In the manner of New York City’s Broadway, the hub of London theatre and nightlife was The Strand. A famous music hall song of the period entitled “Let’s All Go Down The Strand” sums up the general exhilaration tourists and Londoners alike experienced along this slice of the English capital:

One night a half ‘a dozen tourists
Spent the night together in Trafalgar Square.
A fortnight’s tour on the Continent was planned,
And each had his portmanteau in his hand.
Down the Rhine they meant to have a picnic
Til’ Jones said, “I must decline–”
“Boys you’ll be advised by me
to stay away from Germany–
What’s the good a’ going down the Rhine.”

Let’s all go down the Strand — Have a banana!
Let’s all go down the Strand!

I’ll be the leader, you can march behind.
Come with me and see what we can find!
Let’s all go down the Strand — Have a banana!
Oh! What a happy land.
That’s the place fer fun and noise,
All among the girls and boys.
So let’s all go down to the Strand.

The Strand began at Trafalgar Square and ended at the Courts of Justice, from whence it turned into Fleet Street, and led into the City. A direct route to the financial heart of London, the Strand was justifiably crowded and jam-packed with pedestrians, hansoms, omnibuses and carriages from dusk to dawn. The Strand was originally the shore by the river Thames, and after a brief stint as an open highway scattered with a few houses here and there, it quickly developed into a premiere residential area, lined with palatial mansions whose gardens stretched down to the Thames. The residents ranged from Prince-Bishops, to the highest nobility, to even royalty–which is why many of the streets retain the names of Buckingham, Salisbury, York, Norfolk and Exeter. As fashion moved west, the Strand was abandoned by the aristocracy and the palaces were removed and shops took their place. Until its destruction in 1874, Northumberland Palace, the London residence of the Dukes of Northumberland, and Somerset House (which remains to this day), were the last of these 17th century palaces to remain along the banks of the Thames.

Other definite changes to the Strand occurred during the later half of the 19th century, when the redevelopment of the area in the 1890s led to the demolition of the Globe Theatre, the Opera Comique, which saw the production of many of Gilbert and Sullivan’s wildly popular operettas of the 1870s and 1880s, the Royal Strand Theatre, and the Gaiety for the construction of a new road, Kingsway between Holborn and the Strand, and the crescent wedge between them, Aldwych. On that wedge the New Gaiety Theatre was reopened in 1903, and the attendance of the King and Queen of England to the opening performance legitimized the musical comedy as a respectable form of entertainment.

But the most important development along the Strand were the grand hotels and restaurants which sprang up in London seemingly overnight, the most important being Claridge’s and the Savoy. Claridge’s retained its reputation for elegance and aristocratic favor from the day of its founding in 1812 as Mivart’s Hotel. The subsequent visits made by Empress Eugenie and Queen Victoria in the 1860s cemented this reputation, and when Richard D’Oyly Carte, who founded the rival Savoy Hotel, purchased Claridge’s in 1894, he set about revamping the hotel with the latest amenities. It reopened four years later with elevators, suites and a stunning restaurant. The Savoy, was founded by Carte in 1889, and he hired César Ritz as manager, who in turn hired the famous Auguste Escoffier as the hotel’s chef de cuisine. So popular was the Savoy, as both a hotel and a restaurant, it soon became the spot to be for celebrity sighting in the 1890s and 1900s. It was in the restaurant of the hotel where Escoffier invented dishes which became a standard in modern French cuisine, and where many famous celebrations were held.

The new trend in dining out also compelled many traditional and traditionally-male enclaves, such as Simpsons-on-the-Strand, to open their dining rooms to ladies. It is here where Margaret Schlegel of E.M. Forster’s Howards’ End has lunch with Henry Wilcox, his daughter Evie and her fiance, who desire to keep Margaret ignorant of the fact that their home was willed to her by the recently-deceased Mrs. Wilcox.

There are moments when virtue and wisdom fail us, and one of them came to her at Simpson’s in the Strand. As she trod the staircase, narrow, but carpeted thickly, as she entered the eating-room, where saddles of mutton were being trundled up to expectant clergymen, she had a strong, if erroneous, conviction of her own futility, and wished she had never come out of her backwater, where nothing happened except art and literature, and where no one ever got married or succeeded in remaining engaged.

Largely considered the heart and soul of recreational London, the Strand was where one could discover just about anyone–including a long-lost brother, as an American visitor was shocked and happy to find in 1913.

