Three years ago the London County [Council began the unravelling of a tangled skein, the elimination of all duplicated street names in London. Another batch of 400 names are being changed this July, out of a grand total of 3,300, or one sixth of the entire number, which are to go. The Post Office, the Fire Brigade, the ambulance service and the visitor will appreciate the clarification the weeding out of innumerable Victorias, Alberts, Parks, "Churches, Kings, Queens and Princes, to say nothing of countless High streets.
New names have been chosen in ce-operation with the local authority and in most cases perpetuate the memory of some person, event or place associated with the locality. For example, Princes Square, Stepney, becomes Swedenborg Square, after the famous theologian who is buried in a church, Nurse Cavell, who worked at the London Hospital, replaces Bedford as the name of another East End street. This method of avoiding confusion seems to me preferable to the adoption of the mathematical system used in New York and elsewhere, and advocated by certain "reformers" for London.
Christie's famous auction room is visited not only by art connoisseurs and dealers but by sightseers with no intention, perhaps with no means, of bidding for any of the art treasures there offered for sale, Founded in 1768, Christie's has become an integral part of historical and traditional London.
Queen Mary has often attended a private view; the late King Manuel of Portugal when in London, never missed a big sale; Rosebery, Asquith, Balfour and Ramsay MacDonald in their day, were frequent visitors.
After selling "Old Masters" for 50 years, the senior partner has just retired. He passes on to his successor the original ivory hammer first wielded by the founder and used for every picture sale since. It once knocked down a collection of paintings, in one afternoon, for £364,000. On another occasion it ended the bids for a certain picture at £16,380. This was by no means a record, but it means an unexpected fortune for the owner who, not knowing the painting was a Rembrandt, had hoped for a few hundred pounds.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.