SOUTH LONDON
WALTER BESANT'S LONDON BOOKS.
UNIFORM EDITION. Demy 8vo. cloth, 5_s._ net each.
LONDON.
With 125 Illustrations.
'What the late J. R. Green has done for England Sir Walter Besant
has here attempted, with conspicuous success, for Cockaigne. The
Author of "A Short History of the English People" and the historian
of the London citizen share together the true secret of popularity.
Both have placed before the people of to-day a series of vivid and
indelible pictures of the people of the past.... No one who loves
his London but will love it the better for reading this book. He who
loves it not has before him a clear duty and a manifest
pleasure.'--_Graphic._
'Sir Walter Besant knows and loves his London thoroughly, and his
beautifully illustrated book will call up in the minds of those who
bow to the spell a thousand delights of memory and expectation. He
contrives not merely to call back the old London, but to make the
London of the present more living than before.'--_Spectator._
WESTMINSTER.
With 131 Illustrations.
'Sir Walter Besant has told the story of the old city (London) and
its corporate life in a way which has never been surpassed--not even
equalled. The past of the mother of municipal life he has made to
live and breathe in a manner which reduces all other records of
London to the mere dryasdust category. But we like his "Westminster"
even better.... There is nothing but admiration to be expressed as
well for the plan as for the execution.'--_Daily Chronicle._
'Sir Walter Besant has here given us a worthy companion to his
charming book on "London."... From beginning to end the narrative
never flags, the illustrations never fail, and one rises from its
reading with fuller ideas of the historic interest of the place and
a greater veneration for the ancient Abbey and all its relics of the
past.'--_Guardian._
SOUTH LONDON.
With 120 Illustrations.
'To all Londoners who realise the absorbing fascination of the great
world they live in we cordially recommend it as a worthy sequel to
the author's previous volumes. It is written by an enthusiast who is
also an accomplished writer, by a student who is a close observer of
life; and it passes before the reader's imagination a series of
indelible pictures which clothe our prosaic and monotonous South
London with the romance which is its due.'--_Literature._
EAST LONDON.
With 55 Illustrations by PHIL MAY, RAVEN HILL, and JOSEPH PENNELL.
'Sir Walter Besant knows London as no one has known it since Charles
Dickens.... He has given a lifetime to the acquisition of his
knowledge of the great city. He was grey before he attempted to
write his monumental works on "London," "Westminster," and "South
London"--books which have earned him his title as the historian of
London--and he has postponed his book on "East London" until his
sixty-fifth year.... Crammed with antiquarian lore mingled with
human interest and saturated with genuine sympathy for the people is
this study of "East London."... A thoroughly masterly
book.'--_Literary World._
Crown 8vo. cloth, 3_s._ 6_d._
FIFTY YEARS AGO.
With 144 Plates and Woodcuts.
'A series of entertaining chapters, to which the droll illustrations
of George Cruikshank and the inimitable portraits by Daniel Maclise
lend additional effect.... The book is full of movement and colour,
and presents a vivid and interesting picture of the great reign of
Queen Victoria.'--_Speaker._
Small 8vo. cloth (in the ST. MARTIN'S LIBRARY), gilt top, 2_s._ net
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LONDON. WESTMINSTER.
SIR RICHARD WHITTINGTON. JERUSALEM.
GASPARD DE COLIGNY.
London: CHATTO & WINDUS, 111 St. Martin's Lane, W.C.
* * * * *
[Illustration: F. S. Walker, R.E.
S^t. Saviour's, Southwark.]
SOUTH LONDON
BY
WALTER BESANT
AUTHOR OF
'LONDON' 'WESTMINSTER' 'EAST LONDON' ETC.
[Illustration]
A NEW EDITION
WITH AN ETCHING BY FRANCIS S. WALKER, R.E.
AND 119 ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON
CHATTO & WINDUS
1912
PREFACE
In sending forth this book on 'SOUTH LONDON,' the successor to my two
preceding books on 'LONDON' and 'WESTMINSTER,' I have to explain in this
case, as before, that it is not a history, or a chronicle, or a
consecutive account of the Borough and her suburbs that I offer, but, as
in the other two books, chapters taken here and there from the mass of
material which lies ready to hand, and especially chapters which
illustrate the most important part of History, namely, the condition,
the manners, the customs of the people dwelling in this place, now, like
Westminster, a part of London: yet, until two or three hundred years
ago, an ancient marsh kept from the overflowing tide by an Embankment,
joined to the Dover road by a Causeway, settled and inhabited by two or
three Houses of Religious: by half a dozen Palaces of Bishops, Abbots,
and great Lords: by a colony of fishermen living on the Embankment from
time immemorial, since the Embankment itself was built: and by a street
of Inns and shops.
I hope that 'SOUTH LONDON' will be received with favour equal to that
bestowed upon its predecessors. The chief difficulty in writing it has
been that of selection from the great treasures which have accumulated
about this strange spot. The contents of this volume do not form a tenth
part of what might be written on the same plan, and still without
including the History Proper of the Borough. I am like the showman in
the 'Cries of London'--I pull the strings, and the children peep. Lo!
