2-888-031 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Picturesque Sketches of London - the Adelphi "Dry Arches", 1850. Illustration to an article by Thomas Miller: 'Thousands who pass along the Strand never dream of the shadowy region which lies between them and the river...at noonday overhung with midnight darkness, excepting where, here and there, a gaslight throws its dim rays, and feebly illumines the cavernous gloom...Here many of those strong horses which the countryman who visits London looks upon with wonder and envy, are stabled - strong, broad-chested steeds, such as may he seen dragging the heavily-laden coal-waggons up those steep passages which lead into the Strand...The Adelphi arches form a little subterranean city; there is nothing like it in England: in some places you catch a glimpse of the river, a small loop-hole that lets in the light like the end of a railway tunnel...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.