Fleet Street

This is a Hutson Brothers postcard showing the scene from Fleet Street looking east towards Ludgate Circus and Ludgate Hill with St. Paul’s Cathedral in the distance. The postcard was posted in January 1936, but the photograph is from 1930. The Star newspaper was a London evening newspaper and I can just remember the news vendors call of “Star, News and Standard”, referring to the Evening News and the Evening Standard. The Star was taken over by the Evening News in 1960. The placard on the back of the paper van refers to the death of Dr. William Sandford Whitcombe aged 65, the Harley Street specialist. On 16th April 1930 he was found at his home in Holland Road, Kensington, suffering from extensive burns from which he later died, the inquest was told that he took the drug Veronal for his insomnia and had apparently collapsed onto a gas fire receiving the burns injuries. The Doctor’s wife was represented at the inquest by a Mr. Fearnley-Whittingstall, now where have I heard that name before? Mr. Oswald, the West London Coroner, found that Dr. Whitcombe had been overcome by a dose of Veronal which had caused him to accidentally fall onto the gas fire. The drug, Veronal, was the first synthesized Barbiturate which was available commercially and was the sleeping pill of choice although prolonged use leads to an accumulation in the body and can cause an inadvertent overdose. The City of London police constable on traffic duty is wearing a white cape to aid his visibility when directing traffic, I think that the City of London police was the only force to issue white capes, but I may be wrong about that.

Done