Further Reading:
A Wanderer in London by E.V. Lucas
Baedeker’s Guide to London and its Environs, 1905
The Strand District by Walter Besant
The Private Palaces of London Past and Present by E. B. Chancellor
The Gourmet’s Guide to London by Colonel Newnham-Davis

In the Edwardian era, “motor driving” was largely a hobby, sometimes a sport, undertaken and enjoyed by the wealthy elites. Though the automobile made it easier to go from point A to point B, the attitude towards actually driving this new contraption was rather casual–one was apt to say “shall we go motoring?” in the same manner one would ask “shall we go sailing?”–and as many of the earliest motorcars were constructed along the lines of the carriages which had dominated travel for the last few hundred years, learning to drive was not taken seriously. Matters were not helped by the multitude of motor-car handbooks that exploded from publishers, who assumed one could be taught to drive from a book!

Not only were there a whole brand-new set of gears, levers and wheels to be concerned with, but motoring etiquette. It was this lackadaisical approach to etiquette that led to many English and American farmers, fed up with the noise and havoc wreaked by the automobile, to await their quarry with pick-axes and pitchfork. Many newspapers, periodicals and fiction of the day detailed the accidents and almost-accidents which befell early motorists, such as when Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish, upon taking her new motorcar for a trial run, accidentally drove backwards and knocked over a passing man, and then proceeded to drive over him twice more before he got away and she got out of the car. To us today, it seems inconceivable that handbooks detailed the exact methods of turning a corner, or how to start from rest, or how to drive backwards, but it was all new and unfamiliar to all early motorists.

According to S.F. Edge and Charles Jarrott, whose entry on how to drive a motor was part of Alfred Harmsworth’s massive anthology, Motors and motor-driving, when starting for a drive, “there are many points which require to be thought over when starting for a drive, so as to make sure that everything is in order and that the necessary spare parts are carried.” This list included:

• A large screw wrench.
• Small pocket wrench.
• Long screwdriver.
• Small screwdriver.
• Pair of cutting pliers.
• Pair of gas pliers.
• Two files, medium size.
• Coil of copper and steel wire.
• Oil-can with long nozzle.
• Small cold chisel.

The next steps were to first turn on the petrol, secondly, to switch on the ignition, next to “see that the lever to the commutator is retarded as far as possible. (This is done to make certain that no back-fire will occur),” then to on lubricator. The final step was to start the engine, though it was imperative that speed lever was in the out-of-gear notch, or there was a chance the car would go by itself.

The authors go on to describe the interior of a Panhard, whose

wheel steering and single level are on the right-hand sides, giving the speeds forward and reverse. On taking a position in the driver’s seat with one foot on each side of the steering column, each foot lightly resting on the two driving pedals, it will be found that the left pedal when pressed down disconnects the engine from the driving mechanism, whilst the right one also does this, but at the same time applies a powerful brake to arrest the motion of the vehicle. Slightly to the right of the right-hand pedal will be found a smaller pedal set somewhat higher than the other two. This is called the accelerator pedal, and its function is to hold out the governor of the engine and cause it to run at a greatly increased velocity, and so force the vehicle to exceed its regulated speeds. The change-speed lever is on the right hand, and by its side is another notched lever which applies a band brake to each of the rear-wheel hubs.

Once the novice acquainted themselves with the layout of the motorcar, they were ready to drive:

First Speed—First place the left foot on the left pedal, press this down as far as it will go and hold it there. Then take off the side-brake lever, move the speed lever forward one notch—that is, to the first or low speed—and slowly lift the left foot until you feel the engine beginning to move the car. Immediately it does this, if only for a yard or two, press the left pedal down again, so as to get thoroughly accustomed to the feeling of the car moving forward with its own power and yet stopping immediately the pedal for disconnecting the power is pressed down.

Second Speed—First get the vehicle running as fast as possible on the first speed, then press down the left pedal quickly, push the speed lever firmly into the second forward notch, and lift up the left pedal gently as when starting. You are now on the second speed, which you will no doubt observe is considerably faster than the lower speed…Remember that with a motor-car the driver controls the vehicle, and in this it differs from a horse-drawn vehicle, in which the driver is often at the mercy of the animal, to be pulled here, backed there, or upset altogether, should this chance to please the noble quadruped.

