by Henry Mayhew
‘I suppose we make from 300 to 400 false eyes every year. The great art in making a false eye is in polishing the edges quite smooth. Of dolls’ eyes we make about 6,000 dozen pairs of the common ones every year. I take it that there are near upon 24,000 dozen, or more than a quarter of a million, pairs of all sorts of dolls’ eyes made annually in London.’
LONDON OMNIBUS DRIVERS AND CONDUCTORS
[pp. 346–8] The subject of omnibus conveyance is one to the importance of which the aspect of every thoroughfare in London bears witness. Yet the dweller in the Strand, or even in a greater thoroughfare, Cheap-side, can only form a partial notion of the magnitude of this mode of transit, for he has but a partial view of it; he sees, as it were, only one of its details.
The routes of the several omnibuses are manifold. Widely apart as are their starting-points, it will be seen how their courses tend to common centres, and how generally what may be called the great trunk-lines of the streets are resorted to.
The principal routes lie north and south, east and west, through the central parts of London, to and from the extreme suburbs. The majority of them commence running at eight in the morning, and continue till twelve at night, succeeding each other during the busy part of the day every five minutes. Most of them have two charges – 3d. for part of the distance, and 6d. for the whole distance.
The omnibuses proceeding on the northern and southern routes are principally the following:
The Atlases run from the Eyre Arms, St John’s Wood, by way of Baker-street, Oxford-street, Regent-street, Charing-cross, Westminster-bridge and road, and past the Elephant and Castle, by the Walworth-road, to Camberwell-gate. Some turn off from the Elephant (as all the omnibus people call it) and go down the New Kent-road to the Dover railway-station; while others run the same route, but to and from the Nightingale, Lisson-grove, instead of the Eyre Arms. The Waterloos journey from the York and Albany, Regent’s-park, by way of Albany-street, Portland-road, Regent-street, and so over Waterloo-bridge, by the Waterloo, London, and Walworth-roads, to Camberwell-gate. The Waterloo Association have also a branch to Holloway, via the Camden Villas. There are likewise others which run from the terminus of the South-Western Railway in the Waterloo-road, via Stamford-street, to the railway termini on the Surrey side of London-bridge, and thence to that of the Eastern Counties in Shoreditch.
The Hungerford-markets pursue the route from Camden Town along Tottenham Court-road, &c. to Hungerford; and many run from this spot to Paddington.
The Kentish Town run from the Eastern Counties station, and from Whitechapel to Kentish Town, by way of Tottenham Court-road, &c.
The Hampsteads observe the like course to Camden Town, and then run straight on to Hampstead.
The King’s-crosses run from Kennington-gate by the Blackfriar’s-road and bridge, Fleet-street, Chancery-lane, Gray’s-inn-lane, and the New-road, to Euston-square, while some go on to Camden Town.
The Great Northerns, the latest route started, travel from the railway terminus, Maiden-lane, King’s-cross, to the Bank and the railway-stations, both in the city and across the Thames; also to Paddington, and some to Kennington.
The Favourites’ route is from Westminster Abbey, along the Strand, Chancery-lane, Gray’s-inn-lane, and Coldbath-fields, to the Angel, Islington, and thence to Holloway; while some of them run down Fleet-street, and so past the General Post-office, and thence by the City-road to the Angel and to Holloway. The Favourites also run from Holloway to the Bank.
The Islington and Kennington line is from Barnsbury-park, by the Post-office and Blackfriars-bridge, to Kennington-gate.
The Camberwells go from Gracechurch-street, over London-bridge, to Camberwell, while a very few start from the west end of the town, and some two or three from Fleet-street; the former crossing Westminster and the latter Blackfriars-bridge, while some Nelsons run from Oxford-street to Camberwell or to Brixton.
The Brixtons and Claphams go, some from the Regent-circus, Oxford-street, by way of Regent-street, over Westminster-bridge; and some from Gracechurch-street, over London-bridge, to Brixton or Clapham, as the case may be.
The Paragons observe the same route, and some of these conveyances go over Blackfriar’s-bridge to Brixton.
The Carshaltons follow the track of the Mitchams, Tootings, and Claphams, and go over London-bridge to the Bank.
