3-038-983 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Returning from the pantomime - the last train, [London], 1871. '...it is a very serious business to take the children safely home. Half-past eleven o'clock at night is too late for such little ones to be knocking about in town...for those who live at Sydenham or at Blackheath, and trust to the last railway train, at midnight, for their return to a suburban villa, the necessity of catching a cab and driving fast to Charing-cross or Victoria station, with a party of tired or excited youngsters, is rather an anxious affair. They manage somehow to get to the railway-station in plenty of time; and it is worth while to observe, as shown in our Illustration, the assemblage on the platform before the train starts...It is wise to look about us, if we have time, on these occasions before entering the train, so that we may avoid disagreeable companions when our wives and daughters come home with us from a London theatre'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.