Esoteric London

Jubilee Place, Canary Wharf, London, E14. Photo © Roger Dean 2011

The Physiology of London Life , in Bentley’s Miscellany – John Fisher Murray,1844:

Everywhere around London, whether by the Regent’s Canal, the New River, the Surrey Canal, and even in the docks, you will find a profusion of anglers, of all sorts and sizes, the mechanic out of work, the truant schoolboy, the lazy good-for-nothing, the Chelsea pensioner upon sixpence a day, the tailor or shoemaker on ‘strike,’ all swell the motley mob of metropolitan piscators. The fishing-tackle shops abound with tantalizing announcements of ‘Subscription Fisheries,’ abounding with jack, dace, roach, gudgeons, and every variety of pond and river fish; the subscription varies from half-a-guinea to two guineas, and the advertisement usually concludes with a notice that no angler is to carry away on any day’s fishing more than ten pounds weight of fish. This we take to be one of the many jests broken upon the peaceful fraternity of anglers; since the capture, in any one day, of ten ounces of fish, we should imagine much nearer the usual average of the success of suburban sportsmen.

[ The photograph above is of one of Emma Biggs’ mosaics set into the floor of Jubilee Place, a shopping centre at Canary Wharf. The series depict the cargos that were handled by the docks which were once where Canary Wharf now stands. R.D.]