“A River Side Street” an illustration by Gustave Doré for Douglas Jerrold's "London"

A River Side Street

Gustave Doré (1832-83)

1872

Source: London, facing p. 19

“Those who can and do work are emphatically—London ; and the great city is their inheritance from countless generations of toilers stretch- ing back to those rich English merchants whose fame reached Tacitus.” [continued below].

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Formatting and text by George P. Landow

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They make the laws and make the laws obeyed: they grace the Senate and the bench; they preach from the pulpit, teach in the school-room, spread daily history from the printing office; speed ships to every clime; make London the chief granary of the world ; send railway navvies to the Japanese; deal in everything the earth produces, and invent against the keenest, the means of cheapening in order to hold a market. . . . And in no part of London does Work wear more changing, more picturesque phases than in the narrow, tortuous, river-side street, that leads from the quiet of the Temple to the Tower—and so, on to the docks. In this river-side thoroughfare there are more varieties of business activity than in any other I can call to mind. Glimpses of the Thames to the left, through tangles of chains, and shafts, and ropes, and cranes; and to the right crowded lanes, with bales and boxes swinging at every height inthe air, and waggon-loads of merchandise waiting to be warehoused” (19, 21).

Bibliography

Jerrold, Blanchard, and Gustave Doré. London: A Pilgrimage. London: Grant & Co., 1872.

Last modified 16 February 2014