Church, with a large late-Gothic tower, built by Wren, and lately restored by Sir G. G. Scott. Farther on is St. Peter's Church, which according to a groundless tradition was originally built by the ancient Britons. Gray, the poet (1716-71), was born in the house which formerly occupied the site of No. 41 Cornhill.

In Leadenhall Street, which continues Cornhill, stands, on the right and near the corner of Gracechurch Street, Leadenhall Market, one of the chief marts in London for poultry, game, and hides (see p. 27); large additions have recently been made to this market. Farther on, to the left, is the small church of St. Andrew Undershaft (i. e. under the maypole, as the maypole which used to be erected here was higher than the tower of the church); the turreted late-Gothic tower dates from 1532. At the end of the N. aisle is the tomb of Stow, the antiquary (d. 1605). Still farther on, on the same side, is the Church of St. Catherine Cree, with an interior by Inigo Jones, being the successor of an older church in which Holbein (d. 1543) is said to have been interred. The character of the services held here by Archbp. Laud in 1631 formed one of the charges in his trial. The old House of the East India Company, in which Charles Lamb was a clerk, stood at the corner of Leadenhall Street and Lime Street. The New Zealand Chambers (No. 34), nearly opposite St. Andrew Undershaft's, are one of Norman Shaw's reproductions of mediæval architecture. At the end of Leadenhall Street is the Aldgate Station of the Metropolitan Railway.

Lombard Street and Fenchurch Street, forming a line on the S. nearly parallel to Cornhill and Leadenhall Street, are also among the busiest thoroughfares of the city. Lombard Street has been for ages the most noted street in London for banking and finance, and has inherited its name from the 'Lombard' money dealers from Genoa and Florence, who, in the 14th and 15th centuries, took the place of the discredited and persecuted Jews of 'Old Jewry' as money lenders. Fenchurch Street reminds us by its name of the fenny character of the district when the old church was built (drained by the little stream of 'Lang bourne' running into the 'Walbrook'). On the N. side of the street is the Elephant Tavern (rebuilt), where Hogarth lodged for some time, and which was once adorned with several of his works. Adjacent is the Ironmongers' Hall, whose company dates from the reign of Edward IV., with an interesting interior, portraits of Isaak Walton and Admiral Hood, etc. Fenchurch Street is connected with Great Tower Street by Mincing Lane (so called from the 'minchens', or nuns of St. Helen's, to whom part of it belonged), which is the central point of the colonial wholesale trade. The fine Tower of All Hallows Staining in this lane is one of the oldest of the relics which have

+ Mr. Loftic thinks 'fen' may be a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon foin (hay), as 'grace' in Gracechurch Street is of grass.

survived the Great Fire. The Clothworkers' Hall, in the same street, dates originally from the 15th century. A little to the E., in Mark Lane (originally Mart Lane), is the Corn Exchange (Pl. R, 43; III), and near it is Fenchurch Street Station (for the railway to Blackwall, p. 34). On the E. side of Mark Lane is Hart Street, with the Church of St. Olave, interesting as having survived the Great Fire, and as the church once frequented by Samuel Pepys (d. 1703). The picturesque interior contains a number of curious old tombs, including those of Pepys and his wife. A bust of Pepys was placed on the S. wall in 1884. Many persons who died of the plague in 1665 are buried in the churchyard. In the same street once stood a monastery of the 'Crossed Friars', a reminiscence of whom still exists in the adjoining street of Crutched Friars.

On the E. margin of the City proper lie WHITECHAPEL, a district chiefly inhabited by artisans, and HOUNDSDITCH, the quarter of Jew brokers and second-hand dealers, whence the Minories lead southwards to the Tower and the Thames. In the Minories rises the old Church of the Trinity, once belonging to a Minorite nunnery, and containing the head of the Duke of Suffolk (beheaded, 1554) and several curious old monuments.

The main thoroughfare traversing this E. London district is Whitechapel Road, continued by Mile End Road, leading to Bow and Stratford (comp. p. 316). To the left, about 1/4 M. beyond Aldgate Station (p. 36), diverges Commercial Street, in which stands St. Jude's Church (P1. R, 47 ; III), containing copies of four of the principal works of Mr. G. F. Watts, finished off by that artist himself ('Love and Death', 'Messenger of Death', 'Death crowning Innocence', 'The Good Samaritan'). The exterior is adorned with a fine mosaic after Watts.

