The night side of London / by J. Erving Ritchie.

  • Ritchie, J. Ewing (James Ewing), 1820-1898.
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The night side of London / by J. Erving Ritchie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    humble Temperance and religious labourers in that field tell me that they are never insulted by the women as they are in the Commercial-road, and the tradesmen say the same. How comes it then that St. George's-street, as it is now called, has such a bad name ? Assuredly it is part and parcel of the metropolis ; assuredly the queen's writ is a power there; it enjoys the protection of the police, it pays rates and taxes, employs scavengers and dustmen, boasts churches and chapels, is not cut off from the rest of the empire, is traversed by railways, by cabs and buses, and by postmen. Nevertheless, the place is not a favourite spot to visit. Lately a letter from an Englishman was published in the Times, complaining of the magis- trates of Hamburgh, because when he was coming from church with some ladies, he strayed into a street where his sense of decorum was very properly shocked. It ill becomes an Englishman to write of the immorality of Hamburgh, or any other con- tinental town. Let him walk down St. George's- street or any other similar spot where vice loses all its charms by appearing in all its grossness. I fear that it is not true generally to the eyes of the class she leads astray, that