After plugging in more of the family history stuff, I read some more of the Walford, this time about Charing Cross, Leicester Square and Ms Martins-in-the-Fields. Walford really excelled himself. In the chapter on Charing Cross, he was more than usually vitriolic about the 'lowest class of person' that once inhabited the area. He deplored the railway architecture, and the viaducts that attracted congregations of street children. He railed on about the railway bridges that cut through streets 'at the most hideous angles'.
He then went on to talk about Lord Hungerford, whose mansion stood there in days of yore. He recounted how the said pile burst into flames one day, and the King, being concerned at the news, commanded the house next door to be blown up to stop the spread of the fire. They didn't muck about in those days. I turned in at half past nine.
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