London: How to get a good feeling for the Victorian Era?
 

What would you see and do in London to get a good feeling for this grand era?

I'm compiling a list of places and things associated with the lifestyle, art, and architecture of Victorian London. A modest beginning is found below. Would appreciate feedback and additions.

I plan to visit as many as I can on future trips. Also welcomed, are recommendations on websites and books for further research.

Albert Memorial
All Saints Margaret Street Church
Bank of England Building & Museum
British Museum
Caryle House
Cavendish Square
Dickens House
Stock Exchange Building
Natural History Museum
Geffrye Museum - Victorian Rooms
Highgate Cemetary
Leighton House
Linley Sambourne House
Liverpool Street Station
Mansion House Building
Marble Arch Monument
Marylebone Station
National Army Museum
Natural History Museum
Nelson Column - Trafalger Square
Paddington Station
Ragged School Museum
Somerset House - the Strand
St Pancras Station
St Paul's Cathedral
St Mary Lambeth Church
Temple Church
Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria Station

Forgot this one - Leadenhall Market on Whittington St in the city. Late victorian structure that is very ornate. Open 0700 to 1600, M-F.

Add the museum of London to your list. If memory serves me correctly, this is near the Barbican. It shows the history of London proper from the early times through the plague and fire to now. You also get a peek at the Mayor of London's gold carriage.

Kensall Rise cemetary is probably an even better example of the Victorian way of death than Highgate (not every inhabitant of London was writing the Communist Manifesto)

The hotel at St Pancras (now St Pancras Chambers) is probably THE most spectacular example of Victorian insanity outside Asia. Getting inside is tricky: see www.lcrproperties.com

Kings Cross Station doesn't look like our idea of Victorian. But it is, and that rather Spartan clasicissism is quite typical of the period up to the really big Railway Bubble.

The Durbar Court at the Foreign Office, and whatever other bits of Whitehall you can get into.

The Albert Hall as well as the Memorial. In fact the whole of Albertopolis: many of the non-moumental stuff in the area is probably just as important as the cathedral-like structures.

A good source for other monumental stuff is the catalogue of London Open House (londonopenhouse.org), the annual weekend when lots of stuff usually closed is open - usually with enthusiastic guides.

All of this, and your list, is about Grand Architecture. There were also a few million houses lived in. Probably the biggest surviving swathe of middle-class houses lived in during the 19th century is Islington through to Hackney: mostly built in the time of William IV (you can tell by the retrofitted letter boxes: post-1840, letter boxes were installed at construction). But inhabited through Victoria's reign, and restored back to single-family occupancy from the late 1960's to 1980's. The mile or so north, west and east of Camden Passage.

Wilton's Music Hall.

The best gin house-style pub (outside Liverpool and Dublin, of course, where the best Victorian pubs are. As are many other of the greatest buildings of the era) is probably the Salisbury, St Martin's Lane.

The Encyclopedia of London is quite indispensable for this. Buy it (from Amazon) and just read it like a novel.

Have fun.

And you walk through a re-creation of a Victorian street with a range of shopfronts from the era.

The old New Scotland Yard building?

Thanks for all the ideas and feedback. I'll take a look at those soon. Keep those things coming.

Was going to add: Wellington Arch, Faraday Musuem, Bloomsbury area, Hamsptead Heath, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Royal Opera building, Sherlock Holmes Museum, and Florence Nightingale Museum.

What about some streets in "The City"?
Any of those still retain some character?

Hi Degas,

Not too long ago Ben Haines posted a web site for Victorian research. You might find this interesting:

http://VictorianResearch.org

Here's an updated listed based on your inputs and some research on the sites you gave me.

Albert Hall
Albert Memorial
Albert Pub
All Saints Margaret Street Church (behind Oxford St)
Anchor Pub (Bankside)
Apsley House
Bank of England Building & Museum
Blackfrairs Pub (The City)
Bloomsbury Area
British Museum
Caryle House
Cavendish Square
Cheyne Walk - Chelsea
Courtauld Gallery - 19th Century paintings
Dickens House
Dickens Inn Pub (St Katherine's Dock)
Exchange Building
Faraday Museum
Florence Nightingale Museum
Geffrye Museum - Victorian Rooms
George Inn Pub (Borough High St, SE1)
Grenadiar Pub
Hamspstead Heath
Highgate Cemetery
Kansal Green Cemetery
Kew Gardens - Maids of Honour Tea Room
Lamb and Flag Pub (Covent Garden)
Lyceum Theatre - the Strand: a classical building with big portico and pillars dating from 1830s
Law Courts - on the Strand
Leighton House
Leadenhall Market
Linley Sambourne House
Liverpool Street Station
Mansion House Building
Marble Arch Monument
Marylebone Station
Museum of London
National Army Museum
Natural History Museum
National Portrait Gallery ? 19th Century paintings
Nelson Column ? Trafalger Square
Old Operating Theatre Museum
Paddington Station
Palace of Westminster (Parliament)
Parliament Square through to Victoria Tower Gardens
Portland Hotel
Ragged School Museum
Red Lion Pub
Royal Opera House
Salisbury Pub
Sherlock Holmes Museum
Somerset House ? the Strand
St James the Less Church (Vauxhall Bridge Road): a few minutes walk from Pimlico Underground, under 10 min from Victoria Station, easy to visit from Tate Gallery. Open for a long lunch-hour most weekdays.
St Pancras Station
St Mary Lambeth Church
Sculptures at Waterloo Place (end of lower Regent St along Pall Mall)
Tate Britain ? 19th Century paintings
Temple Church
Theatre Royal Drury Lane
Wellington Arch
Victoria Memorial (In front of Buckingham Palace, a short walk from Piccadilly across a corner of Green Park, or by walking along the Mall from Trafalgar Square)
Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria Station
Victorian houses in Hampstead, Greenwich, Blackheath, & Sydenham Hill

