A guest blog post by Feona Hamilton, Anne Lister Diary Transcription Project Codebreaker
Anne made several trips to London in order to ‘make some shoppings’ to use her own phrase. In August 1826 she came to London with Mariana and her diary gives us details of where they went and what they bought. As a Londoner myself, I thought it would be interesting to go to some of the places she mentions and contrast how they look now, compared to how they would have looked when she was here.
The full diary entries can be found at SH:7/ML/E/9/0144 and SH:7/ML/E/9/0145.
CHEAPSIDE HAT MAKER’S SHOP
‘….leaving Mariana’s bonnet to be trimmed at 129 Cheapside…’
See what Cheapside looked like in Anne’s time by visiting the London Picture Archive here.
CHEAPSIDE 2023
Cheapside is still a busy street in the City on weekdays. Despite all the demolishing of older properties and the building of new ones, there are still reminders of earlier times. The little two storey buildings in this photo, which are 2 doors along from today’s No. 129, date from 1674 and have somehow survived. During the working week an estimated 350,000 people come into the City, where they work mainly in the financial services and legal sectors. This photo was taken at 10am on a Sunday morning, when the City is almost empty and it becomes a peaceful haven for its 9,500 residents.
LACKINGTON’S BOOKSHOP, FINSBURY SQUARE
‘Then … in search of Lackington’s – Lackington dead – but his shop in Finsbury Square and carried on by somebody else…’
To see what Lackington’s Bookshop looked like in Anne’s time visit the London Picture Archive here.
FINSBURY SQUARE 2023
Lackington was famous as a successful, if shady, bookseller. His shop in Finsbury Square was taken over by a man called Jones, who retained the original name as it was so well known. The London Picture Archive image shows the interior of the Finsbury Square shop. The photo shows the square as it looks today – a typical scene of the eternal building that goes on endlessly all over central London. Glass tower blocks now loom over the square, with the inevitable cluster of gigantic cranes beside them. In contrast, the famous bowling green is still maintained and used by City workers, and the cluster of temporary coffee bars huddles on the side of the lawn. Lackington’s shop would have been on the site of the building behind the games pavilion – the more permanent small building centre right in the photo.
BURLINGTON ARCADE
‘…down Regent Street to the Burlington arcade to shew M[ariana] all this by lamp light. She was delighted – exceedingly taken by the arcade…’
To see what Burlington Arcade looked like in Anne’s time visit the London Picture Archive here.
BURLINGTON ARCADE 2023
Almost exactly 200 years later, the architecture and appearance of the arcade is virtually unchanged. The roof structure with its glass skylights and the two storey units are exactly the same in both pictures, as are the large windows allowing space to display the goods offered by each incumbent and to encourage interest.
Burlington arcade is now even more famous than it was Anne’s time, housing a number of small boutiques selling high end brands. E. Marinella, an upmarket family firm founded in Naples in the early 20th century, is a typical example. It offers beautiful silk goods, which Mariana and Anne would have both loved and no doubt purchased, Mariana for herself and Anne for her beloved Aunt Anne and her sister Marian.
PATERNOSTER ROW
‘…desired the man to refresh his horses and George to get his dinner and meet us at Longman’s Paternoster Row…’
To see what Paternoster Row looked like during Anne’s time visit the London Picture Archive here.
PATERNOSTER ROW 2023
The buildings in the London Picture Archive image are as they would have been ten years earlier, when Anne and Mariana visited. The windows at street level would have shown examples of the books published under the sign of each individual publishing firm, which were used instead of street numbers. The street led, as it does today, to St Paul’s Cathedral and had long been the centre of publishing and bookselling. Longmans has moved, but still exists as a publisher today, now known as Pearson Longman. It was founded in 1724 by Thomas Longman, with premises in Paternoster Row. Anne’s passion for books made it inevitable that she would visit the street. The whole area was very badly bombed during World War 2 and has been completely redesigned and rebuilt. Paternoster Row has become merely a short street which leads, like several others, into the rebuilt Paternoster Square, now a space lined with shops and restaurants. Its is used for concerts and other events during the summer and decorated with a huge Christmas tree in December. One corner of the square is now entered via the original arch of Temple Bar , which was once an entry to the City in Fleet Street, until the volume of traffic necessitated its removal.
TEMPLE BAR
…’hence walked to Dobson’s just within Temple Bar – large stock of dressing and work boxes – chose one of each…’
To see what Temple Bar would have looked like in Anne’s time visit the London Picture Archive here.
TEMPLE BAR 2023
The Temple Bar Gate which stood on the site of the memorial shown here was removed during the 19th century to allow the traffic to move more freely. Today congestion is still a major problem, although the traffic jam did allow me to take a photo that includes London cabs and a London red bus. The monument has a London griffon or gryphon – not griffin and definitely not a dragon – on the top, which indicates that it is on the boundary of the City of London. I stood in Westminster to take this shot on the other side of the boundary. Mr Dobson’s shop would have been situated in a small entry just behind where the red bus is at a standstill.
Anne visited London numerous times, and her diary gives the details of those visits in her usual manner. She often visited friends who lived in the Regency terraces around Regent’s Park, which look exactly the same now as they did then. During this visit, she also went to the British Museum, where she viewed the Elgin marbles although not in the current British Museum building which wasn’t built until 1842, and St. Paul’s Cathedral, which she would find familiar today.
Anyone resident in central London or the City believes that great swathes are being demolished and replaced with anonymous new buildings. I have been surprised, and pleased, to discover that, contrary to this impression, many of our streets look more or less the same as they did almost 200 years ago.
[Note: the City, with a capital C, always refers simply to the City of London, or the Square Mile, as it is also known. It is the financial centre of London and the smallest borough.]
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