Cathedrals of progress

Britain’s industrial transformation had propelled it a thousand years into the future

Wright was stunned by the sheer scale and might of London, the world’s greatest capital. “This is a country of the most astonishing wealth and strength,” he wrote. “Going from Boston to London is like taking a trip of a thousand years by railroad down the valley of time. London is, perhaps, what Boston will be just a thousand years hence – that is, in AD 2844 – worth seeing, is it not?” Touring the Thames docks, he marvelled at a tobacco warehouse of four or five acres, and a cellar boasting 37,000 hogsheads of rum.

Wright harboured a lifelong hatred of alcohol, but grudging admiration crept through when he asked: “What is that dark murky building, towering far above the sea of brick and mortar, with chimneys like church steeples?” For this was one of many of “the cathedral breweries, consecrated to the gospel of brutality”.

Passing by Newgate prison, Wright was confronted by London’s older and official cathedral, St Paul’s. “Turning to the right, the mighty work of Sir Christopher Wren bursts upon us through a narrow opening in the swamp of old sooty edifices.” Walking on to ascend the monument to the Great Fire of London, he gazed down at the church of St Dunstan in the East. “What airy festoonery of cut stone. A perfect frolic of art! The scene is quite indescribable. What things under this sea of red tiles now beneath your feet. Here is the world’s throat – the jugular of its wealth.”