London 1900

An ad from "The London Advertiser" January 3, 1900. Kingsmill's is still around. As kids we called it the Quiet store.

It is the new century. As those of us who witnessed the change from the twentieth to the twenty-first century know that it is a big event. Right. Well - not if you go through 1900 in the two London dailies. As far as I can tell there were no big parties. At least none reported in the papers. Head line news in January 1900 was the war in South Africa. British Empire troops were kicking ass. At least as far as the London papers were concerned. A large crowd turned out to see off London’s boys who volunteered for the Mounted Rifles. Both papers would continue to closely follow their adventures in South Africa.

Frederick George Rumball (1) was elected mayor in January 1900( mayors at that time served one term, and were elected in early January).

From "The London Free Press, October 1, 1940. It's the only picture that I have been able to find of Mayor Rumball. I expect that in 1900 he had darker hair.

The century may have changed but London did not. Electricity was yet to come. Public transit was horse drawn. Homes were heated by coal. The refrigerator was the ice box. Newspapers had yet to find the technology to include photographs in their stories. Light was supplied by candle or kerosene lamp. The telephone had made it to London though.


This photo was actually taken around 1885 at the corner of Richmond and Dundas. There would be virtually no changes in the streetscape by 1900. The horse drawn trolly would not be replaced by electric trolleys for another 10  years after 1900.

 One thing that did not, and has not, changed is the ridiculous advertisments in the papers.

As if I needed further reasons to drink beer. I just knew it was a food group.

I guess being a 98 pound weekling was a worry even in 1900. This ad appears in both papers throughout 1900.

And now for the scary ad.

I did not know that Chase & Sandborn had been around since 1900. Today grandfathers use sugar to give the little tykes that get up and spin.

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(1) Frederick George Rumball was born 8 December 1853 in Clinton, Huron County, Canada West to Benjamin Rumball and Mary Johnston. He died 1 October 1940 at Victoria Hospital, London, Ontario. In 1900 he was a lumber merchant in London.