View of St John's Wood High Street, looking south. The high street was laid out 1830-40s when the area was known as Portland Town after the Duke of Portland who owned the land. In the foreground, at right, a confectioner with its wares in the windows. A man drives a horse-drawn cart, and a man and woman are on the pavement. On the left, W. R. Ames, a seller of photographic materials, is in the corner shop. Adjacent, Baylis Circulating Library, a library subscription service. Further along, awnings are down over a shopfront where a sign reads 'Mainprice & Lord', advertising ales and stouts. Next, a turning into Charles Lane (formerly Henry Street) with some intriguing advertisements on the wall. In this early twentieth-century view, the high street has come up in the world.