Esoteric London

Old Street, London, EC1. Photo © Roger Dean 2012

Gaslight and Daylight – George Augustus Sala, 1859:

It is, I believe, a fact not very much controverted, that London habits, London manners and modes, London notions and London names are extensively copied, followed, and emulated in the provinces. There is scarcely a village, not to say a town in Great Britain where some worthy tradesman has not baptized his place of business London House, or the London Repository, where he pretends to sell London porter, London hosiery, or London cutlery.