Esoteric London

Strand, London, WC2. Photo © Roger Dean 2013

The Little World of London; or, Pictures in Little of London Life – Charles Manby Smith, 1857:

TWENTY-FOUR HOURS OF LONDON STREETS.

MORNING.

Yes, the mighty heart of London is lying still; the hearts of her mightiest and meanest partake of a common rest. With one half the London world, the day is far spent before the other half is awake to its duties and its pleasures. While the rich and prosperous court repose on beds of down, houseless poverty sleeps at ease, during the warm summer nights, in any sheltering nook, dry arch, or covered door-way, where, lapped in golden dreams, the penniless being may, for aught we know, be far happier in his sleep than the fat millionaire, who is too wide-awake to sleep soundly at all.