Horse-drawn omnibuses, hansom cabs, and the soaring Gothic spire of the Eleanor Cross fill the forecourt of London's grandest railway hotel in this richly hand-colored Edwardian postcard — a street scene frozen at the very cusp of the motorcar age. The Charing Cross Hotel and Station, designed by Edward Middleton Barry and opened in 1865, looms in French Renaissance grandeur above the Strand, its mansard roofline punctuated by decorative dormers. A "Bureau de Change" sign advertises the cosmopolitan bustle below. Published by P.P. & P. Co. of Croydon and printed in Germany, this undivided-back card was never mailed and retains a clean, bright image — a collector-ready example of Edwardian London street life at its most atmospheric.