DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1212#0247
CHAPTER VII.
PICCADILLY—MAY-FATE., ETC.
Piccadilly is one of the longest, most populous, and
most fashionable thoroughfares in the western quarter of
the capital, extending from Coventry-street to Hyde Park
Corner. Its boundaries may be thus defined: Coventry-
street and Leicester-square on its east; Jernryn- street,
Pall-mall, and the Green Park, south; Kegent-street and
Oxford-street, north; Knightsbridgc and Kensington,
west. There is something anomalous in the character of
this street, shops, hotels, and princely mansions being in
close juxta-position; plebeian and patrician houses associ-
ating together in a more neighbourly union than the fan-
tastic code of etiquette permits then several inhabitants to
do. Highly prized as Piccadilly is tor its aristocratic asso-
ciations; yet, as in vicinities less recherche and more pre-
suming, there is no bar or hindrance to the full tide of
vehicular traffice; no "private road" exclusiveness that
prohibits the revolving of an omnibus or a hackney cab
in the same parallel with the carriage of a peer or an am-
bassador. In all seasons Piccadilly is a pleasant lounging
place, few streets in London exhibiting more animation.
According to an ancient chart of Loudon, printed in
1560, the existing line of Piccadilly, from the Haymarket
to Hyde Park Corner, was a road running through an
open country, only distinguished as " The Waye to Eead-
inge," Soon after 1640 it assumed the form of a street,
but was not carried on beyond the point where Swallow-
street subsequently stood. By Charles II. it was extended
towards Hyde Park, and the new street was named, in
compliment to his consort, Portugal-street. The origin of
the name Piccadilly is involved in doubt. By some it is
said to derive its appellation from Peccadilla Hall, a place
PICCADILLY—MAY-FATE., ETC.
Piccadilly is one of the longest, most populous, and
most fashionable thoroughfares in the western quarter of
the capital, extending from Coventry-street to Hyde Park
Corner. Its boundaries may be thus defined: Coventry-
street and Leicester-square on its east; Jernryn- street,
Pall-mall, and the Green Park, south; Kegent-street and
Oxford-street, north; Knightsbridgc and Kensington,
west. There is something anomalous in the character of
this street, shops, hotels, and princely mansions being in
close juxta-position; plebeian and patrician houses associ-
ating together in a more neighbourly union than the fan-
tastic code of etiquette permits then several inhabitants to
do. Highly prized as Piccadilly is tor its aristocratic asso-
ciations; yet, as in vicinities less recherche and more pre-
suming, there is no bar or hindrance to the full tide of
vehicular traffice; no "private road" exclusiveness that
prohibits the revolving of an omnibus or a hackney cab
in the same parallel with the carriage of a peer or an am-
bassador. In all seasons Piccadilly is a pleasant lounging
place, few streets in London exhibiting more animation.
According to an ancient chart of Loudon, printed in
1560, the existing line of Piccadilly, from the Haymarket
to Hyde Park Corner, was a road running through an
open country, only distinguished as " The Waye to Eead-
inge," Soon after 1640 it assumed the form of a street,
but was not carried on beyond the point where Swallow-
street subsequently stood. By Charles II. it was extended
towards Hyde Park, and the new street was named, in
compliment to his consort, Portugal-street. The origin of
the name Piccadilly is involved in doubt. By some it is
said to derive its appellation from Peccadilla Hall, a place