>>13758277
NZH is situated at a location which has a very storied past. It was the site of the Carleton Hotel, which was destroyed in bombings of WWII. But long before that there were comings and goings and habbenings that capture the imagination, again, as one contemplates the scale of London both in time and place.
TIME AND PLACE, which is part and parcel of digging these London Pics so as to date and find potentially intended meaning of their having been posted by Q.
For a tasted of this, and just by focussing on one small area within the boundaries, take a looksee at the following account of this area of HAYMARKET.
Foreign Ambassadors in Peril
https://www.british-history.ac.uk/old-new-london/vol4/pp216-226
During the riots which ensued on the accession of William and Mary to the throne vacated by James II., the house of the minister of the Duke of Florence, which was in this street, had a narrow escape of being burnt and sacked by the mob, as was also that of the Spanish ambassador. Sir Henry Ellis, in his second series of "Original Letters," quotes one from an eye-witness, dated December 13, 1688, who describes the scene, the "train-bands coming up only just in time to save the house from destruction, and that only after the officer at their head being shot through the back." The attack, however, was renewed a day or two afterwards, when Macaulay tells us that the house above mentioned was destroyed by the infuriated mob, who paraded the streets, almost unchecked, with oranges on the top of their drawn swords and naked pikes. "One precious box," he adds, "the Tuscan minister was able to save from the marauders. It contained some volumes of memoirs written in the hand of King James himself."
The authors of the "Rejected Addresses," in their imitation of Crabbe, as shown in the line quoted as a motto for this chapter, would seem to give a bad name to the Haymarket and its inhabitants, on the score of moral character, if we are to take literally the expression "rogues in grain." But if the meaning of the adjective "canting" as applied to them is to be understood in its ordinary sense, some explanation of it is certainly required; for we never heard of the Haymarket assuming even the appearance of rigid virtue.
ALSO spot the anecdote about 'Thackeray on Addison' which describes the impetus for a famous poem, at least within the realm of UK historians, which closes as follows -
And all the thunders of the battle rise.
'Twas then great Marlborough's mighty soul was proved,
That in the shock of charging hosts unmov'd,
Amidst confusion, horror, and despair,
Examined all the dreadful scenes of war,
In peaceful thought the field of death surveyed,
To fainting squadrons lent the timely aid,
Inspired repulsed battalions to engage,
And taught the doubtful battle where to rage.
So when an angel by Divine command,
With rising tempests shakes a guilty land,
Such as of late o'er pale Britannia passed,
Calm and serene he drives the furious blast;
And, pleased th' Almighty's orders to perform,
Rides on the whirlwind and directs the storm.'
Loads moar. The general idea is that attached to locations are stories and, sometimes, these carry meaning beyond the day of the habbenings.