Esoteric London

Whitecross Street, London, EC1. Photo ©RogerDean 2014

Dickens’s Dictionary Of London, An Unconventional Handbook – Charles Dickens, [Jr.], 1882:

In London, as everywhere else, the bricabrac hunter and collector of works of art must very carefully bear in mind the old maxim, caveat emptor. While among the London dealers in such goods there are many most respectable and trustworthy men, there are many of quite different class; and, unfortunately, as a rule, the power of discriminating between them is only to be obtained by, possibly disastrous, experience.