The Paddingtons go from the Royal Oak, Westbourne-Green, and from the Pine-applegate by way of Oxford-street and Holborn to the Bank, the London-bridge, Eastern Counties, or Blackwall railway termini; while some reach the same destination by the route of the New-road, City-road, and Finsbury. These routes are also pursued by the vehicles lettered ‘New-road Conveyance Association’, and ‘London Conveyance Company’; while some of the vehicles belonging to the same proprietors run to Notting-hill, and some have branches to St John’s Wood and elsewhere.
The Wellingtons and Marlboroughs pursue the same track as the Paddingtons, but some of them diverge to St John’s Wood.
The Kensall-greens go from the Regent-circus, Oxford-street, to the Cemetery.
The course of the Bayswaters is from Bayswater via Oxford-street, Regent-street, and the Strand to the Bank.
The Bayswaters and Kensingtons run from the Bank via Finsbury, and then by the City-road and New-road, down Portland-road, and by Oxford-street and Piccadilly to Bayswater and Kensington.
The Hammersmith and Kensingtons convey their passengers from Hammersmith, by way of Kensington, Knightsbridge, Piccadilly, &c. to the Bank.
The Richmond and Hampton Courts, from St Paul’s-churchyard to the two places indicated.
The Putneys and Bromptons run from Putney-bridge via Brompton, &c. to the Bank and the London-bridge railway station.
The Chelseas proceed from the Man in the Moon to the Bank, Mile-end-road, and City railway stations.
The Chelsea and Islingtons observe the route from Sloane-square to the Angel, Islington, travelling along Piccadilly, Regent-street, Portland-road, and the New-road.
The Royal Blues go from Pimlico via Grosvenor-gate, Piccadilly, the Strand, &c. to the Blackwall railway station.
The direction of the Pimlicos is through Westminster, Whitehall, Strand, &c. to Whitechapel.
The Marquess of Westminsters follow the route from the Vauxhall-bridge via Millbank, Westminster Abbey, the Strand, &c. to the Bank.
The Deptfords go from Gracechurch-street, and over London-bridge, and some from Charing-cross, over Westminster-bridge, to Deptford.
The route of the Nelsons is from Charing-cross, over Westminster-bridge, and by the New and Old Kent-roads to Deptford, Greenwich, and Woolwich; some go from Gracechurch-street, over London-bridge.
The Shoreditches pursue the direction of Chelsea, Piccadilly, the Strand, &c. to Shoreditch, their starting-place being Battersea-bridge.
The Hackneys and Claptons run from Oxford-street, to Clapton-square.
Barber’s run from the Bank, and some from Oxford-street, to Clapton.
The Blackwalls run some from Sloane-street to the Docks, and the Bow and Stratfords from different parts of the West-end to their respective destinations.
I have enumerated these several conveyances from the information of persons connected with the trade, using the terms they used, which better distinguish the respective routes than the names lettered on the carriages, which would but puzzle the reader, the principal appellation giving no intimation of the destination of the omnibus.
The routes above specified are pursued by a series of vehicles belonging to one company or to one firm, or one individual, the number of their vehicles varying from twelve to fifty. One omnibus, however, continues to run from the Bank to Finchley, and one from the Angel to Hampton Court.
The total number of omnibuses traversing the streets of London is about 3,000, paying duty including mileage, averaging 9l. per month each, or 324,000l. per annum. The number of conductors and drivers is about 7,000 (including a thousand ‘odd men’, – a term that will be explained
hereafter), paying annually 5s. each for their licenses, or 1,750l. collectively. The receipts of each vehicle vary from 2l. to 4l per day. Estimating the whole 3,000 at 3l., it follows that the entire sum expended annually in omnibus hire by the people of London amounts to no less than 3,285,000l., which is more than 30s. a-head for every man, woman, and child, in the metropolis. The average journey as regards length of each omnibus is six miles, and that distance is in some cases travelled twelve times a day by each omnibus, or, as it is called, ‘six there and six back’. Some perform the journey only ten times a day (each omnibus), and some, but a minority, a less number of times. Now taking the average as between forty-five and fifty miles a day, travelled by each omnibus, and that I am assured on the best authority is within the mark, while sixty miles a day might exceed it, and computing the omnibuses running daily at 3,000, we find ‘a travel’, as it was worded to me, upwards of 140,000 miles a day, or a yearly travel of more than 50,000,000 of miles: an extent that almost defies a parallel among any distances popularly familiar. And that this estimate in no way exceeds the truth is proved by the sum annually paid to the Excise for ‘mileage’, which, as before stated, amounts on an average to 9l. each ‘bus’, per month, or, collectively, to 324,000l. per annum, and this as 1½d. per mile (the rate of duty charged) gives 51,840,000 miles as the distance travelled by the entire number of omnibuses every year.