Third Speed—You obtain this under exactly the same circumstances and in exactly the same way as set out in the explanation of changing from the first to the second speed…When this stage is reached, it will be found very much better to take four or five drives of ten miles each, with half an hour or an hour’s stoppage between, rather than one continuous drive of forty or fifty miles. Much more rapid progress will be made in this way, and the mental and physical strain is then not noticed, whereas if one long ride is attempted straight off, the novice, when he gets down from the car, will feel uncomfortably tired and exhausted… When one is thoroughly familiar with steering with one hand on the second speed, then higher speed can be attempted.

How to Change Speed properly—In changing speeds there are various things to be avoided, and the learner will very quickly realise that it is most difficult, if not well nigh impossible, to change speed without withdrawing the clutch; which operation is performed by pressing down the left pedal. In any case if he does succeed in the attempt, it will be at the expense of a great deal of noise and damage to the teeth of the gear-wheels. Under all circumstances the teeth are made to engage with one movement, and if at the beginning it is found that when attempting to change speed a grinding noise is heard, it is best to stop the car completely and not persevere, but change the speed quietly with the car standing stationary…The clutch-pedal must be pressed down firmly and decisively without haste or any violent force.

Driving Backwards—To turn in a narrow road where the reverse is required also calls for some knowledge of handling the car when running backwards, and in the event of the car running backwards when ascending a steep hill the vital importance of being able to steer it safely is obvious. The new Motor Act does not encourage practice in driving a car backwards but skill in this direction is always desirable. It is often impossible to get out of a hotel yard without driving backwards, and it is far from dignified to have to push a car out because one dare not try to drive backwards.

Going round Corners—Always keep to your right side, remembering that in all probability you will find some other vehicle coming towards you from the opposite direction. It will generally be found that as the road slopes towards the gutter, the outside wheels of the carriage will be higher than the inside. The illustration shows how, when encountering a bend or corner the view round which is not interrupted by hedges or other obstacles, a driver—being certain that there are no other persons or vehicles beyond the corner—may take advantage of the banking of the road, and avoid great deviation from the straight course, by cutting across to his wrong side, and hugging close to the angle of the corner.

Descending Steep Hills—When travelling down steep hills it is very easy to be deceived, as the nature of the district may make the gradients look very much less than they really are. A very striking example of this occurred in the Thousand Miles Trial of the Automobile Club, 1900, when the Hon. C. S. Rolls, in driving from the ‘ Cat and Fiddle,’ was evidently so deceived by both the gradient and the corner that he actually threw his mechanic off the car, owing to the vehicle travelling at much higher rate than was allowed for, and the gradient keeping the car running at a great speed right up to the comer. The present writer himself, who was just behind Mr. Rolls at the moment, to a certain extent met with the same difficulty.

A good driver was also aware of the dangers of motoring, of which the authors considered the greatest dangers to be other people, “not because they are there, but because of their indecision…They suddenly hear the motor approaching, and although their safest plan is to remain where they are, they make wild dives in any and every direction, with the result that, unless one has the car completely under control and ready to stop at a moment’s notice, a bad accident may happen. It is a good rule when meeting with undecided wayfarers to make up one’s mind the way one wants to go and continue in that direction; at the same time keep your brakes well in hand, so that if necessary you can pull up dead and avoid striking them.”

Also, horses: “A swerving horse which swings round at the last moment is another danger to be guarded against, and on approaching any horse it is always well to assume—as is too often the case —that it is not under the control of the person driving it; either he is intent on looking at the motor, or very likely he cannot drive. It is advisable to slow down to the pace at which the car can be pulled up immediately a horse shows signs of wanting to monopolise the whole of the road. This danger is very much increased if the horse is attached to a cart with a long piece of timber projecting at the back, as a very small movement of the animal may completely block the road.”

And not looking behind one’s motor when driving at high speeds. However, the side-slip was the bane of the motorist’s existence: “Under certain conditions all roads in towns become exceedingly greasy and slippery to a rubber tyre, so much so that if the brakes are applied the carriage, instead of stopping, merely travels on with the wheels locked, and on greasy asphalt will go almost as far in this fashion as with the wheels revolving.” Night driving was also cautioned: “when driving at night one should never travel at a speed greater than that which affords time to pull up after seeing any object clearly by the light of your lamps. Of course if two acetylene lamps are used one can travel up to twenty-five miles an hour in perfect safety, the road being sufficiently illuminated to give plenty of time to stop; but if ordinary oil or candle lamps are used, eight or ten miles is the limit of safety. In very foggy weather it is best to turn one lamp sideways so as to indicate the side of the road. The offside lamp pointing forward should be covered with a handkerchief, to diffuse the light and cause less refraction from the fog in front.”