Adjoining the church is Toynbee Hall, named after Arnold Toynbee, who died in the prime of youth (in 1883), while actively engaged in lecturing on political economy to the working-men of London. The hall, which is a 'hall' in the academic sense, contains rooms for about 20 residents, chiefly Oxford and Cambridge graduates desirous of sharing the life and experiences of the E. end poor. It also contains drawing, dining, reading, and lecture rooms, a library, etc., in which numerous social meetings are held for the people of the neighbourhood. Those interested in work of this kind should apply to the Warden (Rev. S. Barnett, vicar of St. Jude's). Toynbee Hall is also one of the centres of the 'University Extension Lectures' scheme. Oxford House, Bethnal Green, is a similar institution.

A Loan Exhibition of Pictures, established by Mr. and Mrs. Barnett in 1880, is held for a fortnight every Easter (10-10; free) in the schoolrooms adjoining St. Jude's. It generally contains some of the best works of modern English artists, and now ranks among the artistic 'events' of the year.

In Mile End Road, about 1/2 M. farther on, is the People's Palace for East London, a large institution for the 'recreation and amusement, the intellectual and material advancement of the vast artisan population of the East End'. Its form was suggested by the 'Palace of Delight' described in Mr. Walter Besant's novel, 'All Sorts and Conditions of Men'; and the nucleus of the 100,000l. required for its erection was furnished by an endowment of Mr. J. F. Barber Beaumont (d. 1841). This has been largely supplemented by voluntary public subscriptions, including 60,000l. from the Drapers' Company. The large *Queen's Hall, opened by Queen Victoria in May, 1887, is adorned with statues of the Queens of England by F. Verheyden. When complete the Palace will comprise technical and trade schools, a reference library, reading-rooms, a covered garden and promenade, an open-air garden and recreation ground, swimming-baths, gymnasia, schools of cookery and needlework, etc. Exhibitions, concerts, and entertainments of various kinds are held here; and the evening classes are attended by about 3000 students.

6. London Bridge. The Monument. Lower Thames Street.

Fishmongers' Hall. St. Magnus the Martyr's. Billingsgate. Custom House. Coal Exchange.

King William Street, a wide thoroughfare with handsome buildings, leads S.E. from the Bank to London Bridge. Immediately on the left, at the corner of Lombard Street, is the church of St. Mary Woolnoth, erected in 1716, by Hawksmoor. It contains a tablet to the memory of Newton, the friend of Cowper the poet, with an epitaph by himself. Farther on, at the point where King William Street, Gracechurch Street, Eastcheap, and Cannon Street (p. 116) converge, on a site once occupied by Falstaff's 'Boar's Head Tavern', rises the Statue of William IV., by Nixon. Adjacent is the Monument Station of the Underground Railway (p. 38). To the left, in Fish Street Hill, is the Monument (see p. 110). On each side of the first arch of London Bridge, which crosses Lower Thames Street (p. 111), are flights of stone steps descending to the street below.

London Bridge (Pl. R, 42; III), until a century ago the only bridge over the Thames in London, and still the most important, connects the City, the central point of business, with the Borough, a densely populated, chiefly manufacturing district, on the Surrey (S.) side of the river (see p. 293).

The Saxons, and perhaps the Romans before them, erected various wooden bridges over the Thames on the site of the present London Bridge, but these were all at different periods carried away by floods or destroyed by fire. At length in 1176 Henry II. instructed Peter, chaplain of the church of St. Mary Cole, to construct a stone bridge at this point, but the work was not completed till 1209, in the reign of Henry's son, John. A chapel, dedicated to St. Thomas of Canterbury, was built upon the bridge, and a row of houses sprang up on each side, so that the bridge resembled a continuous street. It was terminated at both banks by fortified gates, on the pinnacles of which the heads of traitors used to be exposed.

In one of the houses dwelt Sir John Hewitt, Lord Mayor in the time of Queen Elizabeth, whose daughter, according to the romantic story, fell into the river, and was rescued by Edward Osborne, his apprentice. The brave and fortunate youth afterwards married the young lady and founded the family of the present Duke of Leeds.

The present London Bridge, 33 yds. higher up the river than the old bridge (removed in 1832), was designed by John Rennie, a Scotch engineer, begun in 1825 under the superintendence of his sons, Sir John and George Rennie, and completed in 1831. The total outlay, including the cost of the approaches, was about 2,000,000l. The bridge, 928 ft. long and 54 ft. broad, is borne by five granite arches, of which that in the centre has a span of 152 ft. The lamp-posts on the bridge are cast of the metal of French cannon captured in the Peninsular War.

