Imperial London

Here is the preface to a rare book, 'Imperial London', by Arthur H. Beavan, pulished in 1901:

I have endeavoured to describe Imperial London in a series of sketches that will be interesting to the general reader, and useful to the stranger within our gates.

The world's capital is a medley of palatial buildings, mean houses, beautiful districts, and squalid regions, so vast in number and extent as to preclude exhaustive delineation in a volume of this size; therefore, in its compilation, it has been necessary to maintain throughout a system of eclecticism.

I would remark that, topographically, Modern London is essentially Protean, and there can be no finality in its depiction.

To "improve" is the order of the day.

On every side, familiar buildings, favourite nooks and corners, and long-cherished haunts are being transformed out of all recognition; and what is more to be regretted, picturesque tenements that once linked us with the past too often disappear in the process, and to the inquiry, "Whither are they vanish'd?" the despairing antiquary is fain to reply:-

"Into the air, and what seem'd corporal
Melted as breath into the wind."

Arthur Henry Beavan, 1901