Images of London in 1891

Continuing my year-by-year series of images of London, I learned that the city had problems with flooding in 1891. Oscar Wilde published the Picture of Dorian Gray and the Soul of a Man Under Socialism. Bram Stoker published the Snake's Pass. Mahatma Ghandi finished law school.

The Thames
A bird's-eye view from Herbert Fry's "London" (1891)

Norwich, London Street, 1891

Queen Victoria Street, London (1891)

A flood was reported in the London Illustrated News
(Some things haven't changed.)

Transport workers went on strike in 1891.

Gandhi (1891)
In London shortly after completing his legal training.

Ghandi and other members of the London Vegetarian Society (1891)

H.P. Blavatsky in 1891 with James Pryse and G.R.S. Mead. 

South London Photographic Society Club Outing (1891)

1891 Rachel Dudley

Lillie Langtry posed as Cleopatra (1891)

Oscar Wilde's sons pose with an elderly gentleman (1891)

Arthur Conan Doyle (1891)

Thomas Beckett's mother-in-law, Mrs Lawrence & 4 of her daughters
London, England (November 1891)

Click the year to see Images of London in 1889 or 1890.

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Images of London in 1889

In compiling this little collection of pictures taken in London in 1889, I was reminded that in any given place at any given time so much is happening. In 1889, London's streets were crowded with striking workers and pooped on by passing elephants, as the circus came to town. I read about couples, who visited London that year on their honeymoon, and others, who could barely afford to eat. In spite of a lack of opportunity, some women were graduating from university with honours, while others toiled away in factories, buried deep within the East End. Certainly made for some interesting images.

London Dock Strike 1889

London Dock Strike (1 September 1889)

1889 Night Mail Euston Railway Station London 

Bird`s-eye View of London, 1888 from: Illustrated London News 1889, volume II, p 496/97.

1889 London Theatre 

1889 Parnell Commission
(Oscar Wilde's brother covered this story for
the Daily Telegraph)

1889 Shah Royal Family State Concert Royal Albert Hall London Spectators

The Symth Family (London 1889)

Street view 1889
(I love the omnibus)

Honours for Ladies at the University of London
(1 June 1889)

Frances Evelyn ('Daisy') Greville (née Maynard)
Countess of Warwick
circa 1889

Giant from the Barnum and Bailey Circus (1889)

Circus performers (London 1889)

Want more? Look at images of London in 1890, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894, and 1895.

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An 1890s Christmas Spectacular

In the 1890s, the Illustrated London News' Christmas Supplement should have been called a Christmas Spectacular because it offered a range of spectacular stories from the outstanding writers of its day. Because it's almost Christmas, I'm including online links to the best of these stories throughout my post, just for you!

Established in 1842, the Illustrated London News was the world's first illustrated weekly news magazine. Sadly, it surrendered to online media in 2003. Most British histories of Christmas rely on the early Christmas Supplements for information about Victorian Christmas. After looking over them myself, I've found that the Christmas Supplement was overly concerned with how many "Englishmen" were spending the holidays abroad, though that mingled well with Empire, another popular theme.

The covers on their own attest to Victorian ideas of Christmas. Most of them feature women, who represent family and home life. Most of these women look like they are just freezing cold, but the stories, oh the stories, you could warm up reading those by a fire!

She doesn't look very happy about Christmas, but she is holding mistletoe. Maybe that's her sexy face?

One of the features that year was "Mrs Hauksbee Sits Out: An Unhistorical Extravaganza" by Rudyard Kipling.

The 1891 Christmas Supplement brought us Thomas Hardy's "The son's Veto" and J.M. Barries's " The Inconsiderate Waiter."

I can only say that with stories like these, the production value should go up, and it does in 1892. They also changes illustrators for the cover art.

Kipling published "The Bridge Builder" in the 1893 Christmas Supplement.

The cover girl of number 1894 looks like she's been drinking Coca-Cola!

The Christmas Supplement of 1895 presented Robert Louis Stevenson's The Great North Road.

Number 1896 saw a return of Thomas Hardy with A Committee-Man of 'The Terror'. The Victorian Web has more on this story and this edition here.

Walter Besant, the author responsible for putting Edmund Gosse in charge of seating at a dinner party, published in the 1897 Christmas Supplement.

In 1898, Im beginning to resent all of these outdoor images of Victorian Christmases. My favourite Christmas memories are all about being warm and toasty inside!

Which brings us to the end of the 1890s. This English cover girl is bundled up like a snow angel, reminding readers that snow is an essential part of an English Christmas. Without snow, what reason was there to bundle up by a fire? Without a fire, how could you roast chestnuts? In the 1890, an editor mourned for those poor people in the colonies: "I can't for the life of me conceive how our Australian kinsmen can contrive to keep Christmas under a sultry sky, which renders such a fire a physical impossibility."

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