It is estimated that 15,000 vehicles and about 100,000 pedestrians cross London Bridge daily, a fact which may give the stranger some idea of the prodigious traffic carried on in this part of the city. New-comers should pay a visit to London Bridge on a weekday during business hours to see this busy scene and hear the almost deafening noise of the traffic. Stoppages or 'blocks' in the stream of vehicles, of course, sometimes take place; but, thanks to the skilful management of the police, such interruptions are seldom of long duration. One of the police regulations is that slow-moving vehicles travel at the sides, and quick ones in the middle. London Bridge divides London into 'above' and 'below' bridge. Looking down the river we survey the Port of London, the part immediately below the bridge being called the Pool. To this portion of the river sea-going vessels of the largest size have access, there being as yet no bridge below this point. On the right and left, as far as the eye can penetrate the smoky atmosphere, are seen forests of masts; while high above and behind the houses on both banks rises the rigging of large vessels in the various docks. Above bridge the traffic is carried on chiefly by penny steamboats and coal barges. Among the buildings visible from the bridge are, on the N. side of the river, the Tower, Billingsgate Market, the Custom House, the Monument, St. Paul's, a great number of other churches, and the Cannon Street Station, while on the Surrey side lie St. Saviour's Church, Barclay and Perkins's Brewery, and the extensive double station of the South Eastern and Brighton Railways.

An admirable survey of the traffic on the bridge as well as on the river is obtained from The Monument (Pl. R, 43; III), in Fish Street Hill, a little to the north. This consists of a fluted column, 202 ft. in height, designed by Wren, and was erected in 1671-77 in commemoration of the Great Fire of London, which, on 2-7th Sept., 1666, destroyed 460 streets with 89 churches and 13,200 houses, valued at 7,335,000l. The height of the column is said to equal its distance from the house in Pudding Lane in which the fire broke out. A winding staircase of 345 steps (adm. 3d.) ascends the column to a platform enclosed by an iron cage (added to put a stop to suicides from the monument), above which rises a gilt urn with blazing flames, 42 ft. in height. The pedestal bears inscriptions and allegorical reliefs.

Immediately to the W. of London Bridge, at the lower end of Upper Thames Street, stands Fishmongers' Hall, a guild-house erected in 1831 on the site of an older building. The Company of Fishmongers existed as early as the time of Edward I. It originally consisted of two separate trades, that of the Salt-Fishmongers and that of the Stock-Fishmongers, which were united to form the present body in the reign of Henry VIII. The guild is one of the richest in London, possessing an annual revenue of 20,000l. In politics it has usually been distinctively attached to the Whig party, while the Merchant Taylors are recognised as the great Tory company. On the landing of the staircase is a statue of Lord Mayor Walworth (a member of the company), who slew the rebel Wat Tyler (p. 95). Among the objects of interest in the interior are the dagger with which that rebel was slain; a richly embroidered pall used at Walworth's funeral; a chair made out of part of the first pile driven in the construction of Old London Bridge, supposed to have been submerged in the Thames for 650 years; portraits of William III. and his queen by Murray, George II. and his consort by Shackleton, and Queen Victoria by Herbert Smith.

LOWER THAMES STREET runs eastwards from London Bridge to the Custom House and the Tower. Chaucer, the 'father of English poetry', is said to have lived here in 1379-85. Close to the bridge, on the right, stands the handsome church of St. Magnus the Martyr, with a cupola and low spire, built by Wren in 1676. It contains the tomb of Miles Coverdale, Bishop of Exeter, author of the first complete printed English version of the Bible (1535).

Farther to the E., on the Thames, is Billingsgate (so called from a gate of old London, named, as tradition says, after Belin, a king of the Britons), the chief fish-market of London, the bad language used at which has become proverbial. In the reign of Elizabeth this was a market for all kinds of provisions, but since the reign of William III. it has been used for fish only. Fish has been landed and sold here from time immemorial. In the reign of Edward I. the prices of fish were as follows: soles, per doz., 3d.; oysters, per gallon, 2d.; four whitings 1d.; four best salmon 5s.; eels, per quarter of a hundred, 2d.; and so on. The best fish is bought at the beginning of the market by the regular fishmongers. After them come the costermongers, who fill their barrows at lower prices, and are said to sell a third of the fish consumed in London. Billingsgate wharf is the oldest on the Thames. The present market, with a figure of Britannia on the apex of the pediment, was designed by Horace Jones, and opened in July, 1877. The market begins daily at 5 a.m., and is one of the sights