As the automobile became less the province of the wealthy and the sporting type, laws were enacted which regulated driving speeds, automobile safety mechanisms, and also enforced both driver’s licenses and license plates for cars. All of which went a long way to increasing the safety of the road. Granted, despite being over one hundred years removed from the early days of motoring, we have yet to remain entirely safe on the road, but the act of driving and learning to drive is done with as much consideration and care as our Edwardian counterparts put into this new machine.

Further Reading:
Behind the Wheel: the Magic and Manners of Early Motoring by Lord Montagu of Beaulieu & F. Wilson McComb
Motors and motor-driving Ed. by Alfred Harmsworth, Lord Northcliffe
Audels answers on automobiles, for owners, operators, repairmen by Charles Edwin Booth

The evolution of formal dining begins in the medieval era, where dining became a sign of social status. At that time, the table setting included the Salt Cellar, which was the first thing put on the table. The salt was far more than a condiment–to sit above the salt was to sit in the place of honor, and until the salt was put upon the table, no one could know where would be his allotted seat. Then came the silver dishes for holding vegetable or fish, sometimes meat, and small loaves of bread. However, spoons and knives were not furnished by the host, but were brought by guests whose servants, so equipped, cut the meat and carved the food for each person. The guests had no plates or forks and few knives, but ate with their hands and threw the refuse on the floors, but the cleanliness of the cloth, or Nappe, was of paramount importance and a matter of great pride.

As the nobility began to express its wealth in its silver trenchers, wassail bowls, ewers, lavers, basins and other implements and tools of the table, eating became less egalitarian and the classes stratified based on their table settings. Spoons were also brought by guests, and these elaborately designed silver utensils were often gifts of one of the sponsors at baptism, a practice which most likely spawned the phrase “born with a silver spoon.” Forks came later, and their introduction produced much criticism, the objectors holding that “fingers were made before forks.” They came from Italy, and the early 17th century correspondence of Thomas Coryat cite the new discovery as almost as important as the discover of America, and causing far more discussion. By the reign of Charles II, forks were in common use. The fork did much for the simplification and advancement of culinary art by encouraging the taste for solid viands and natural flavors.

The use of the fork made possible the delicate slice as against the gobbets of meat of the century before, and also, the fork promoted cleanliness at the table. It also made possible choicer table linen, finer clothes and handsome napkins, and there soon developed definite rules for folding and laying the napkin so that there was published diagrams showing twenty-five ways to fold a napkin. Knives, forks, spoons, platters, ewers and basins created a custom for a more dignified setting of table, and with these new table appliances, manners improved and culinary art advanced to higher standards, the better to fit the richer and more elaborate table setting and silver service. By the 18th century, more attractive and stately service were developed, and silversmiths were set at work to achieve higher standards of art in metalwork.

Finer woodwork and other metal works developed concurrently, and as the wealthy, the noble, and the royal began to fill their houses with costly, exquisite goods, their table settings became more elaborate as well until dining became a pageant in its own right. Vast, elaborate meals became a way to assert power, wealth and status, and they moved back into public view. But this time, with the arrival of the Dutch practice of alternating seating for the sexes, women sat at the table on equal footing with men.

Service à la française, whereby separate courses were created rather than two or three courses, where everything alike was lumped together, took hold of the gustatory habits of the wealthy at the turn of the 19th century. This imposed new rules on the order in which food was to be served; the theories of Carême and Brillat-Savarin felt that the foods’ relationships to one another were an important element of the dining experience, and both believed food should be served in this order: soup, fish, meat, game, sweets and fruits, and the side dishes were to complement these main items. This method was better than the previous methods of serving diners, but it was difficult to keep the dishes hot by the time they reached the table from the far-away kitchen. Because of this, service à la française was rendered impractical, making room for service à la russe, or service in the Russian style, which was brought to France in 1811 by the Russian ambassador.

However, this style of service did not catch on in England or America until the 1860s and 1870s, where the English style of service (all the food belonging to one course is placed in suitable dishes before the host/ess and served from the table) was more prevalent. With the Russian style of service, there was greater emphasis on the presentation of both meals and place settings. Now, when guests arrived to be seated for dinner, there were place cards designating where one would sit, a menu provided from which one would choose the dishes to eat during each course, and rather than sitting to a table laden down with chafing dishes and platters of food, there was a simple “cover,” which consisted of the plates, glasses, silver and napkin to be used by each person. With this new emphasis on table setting, as with the influx of the newly rich knocking at the doors of the upper classes giving rise to etiquette books, service à la russe created a set of rigid, correct rules for cutlery, china and table adornments.