On each of its journeys experienced persons have assured me an omnibus carries on the average fifteen persons. Nearly all are licensed to carry twenty-two (thirteen inside and nine out), and that number perhaps is sometimes exceeded, while fifteen is a fair computation; for as every omnibus has now the two fares, 3d. and 6d., or, as the busmen call them, ‘long uns and short uns’, there are two sets of passengers, and the number of fifteen through the whole distance on each journey of the omnibus is, as I have said, a fair computation: for sometimes the vehicle is almost empty, as a set-off to its being crammed at other times. This computation shows the daily ‘travel’, reckoning ten journeys a day, of 450,000 passengers. Thus we might be led to believe that about one-fourth the entire population of the metropolis and its suburbs, men, women, and children, the inmates of hospitals, gaols, and workhouses, paupers, peers, and their families all Included, were daily travelling in omnibuses. But it must be borne in mind, that as most omnibus travellers use that convenient mode of conveyance at least twice a day, we may compute the number of individuals at 225,000, or, allowing three journeys as an average daily travel, at 150,000. Calculating the payment of each passenger at 4½d., and so allowing for the set-off of the ‘short uns’ to the ‘long uns’, we have a daily receipt for omnibus fares of 8,439l., a weekly receipt of 58,073l., and a yearly receipt of 2,903,650l.; which it will be seen is several thousands less than the former estimate: so that it may be safely assured, that at least three millions of money is annually expended on omnibus fares in London.
The extent of individual travel performed by some of the omnibus drivers is enormous. One man told me that he had driven his ‘bus’ seventy-two miles (twelve stages of six miles) every day for six years, with the exception of twelve miles less every second Sunday, so that this man had driven in six years 179,568 miles.
Origin of Omnibuses
[pp. 349–50] This vast extent of omnibus transit has been the growth of twenty years, as it was not until the 4th July, 1829, that Mr Shillibeer, now the proprietor of the patent mourning coaches, started the first omnibus. Some works of authority as books of reference, have represented that Mr Shillibeer’s first omnibus ran from Charing-cross to Greenwich, and that the charge for outside and inside places was the same. Such was not the case; the first omnibus, or rather, the first pair of those vehicles (for Mr Shillibeer started two), ran from the Bank to the Yorkshire Stingo. Neither could the charge out and in be the same, as there were no outside passengers. Mr Shillibeer was a naval officer, and in his youth stepped from a midshipman’s duties into the business of a coach-builder, he learning that business from the late Mr Hatchett, of Long Acre. Mr Shillibeer then established himself in Paris as a builder of English carriages, a demand for which had sprung up after the peace, when the current of English travel was directed strongly to France. In this speculation Mr Shillibeer was eminently successful. He built carriages for Prince Polignac, and others of the most influential men under the dynasty of the elder branch of the Bourbons, and had a bazaar for the sale of his vehicles. He was thus occupied in Paris in 1819, when M. Lafitte first started the omnibuses which are now so common and so well managed in the French capital. Lafltte was the banker (afterwards the minister) of Louis Philippe, and the most active man in establishing the Messageries Royales. Five or six years after the omnibuses had been successfully introduced into Paris, Mr Shillibeer was employed by M. Lafltte to build two in a superior style. In executing this order, Mr Shillibeer thought that so comfortable and economical a mode of conveyance might be advantageously introduced in London. He accordingly disposed of his Parisian establishment, and came to London, and started his omnibus as I have narrated. In order that the introduction might have every chance of success, and have the full prestige of respectability, Mr Shillibeer brought over with him from Paris two youths, both the sons of British naval officers; and these young gentlemen were for a few weeks his ‘conductors’. They were smartly dressed in ‘blue cloth and togs’, to use the words of my informant, after the fashion of Lafitte’s conductors, each dress costing 5l. Their addressing any foreign passenger in French, and the French style of the affair, gave rise to an opinion that Mr Shillibeer was a Frenchman, and that the English were indebted to a foreigner for the improvement of their vehicular transit, whereas Mr Shillibeer had served in the British navy, and was born in Tottenham-court-road. His speculation was particularly and at once successful. His two vehicles carried each twenty-two, and were filled every journey. The form was that of the present omnibus, but larger and roomier, as the twenty-two were all accommodated inside, nobody being outside but the driver. Three horses yoked abreast were used to draw these carriages.
