The London of the Ton - Part II

Continuing on with my topic from last time, here are a few more images you might enjoy.

This is a shop on Old Bond Street in 1817. It is the Western Exchange. It reminds me of the departments stores in London when I was a child, with the ladies waiting to serve behind large polished wood counters and the high ceilings and columns. There doesn't appear to be much in the way of goods on display, does there? No glass cases.

There is a great deal of information in this picture, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.



Sticking with the theme of shopping here is a view of Bond Street in 1823. A tad outside the Regency, but still close enough.

The name over the shop is Royal Sams Library as best as I can make out, but I haven't seen anything to say it is a real name. On the other hand, I do think that the image of the street, the books in the window, the shop owner at the door, is very typical of the time.

The dog interested me. It has that lion cut that is favored for poodles.


The last picture brings us back to the plight of the common man in the street, and the common boy. This is the infamous chimney sweep and his boys. I am sure they were a common and unremarked sight on the streets of London.

If you look closely in the right hand corner you will see the tools of the trade of the street sweeper sitting on the cobbles, - a brush, shovel and hemp bag. In London during this period there were more young people trying to earn a living than there were any other age group.

On that happy note, I will wish you happy rambles until next time.

Regency Work Part III

I found too much stuff today and spent too long finding it. But I am going to post a couple of pictures on the topic of work. I was looking for stuff out of the ordinary, but also I was looking for information on street sweepers or crossing sweepers, since the book I am working on right now has a crossing sweeper.



He really is a rather sad looking individual, but these jobs were not really jobs. They were a bit like buskers, if he could get you to tip him for clearing a path through the horse manure, then he would make some money. Here is another rather naughty one. The main feature of the picture is the gentleman being lured into a brothel, but look at the street sweeper in this one. He is not getting paid.






While we are on the topic of street sweepers, I thought we ought to do that other rather well known employee, the chimney sweep. Often these were children. I should note that during the nineteenth century the population of those under twenty was huge, I am not going to quote an actual percentage, because that means going and looking it up, but it was probably close to half, and those that were working were doing very menial jobs, or were apprentices. Any way here are a couple of chimney sweeps.





And now for one job that we maybe don't think of all the time, this is a seller of bandboxes. Now the job is interesting, but more interesting are the boxes themselves. Here is something every heroine is going to need at some point or the other, and here is a picture of them, as well as the man who sells them.


Until next time, Happy Rambles