The table now cleared of food, table setting blended four elements of design: central decorations, flowers, color, and mirrors. Central decoration usually consisted of epergnes or plateaus, the latter of which was a raised mirror, often with silver or gilt decorations on the raised sides, while the former was a tall stand with hanging arms that held either baskets of sweets, or platforms that held glasses containing sweets. The custom of placing flowers on the dining table began in the early 19th century, but by the turn of the century, the use of a heavy candelabra and elevated dishes alternating with low dishes took hold. Large masses of flowers often covered the table, nearly crowding out the place settings, and often the individual places were delineated by strands of ivy or other flowers strung between each cover. Color was important to the early- and mid-Victorians, and colored table runners, color glasses such as green hock glasses or ruby-colored wine glasses, added a deep splash of color against the already crowded table.

Added to this were mirrors, which generally reflected peaceful scenes if a mirrored plateau with figures was not being used. The Edwardian era saw a streamlined of the table setting, and the table was cleared of the masses of flowers and other accouterments in favor of a simple arrangement of candelabra, bowls of fruit and flower arrangements set one after the other along the length of the table. Now, instead of candles, small lamps, shaded by delicate lampshades, cast an intimate glow across the dining table and its diners. Beneath the table decorations lay the more important articles of gastronomy: the tablecloth, the dishes, and the silverware. Maids setting the table for dinner were instructed to first lay the silence cloth (of double-faced cotton flannel, knitted table padding, or an asbestos pad) upon the table, then to lay the covers, allowing 24-30 inches from plate to plate.

If the table was bare, the covers were marked by plate doilies. A service plate was then laid for each person, one inch from the edge of the table, and this plate remained upon the table until it was necessary to replace it with a hot plate. The silver placed in the order which it was to be used, beginning at the outside and using toward the plate. Silver for the dessert course was never put on with the silver required for other courses, except for the dinner which was served without a maid. Neither was the table set with more than three forks. If more were required, they were placed with their respective courses. The salad or dessert silver was brought either in on the plate, or placed beside a napkin or tray at the right, from the right, after the plate is placed. The knife or knives were placed at the right of the plate, half an inch from the edge of the table, with the cutting edge toward the plate.

Spoons, with bowls facing up, were placed at the right of the knife, and forks, with the tines turned upward, at the left of the plate. The spoon for fruit or the small fork for oysters or hors d’œuvre was placed at the extreme right or on the plate containing the course and the napkin was at the left of the forks, and the hem and selvage was required to parallel with the forks and the edge of the table. The water glass was placed at the point of the knife, the bread-and-butter plate above the service plate, and the butter spreader across the upper, right-hand side of the bread-and-butter plate. Salt and pepper sets were placed between each two covers.

During the heyday of service à la française, the sideboard was used to hold all extras required during the service of the meal. The serving table took its place when the French service was replaced by the Russian, and the sideboard was used for decorative purposes only, usually holding choice pieces of silver. Besides this new emphasis on table setting, the most important and enduring development derived from service a la russe was the matching of dishes to wines. Before, diners would eat and drink wines to their own tastes, but the Russian service, with its sparser table made it logical to serve a particular wine with each course. Due to this new protocol of complimentary food and wine, the types of and numbers of wine glasses the diner had to negotiate grew.

Now the opening oyster course was to be eaten accompanied by Chablis, the soup and also the hot hors d’œuvre with sherry, fish with hock, removes and entrees with champagne, the meat with burgundy, game with claret, and dessert with port, Tokay, or other fine wines. Cocktails later joined this group by the turn of the century, though the practice of having a cocktail before dinner did not emerge until the 1920s. Needless to say, though the formal table setting has simplified much since the 19th century, the array of flatware, dishes and glasses remain formidable and continue to impose a barrier between the wealthy and the middle- and lower-classes. From this evolution of formal dining, we can see that though most do not dine with such elaborate courses or settings, the interest in food and eating has not abated in a thousand years. Read more here.

Further Reading:

Forgotten Elegance by Wendell Schollander & Wes Schollander
Service a la Francaise
Table Service by Lucy Grace Allen (1915)
The history of the art of tablesetting by Claudia Quigley Murphy (1921)
The Up-to-date Waitress by Janet McKenzie Hill (1906)