Wow that is some list! I would suggest skipping Liverpool Street station as it has was comprehensively refurbished some years ago. It certainly doesn't have any Victorian feel now (Have you seen Mission Impossible? Tom Cruise makes a phone call from the main station concourse). Check out the interior of Kings Cross station instead, and the exterior of St Pancras station right next door. Both are more impressive (you can also see the mythical platform featured in the Harry Potter movies too!)

Also, Marble Arch. Hmm this is basically a large, very busy, traffic roundabout and you might find it a bit of a let down. The Arc de Triomphe it ain't.

Your list is long and comprehensive. You will probably only get to a fraction of them - but you left off one of flanneruk's best suggestions. Wilton's music hall is a must for "victorianaphiles". www.wiltonsmusichall.co.uk/

stevelondon88, thanks for the feedback.

I've got a feeling many of these places are just "pass-by's" if already in the area. Trick is to ID those worth a special trip and to also group several of them together to hit while doing an area exploration.

...and you left out Islington's houses! Far more a part of Victorian London than those Edwardian suburbs halfway to Birmingham or France. Where do you think all those merchants who created global commerce lived?

And while I'm back on: Coalhole covers.

Walk round the Victorian residential areas (the ones with real houses) looking at the ground. Outside every house is a near-masterpiece of cast-iron craftsmanship. Almost every one different. They seal the chute down to the coal cellar, and 99% of them have been undamaged by vandalism, Hitler or gentrification.

flanneruk, this list is a "living" document that grows longer by the minute. I'll have to go back to the UK on many trips to finish it all.

I did note all your recommendations on my latest copy (I'll have to start numbering them) and found an Islington walk that might work in Walking London by Andrew Duncan.

degas, thanks for the great list. I was interested in the same thing and didn't know where to start. Here's one you might add:

Marlborough House. Pall Mall, London SW1. Built for Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, a close friend of Queen Anne. The Duchess wanted her new house to be "strong, plain and convenient". Designed by Christopher Wren, both father and son, it was completed in 1711. In the 19th century the house was substantially enlarged and used by members of the Royal Family. From 1863 until he became King Edward VII in 1901, it was the home of the Prince and Princess of Wales. During this period Marlborough House became the social centre of London.

Today the building houses the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Here's another one:

Trafalgar Square. London WC2. Built in honour of Admiral Lord Nelson after his victory in 1805 at the Battle of Trafalgar. Designed by John Nash and constructed in the 1830s, on the site that was originally the mews for royal hawks and then royal stables.

Dominating the square is the 171 feet column, Nelson's Column (1843), with its 18 feet statue of Nelson on top. At its base are friezes cast from metal from French and Spanish cannon captured at the Battle of Trafalgar. The four bronze lions were added in 1868.

degas, one more for you:

Albert Bridge. Spanning the Thames from Chelsea to Battersea, this is without doubt London's prettiest bridge. Built in a grand Victorian manner, the bridge was finished in 1873 with lanterns and topped by ornate pagodas giving it a vaguely oriental appearance. In 1983 it was repainted in delicate ice cream colours and it adds great variety to the London river scene. At each end of the bridge is a notice instructing the soldiers of nearby Chelsea Barracks to break step when marching over the bridge. It was thought that the vibrations caused by marching in step would damage the delicate structure.

Hi Degas,
I don't know if you're interested in fiction books regarding this period, but I love Anne Perry. She writes mystery novels set in Victorian London, and she certainly sets her scenes very well with vivid imagery and description. I'm sure many of the places you've listed are mentioned in her books.

Incidentally, Anne Perry herself is quite interesting. I recently discovered that she is the subject of a movie called "Heavenly Creatures" about 2 teenage girls in New Zealand who murdered one of the girl's mother (happened years ago). Anne's name was changed after she was released from prison. Just a bit of trivia...

