No. 659: South Molton Street, W1
South Molton Street, London, W1. Photo © Roger Dean 2012
The Little World of London; or, Pictures in Little of London Life – Charles Manby Smith, 1857:
The rent of shops in London was never so high as it is at the present time. Within the last few years they have risen upon the average 10 per cent., and in many districts three times that amount. Speculation in shop-leases is a favourite species of excitement with a certain class of jobbers. The plan is to lend money at a usurious interest upon the lease of a tradesman in difficulties: if he recovers his position and pays off the loan, it is not a bad stroke of business; but if he fails, and goes into the Gazette, it is a better one, as the lease is sure to be bought at a good profit by some one in the same line of business, who, on the strength of the bankrupt’s connection added to his own, hopes to do better.
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