Frederick Merrick White (1859–1935) wrote a number of novels and short stories under the name "Fred M. White" including the six "Doom of London" science-fiction stories, in which various catastrophes beset London.
Every one in this book is hard pressed, usually by lack of money, lives going to rack and ruin. The plot is decent but there is a vast amount of uninteresting verbiage that bored, and so got skipped. Happy ending, tho'.