled with a 91-metre frieze , creating a panathenaic procession in Elgin Marbles . The interior reflected the taste for religiously meaningless ornament. The panopticon cells were designed as reproductions of the Arch of Titus , Temple of Vesta , grottas and conservatories , while
16920-417: The very heart of a Christian country." At the heart of this area, now occupied by New Oxford Street and Centre Point , was "The Rookery", a particularly dense warren of houses along George Street and Church Lane, the latter of which in 1852 was reckoned to contain over 1,100 lodgers in overpacked, squalid buildings with open sewers. The poverty worsened with the massive influx of poor Irish immigrants during
17061-698: The wealthiest Middle Eastern and Asian businessmen, sheikhs and sultans. The Dorchester was purchased by the Sultan of Brunei in 1985, and since 1996 has been part of the Dorchester Collection , owned by the Brunei Investment Agency (BIA), an arm of the Ministry of Finance of Brunei. The Dorchester Collection connects The Dorchester on Park Lane to other luxury hotels internationally, including The Beverly Hills Hotel and Hotel Bel-Air of Los Angeles, and
17202-423: The west by Park Lane and Hyde Park , and by Marylebone Road to the north. It extended along the south bank of the Thames at Southwark , and to the east as far as Bethnal Green and Spitalfields . At the beginning of the century, Hyde Park Corner was considered the western entrance to London; a turnpike gate was in operation there until 1825. With the population growing at an increasing rate, so too did
17343-529: The world from about 1825, the world's largest port, and the heart of international finance and trade. Railways connecting London to the rest of Britain , as well as the London Underground , were built, as were roads, a modern sewer system and many famous sites. During the 19th century, London was transformed into the world's largest city and capital of the British Empire . The population rose from over 1 million in 1801 to 5.567 million in 1891. In 1897,
17484-596: The worlds of 'work' and 'life' to be separate. Suburbs varied enormously in character and in the relative wealth of their inhabitants, with some being for the very wealthy, and others being for the lower-middle classes. They frequently imitated the success of earlier periods of speculative housing development from the Georgian era , although the Victorian era saw a much wider array of suburban housing built in London. Terraced , semi-detached and detached housing all developed in
17625-417: Was a building flanked by minarets . This was a very large building for the time. The façade had tiles made by Mintons , shields and coats of arms of the most prominent scientists , writers and artists, including Oliver Goldsmith and Humphry Davy . 19th-century London During the 19th century, London grew enormously to become a global city of immense importance. It was the largest city in
17766-416: Was also meant to provide a clear separation between the fashionable new development of Mayfair to the west, and the by then undesirable area of Soho to the east. The plans, designed by John Nash , were approved by Act of Parliament in 1813, and by 1819 Nash's grand colonnaded, stucco-covered buildings were largely open for business. The street stretches from Pall Mall at its southern end (built closer to
17907-525: Was built in 1803 as a conduit for newly arrived goods from the Isle of Dogs straight into the City of London, and in 1812 an Act of Parliament provided for the docks to be integrated into the national canal system via the extension of the Grand Union Canal to Limehouse . The Regent's Canal , as this new branch between Paddington and Limehouse became known, was the only canal link to the Thames, connecting
18048-499: Was covered with buildings as far as Tyburn Lane, except in the south-western corner about Berkeley Square and Mayfair". In 1741, the Kensington Turnpike Trust took over its maintenance, as coach traffic caused wear on the road surface. Breadalbane House was built on the street in 1776. On the corner with Oxford Street , Somerset House (No. 40), built in 1769–70, was successively the town house of Warren Hastings ,
18189-507: Was intended as an underground artery for the movement of goods between Rotherhithe and Wapping , it opened as a pedestrian tunnel during its early decades (there were 1 million visitors to the tunnel in its first 3 months of opening). Only in 1865 was it purchased by the East London Railway and converted for railway use. The Thames Embankment was one of the most ambitious public works projects in 19th century London. It transformed
18330-500: Was once occupied by Somerset House and Camelford House. The site also includes No. 138 Park Lane, which was featured as a Home Guard headquarters in the film The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp . The Park Lane Hotel was built in 1927, designed by the architects Adie, Button and Partners . Despite its name, its postal address is on Piccadilly and it overlooks Green Park rather than Hyde Park. The Dorchester , designed by Sir Owen Williams , opened on Park Lane in 1931. With
