LONDON'S VERGE

Evening Star, Issue 21078, 15 April 1932, Page 1

LONDON'S VERGE

What is London's “ Verge ”? Probably few Londoners could answer the question, although at Buckinghani Palace there is a special little court which deals with certain matters connected with it. The members of the court are known as the Justices of the Verge of the Palaces (says the New York ‘Times’). The Verge is the area within a radius of twelve miles from wdiere the sovereign is resident. The palace court was created in the seventeenth century with jurisdiction over all persona^matters arising between parties within its area, but not including the Royal household. The Lord Steward, the Earl of Shaftesbury, is its president, but his duties are performed by the Master of the Household, Sir Derek Keppel. When AVhitehnll Court, the apartment house on the Thames Embankment where George Bernard Shaw lives, recently sought the removal, of its license to sell wine and spirits its representatives had to apply in person to the Justices of the Verge of the Palaces. For Whitehall Court not only is within the Verge, but it occupies the site of a former Royal palace. In Stow’s ‘ Survey of London,’ published in 1603. there is this passage: “ On the left hand from Charing Cross be also divers fair tenements lately built, till ye come to a large plot of ground enclosed with brick, and is called Scotland, where great buildings have been for the receipt of the Kings of Scotland.” Whitehall Court stands on part of that “ plot.” and it is thus that Scotland Yard, also within the Verge, gets its name. Among other ncarbv buildings are the Admiralty offices of the Royal Navy and Horse Guards erected in 1753.