Allectus goes forth to fight and die on Clapham Common: William's men
burn the fishermen's cottages: little King Richard, that lovely boy,
rides out, all in white and gold, from his Palace at Kennington--saw one
ever so gallant a lad? The Bastard of Falconbridge bombards the city:
Sir John Fastolfe's man is pressed into Jack Cade's army: the Minters
make their last Sanctuary opposite St. George's: the Debtors languish in
the King's Bench. There are many pictures in the box--but how many more
there are for which no room could be found!
I must acknowledge my obligations, first, to the Editor of the _Pall
Mall Magazine_, where half of these chapters first had the honour of
appearing, for the wealth of illustration of which he thought them
worthy: and next to the artist, Mr. Percy Wadham, who has so faithfully
and so cunningly carried out the task committed to him.
WALTER BESANT.
UNITED UNIVERSITY CLUB:
_September 1898_.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS 1
II. EARLY HISTORY 25
III. A FORGOTTEN MONASTERY 47
IV. THE ROYAL HOUSES OF SOUTH LONDON 69
V. PAGEANTS AND RIDINGS 124
VI. A FORGOTTEN WORTHY 134
VII. THE BOMBARDMENT OF LONDON 153
VIII. THE PILGRIMS 157
IX. THE LADY FAIR 179
X. ST. MARY OVERIES 191
XI. THE SHOW FOLK 206
XII. BELOW BRIDGE 229
XIII. THE LATER SANCTUARY 241
XIV. IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 248
XV. THE DEBTORS' PRISON 272
XVI. THE PLEASURE GARDENS 282
XVII. SOUTH LONDON OF TO-DAY 301
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
ST. SAVIOUR'S, SOUTHWARK _Frontispiece_
_Etched by F. S. Walker, R.E._
PAGE
VIEW FROM SOUTHWARK MARSH IN PREHISTORIC TIMES 3
CAUSEWAY ACROSS SOUTHWARK MARSH 7
FISHERS' HUTS AT THE MOUTH OF THE FLEET 9
BARKING CREEK 11
RELICS OF THE STONE AGE 15
A RELIC OF THE STONE AGE 17
RELICS OF THE BRONZE AGE 19
MERCHANTS CROSSING SOUTHWARK MARSH 27
LONDON BRIDGE, A.D. 1000 29
A DANISH HOUSE 31
SHIPS, BAYEUX TAPESTRY 33
A VIKING SHIP 34
SKETCH MAP 37
DIAGRAM 40
THE GOKSTAD SHIP 41
SHIPS OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR 43
BAYEUX TAPESTRY 45
THE MONASTERY OF BERMONDSEY 51
BERMONDSEY ABBEY 52
GATEWAY OF BERMONDSEY ABBEY 53
ST. OLAVE, SOUTHWARK 61
'LE LOKE' 63
REMAINS OF THE PALACE OF THE BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, FROM THE SOUTH 67
THE LONG BARN 70
SKETCH MAP 71
GATEWAY IN THE HALL, ELTHAM PALACE 75
THE ANCIENT ROYAL PALACE AT GREENWICH 77
SEAL OF THE BLACK PRINCE 83
_From Allen's History of Lambeth_
THE HIGH STREET, SOUTHWARK, AS IT APPEARED MDXLIII 85
REMAINS OF ELTHAM PALACE, 1796 91
KING JOHN'S PALACE, KENT 93
_From a Drawing by J. Hassell, 1804_
REMAINS OF ELTHAM PALACE 95
THE MOAT BRIDGE, ELTHAM PALACE 97
GREENWICH, 1662 99
_From a Drawing by Jonas Moore_
GREENWICH HOSPITAL 101
_From a Drawing by Schnebbelie_
LAMBETH PALACE 109
BONNER HALL, LAMBETH 111
RESIDENCE OF GUY FAWKES, LAMBETH 113
_From 'La Belle Assemblée,' November 1822_
BISHOP'S WALK, LAMBETH 114
INTERIOR OF THE HALL, LAMBETH PALACE 115
_From an Engraving dated 1804_
LAMBETH PALACE, FROM THE RIVER 116
LOLLARDS' TOWER, LAMBETH PALACE 117
DOORWAY IN THE LOLLARDS' TOWER 119
LOLLARDS' PRISON 121
WHITE HART INN, SOUTHWARK 137
SURREY END OF LONDON BRIDGE, FROM HIGH STREET, SOUTHWARK 139
THE SITE OF SIR JOHN FASTOLF'S HOUSE IN TOOLEY STREET 143
HOUSES IN HIGH STREET, SOUTHWARK, 1550 149
OLD HALL, KING'S HEAD, AYLESBURY 158
OLD HALL, AYLESBURY 159
CANTERBURY PILGRIMS 160
15TH CENTURY GOLDSMITH 165
RICH MERCHANT AND HIS WIFE, 14TH CENTURY 165
14TH CENTURY CRAFTSMAN 168
14TH CENTURY MERCHANT 168
14TH CENTURY CRAFTSMAN 168
PEDLAR 175
_From the Stained Window in Lambeth Church_
MINSTRELS, A.D. 1480 177
BOOTH, SOUTHWARK FAIR 181
GREENWICH PARK ON WHITSUN MONDAY 187
_From an Engraving by Rawle, 1802_
A SEAL OF ST. MARY OVERIES 192
SEALS OF ST. MARY OVERIES 193
