The Six Napoleons
First published in 1904 and in the Return cycle.
There were in fact three French Emperors called Napoleon. Napoleon I is of course Bonaparte and of course a hugely prominent figure in world history.
His very young son spent two short periods as Napoleon II, but the two reigns were never recognised by foreign powers and he spent his life in Austria from 1814 until his death in 1835 from tuberculosis, aged only 21.
Napoleon I's nephew was President of France from 1848 to 1852, seizing power in a coup in 1851 because he couldn't be reelected and making himself Napoleon III the following year. He reigned where he majorly modernised the French economy and launched the rebuilding of Paris, but the 1870 war against Prussia proved a disaster - the army was forced to surrender, he was captured and in his absence was overthrown, ending French monarchy until further notice.
Napoleon seems to have enjoyed somewhat of a fandom in late Victorian England.
'Hooliganism' first appeared as a word in 1894.
Kensington High Street station was opened in 1868, being served by District and Circle Line trains.
A red lamp was a sign of a doctor's surgery. It has fallen very much out of use, unlike the barber-surgeon's striped pole.
Beppo is an abbreviation of the Italian name Giuseppe.
'Rates' is a Commonwealth name for property taxes used to fund local government, although for domestic purposes it has been replaced by Council Tax in England and Wales.
The "outcasts of Europe" would have included a large Jewish population who had fled antisemitism in the Russian Empire. The East End was suffering from major overcrowding, with the tenements generally only going in post-WW2 slum clearance, replaced by council estates and tower blocks.
The 'Mafia' in the Campania region is known as the Camorra and has been around since the 17th century. Their modern activities include illegal waste dumping, with the environmental damage that causes.
There were around 12,000 Italians in London in 1895, with southern Italians generally setting up their home in the Saffron Hill area of Clerkenwell; northern Italians were heading for Soho. The area was later gentrified and their descendants largely moved out, but Saffron Hill still has some Italian connection.