18471-478: Was opened in 1862, replacing its unstable predecessor, and Blackfriars Bridge was demolished and rebuilt in cast iron beginning in 1864. In addition, several new bridges for road, pedestrian, and railway traffic were built: Southwark Bridge (1819), Waterloo Bridge (1817), Hungerford Bridge (opened in 1845 as a footbridge, and converted in 1859 into a combination footbridge/railway bridge for Charing Cross Station ), and Tower Bridge (1894). Further upriver,
18612-661: Was operating at the beginning of the century, new docks, ponds and the Grand Surrey Canal were added in the early 19th century by several small companies. The area became known for specializing in commerce from the Baltic , Scandinavia , and North America, especially for its large timber ponds and grain imports from North America. In 1864 the various companies amalgamated to form the Surrey Commercial Docks Company , which by 1878 constituted 13 docks and ponds. With
18753-455: Was the City and South London Railway (later the city branch of the Northern line), opened in 1890. It was London's first underground line with electric locomotives, and the first to extend south of the river. Electrification allowed the tunnels to be dug deep below ground level, as ventilation for smoke and steam was no longer necessary. In the year 1894, an estimated 228,605,000 passengers used
18894-582: Was the most ambitious: it concealed a massive interceptor sewage tunnel, which channelled waste from a network of smaller tunnels away from the River Thames and out of Central London, towards the Northern Outfall Sewer at Beckton in East London. The Victoria Embankment also allowed an extension of the Metropolitan District Line underground to be built, from Westminster east to Blackfriars. In total,
19035-491: Was the most common type of cab on London's roads throughout the Victorian era, but there were many types, like the four-wheeled Hackney carriage , in addition to the coaches, private carriages, coal-wagons, and tradesmen's vehicles which crowded the roads. There were 3,593 licensed cabs in London in 1852; by the end of the century there were estimated to be some 10,000 in all. From the 1870s onwards, Londoners also had access to
19176-533: Was the site of the world's first traffic lights , installed at the crossroads of Bridge, Great George, and Parliament Streets outside the Houses of Parliament . The 20 ft (6-metre) high column was topped by a large gas lamp, and opened in December 1868. It was designed by the railway engineer J.P. Knight after a railway semaphore signal, with multi-coloured arms coming down to regulate traffic. 19th century London
19317-580: Was the site of unprecedented engineering marvels. One of these was the Thames Tunnel , declared the "Eighth Wonder of the World" when it opened in 1843. Designed by Marc Isambard Brunel , it was the first tunnel in the world to be successfully built under a navigable river and took 18 grueling years to complete. Laborers employed to dig the tunnel, with the protection of Brunel's tunneling shield , endured five serious floods and multiple gas and sewage leaks, which caused numerous casualties and long delays. Although it
19458-545: Was the usual method of removing problematic pockets of the city; for the most part this just displaced existing residents because the new dwellings built by private developers were often far too expensive for the previous inhabitants to afford. In the mid to late 19th century, philanthropists like Octavia Hill and charities like the Peabody Trust focused on building adequate housing for the working classes at affordable rates: George Peabody built his first improved housing for
19599-405: Was transformed by the coming of the railways. A new network of metropolitan railways allowed the development of suburbs in neighboring counties from which middle-class and wealthy people could commute to the centre. While this spurred the massive outward growth of the city, London's growth also exacerbated the class divide, as the wealthier classes emigrated to the suburbs, leaving the poor to inhabit
19740-424: Was unprecedented in size: 1.5 miles in total length, encompassing over 100 acres. Hydraulic locks and purpose-built railway connections to the national transport network made the Victoria as technologically advanced as it was large. It was a great commercial success, but within two decades it was becoming too shallow, and the lock entrance too narrow, for newer ships. The St. Katharine and London Dock Company built
19881-503: Was £1,152,000 (now £30,470,000). Further traffic signals were installed at the junction of Park Lane and Hyde Park corner in 1983. The road forms part of the London Inner Ring Road and is part of the London congestion charge zone's boundary. When the zone was extended westward in February 2007, Park Lane was designated as one of the "free through routes", on which vehicles could cross the zone during its hours of operation without paying
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