Ely

Streets and Buildings.-The town comprises a central spacious market-place, one long principal street, and several smaller streets running in various directions; contains many good stone houses, and has undergone great recent improvement; yet includes some houses of very ancient appearance, and presents, in a considerable degree, an antiquated aspect. The chief public edifices in it are the cathedral, the other places of worship, the public schools, the town-hall, a recently-erected corn-exchange, a cattle-market, a court-house, a workhouse, and a house of correction; and the last has capacity for 36 male and 6 female prisoners. The best view of the town is from Stuntney Hill; but a view from the roof of Kings College chapel in Cambridge, though so far distant, reveals the cathedral looming like a hill in a plain, and kindles an expectation in the breast of a stranger that the town will disclose to him features of high interest.

(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

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