Esoteric London

Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1. Photo ©RogerDean 2014

Mogg’s New Picture of London, and Visitors’ Guide to it Sights – 1848:

Woolwich.-Previous to entering on a description of Woolwich […] it may be as well to premise, that parties intending a visit to that immense military dépôt should go prepared to pass some hours there, the magnitude of the establishments, and multifarious objects of absorbing interest with which it abounds, requiring at least a summer’s day; an opinion in which the reader will probably coincide, when informed, that each of the three great establishments here occupies a space of many acres, and that the distance between them is considerable. To a detailed account of the whole of them a volume might well be devoted, but, as an arrangement so diffuse, would render its admission into this, or any work of a similar kind, altogether impossible, and is by no means necessary, the editor has given, in a condensed form, a general description, which, though brief, brings the principal features of each under review; omitting nothing of interest in his sketch, that he trusts will be found to contain all the requisite information. It may not be improper to add, that Woolwich, though abounding in houses of entertainment, is deficient in accommodation for the higher classes, who will, perhaps, best finish the day by dining either at Greenwich or Blackwall