Esoteric London

Cadogan Place Gardens, Cadogan Place, London, SW1. Photo © Roger Dean 2012

Ragged London in 1861 – John Hollingshead, 1861:

That vast district of eastern London familiar to the public under the broad title of Bethnal Green would exhaust a twelvemonth in a house-to-house visitation. It is flat, it is ancient, dirty, and degraded; its courts and alleys are almost countless, and overrunning with men, women, boys, dogs, cats, pigeons, and birds.

[ The statue in the photograph above doesn't stand in London's East End but in Cadogan Place Gardens, SW1. Originally known as the London Botanic Garden the space is not only home to the David Wynne sculpture Girl with Doves but also to some 300 year old mulberry trees thought to have been grown for the silk trade. R.D.]