1936 On the Continent

new celebrity more quickly than the New York public; none is more loyal than the London public. To be a constant feature in the life of the place is reason enough to be loved there. Sarah Bernhardt was worshippedin London to her dying day. Yvonne Printemps will reign likewise if she has the sense to come over every year. A lady was singing the praises of an old Frenchman who had lived for many years in London. “We’re very fond of him,” she added; “his English is so bad that for forty years nobody has ever understood a single remark he’s made. But he’s become one of us.” Become one of them yourself. This will be your first Season in London; and in thirty years’ time you will be beginning to understand this simple, baffling, noble country.

    LONDON
By L. RÁSKAY
    T RAVELLERS coming to London from abroad—from any part of the world—will most probably arrive at one of the three newest of London’s many railway stations. If you land from an ocean liner at Southampton the boat-train will bring you to Waterloo station, if from a cross-Channel steamer at Dover, Folkestone or one of the other Channel ports you will find yourself an hour and a half or two hours later at Victoria station, while if you land at Harwich you will receive your first glimpse of London at Liverpool Street station.
    But at whichever of these stations you arrive, you will find yourself practically in the heart of London. Even Waterloo station, which lies south of the Thames, in that vast portion of the city to which the average foreign visitor only strays by some extraordinary coincidence, is only a few minutes’ journey from the centre of London, despite the fact that London has comparatively few bridges, and even some of these are in course of construction or reconstruction. If you are fortunate enough to arrive in fine weather you may even obtain, from the bridge by which you choose to cross, a fine view of the Thames Embankment, which has been developed on rather magnificent lines during the past hundred years.
Victoria Station
    More favourably situated than Waterloo is Victoria station, north of the Thames. The moment you leave its vast glass-covered hall you will find yourself in the centre of things—the Houses of Parliament, the Royal Palaces, the exclusive diplomatic quarter of Belgravia, and many other world-famous places are only at a stone’s throw from this important centre of international travel.
    Liverpool Street station borders on the City of London proper, and it may give you a thrill to know that, for instance, the Stock Exchange and the Bank of England, which constitute the pulse of world economy, are within comfortable walking distance from this station.
    However, you will probably have other things to think about on arrival.
    The stations themselves are not so impressive as the foreign visitor might expect. The English are very proud of Waterloo station, which is the biggest railway station in Great Britain and which, after repeated reconstructions and extensions, was completed in its present form in the year 1921, and deals with hundreds of trains per day. Nevertheless the external appearance of this station is by no means overwhelming. The same applies, with even greater force, to Victoria and Liverpool Street stations. However, Victoria station will be thirty years old in 1938, and considering that up till 1908 this famous station was a very modest building with a boarded roof, its present size and appearance cannot fail to impress, particularly when you know that it cost £2,000,000 to build.
Liverpool Street Station
    Liverpool Street station, when it was built in 1875, was the biggest and finest railway station in London, but to-day it only serves as another example of the transitory nature of mere glory.
    At all three stations the Continental visitor will probably be surprised at the manner in which vehicles—both private cars and taxis—drive up close to the platforms, though American visitors will see nothing extraordinary in this.
    For the rest, London’s smoke-filled railway stations are not sufficiently inviting to cause the traveller to stay in them longer than necessary, although some of them, like Waterloo and Victoria, have news cinemas for the convenience of travellers waiting for trains.
    The railway porters are scrupulously honest, and it would not even occur to them to take advantage of travellers. You will be quite safe in asking the porter who has assisted you what you owe him—he