1) Edward Miall: publishers, printers and offices, 1840s-1860s. 10th July 2015
--Video 1 of 2: Edward Miall (1809-1881) and London EC.
This video - video one of two - begins with a look towards Paternoster Square, looking westwards on the north side of St. Paul's Cathedral. Nearby, at 8, Paternoster Row, were Aylott and Jones who had published Edward Miall's The Nonconformist's Sketch-Book in 1845 and Ethics of Nonconformity, and Workings of Willinghood in 1848. The Bronte sisters, under pseudonyms Currer (Charlotte), Ellis (Emily) and Acton (Anne) Bell, had a book of poetry published by Aylott and Jones, 8, Paternoster-Row in 1846, the first work published of any of the Bronte sisters.
Robert Theobald, father of Morell and William, later partners with Edward's son Arthur in the firm Theobald Brothers & Miall, was a publisher at 26, Paternoster Row. The Statement of Facts Connected With The Expulsion of Three Students from New College, London by Robert M. Theobald, brother of Morell and William, was published by his father Robert Theobald, 26, Paternoster Row in 1852. The three referred to were Robert Masters Theobald himself, William Hale White, writer under the pseudonym Mark Rutherford, and Frederic Meriton White, brother of Jessie White Mario, Hurricane Jessie, a revolutionary with regard to the Italian Risorgimento. Jessie was influenced in childhood by John Daniel Morell, cousin of Edward's wife and brother of Robert Theobald's wife, who had works published by Robert Theobald.
At 3:40 into the video is Temple Bar which used to stand were Fleet Street becomes the Strand at the western edge of the City. It was removed in 1878, re-erected in a park in Hertfordshire before being re-erected here in Paternoster Square in 2004. In the novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens published in 1859, the fictional Tellson's Bank was situated by Temple Bar where the fictional Jeremiah (Jerry) Cruncher would sit on his stool and watch two immense processions of traffic. And Temple Bar would have frequently been seen by Edward Miall who had an office off Fleet Street.
At 8:40 into the video, walking along Ludgate Hill, I cross the Old Bailey, and about five doors west at 9:15 was approximately the entrance to Horse-Shoe-Court. And here there was Miall and Cockshaw, Printers, Horse-Shoe-Court, Ludgate-Hill which printed some of Edward Miall's works and The Nonconformist newspaper. Albert Cockshaw was proprietor of the Leicestershire Mercury from 1836 to 1840, which Edward contributed towards while in Leicester.
Continuing along Ludgate Hill I cross Ludgate Circus and Farringdon Street, arriving at the beginning of Fleet Street at 12:30. At 15:15 I come to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese tavern which presumably is the place where the fictional Charles Darnay 'dines' while the fictional Sydney Carton 'wines' after the trial at the Old Bailey. It may be in this tavern, in A Tale of Two Cities, where Carton says I am a disappointed drudge, sir. I care for no man on earth, and no man on earth cares for me. --From 15:30 can be read a list of many literary men who have visited here right outside the tavern. Almost directly opposite is Whitefriars Street where in the 1840s Edward Miall had an office at 3, Whitefriars Street, Fleet Street.
In his Life of Edward Miall published in 1884, Edward's son Arthur writes My father was living at this time [around 1841 to 1844] at Stoke Newington. It must have been the happiest time of his life. ... For three years, two or three days weekly, he walked to and from Stoke Newington Common to his office in Whitefriars Street, formerly known in older maps as Water Lane. At 16:45 I cross over Fleet Street from the tavern onto Whitefriars Street, and at 17:15 can be seen a blue plaque with the following words: On this site in the years 1844-1846 were situated the London offices of the Anti-Corn-Law League with which John Bright and Richard Cobden were so closely associated. In this time, in 1845, Edward stood in his first election in Southwark across the Thames, and leading up to this he was politically active with regard to the following trinity: (1) he campaigned to disestablish the Church of England, seeing it as a counterfeit Church upheld by the aristocratic class; (2) he supported the Free Trade movement led by Cobden and Bright of the middle class, and (3) he gave his support to the complete suffrage movement led by Joseph Sturge regarding the right to vote for the labouring class. --Regarding the latter, Edward wrote the Reconciliation Between The Middle and Labouring Classes, reprinted from The Nonconformist in Manchester as a pamphlet in 1842.
At 18:25 I come to the entrance of Hanging Sword Ally off Whitefriars Street where the fictional Jeremiah Cruncher lived in apartments that were not in a savoury neighbourhood. At 22:10 I look from Whitefriars Street across Fleet Street towards Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese tavern before proceeding westwards on Fleet Street towards Bouverie Street. --See video 2 @