3-008-766 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Demolition of Hungerford Market to make room for the Charing-Cross Railway Station, [London], 1862. 'Our View is taken from the lower end of Villiers-street, where access is at present obtainable to the steam-boat pier. These ruins present a singular aspect: fragments of brickwork, half-opened vaults, with here and there broken flights of stairs leading to them, and prostrate pillars, give one the notion of a young earthquake having been at play here. The works of the new railway-bridge are so rapidly approaching the shore as to call for the immediate destruction of the market. The first portion that fell was the central hall, until lately used as a place of drill for the volunteers. The surrounding houses, mostly fishshops, and two taverns followed; then came a hall lately occupied by Messrs. Gatti and Co. as a place of refreshment in the way of ices, coffee, &c. The quadrangle next the Strand was a great convenience, as it formed a starting-point for omnibuses to Paddington and Camden-town. The houses forming this quadrangle are fast disappearing, their inmates having migrated to other parts. We shall look with some interest to the new work, which will no doubt form, a striking feature in the line of the Strand'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.