3-034-699 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Old houses at Nine-Elms, Lambeth, [south London], 1871. 'The banks of the Thames...have undergone a marvellous transformation...It is on the Surrey side, and only in less improved or modernised parts of Lambeth and Southwark, or perhaps at Rotherhithe, that we can still find some curious examples of the old style of building, with the projecting upper structures of timber, like stern-cabins of ancient ships, the balconies supported by posts, and the gabled roofs, which used to be so common. The house seems to court the heavy, moist air of the river, and to hang over its slimy brink as far as possible, inhaling its dark vapours, and displaying an openness, towards the watery way, not often shown towards the street or high road on land. Dickens was always particularly fond of this quaint aspect of riverside London, which he has described in many passages of his tales...Nine Elms, above the Vauxhall end of the Southern Thames Embankment, affords the subject of a sketch engraved for this week's Paper. It will be recognised by many a steam-boat passenger'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.