Wow - I go away for awhile and come back to some really great inputs. You good folks are really educating me today.

Please continue, as it just gets better and better.

Since John Nash has been brought up, who's generally of the late Georgian period, but only predates Victoria by a little bit...

I personally find the Crescent Park arc at the end of Portland Place, facing Regent Park in Marylebone to be an absolutely stunning piece of work.

How about Pentonville Prison or one of the other Victorian prisons still in use? I think that somewhere (Clerkenwall?) the Victorian house of detention is now a museum with tours.

A number of the workhouses for debtors are still around, too, though they've been turned into things like hospitals and senior centers. The only ones I can remember offhand are in Hammersmith and Shoreditch, but I'm sure you could find others on the web.

The so-called Eros statue in Piccadilly Circus is a monument to Lord Shaftesbury's work against Victorian child labour.

Savoy Theatre. The Strand, WC2. Tube:Charing Cross

Opened in 1881 as a venue for presenting Gilbert and Sullivan operas, the Savoy was the first building in London to be lit with electricity.

degas, great thread. Here's another one for your growing collection.

Brompton Oratory. Brompton Road, SW3. Tube: South Kensington. Open 0700-2000. Designed in 1878 by Herbert Gribble, this Italian Baroque church with its dramatic marble and gilt interior, was created for members of the Oxford Movement, a group of 19th century intellectuals who converted to Catholicism.

One more:

Lyceum Theatre. Wellington Street, WC2
Tel:(0) 870 606 3446.Tube:Covent Garden

Destroyed by fire in 1809 and again in 1830, demolished in 1902 and reopened in 1904 as a music hall and later a venue for variety shows, musicals and ballet, The Lyceum Theatre is a London landmark. Managed to fashionability by Sir Henry Irving (1875 - 1902), the first actor ever to be knighted, with his business manager Bram Stoker, author of "Dracula," the Lyceum was known for Victorian melodramas and lavish Shakespearean productions. Converted to a dance hall after World War II, the theatre was closed until Apollo Leisure refurbished and reopened it in 1996, with a production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Jesus Christ, Superstar."

QUEEN VICTORIA MEMORIAL. Buckingham Palace, SW1. Tube: Green Park.

As conceived in 1901 by Sir Aston Webb, this memorial was to be the symbolic hub of the Empire and the centerpiece for his entire Mall plan, which included Admiralty Arch and a new front for Buckingham Palace. The sculpture of Queen Victoria, seated, was done by Sir Thomas Brock and includes a gilded Victory atop a base of marble, surrounded by allegorical figures representing Victorian virtues, such as Truth,

OLD OPERATING THEATRE MUSEUM. 9a St. Thomas's St. Southwark. Daily, 1030-1700. 4GBP.

Just by London Bridge, and opposite Guy's Hospital and 2 min walk from London Bridge Underground Station and a few minutes walk from the rebuilt Globe Theatre and Tower Bridge. The Operating Theatre is found in the roof space of an English Baroque Church since the wards of the South Wing of St. Thomas's Hospital were built around St. Thomas's Church.

degas, this is my last contribution for the night. Hope this helps.

ADMIRALTY ARCH (1910). A tribute to Queen Victoria from a grateful nation. Located at the NE end of The Mall and on the SW side of Trafalgar Square. Tube: Charing Cross. Commissioned by Queen Victoria's son, King Edward VII it was designed by Sir Aston Webb. Piercing its center is a quintet of arches faced with Portland stone, marking the first stage of a majestic processional route leading from Buckingham Palace east to St. Paul's. The centermost of the five arches is opened only for ceremonial occasions; the two side arches are for vehicular traffic, and the two smallest arches for pedestrians.

Church of St. Mary Abbot in Kensington, near the entrance to the gardens with a private door to let the royals enter. The church is a Victorian take on 13th Century gothic with wonderful memorials and an absolutely delightful churchyard. Facade of the parish school -- still in operation -- is charming. According to the guidebook, the school was last remodeled in 1905.

degas, here's one I've always wanted to see, but never got to:

VICTORIA EMBANKMENT & GARDENS. Tube: Embankment. The Victoria Embankment extends along the Thames from Westminster Bridge and the Houses of Parliament at the south end to Blackfriar's Bridge at the north end. Originally intended as a barrier against the encroaching Thames mud, the embankment project also provided for an above ground roadway and an underground railway trunk. The Embankment Gardens were opened in 1870 on both sides of the north end of the Hungerford Foot Bridge and provide a lovely, riverside green space, complete with outdoor cafe and statuary.

Royal Albert Hall. South Kensington. Tube: High Street Kensington. This was the inspiration of Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who in the early 1850s decided on having a Great Hall built as a cultural centre.

