To the interior of the Stock Exchange the public is not admitted, the authorities and the members themselves, aided, of course, by the janitors stationed at the doors, keeping most careful guard. Many are the stories, generally exaggerated, as to what befalls the stranger who has the temerity and skill to pass within the sacred portals. Occasionally, however, distinguished visitors are shown round, and the list includes the late King Edward VII. Only once have the Managers given permission for drawings to be made of the interior for publication, and on one occasion photographs of the interior were taken and sold for charity.
One of the most common remarks of the clerk who sees it for the first time is, "How small a place!" The impossibility of taking in the whole of the building at a glance is responsible for the false impression so often formed by the disappointed young man newly introduced to a scene of which he has heard so much. But to take one's stand at the Bar of the House, which is just inside the door at Capel Court, is to obtain a much better view than that usually offered by the waiters on effecting the introduction of a new-comer. One is then in the Consol Market, in some respects the most important of all, and looks right down the whole length of the House from west to east. The vista is fine, if not, indeed, impressive. The massive pillars, so often criticised by the members for the loss of space they involve at their huge bases, stand out with a certain solid grandeur, but the dome of what is still called the New House, the most beautiful feature of the Stock Exchange, is lost by reason of the lower roof just in front of us. On the left hand or north side of the Bar is the Parlour, and on the right stands the Kitchen, names handed down through decades for the two little sets of desks on each side of the Bar. Moving forward through the Consol Market, and slightly to the left or north-east, one passes through the Colonial Stock and Bond Market, and stands upon the threshold of the Grand Trunk section. It will be understood that there are no lines or barriers to form boundaries of the various markets. When one talks of a Stock Exchange market, he has in his mind a mere space in the Stock Exchange near some pillar or window; or, much more likely, he has in his mind the group of men who occupy it, dealing, or prepared to deal, in certain securities. Generally speaking, custom alone forms the barrier between the various departments, and the consequence is that when one particular market attracts many members by reason of its animation, the dealers in the busy part frequently overflow the fancy boundaries and press hard upon the neighbouring space. Thus it often happened that the American Railroad Market, touching the Home Railway section on one side and the Grand Trunk section on another, overlapped the boundaries of each, and eventually, because of the inconvenience, the home of American Railroads had to be enlarged.