NORTH-EAST VIEW OF ST. SAVIOUR'S, SOUTHWARK, 1800 194
CRYPT OF ST. MARY OVERIES 195
GATEWAY OF ST. MARY'S PRIORY, SOUTHWARK, 1811 197
_From a Drawing by Whichelo_
REMAINS OF THE OLD PRIORY, ST. MARY OVERIES 199
TOMB OF BISHOP ANDREWS, ST. MARY OVERIES 201
A CORNER IN ST. SAVIOUR'S, SOUTHWARK 203
ST. SAVIOUR'S, SOUTHWARK, 1790 204
WINCHESTER PALACE 207
THE GLOBE THEATRE 209
_From the Crace Collection_
BEAR GARDEN 213
THE BEAR GARDEN AND HOPE THEATRE, 1616 221
INTERIOR OF THE OLD SWAN THEATRE 223
A FÊTE AT HORSELYDOWN IN 1590 231
_From the Painting by G. Hoffnagel, at Hatfield_
THE OLD ELEPHANT AND CASTLE, 1814 233
VIEW NEAR THE STORE-HOUSE, DEPTFORD 235
_From an Engraving by John Boydell, 1750_
GEORGE HOTEL, BOROUGH 239
MINT STREET, BOROUGH 245
OLD HOUSE, STONEY STREET, SOUTHWARK 249
ST. THOMAS'S HOSPITAL 250
_From an old Print_
SOME ANCIENT HOUSES IN THE LONG WALK, BERMONDSEY 251
JAMAICA HOUSE, BERMONDSEY 252
QUEEN ELIZABETH'S FREE GRAMMAR SCHOOL 253
ANCIENT BUILDINGS, HIGH STREET, BOROUGH 254
_From a Drawing by T. Higham, 1820_
THE FALCON TAVERN, BANKSIDE 255
AN OLD MILL, BANKSIDE 256
JOHN BUNYAN'S MEETING HOUSE, BANKSIDE 257
THE OLD TOWN HALL, SOUTHWARK 258
OLD HOUSES IN EWER STREET 259
COURTYARD OF THE DOG AND BEAR INN 261
THE WHITE BEAR TAVERN, SOUTHWARK 263
ALLEN ROPEWALK, SOUTHWARK 265
A SOUTH LONDON SLUM 267
THE OLD TABARD INN, SOUTHWARK 268
ST. GEORGE, SOUTHWARK: NORTH-WEST VIEW 269
_From an Engraving by B. Cole_
REMAINS OF THE MARSHALSEA: N.E. VIEW. A, CHAPEL; B, PALACE COURT 273
_From 'The Gentleman's Magazine,' September 1803_
KING'S BENCH PRISON 275
ANOTHER VIEW OF THE KING'S BENCH PRISON 277
VAUXHALL GARDENS 283
_From the Engraving by J. S. Müller_
VAUXHALL JUBILEE ADMISSION TICKET 285
THE DOG AND DUCK, BETHLEM 289
A DOORWAY, CURLEW STREET, BERMONDSEY 301
IN SNOW'S FIELDS, BERMONDSEY 302
THE TEMPLE FROM THE SURREY BANK 303
HOLY TRINITY, ROTHERHITHE 305
CZAR PETER'S HOUSE, DEPTFORD 307
ALLEYN'S ALMSHOUSES, 1840 309
DULWICH COLLEGE, 1780 311
FROM THE TOWER OF ST. SAVIOUR'S 313
RED CROSS GARDENS, SOUTHWARK 315
ST. SAVIOUR'S DOCK 317
BELOW CHERRY GARDEN PIER 319
THE GEORGE INN 321
LITTLE DORRIT'S WINDOW IN THE MARSHALSEA 321
ALCOVE FROM OLD LONDON BRIDGE, NOW AT GUY'S 323
THE ENTRANCE GATES TO GUY'S 325
A FORMER ENTRANCE TO ST. THOMAS'S HOSPITAL 327
SOUTH LONDON
CHAPTER I
THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS
I propose to call the series of chapters which are to follow by the
general name of 'South London.' Like their predecessors on 'London' and
'Westminster,' they will not attempt, or pretend, to present a
continuous history of this region--or, indeed, a history at all: they
will endeavour to do for this part of London what their predecessors
have already attempted for the Cities of London and Westminster: that is
to say, they will present such episodes and incidents, with such
characters, as may serve to illustrate the life of the place; the
manners and customs of the people; the characteristics of the Borough
and its outlying suburbs. So far as history means the march of armies
and the clash of armour, we shall here find little history. So far,
also, as history means the growth of our liberties, the struggles by
which they were won; the apparent decay, or defeat, from time to time,
of the spirit of freedom, with its inevitable recovery: the reader and
the student may be referred to the pages of a Stubbs or a Freeman--not
to my humbler page. Great is the work, and worthy to be held in the
highest honour, of those who trace out the irresistible march of
national freedom: I cannot join their company; I must be contented with
the lowlier, yet somewhat useful, task of showing how the people, my
forefathers, lived, and what they thought, and how they sang and
feasted and made love and grew old and died.
