Produced by Suzanne Shell, Richard Prairie and PG
Distributed Proofreaders.
1921
On the southern edge of the populous parish of Paddington, in aparallelogram bounded by Oxford and Cambridge Terrace on the south,Praed Street on the north, and by Edgware Road on the east and SpringStreet on the west, lies an assemblage of mean streets, the drabdulness of which forms a remarkable contrast to the pretentiousarchitectural grandeurs of Sussex Square and Lancaster Gate, close by.In these streets the observant will always find all those evidences ofdepressing semi-poverty which are more evident in London than in anyother English city. The houses look as if laughter was never heardwithin them. Where the window blinds are not torn, they are dirty; thefolk who come out of the doors wear anxious and depressed faces. Suchshops as are there are mainly kept for the sale of food of poorquality: the taverns at the corners are destitute of attraction orpretension. Whoever wanders into these streets finds their sordidshabbiness communicating itself: he escapes, cast down, wondering whothe folk are who live in those grey, lifeless cages; what they do, whatth