Though briefly mentioned in Egerton’s “A Lost Masterpiece”, the London Bridge seems to serve as a passing point for the narrator who leaves the countryside to journey to the city for “the desire to mix with the crowd, to lay my ear once more to the heart of the world and listen to its life-throbs, had grown too strong for me” (Egerton). It is the threshold that serves as the introduction into the city of London, the “heart of the world”.

In the piece, the narrator mentions boarding a river steamer in Chelsea that was bound for the London Bridge. Using this image found on the Victorian Web, we can get an idea of how the bridge appeared in the Victorian era:

Besides getting an idea of how the bridge appeared back then, we also know that if the steamer was headed for the bridge, it would have to cross under. Alongside the river, we see countless numbers of industrialized buildings and wharf that populated alongside the river.

Also interestingly enough there had been a previous London Bridge that had been dismantled in 1832. The newer bridge had been designed by John Rennie and the building began in 1825 and was finished in 1831. On the google map of Victorian London, you can also see an old outline of the old London Bridge compared to the newer one. I thought it was an interesting find to include, as that’s not quite common knowledge that there were two London Bridges, though I doubt Egerton’s piece is referring to the old one.

Here’s also another map of the London Bridge provided by the Charles Booth Online Archive to give a better layout of the bridge:

According to the British History Online, the London Bridge also has quite a history. Along with serving as a battlefield and a place of worship, it was a place of resort for traders and a show-place for traitors. One passage, that I found was interesting, explained the passage on the bridge: “and the passage between its arches was one of the exploits of venturous youth, down to the very time of its removal” (Thornbury). Which can go back to the text as the narrator passed on from the simple and green countryside to the industrialized city. “The river was wrapped in a delicate grey haze with a golden sub-tone, like a beautiful bright thought struggling for utterance through a mist of obscure words. It glowed through the turbid waters under the arches, so that I feared to see a face or a hand wave through its dull amber—for I always think of drowned creatures washing wearily in its murky depths—it lit up the great
warehouses, and warmed the brickwork of the monster chimneys in the background. No detail escaped my outer eyes not the hideous green of the velveteen in the sleeves of the woman on my left, nor the supercilious giggle of the young ladies on my right, who made audible remarks about my personal appearance” (Egerton).

As mentioned, the bridge had also been the scene of many fights. During Queen Mary’s reign, fighting commenced on the bridge in 1554 was one such example. And during Queen Elizabeth’s reign, the bridge had been restored  until the eighteenth century where it became ruinous.

And finally, one last remaining fact about the location is in reference to the old nursery rhyme “London Bridge is Falling Down”. On the British History Online site, it is mentioned that “if Old London Bridge had a fault, it was, perhaps, its habit of occasionally partly falling down” (Thornbury). Perhaps then this is where the nursery rhyme had its root come from? Thought it was an interesting fact to include in as well.

Works Cited:

Berners Street plays a large role in Evelyn Sharp’s “In Dull Brown.” It appears to have been a strange little area suiting for Jean’s run in with Tom. Actually, Jean’s run in with Tom appears to mirror a similar real life event from 1779. One victim named Thomas Harris Carzey recalls a man who, “when we got to the corner of Berners-street he catched hold of me by the collar, and asked if I knew who I had been talking to” (Old Bailey Proceedings Online). Still, it differs in that this court case ended in a violent robbery, while Jean appears merely played by a cunning man. Still, much of the crime that occurred on Berners Street during this time period appeared to be cases of theft. Scrolling through The Proceedings of the Old Bailey most cases that mention Berners Street are listed as some sort of theft whether it’s grand larceny or pickpocketing. This makes it appear to be an area one may wish to avoid traveling alone and talking to strangers on.

Also, in Charles Booth’s notebooks, he mentions how Berners Street is a bit of a “center for music establishments” (Booth). This would make sense for certain people who are more artistically inclined such as Jean to spend time in an area like this.

Upon further exploration, Berners street seems like a fairly standard street. There’s the Berners’ hotel, which is not listed in most sites besides the map of London. It is close to Middlesex hospital and various entertainment establishments. It appears to be relatively standard. Looking at more modern photos, it appears to have modernized pretty standardly while maintaining aspects of the Victorian architecture, except it is much cleaner looking.

The use of Berners Street in “In Dull Brown,” appears important to show Jean’s artistic lean, but also some of the sketchy individuals that Jean encounters seem fitting for some of the crimes that occurred on Berners Street at the time.

Works Cited

Booth, Charles. “B355.” Charles Booth Online Archive. London: London School of Economics and Political Science. 80-81. Print.

Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, version 7.2, 10 September 2015), October 1779, trial of JOHN STAPLES (t17791020-13).

“In Dull Brown” by Evelyn Sharp tells the story of Jean and Tom, who walk many of the streets of London, one of them being Oxford Street. Oxford street was known to be one of the busiest streets in London. It was known as “one of the world’s longest shopping streets, consisting of over a mile of uninterrupted commercial development, now almost exclusively Victorian or more recent in date.”

Besides being just a busy street for shops, Oxford also “…consisted almost uniformly of modest, irregular Georgian houses with shop fronts; only at the very west end close to Park Lane, where there was a scatter of substantial private houses and their outbuildings…”.  This description of location helps describe how Jean’s choice of dress did not make her feel as if she stood out in comparison to her location, which shows us an insight look on how Jean feels about herself. After her meet up with Tom she says “he was being most dreadfully unconventional, and I couldn’t help wondering if he would have spoken to me again, if I had worn my new tailor-made gown and looked ordinary.” One of the themes of the story is gender inequality and in this quote, Jean is describing how Tom may have been “unconventional” towards her because of how un-ordinary she is.