My South London extends from Battersea in the west to Greenwich in the
east, and from the river on the north to the first rising ground on the
south. This rising ground, a gentle ascent, the beginning of the Surrey
hills, can still be observed on the high roads of the south--Clapham,
Brixton, Camberwell. It now occupies the place of what was formerly a
low cliff, from ten to thirty or forty feet high, overhanging the broad
level, and corresponding to those cliffs on the other side of the river,
which closed in on either side of Walbrook and made the foundation of
London possible. If we draw a straight line from the mouth of the Wandle
on the west to the mouth of the Ravensbourne on the east, we shall,
roughly speaking, indicate the southern boundary of our district;
unless, as we may very well do, we include Greenwich as well. The whole
of this region constitutes the Great South Marsh: there is no rising
ground, or hillock, or encroaching cliff over the whole of this flat
expanse. Before the river was embanked it was one unbroken marsh: for
eight miles in length by a varying breadth of about two or two and a
half miles, the tidal stream twice in the twenty-four hours submerged
this space. Here and there lay islets or eyots, created, as the
centuries crept on, by the gradual accumulation of branches, roots,
reeds and rubbish, till they rose a few inches above high water; the
spring-tide covered them--sometimes swept them away--then others began
to form. In later times, after the work of embankment had been
commenced, these islets became permanent, and were afterwards known as
Battersea, Bermondsey, Rotherhithe, Lambhithe, Newington, Kennington.
Even then, for many a long year, they were but little areas rising a
foot or two above the level, covered with sedge, reeds, and tufts of
coarse grass, hardly distinguishable from the rest of the ground around
them. Before the construction of the river wall, no trees stood upon
this morass, no flowers of the field flourished there, no thorns and
bushes grew, no cattle pastured there; the wild deer were afraid of it:
there were no creatures of the land upon it. On the south side rose the
cliff of clay and sand, continually falling and continually receding
before the encroaching tide; on the north side ran the river; beyond the
river the cliff stood up above the water's edge, where the tiny stream,
afterwards named from the Wall, leaped bright and sparkling into the
rolling flood. No man could live upon that marsh: its breath after
sunset and in the night was pestilential.
[Illustration: View from Southwark Marsh in Prehistoric Times.]
Many streams poured into this marsh, and at low tide made their way
across it into the Thames: at high tide their beds were lost in the
shallows. Among them--to use names by which they were afterwards
distinguished--were the Wandle, the Falcon, the Effra, the Ravensbourne,
and others which have disappeared and left no name. And so for
unnumbered years the tide daily ebbed and flowed, and the reeds bent
beneath the breeze, and the clouds scudded overhead, and the wild birds
screamed, far away from the world of men and women, long after men and
women began to wander about this Island called Albion. No one took any
thought of this marsh, any more than they heeded the marshes all along
the lower reaches of the river; and these were surely the most desolate,
dreary stretches of water and mud anywhere in the world. Those who wish
to realise what manner of country it was which stretched away on the
north and south of the Thames may perhaps get some comprehension of it
if they stand on the point at Bradwell in Essex, beside the ruined
Chapel of St. Peter-on-the-Wall, and look out at low tide to east and
north.
In a previous volume dealing with another part of the country called
London I showed to my own satisfaction, and, I believe, that of my
readers, that long before there existed any London at all, except
perhaps a village of a few fishermen with their coracles, Westminster or
Thorney was a busy and crowded place of resort, through which the whole
trade of the country north of the Thames passed on its way to Dover and
the southern ports. This position, new as it was, and opposed to the
general and traditional teaching--opposed, for instance, to the
traditional belief of Dean Stanley--has never been attacked, and may be
considered, therefore, as generally accepted. When or how the trade of
Thorney began, to what extent it developed, we need not here inquire.
Indeed, I know not that any fragments of fact or of tradition exist
which would enable us to inquire. The fact itself, as will be
immediately seen, is of the highest importance as regards the beginning
and early history of the Southern settlements.
The ancient way of trade, then, ran across the island called afterwards
by the Saxons Thorney, the Isle of Bramble, now Westminster. All the
trade of the north passed over that little spot, on which arose a
considerable town for the reception of the caravans. After resting a
night or so at Thorney, the merchants went on their way. Those who
travelled south, making for Dover, crossed over the ford, where there
was afterwards a ferry. This ferry continued until the erection of
Westminster Bridge in the last century: the name still survives in
Horseferry Road. After the passage of the ford, the travellers found
themselves face to face with a mile of dangerous bog, marsh and swamp,
through which they had to plod and plough their way, sinking over their
knees, up to the middle, before they emerged upon the higher ground, now
called Clapham Rise. To the merchants driving their long chains of
slaves and heavily laden packhorses and mules from the north, this was
the worst bit of the whole journey. Every day there were rivers to be
forded, in which some of their slaves might get drowned or might escape;
there were dark woods, in which they might be attacked by hostile
tribes; there were hills to climb; but nowhere, in the whole of their
journey, was there a piece of country more difficult than this great
swamp beyond the Ford of Thorney. They splashed and floundered through
it, over ankles, over knees, up to the middle, up to the neck, in mud
and muddy water. The packhorses sank deep down with their loads; they
took off the loads and laid them on the shoulders of the slaves, who
threw them off into the mud, and let them stay there, while they made a
mad attempt to escape. Horse and mule; slave and slave-load; iron, lead,
and skins: the merchant paid heavy tribute while he crossed the marshes
and waded through the shallows of the broad tidal river.
