On august 3rd 1900 Charles Yerkes, an American financier and ex-convict, gazed across London from the top of Hamp-stead Heath. His journey through the capital in a horse-drawn carriage had already begun to persuade him that it was a fine place to invest. The streets heaved with people; Yerkes had never travelled through such a densely populated city. But the view from one of its highest points clinched his interest. To the south lay spires, crowded terraced houses and congested streets. To the north were pastures, stretches of farmland and a few sleepy villages.
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