The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1894-06-08
CHEAPSIDE, LONDON.
A CORRESPONDENT CALLS 1T THE
WORLDS BUSIEST STREET.

A CORRESPONDENT CALLS 1T THE
WORLDS BUSIEST STREET.
A lively and Historic Thoroughfare-Not
of Great Length, but Full of Interest and
Excitement-one Has Not Seen London
Until He Has Seen Cheapside.
Cheapside is a street, and a busy one
the busiest, 1 dare say, of the whole
world of streets. 1t is not long; it is not
beautiful; it is not the resort of the
fashionable; it is a business thorough
fare from first to last, and it has more
history crammed into its short stretch
than other great thoroughfares have in
their combined long ones. Cheapside be-
ing not at the side Of anything in the
present era, but at the heart Of all things,
being in the heart of London, has very
important place in civic affairs. 1t is
what they call IAN artery of traffic, y
nsphalted into the bargain and afford
ing ingress and exit as between the city
and the regions west. If it has quarter
of a mile to its length, it has as much
as it can legitimately claim, and even
that includes a little slice at the eastern
end called the Poultry, " title which
signifies local purpose in the pictur-
esque past.
Cheapside has at one end the Poultry,
but this need not be counted as a sepa-
rate entity. And at the Poultry end is
the Mansion House, where lives the lord
mayor in gold lace state. Cheapside
bumps into Threadneedle street. up to
the steps of the Royal Exchange and
against the walls of the Bank of Eng
land, institutions which are both useful
and ornamental. At the other end OF
Cheapside there is statue of Sir Robert
Peel But venture to say that half the
people who pass there every day do not
know whose statue it is, and of the 9th
er half an inconsiderable fraction will
have some accurate notion as to who Sir
Robert Peel really was, the balance be.
ing able to suggest only that ne had
something to do with the police. -
Cheapside is to London what lower
Broadway is to New York, between the
postoffice and Wall street. Shops, shops,
shops, insurance companies, great mer.
camille houses, restaurants, church.
Dick neutrality-suspicious. is to say,
Bow church, where the bells still tipgle
these are the stationary ingredients of
Cheapside. Omnibuses, b1man beings,
cabs and carriers vans are the movable
ones. Cheapside is like the channel of
tidal riYer-at one time of the day the
current sets in one direction, and at an.
other time it GIBBS TO the opposite course
The street has many funny little trib-
ptaries, with funny little names, Bread
street, Friday street, Ironmonger lane
and Ola Jewry being some of these
narrow passages where in days more
primitive than our own opposite neigh
bors leaned out of windows and shock
hands across the street, while from the
pavement they could scarcely have seen
the sky, so closely did the overhanging
stories approach to the roofs thereof.
But there are no dwellings in Cheapside
now, nor in the adjacent tributaries.
The buildings are all for business pur-
poses only. The old vogue of Nverhang
has been long dispensed with, and a
sprightly modern air is worn by the
commercial architecture.
One kind Of commodity Cheapside has
In more abundance than any other place
on the whirling footstool-jewelry. 1t
may not be the most sumptuous jewelry |
that ever was made, 1t may not compare
with the golden fligree work of Ia
mara, but it is jewelry nevertheless and
of good sort for the moderate classes
And there is so much of 1t that it over
flows the contracted emporiums and
flows in cascades and Niagaras of watch
chains, necklaces, fantastic guards, be-
hind the plate glass windows.
It seems to be trick of Cheapside's
shops to display all their treasures to
the preoccupied eyes of those who here
march in legions along the pavement.
They pour their wares into their win
dows with reckless profusion suggest
i've of the orient-that is to say, the
orient you read about, not the orient
which actually exists The jewelry Of
Cheapside is mainly silver jewelry, and
the radiance of the windows is the white
radiance which furnishes with such hap
less result i'll the London fog.
Cheapside is best seen between 8
end in the morning or between 8 and
: in the afternoon, either when every.
body is coming to or going from his &C.
cupation. But all day long the street is
crowded from end to end, so crowded
that you cannot anywhere cross it in
safety, except at the points where con-
stables are stationed to regulate the traf-
fic.
One of the odd features of Cheapside
is the line of pedestrians who stand in
either gutter, stringing along the curbs
and vending catchpenny toys. These
merchants are an amusing lot in their
way. Their harangues are endless and
not wholly lacking in wit, although
their language is not altogether parlia-
,nontary. They sell the most wonderful
assortment of ingenious toys that you
cah imagine, and every week or two
they produce some new thing. Variety
is the spice of their trade. The wonder.
full toys that can be bought of them for
nanny ellues all kinds az psoBle wha