Portal:London/Quote/12 2009

“ There is no other fair like Whit Monday's on Wanstead Flats. Here is a square mile and more of open land where you may howl at large; here is no danger of losing yourself, as in Epping Forest; the public houses are always with you; shows, shies, swings, merry-go-rounds, fried fish stalls, donkeys are packed closer than on Hampstead Heath; the ladies tormentors are large, and their contents smell worse than at any other fair. Also you may be drunk, and disorderly without being locked up, - for the stations won't hold everybody, - and when all else has palled you may set fire to the turf. ”

Arthur Morrison (1863-1945), in Tales of Mean Streets, Ch. 1. pp. 31 (London: 1895).

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