At some time or other, the idea occurred to an unknown person of
engineering genius in advance of his time, that it might not be
impossible to construct a causeway across this marsh; and that such a
causeway would be extremely useful and convenient for those who used the
Thorney Fords. Perhaps the causeway was his own invention; perhaps the
work was the first causeway ever constructed in this country; perhaps
the inventor began on the smallest possible scale, with a very narrow
way across the marsh to the nearest dry ground, which was, of course,
somewhere beyond Kennington; perhaps the work, colossal for the time,
carried the merchants and their caravans across the whole extent of the
marsh--five miles and more--to the rising ground of Deptford or
Greenwich, the nearest point to Dover. The causeway was not unlike those
which now run across the Hackney Marshes; that is to say, it was raised
so high as to be above the highest spring tide, about six feet above the
level of the marsh. It was constructed by driving piles into the mud at
regular intervals, forming a wall of timber within the piles, and
filling up the space with gravel and shingle, brought from
Chelsea--'Isle of Shingle'--or from the nearest high ground, where is
now Clapham Common. The breadth of the causeway, I take it, was about
ten or twelve feet. The construction of the work rendered the passage
across the marsh perfectly easy, and greatly facilitated that part of
the trade of the island which lay in the midland and on the north.
When was this causeway, the first step in road-making, constructed?
Perhaps it was a Roman work. I think, however, that it is older than the
Roman occupation; and for these reasons. When London was first visited
by the Romans it was already a flourishing city with a '_copia
negotiatorum_;' in other words, it had already succeeded in attracting
the greater part of the trade which formerly passed through Thorney. Had
the Romans built the causeway, they would have constructed it along a
line drawn from one of the two old ferries to Deptford. The causeway,
therefore, must have existed when the Romans arrived upon the scene,
together with, as we shall see immediately, the second causeway
connecting the ferry with the first causeway. I dare say the Romans
strengthened the work: turned it from a gravelled way, soft in bad
weather, into one of their hard, firm Roman roads; faced it with stone,
and made it durable. If South London were to be stripped of all its
houses, the two causeways would be found still, hard and firm, beneath
the mass of accumulated soil and rubbish, as the Romans left them.
If you draw a straight line from 'Stanegate,' close to the end of
Westminster Bridge, as far as the beginning of the Old Kent Road, you
will understand the lie of the causeway. And this causeway, understand,
was the very first interference of the hand of man with the marshes
south of the Thames. It was a way across the marsh: not an embankment
against the river, but a way. It did not keep out the tide which flowed
in on the other side--the Battersea side: it was simply a way across the
marsh. For a long time--we cannot tell how long--it remained the
principal way of communication for the trade of Britain between the
north and the south, the midland and the south, the eastern counties and
the south.
[Illustration: Causeway across Southwark Marsh.]
Consider, next, the site of London, as it appeared to the merchants
crossing the causeway. They saw, in the centuries of which no trace or
memory remains, when they turned their eyes northward, first a level of
mud, sprinkled with little eyots of reed and coarse grass, then the
broad river, and beyond the river two streams, one fuller than the
other, each in its own valley--that of the Walbrook was 132 feet wide at
the present site of the Mansion House--falling into the river; a low
cliff ran along the north bank, leaving stretches of marsh, as on the
south, but, where these streams ran into the Thames, approaching close
to the river, and actually overhanging it. On the river they saw
numerous coracles, with fishermen catching salmon and every kind of fish
in their nets. No river in the world was more plentifully stocked with
fish; overhead flew screaming innumerable birds--geese, ducks,
herne--which the trappers trapped, snared, shot with sling and stone by
the thousand. On those cliffs overhanging the river, the travellers by
the causeway saw the huts of the fisherfolk. Then, perhaps, they
remembered the plenty of the markets of Thorney; the abundance of birds,
the vast quantities of fish offered on those stalls. Those who were
curious connected the coracles on the river and the birds that flew up
from the lowlands with these markets; they saw that London--'the place
or fort over the Lake'--was the settlement which furnished Thorney with
a good part of her supplies. And this I verily believe to have been the
real origin and cause of London. It was first settled by the humble folk
who came here for the purpose of catching fish and trapping birds for
the market of Thorney. This is a suggestion only; it will be set aside,
most certainly, by those who are not pleased with the upsetting of old
theories. To those who are able to realise the ancient condition of
things and all it means, the suggestion will be received, I am
convinced, as more than a theory: it will be regarded and accepted as a
discovery.
Let us put it in another way. Thorney was a place of great resort, as I
have shown in these pages already: every day passed into Thorney, and
out of Thorney, long processions or caravans of merchants with
merchandise carried by slaves--the most valuable part of their
merchandise--and by packhorses and mules; they waded through the
northern ford; they rested for a night in one of the inns of the place:
next day they waded through the southern ford, attained the causeway,
and went south. Or else it was the reverse way. The place required a
daily supply of food, and, as there were many travellers, a great
quantity of food. If you go down the river from Thorney, you will find
that the present site of London, on the two hillocks rising out of the
river, was the first and only place where men could put up huts in which
to live while they caught fish and trapped wild birds for Thorney. If,
therefore, the Isle of Bramble was a flourishing centre of trade long
before London was a place of trade at all, then the original London must
have been a settlement of fishermen and trappers who supplied the
markets of Thorney.