It was designed by Fowke and its oval shape is reminiscent of Roman amphitheatres. Below its massive metal and glass dome, a terracotta frieze shows the progress of Man in the arts and sciences throughout the ages.

Originally named the Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences, in memory of the Prince, it became known as just the Royal Albert Hall and is capable of seating about 5500. It is here too that a variety of events and festivals are held throughout the year but the emphasis is on music and musical concerts.

degas, another for the collection.

LANCASTER HOUSE. Overlooking Green Park at the end of the Mall, this royal residence was rebuilt in 1825. The architect was Benjamin Dean Wyatt, who was also responsible for the Duke of Wellington's splendid home, Apsley House, No.1 London. Queen Victoria was much impressed by the splendour of the neo-classical mansion. In 1848 Chopin played here for Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and the Duke of Wellington. Used now for government receptions and conferences. Worth a look if you are passing.

WILTON'S MUSIC HALL. 1 Grace?s Alley. Tube: Tower. Was the first and one of the most successful of London"s music halls. Situated in Grace"s Alley, just off Cable Street in London"s East End, it was opened by John Wilton in 1858. This music hall cooked for about 25 years before it was bought in 1885 by a gospel mission and remained under them until 1956. After the mission the building lay derelict for some time before becoming a home for squatters and a rag warehouse. In 1966 it was bought by the Greater London Council for slum clearance. But the British Music Hall Society went to the public inquiry and said Wilton's could not be destroyed as it was the only remaining music hall. Since 1999 Broomhill Opera have been based at Wilton's.

Here's my humble suggestion to add to the list: the Cast Courts in the V&A. As I understand it, the Victorians had these casts made of the most celebrated examples of sculpture and architecture as a means of educating the masses who didn't have the means to travel to see the originals.
Annette

Thanks again for all the wonderful inputs. Its great that folks are advancing ideas and even going so far as to provide specifics so its easy to find and identify these places.


I'm cutting and pasting your inputs into one consolidated summary document. Still a ways to go, but we are getting there.

THE SALISBURY PUB: 89 St Martins Lane, Covent Garden. Tube: Leicester Square.

A very stunning pub. Glittering cut-glass mirrors and old-fashioned banquettes, plus lighting fixtures of veiled bronze girls in flowing togas, re-create the Victorian gin-parlor atmosphere in the heart of the West End. Dates from the mid 19th century and is notorious for the bare-knuckle fights that were held there in that era.

Theatergoers drop in for homemade meat pie or salad buffet before curtain.

i haven't been able to read the other responses so pardon me if i am repeating. There are some great walks such as going by the streets and buildings Dickens lived and wrote, graveyards, etc. i am not 100% sure where i found these because i haunt libraries before trips (and it has been a few years since we did the London walks), but i think it may have been a frommers or one of the other widely known books with walking tours printed in it. My guess a google search on walking tours may do it for you. have fun with your research.

Tate Britain?--for the Turners, and the Pre-Rapahaelites

I meant to add, London Walks has an Oscar Wilde walk that I am considering for my own next visit

I think going to Buckingham Palace and studying the mammoth Victoria Memorial statue out front would certainly be an excellent start for anyone in search of Victorian London. Although it was executed shortly after that era, viewing it will help set the scene and bring to focus all other things you will see.

What I probably like most about Victorian architecture is how they so adeptly borrowed from other styles and then built an updated interpretation. Westminster Cathedral (not Abbey) is an amazing example of Victorians building in the Byzantine style. This catholic church is my favorite example of architecture of the period - even if it doesn't fit the style most associate with the mid/late 19th century.

Also related - have you ever seen The 1900 House? This BBC production which aired a few years ago on PBS in America is really like time travel as it takes a modern-day family in London and makes them live in a house just as Victorians would have. A period of several months is tightly edited down to 4 hours (I think) of viewing. It's quite an eye opener and blows the glamor-myths some people hold of this time in history. You can probably find the VHS on amazon.com or pbs.org

Here's a book series that Victorian fans might like:

The Flashman series of books is written by George Macdonald Fraser, and details the life of fictional Victorian soldier, Sir Harry Flashman.

Flashman first appeared as the bully in Tom Brown's Schooldays, and over the course of these books, Flashman recounts tales of his service at numerous major military disasters, from the Charge of the Light Brigade to Rorke's Drift. Flashman is a coward, a scoundrel and a self-confessed poltroon, and yet somehow manages to get promoted through the ranks of the British army to brigadier-general over the course of the books.

Each book has been meticulously researched by Macdonald Fraser, and includes a series of footnotes to accompany the story, providing corroborating details on Flashman's commentary, based on historical accounts.

The series is very well written, and forms a lively account of the major events of the Victorian era from the unique perspective of Sir Harry Flashman.