Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-06-12
FAMOUS LONDON
STREET ALTERED
Fleet Will Be UnrecognizabIe
by Close Of the
Year.
GREAT STRETCHES ARE
SWATHED IN SCAFFOLDS
Frontage Line of South Side Set
Back-Much History Sur
rounds Section.
Special Correspondence Of The Star.

LONDON, June. 4. 1913.
BY the close of the year Fleet street
VIII be all but unrecogniZable. even to
It's daily habttue. 1t Is so, indeed at the
present moment. with great stretches of
It's south side Swathed in towering scat
folding, tall buildings with their fronts
torn off. and other familiar old houses
empty. dust-covered and forlorn, await
ing their doom. The old street IL being
rebuilt, or, to put it more correctly,
widened, by the setting back of the
frontage line of the south side an aver
age depth of twelve feet
1t is long since the process began.
Those who knew London fifteen or
twenty years ago will recall the narrow
neck into Ludgate Circus and the quaint
old Office of Punch sitting yellow and
squat near Salisbury Court These things
have long disappeared since Fleet street
expanded at the east end. Then, for
reasons financial and legal, combined.
came halt. The north side untroubled
by problems Of new frontage lines, took
Its old buildings In hand, and from the
Circus to Fetter lane transformed itself
palattal office blocks, leaving only here
and there reminder of the past
Change Long Resisted.
But the.south side stubbornly resisted
change. At intervals an old building
came down, and another set back to the
new frontage line took its place, giving
quantity jagged outline to the thor
oughfare. At last some months ago,
the grand assault developed, and the
widening began in earnest Statefv.
shining palaces. with piliowed and bal
conied fronts, are emerging now from
the scaffold poles. on'the sites of ancient
ana unpretentfouS houses and probably
before the year Is out the regeneration
OF the shady side. of Fleet street will be
complete.
Across the, way from the new Fleet
street post office and adjoining the
churshyard of st.. Dunstan's sin the-west,
the pleasant old building that has served
for over thirty years as the London
ofhces of the Dundee Advertiser has
Just been demolished prior to reconstruc-
ton on larger and more commodious
scale.
The necessities of expanding business
are memorable. but all lovers of Fleet
street have watched with regret the dis
appearance OF the quiet, cream cOlored
nat-topped relic of bygone London nes-
Ting snugly under the shadow of St
4unstan's lofty belfry. with its broad
windowed gable overlooking the church.
yard. There was no more pleasant-look-
ing house between Temple Bar and ST.
Paufs.
Had Air of Old World.
1t had about it an air of old world
simple dignity that Inevitably sent the
mind back to the days when Johnson and
Boswell walked the rough pavements Of
fleet street. 1t was almost the last re-
naming link on the north side with
eighteenth century London. and here
after the wanderer with a historic sense
seeking to reconstruct the Fleet street
or those days must search the courts
and alleys behind
Now that the hOusebreaker's pick has
reduced the old building to a hubble of
bricks and mortar. the associations of
It's site may be recalled to memory The
earliest record of this house, No. 1856
Fleet street, occurs in ''Aubray's Lives
where it is stated that Michael Dravton
author Of ''Yolyolbon'' and other poetic
works, lived at the bay-wndowe house
mex the east end of ST Dunstans Church
In Fleet street. FMS takes us back to
the spacious days of Queen Elizabeth
and the registering meetings of Shake
speare. Ben 'Jonson and kindred souls in
the DeV1ls Tavern. across the way At
that period the churchyard of St. Dun
STAINS mot the existing church. which
dates only from 1880, but the old one
with its long body. squat tower and dial
overhanGlng the street, was the center of
the booksellers. trade.
Escaped Great Fire.
From here went forth the first issues of
several of Shakespeare's plays. the
poems of Drayton. Izaak Walton's Com
pleat Angler and innumerable other
classics Of English literature Drayton's
"bay-windowe house just escaped the
devastation of the great fire of 1866,
which stopped Immediately to the east
and left intact the two. fine old Eliza
bethan timber-framed houses adjoining
it and demolished little over twenty years
ago. The date Of it's disappearance is
unrecorded. but the building which re-
placed il and survived until this month
was erected in the days of Queen Anne
or the early Georges. 1t figures clearly
in Tails panorama Of Fleet street dated
| 1898. when 1t was used as the Elton book
warehouse.
The next occupants appear to have
been the famous firm of George Bell &
Sons. publishers Of Bohn's libraries and
other standard works, and it was still a
publishing house when, in the early part
OF 1882. Sir John (then Mr. Leng pur-
chased the freehold of the, property. and
there established the London Office of his
daily and weekly publications The Dun
dee Advertiser had been represented in
London long anterior to that date AS
far back as 1902 Mr.. William Tayler Of
Warwick Square was appointed agent
for the paper. an arrangement which
IOcontinued for some years Sir John Leng
with characteristic foresight, was among
the first to recognize the importance to q
provincial newspaper of q special wire
connecting the London and head offices.
and in 1870 he completed arrangements
with the post Office for an installation of
these facilities.
OF genuine interest is the weather worn
statue Of Queen Elizabeth in a niche In
o. ~, 81
was part of the sculptural decoration of
Ludgate. demolished in 176O, and in It's
present position 1t attracts the attention
o. all visitors to Fleet street.
SAVES DYING WOMAN