In order to get to Oxford Street, the characters had to walk across Green Park. In one end of the park was Buckingham Palace Gates and in the other is Oxford Street. These high class and very well known places further explain the wealth that is in Oxford Street. According to google maps, Oxford Street continues to be a local street for expensive stores such as Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Prada.

  Sharp, Evelyn. “In Dull Brown.” The Yellow Book 8 (January 1896): 181-200. The Yellow Nineties Online. Ed. Dennis Denisoff and Lorraine Janzen Kooistra. Ryerson University, 2012. Web. [Date of access]. http://1890s.ca/HTML.aspx?s=YBV8_sharp_dull.html

Oxford Street: Introduction.’ Survey of London: Volume 40, the Grosvenor Estate in Mayfair, Part 2 (The Buildings). Ed. F H W Sheppard. London: London County Council, 1980. 171. British History Online. Web. 8 September 2015. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol40/pt2/p171.

Charing Cross is the name of a T shaped intersection near Trafalgar Square in London. According to The Victorian Web, the area gets its name from the Queen Eleanor Memorial Cross located nearby, though it is not named after the cross itself. Apparently the word “Charing” comes from the Old English cierran, meaning to turn: it was meant to indicate to turn at the cross “from the Strand towards Westminster” (The Victorian Web). According to the Charles Booth poverty map, the surrounding area was a mixture of upper class, upper middle class, well-to-do middle class, and poor. Closest to the actual road labeled Charing Cross, however, there appears to be mostly shades of blue, indicating poor or very poor.

The high population of poor people in the area explains why when searching just “Charing Cross” (with no further criteria) on The Old Bailey, the search came up with 1835 results. Not all of these results described crimes that happened at Charing Cross, instead they might have been testimonies that involved Charing Cross in a manner unrelated to the crime. Many of the crimes that did actually occur at Charing Cross were murders of various degrees, theft, or deception (forgery). Crimes that would be typical in an area of poor people with nearby middle class homes.

When searching Charing Cross on British History Online, I found information on the architecture of buildings. One section explained that “the deep decline in the standards of London’s street architecture during the late nineteenth century is nowhere more evident than in Charing Cross Road. The southern half of the street is dominated by the ugly repetitions of Sandringham Buildings, multi-storey artisans’ dwellings with shops at ground-floor level, which extend along both sides of Charing Cross Road between Litchfield and Great Newport Streets” (BHO). These buildings were erected to provide for the rehousing of 2,000 of the laboring classes (BHO). This re-emphasizes the fact that Charing Cross was filled with the poor, lower classes.

In “A Lost Masterpiece” Charing Cross is the bus stop where the narrator completely loses their “little masterpiece” (Egerton). This masterpiece had been disrupted when the narrator saw a woman running to catch the omnibus. The narrator explained that this annoyed them because they “could not help wondering why she was in such a desperate hurry” (Egerton). The narrator apparently cannot relate to having to rush. When the bus stops at Charing Cross the narrator says “Of course, naturally! Here she comes, elbows out, umbrella waning!” (Egerton). Considering my research seems to indicate a high population of poorer people in the area, this scene seems to be speaking directly to the idea of class divide. Clearly referring to the woman who was rushing earlier for some unfathomable reason, the narrator’s statement “of course, naturally” indicates that it makes sense that a woman who was getting off at Charing Cross would be rushing. She would be of a lower class and not have the time to sit on an omnibus nursing the ingenious masterpiece forming in their mind. It has already been made clear that the narrator does not understand the need to rush, showing that they are probably of a higher class.

Work Cited

Booth, Charles. “Booth Poverty Map & Modern Map (Charles Booth Online Archive).” Booth Poverty Map & Modern Map (Charles Booth Online Archive). London School of Economics & Political Science, n.d. Web. 09 Sept. 2015.

Egerton, George [Mary Chavelita Dunne Bright]. “A Lost Masterpiece.” The Yellow Book 1 (Apr. 1894): 189-96.The Yellow Nineties Online. Ed. Dennis Denisoff and Lorraine Janzen Kooistra. Ryerson University, 2010. Web. 09 Sept. 2015.

http://www.victorianweb.org/art/architecture/barryem/4.html

“Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road.” Survey of London: Volumes 33 and 34, St Anne Soho. Ed. F H W Sheppard. London: London County Council, 1966. 296-312. British History Online. Web. 8 September 2015.

“The Proceedings of the Old Bailey.” N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Sept. 2015

In “A Lost Masterpiece” the speaker is an individual from the country, who came to London with an idea that would positively impact multitudes of people. As the story progresses this individual passes through different points of London and becomes distracted, eventually losing his grand idea, causing him to become distraught. I researched the final point this traveler passed through, where his idea eventually eluded him; the location was Charing Cross. Charing Cross Road became a redevelopment project in the late eighteen hundreds, and was an ugly droll place. the following passage details the demeanor, “The east side of the northern part of Charing Cross Road is lined with buildings of various styles, heights,and materials, although red bricks predominates and a general level of mediocrity prevails” (Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road). The overall melancholy of the appearance of the buildings may have had something to do with our protagonist losing his grand idea. the story also mentions a woman that, through no fault of her own, infiltrated his mind and forced his grand scheme to vacate. This woman may have been one of the many who were moved into housing projects that were reserved for the working class. these moves are described as such, “In December 1884 the Home Secretary certified that the Board had provided artisans’ dwellings for upwards of two thousand persons of the laboring classes” (Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road). These individuals were all displaced due to the restructuring of the streets on which they lived. The overall depressive state of Charing Cross mirrors the depression of the speaker, after he loses his wonderful idea.

Work Cited

‘Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road.’ Survey of London: Volumes 33              and 34, St Anne Soho. Ed. F H W Sheppard. London: London County                      Council, 1966. 296-312. British History Online. Web. 9 September 2015.                   http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols33-4/pp296-312.