[Illustration: Fishers' Huts at the mouth of the Fleet.]
In course of time--we are still in prehistoric times--the site of
London was discovered by seamen and merchant adventurers exploring the
rivers in their ships. It was found cheaper and easier and safer to
carry goods to and from Thorney by way of sea than by land. To coast
along from Dover to the strait between Rum--the Isle of Thanet, and the
mainland--to pass through the strait and up the river, was found easier
and cheaper than to undertake the costly and dangerous march from Dover
to Thorney Ford. This way, then, was by many undertaken; and so a
certain part of the trade along the old causeway was diverted.
The next step was the discovery of London as a port. There was no port
at Thorney: on the site of London were the two natural ports of Walbrook
and the mouth of the Fleet; there was a high ground safer and more
salubrious than that of Thorney; ships began to anchor there, quays were
erected, goods were landed; the high road which we call Oxford Street
was constructed to connect London with the highway of trade--afterwards
Watling Street; and the trade of London began.
Now, if you look once more at the map of the south as it was, you will
observe that London at its first commencement had no communication with
any part of the world except by water. The first road opened was, as I
have said, the connection with Watling Street; what was the next? It was
a connection with the high road to Dover: that connection was the road
which we now call High Street, Borough. These two roads were the first
communication between London and any other place; all the other roads,
to the north and south and west and east, came afterwards. It was
necessary for London to have an open and direct connection, by land as
well as by sea, with the then principal port of the country. The High
Street formed that open communication; it began not far to the west of
St Saviour's Church, opposite the Roman Trajectus, the mediæval ferry,
now St. Mary Overies Dock.
Observe, however, that we are as yet very far from embanking the river,
or draining the marsh, or making it inhabitable. If you walk across
Hackney Marsh by one of its causeways any autumnal morning, especially
after rain, you will understand something of what Southwark looked like.
Two high causeways crossed the marsh, of which as yet not a square foot
had been drained or reclaimed; yet the place was not so wild as it had
been; the wild birds had been partly driven away by the noise and crowd
of London, and by the concourse of ships sailing continually up and
down. There was as yet no bridge. The ferry crossed the river backwards
and forwards all day long. The causeways were crowded with people; but
as yet nothing on the lowlands. Before the marshes could be drained the
river had to be embanked.
[Illustration: Barking Creek]
No one knows when that was done. It was done, however. At some time or
other a high earthwork was raised along the north and south banks of
the river, enclosing the marshes, converting them into pasture and
arable land, and keeping out the tides of Thames. It was a work of the
most signal benefit; it was also a colossal piece of work, measured by
hundreds of miles, for it was continued all round the islets and coast
of Essex. It was a work requiring constant repair, though most of it has
stood splendidly. The wall gave way, however, at Barking in the time of
Henry the Second; at Wapping in the time of Elizabeth; at Dagenham early
in the last century: at each of these places the repair of the wall was
costly and difficult. The embankment left behind it a low-lying ground,
rich and fertile; orchards and woods began to grow and to flourish upon
it; yet it was still swampy in parts, numerous ponds lay about on it,
streams wound their way confined in channels, and let out through the
embankment at low tide by culverts.
Whether the bridge came before the embankment I cannot decide. Yet I
think that the embankment came first; for the existence of
Southwark--that of any part of South London--depended not on the bridge,
but on the embankment and the ferry. Given, however, the embankment; the
two causeways; the bridge; two ferries--one at St. Mary Overies and the
other lower down, opposite the Tower: given, also, direct communication
with Dover, with Thorney--thence with the midlands and the north: there
could not fail to arise a settlement or town of some kind on the south
of the Thames.
Let us next consider the conditions under which the town of Southwark
began to exist and to continue for a great many years.
(1) There was no wall or any means of defence, except the marsh which
surrounded it and prohibited the approach of an army except along the
causeway.
(2) The ground lay low on either side the causeway, and south of the
embankment. Although the tide no longer ebbed and flowed among the reeds
and islets of the marsh, yet it was covered with small ponds, some of
them stagnant, others formed by the many streams which flowed towards
the culverts on the embankment, through which at low tide they escaped
into the Thames; until some kind of drainage was attempted, the place
caused agues and fevers for any who slept in its white miasma. In other
words, not an embankment only, but drainage of some kind, had to be
undertaken before life was possible on the marsh.
(3) There were no quays, no shipping, no merchants, no trade, on the
south side. All merchandise coming up from the south for export at the
port of London, all merchandise landed at the port for the south, had to
be carried across the bridge.
(4) The crowds of people connected with the trade of London--the
porters, carriers, drivers, grooms and stable-boys, stevedores,
lightermen, sailors foreign and native, the _employés_ of the merchants,
their wives, women and children--all these people lived in London
itself; they had their taverns and drinking shops; their sleeping places
and eating places, in London; all the people employed in providing food
and drink and sport, lived on the other side. South London had to be a
place without trade, without noise, without disturbance of workmen,
without broils among the sailors or fights among foreigners.
(5) It stood on the south bank of a river swarming with fish.
(6) The only parts on which houses could be built were along the line of
the causeways, or along the line of the embankment.
These were the conditions. We should expect, therefore, to find the
place thinly inhabited; and to find that the houses were all built
beside or along the raised ways. We should next expect to find along
the causeways that the houses belonged to the wealthier class.
