Friday, November 5, 2010

Need help with a 19th Century London Address......

I have a question about a 19th century London address - maybe someone can help me with it. 

This is a CDV of a woman, probably from the 1890s, taken by a W. Wright.  His business address is listed as "83 Bishopsgate ST. Without, E.C.   It may be hard to see, but it's down in the lower right corner.

We've done some research and found out quite a bit about the photographer.  We've also come across addresses listed as Bishopsgate Within, EC. 

We're not 100% positive what the Within, Without & EC mean.

This is what we think - if someone could either verify this or set us straight we'd appreciate it. 

We think "EC" refers to East Central London- kind of like an early postal code.  We also think the "Within" and "Without" refers to the street's location in respect to the 1 square mile (give or take) City of London - part of the street is within that area, and part of it isn't.  I believe the good ol' Romans walled that area off centuries ago. 

Are we on the right track or anywhere close? Sometimes finding out something simple like this is like pulling teeth. I'm sure it's extremely well known to anyone familiar with the area, but to us sitting here in Valdese, NC, it can be confusing. If anyone could help us with this we'd appreciate it.

Oh, and this CDV is for sale if you're interested - just click on the title to go to the listing

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have some fun with London Postcodes

A Valdese Blogger said...

Hi Grace! Yep looks like the "EC's" are in the City of London area.

Bianca Castafiore? said...

my eyes are a mess... could you describe the emblem between the photog's name and the address?

it sounds like you pegged the address issues!

A Valdese Blogger said...

Bianca: It's not your eyes, it's hard to make out even with a magnifying glass. But I think there are 2 dragons on either side of shield with a cross on it, so I assume it's St. George related. There are at least two words underneath, which I believe are in Latin. I think one is Domini, but I could be completely mistaken about it. I cannot read the others - it's in good condition, but the printing is very small.

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