In Chapter 1 of Backwater, Miriam and her mother travel by tram and omnibus from Banbury Park (Finsbury Park), where Miriam has just been offered a job at the Perne sisters’ school, to their home in Putney. Richardson provides such an accurate and detailed account of their journey that one can trace it exactly, as George H. Thomson did in his Notes on Pilgrimage, and get a good sense of what it was like to travel through London in 1894. Map images are taken from Charles Booth’s London, a fantastic website based on the maps and surveys of late 19th Century London prepared by Charles Booth.
Here, with quotes from Backwater and the help of Thomson and other guides, we can follow along with Miriam and her mother.
- “down at the corner of Banbury Park where the tram lines ended”
- They proceed to the south east corner of the Park where the tram on Green Lanes Road ends. At this intersection with Seven Sisters’ Road they will turn south west on Seven Sisters’ towards the railway overpass.
- “the Favourite omnibuses were standing . . . under the shadow of the railway bridge.”
- The ominbuses be waiting on Seven Sisters’ Road just past its intersection with Station Road, where Seven Sisters’ passes under the bridge carrying the multiple lines of the Great Northern Railway. They would have taken a bus on route No. 88, from Finsbury Park via Piccadilly to Fulham Road.
- “They were going ahead now. . . . on and on down the long road”
- Seven Sisters’ Road continues for more than two-thirds of a mile to Holloway Road.
- “They lumbered at last round a corner and out into a wide thoroughfare, drawing up outside a newly-built public-house. Above it rose row upon row of upper windows sunk in masses of ornamental terra-cotta-coloured plaster.”
- The bus turns onto Holloway Road, passing the Nag’s Head Inn on the south east corner. On the north east corner stood an elaborate terra cotta building, which can be seen behind the carriage in the above photo.
- “On the near corner of the road stood a wide white building bulging into heavy domes against the sky. Across its side, large gilt letters… ‘Banbury Empire’.”
- This was the Parkhurst Theatre, built in 1890
- The wide thoroughfare, up which they now began to rumble, repeated it on a larger scale. The pavements were wide causeways reached from the roadway by stone steps, three deep.
- The sidewalks along this stretch of Holloway Road were, at the time, raised up from the roadbed.
- “… the causeways and shops disappeared and long rows of houses streamed by, their close ranks broken only by an occasional cross-road”
- The omnibus has turned from Holloway onto Caledonian Road.
- “Drab brick walls were passing slowly by on either side. A goods’ yard…. … the clangour of shunting trains”
- Continuing on Caledonian Road, they pass Stock Orchard Street on the left and cross the bridge over the main lines of the Great Northern Railway emanating from Kings Cross Station. There was a cattle depot just past the rail lines.
- “The high brick walls were drawing away. The end of the long roadway was in sight. . .”
- They are reaching the end of Caledonian Road and entering the busy intersection with Pentonville Road, Grays Inn, and Euston Road.
- “The open stretch of thoroughfare into which they emerged was fed by innumerable lanes of traffic. From the islands dotted over its surface towered huge lamp standards…. …they jolted across several lines of tramway…. … and turned onto a smooth wide prospect.”
- The omnibus is turning onto Euston Road, heading west. Kings Cross Station is on the right. The road is smooth (smoother than stone-paved streets) because, at the time, Euston Road was paved with wooden blocks.
- “A mass of smoke-greyed, sharply steepled stone building appeared on the right….”
- The bus passes the elaborate St. Pancras Station and Hotel on the right.
- “On the left a tall grey church was coming towards them, spindling up into the sky … showing Miriam a circle of little stone pillars built into its tower.”
- Further down Euston Road, the bus passes St. Pancras Church. Miriam will often see this church in later books, as she will live and work nearby for years.
- “Plumy trees streamed by”
- They pass Endsleigh Gardens and the Endsleigh Hotel, opposite Euston Station.
- “Langham Place”
- The bus has traveled down Euston Road, turned left onto Park Crescent, then left again onto Portland Place, which becomes Langham Place and then Regent Street. They are entering the commercial heart of London.
- “Maison Nouvelle”
- This was a milliner’s shop at 237 Regent Street.
- “Up the dolls’ hospital side …”
- This was the Doll’s Home, opened at 131 Regent Street by Mrs. Lucy Peck in 1893.
- “… and down Liberty’s.”
- Liberty and Company, a leading clothing and dry goods store, at 142-44 and 148-50 Regent Street.
- “… our A B C . . . . It’s just round here in Piccadilly”
- This was the Aerated Bread Company tea room at 77 Regent Street, just up from Piccadilly Circus. The ABC tea rooms (along with Lyon’s) were among the first eating establishments where it was socially acceptable for women to dine without male escorts. These restaurants encouraged women from suburbs to come in for the day to shop, particularly along Regent Street and Bond Street and, in turn, helped with the success of such department stores as Liberty & Co. and Selfridges. Miriam does, however, tell her mother that “I don’t like the aryated bread.”
- “… the Burlington Arcade”
- A fashionable shopping arcade off Piccadilly Street, next to the Royal Academy. It still exists.
- “Its the Green Park, that one.”
- Miriam is looking ahead, as the bus is still at the upper end of Piccadilly Street.
- “Those are clubs that side, the West End clubs”
- Miriam is pointing to her left, to the area south of Piccadilly Street and around St. James Square, where many of London’s famed mens clubs (e.g., the Wyndham, the East Indian, the Carlton, the Army & Navy) were located.
- “… there is the Royal Academy of Arts”
- The Royal Academy was then, and still is, located in Burlington House.
- “I can see Hyde Park.”
- Miriam is looking down Piccadilly. She can see Hyde Park to her right and Green Park to her left.
- “We ’ve got ages yet. It goes on being fascinating right down through Kensington…”
- The bus is probably passing through Knightsbridge, past Harrod’s, and then turning down Brompton Road.
- “… and right on up to the other side of Putney Bridge.”
- From Brompton Road, the omnibus probably followed Fulham Road, eventually crossing the Thames at Putney Bridge.
- “… that awful walk along the Upper Richmond Road—not until our avenue begins…”
- The omnibus probably stops at the intersection of Putney High Street and Upper Richmond Road, after which Miriam and her mother walk along the Upper Richmond Road to their avenue, which was just south of Barnes Common.