We should expect, further, to find no sailors' or working men's
quarters. The former because there were no ships; the latter because
there were no markets. Lastly, we should not be surprised to find the
place very early occupied by inns and places of accommodation for those
who resorted to London.
All this was, in fact, what did take place. The Roman remains are
numerous; they are all found along the causeways; the existence of a
Roman cemetery shows that it was a place of some importance. I say
_some_, because its very limited extent proves that it was never a large
place. I will return immediately to the Roman remains.
There was, however, one trade, one class of working men which took up
its abode along the embankment of Southwark: it was that of the
fishermen, driven across the river by the growth of London. There was no
room for the fishermen with their coracles and nets along the line of
quays on the north side; they wanted a place to haul up their boats, and
a place to spread their nets,--they could not find either in the north;
nor would the fish be caught in waters troubled perpetually by oars and
keels. The fisherfolk, therefore, put up their huts along the
embankment; for long centuries afterwards the fisherfolk continued to
live in South London. The last remnant of Thames fishermen occupied,
well into the present century, a single court in Lambeth; it is
described as unpaved, unglazed, unlighted, dirty, and insanitary. But
the last salmon had been caught in the river; the Thames fishermen were
by that time almost starved out of existence. I am sure that the south
was always their place of residence; the foreshore offered them what
they could not find on the north bank. To him, however, who considers
the fisheries of the Thames, there are many points on which, for want of
exact information, he may speculate and theorise as much as he pleases.
For instance, later on, there were fishermen living at Limehouse. Some
of the Thames watermen lived here also--the legend of Awdry the ferryman
assigns to him a residence on the south; their favourite place of
residence, however, was St. Katherine's first, and Wapping afterwards.
[Illustration: RELICS OF THE STONE AGE]
The Roman remains found up and down the place prove my assertion that
the people who lived here were what we should call substantial. One need
not catalogue the long list of Roman _trouvailles_; but, to take the
more important, in the year 1819 there was discovered, in taking up the
foundations of some old houses belonging to St. Thomas's Hospital, in
St. Thomas's Street, a fine tesselated pavement, about ten feet below
the surface of the ground. In the following year, in the area facing St.
Saviour's Grammar School, seven or eight feet below the surface, there
was found another, of a more elaborate design. Only a part of this was
uncovered, as the Governors of the School forbade further investigation:
it remains to this day still to be examined and unearthed, under the
present potato and fruit market. At the entrance of King Street, at a
depth of fifteen or sixteen feet, were found a great many Roman lamps, a
vase, and other sepulchral deposits. And in tunnelling for a new sewer
through Blackman Street and Snow Fields, in 1818 and 1819, and again in
Union Street, in 1823, numerous Roman antiquities were discovered. In
Trinity Square was found a coin of Gordianus Africanus. In Deverill
Street, south of the Dover road, other coins were discovered; in St.
Saviour's churchyard, a coin of Antoninus Pius. It has also been proved
that an extensive Roman cemetery existed on the south of the ancient
settlement. In the year 1840, when excavations were going on for the
purpose of building a new wing to St. Thomas's Hospital, another
tesselated pavement was disclosed, with passages and walls of other
chambers, all built on piles, showing that the houses beside the
causeway were thus supported in the marshy ground; Roman coins and
pottery were also found here. Another pavement was discovered on the
opposite side, south of Winchester Palace. On the river bank, at the
corner of Clink Street, an ancient jetty was found; and in the new
Southwark Street, deep down, groups of piles, pointed below, on which
houses had been built. In many of the later buildings Roman tiles have
been found. These remains are quite sufficient to prove that many
wealthy people lived in Roman Southwark, and that they occupied villas
built on piles beside the causeway.
Since, too, from the earliest times Southwark was famous for its inns,
and since the same conditions prevailed in the fourth as in the
fourteenth century, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the people
who drove those long lines of packhorses laden with goods from London
used Southwark as a place in which to deposit merchandise before taking
it across the bridge; they halted in Southwark; they lodged in one of
the inns: the place was most convenient for the City; storage was
cheaper than on the river wharves; for strangers, the place was
cheerful. In one respect, that of being a halting place and a lodging
for traders, Southwark was like Thorney in its palmy days--a place of
entertainment for man and beast. There was no forum here, as in Augusta;
no place of meeting for merchants, such as Thames Street in Plantagenet
times; there was no buying and selling, but there was continual coming
and going, which made the place lively and cheerful.
Such were the origins of the settlements of South London. An embankment,
a causeway, a fishery for the wants of Thorney first and of London next;
then villas, put up by the better sort, attracted here, one believes, by
the fresh air coming up the river with every tide, and by the quiet of
the place. The settlement began quite early in the Roman occupation:
this seems to be proved by the extent of the cemetery. The draining and
drying of the low lands went on meanwhile gradually, gardens and
orchards taking the place of the former marsh.
[Illustration: A RELIC OF THE STONE AGE]
The place has always, save at rare intervals, been entirely defenceless.
The _Pax Romana_ protected it. Remember that London itself was not
walled till the latter part of the fourth century. Why should it be? For
more than three hundred years, for ten generations, the City knew no
wars and feared no invader. The 'Count of the Saxon Shore' beat back,
and kept back, the pirates of Norway and Denmark; the Legions beat back
the marauders of Scotland and Ireland. Southwark, like the City its
neighbour, needed no wall and asked for no defence.