There were for many days, until the novelty wore off, crowds assembled to see the omnibuses start, and many ladies and gentlemen took their places in them to the Yorkshire Stingo, in order that they might have the pleasure of riding back again. The fare was one shilling for the whole and sixpence for half the distance, and each omnibus made twelve journeys to and fro every day. Thus Mr Shillibeer established a diversity of fares, regulated by distance; a regulation which was afterwards in a great measure abandoned by omnibus proprietors, and then re-established on our present threepenny and sixpenny payments, the ‘long uns’ and the ‘short uns’. Mr Shillibeer’s receipts were 100l. a-week. At first he provided a few books, chiefly magazines, for the perusal of his customers; but this peripatetic library was discontinued, for the customers (I give the words of my informant) ‘boned the books’. When the young-gentlemen conductors retired from their posts, they were succeeded by persons hired by Mr Shillibeer, and liberally paid, who were attired in a sort of velvet livery. Many weeks had not elapsed before Mr Shillibeer found a falling off in his receipts, although he ascertained that there was no falling off in the public support of his omnibuses. He obtained information, however, that the persons in his employ robbed him of at least 20l. a week, retaining that sum out of the receipts of the two omnibuses, and that they had boasted of their cleverness and their lucrative situations at a champagne supper at the Yorkshire Stingo. This necessitated a change, which Mr Shillibeer effected, in his men, but without prosecuting the offenders, and still it seemed that defalcations continued. That they continued was soon shown, and in ‘a striking manner’, as I was told. As an experiment, Mr Shillibeer expended 300l. in the construction of a machine fitted to the steps of an omnibus which should record the number of passengers as they trod on a plate in entering and leaving the vehicle, arranged on a similar principle to the tell-tales in use on our toll-bridges. The inventor, Mr —, now of Woolwich, himself worked the omnibus
containing it for a fortnight, and it supplied a correct index of the number of passengers: but at the fortnight’s end, one evening after dark, the inventor was hustled aside while waiting at the Yorkshire Stingo, and in a minute or two the machine was smashed by some unknown men with sledge-hammers. Mr Shillibeer then had recourse to the use of such clocks as were used in the French omnibuses as a check. It was publicly notified that it was the business of the conductor to move the hand of the clock a given distance when a passenger entered the vehicle, but this plan did not succeed. It is common in France for a passenger to inform the proprietor of any neglect on the part of his servant, but Mr Shillibeer never received any such intimation in London.
In the meantime Mr Shillibeer’s success continued, for he insured punctuality and civility; and the cheapness, cleanliness, and smartness of his omnibuses, were in most advantageous contrast with the high charges, dirt, dinginess, and rudeness of the drivers of many of the ‘short stages’. The short-stage proprietors were loud in their railings against what they were pleased to describe as a French innovation. In the course of from six to nine months Mr Shillibeer had twelve omnibuses at work. The new omnibuses ran from the Bank to Paddington, both by the route of Holborn and Oxford-street, as well as by Finsbury and the New-road. Mr Shillibeer feels convinced, that had he started fifty omnibuses instead of two in the first instance, a fortune might have been realised. In 1831–2, his omnibuses became general in the great street thoroughfares; and as the short stages were run off the road, the proprietors started omnibuses in opposition to Mr Shillibeer. The first omnibuses, however, started after Mr Shillibeer’s were not in opposition. They were the Caledonians, and were the property of Mr Shillibeer’s brother-in-law. The third started, which were two-horse vehicles, were foolishly enough called ‘Les Dames Blanches’; but as the name gave rise to much low wit in équivoques it was abandoned. The original omnibuses were called ‘Shillibeers’ on the panels, from the name of their originator; and the name is still prevalent on those conveyances in New York, which affords us another proof that not in his own country is a benefactor honoured, until perhaps his death makes honour as little worth as an epitaph.