Twice, before the arrival of the East Saxons, we get a glimpse in
history of South London. The first is the rout of the usurper, the
Emperor Allectus, after the battle of Clapham Common.
Towards the close of the third century the succession of usurpers who
sprang up everywhere in the outlying portions of the Empire contained
six who came from Britain. What effect these movements had upon the
security of South London we have no means of learning. The history,
however, of Carausius and his successor Allectus affords material for
reflection. The former, who was of Belgian origin, rose to be the Count
of the Saxon Shore--in other words, Admiral of the Roman Fleet. In this
capacity he kept the seas free from pirates; enriched himself, became
famous for his courage and his generosity; usurped the title of Cæsar,
fought with and defeated the fleets of Maximian, and reigned in Britain
for seven years. His headquarters were Boulogne and Southampton; near
the latter place--at Bittern--is still seen the quay at which his ships
were moored. His rule, of which we know little, was certainly strong and
firm. Coins exist in great numbers of Carausius. They represent his
arrival: 'Expectate, veni'--'Come, thou long-expected!' Then his
triumph: 'Shout IO ten times.' He held gladiatorial sports at London; he
appointed a British senate. Then came the time when he must fight or
die. Like the King of the Grove, the Usurper held his throne on that
condition. Carausius, for some unknown reason, would not fight when the
chance was offered--therefore he died. Another King of the Grove,
Allectus by name, one of his officers, killed him and reigned in his
stead. Then he, too, had to fight for crown and life. He accepted the
challenge; he awaited with an army of Franks and Britons the arrival of
the Roman forces sent to quell him: he awaited them in London. When the
enemy drew near, he led out his men across the Bridge, and gave battle
to the Roman general, Asclepiodotus, on the wild heath south of London,
immediately beyond the rising ground--we now call the place Clapham
Common--and there he fell bravely fighting. He had enjoyed the purple
for three years. Perhaps, when he crossed the Bridge, conscious that he
was going to meet his fate--either to continue an Emperor for another
spell or to die--he reflected that for such a splendid three years' run
it was worth while to risk, and even to lose, his life at the end.
[Illustration: RELICS OF THE BRONZE AGE]
This is, I say, the first glimpse we get of South London in history. We
see the army marching across the Bridge and along the Causeway, shouting
and singing. We see them a few hours later, flying from the field,
rushing headlong over the Causeway, through the lines of villas to the
Bridge. The terrified people, those who lived in the villas, are
running over the Bridge after them. Once across the Bridge, the soldiers
found that there was left in the City neither order nor authority. They
therefore began to sack and pillage the rich houses, and to murder the
inhabitants. Remember that all over the Roman Empire none were permitted
to carry arms except the soldiers. Therefore there could be no defence.
The pillage went on until the victorious general had got his army--or
some of it--across the Bridge. How long it would take to bring up his
troops, whether the Bridge was held by the Franks, whether the defeated
army made any organised opposition, we know not. All we are told is that
the Roman soldiers fought hand to hand with those of the dead Usurper in
the streets of London, and that the latter were all massacred.
In the year 457 we get a second glimpse of Southwark in the flight of
another defeated host. The Britons had gone forth to fight the Saxon
invaders; they met the enemy--Hengist and Æsc his son--at
'Creeganford'--Crayford: they were defeated; four thousand of them were
killed; they fled; they never stopped until they reached London Bridge;
we can see them flying bareheaded, without weapons, along the Causeway
and through the narrow gates of the Bridge. Alas! the old villas along
the Causeway are deserted and in ruins; the place has been desolate for
many years--since the Saxons began to swarm about the country; the
former residents, if they are living still, are behind the walls; and
their sons are carrying on the war which is to last two hundred long
years, and to leave its memories of hatred behind it for fifteen hundred
years at least. The gardens are grown over, the orchards are neglected,
the inns are empty and ruinous.
Before long there falls the silence of death upon the walled City and
the Bridge and the settlements of the South. All alike are deserted: the
tide idly laps the piles of the rotting Bridge; it rolls along the empty
wharves, bearing no keel upon its bosom; there is no boat on the river,
there is no smoke from any house; there is no life, no sign of life, in
the place which had formerly been so crowded and so busy. The timbered
face of the embankment gave way and crumbled into the river; the
Causeway was eaten by the tides here and there; the low grounds once
more became a marsh, and the wild birds returned, undisturbed, to their
former haunts.
I have elsewhere ('London,' ch. i.) described the natural reasons which
led to this desertion of the City. It appears to us strange and almost
impossible that a great city should be so utterly deserted. Where,
however, are the cities of Tadmor, of Tyre, of Carthage? Where are the
great cities of Asia Minor? The conqueror not only took the City and
killed some of the people; he cut off the supplies, and therefore forced
them to go. This was most certainly the case with London. Roger of
Wendover, it is true, tells us that in the year 462 the Saxons took
possession of London, and then successively of York, Lincoln, and
Winchester, committing great devastation. 'They fell on the natives in
every quarter, like wolves on sheep forsaken by their shepherds; the
churches and all the ecclesiastical buildings they levelled with the
ground; the priests they slew at the altars; the holy scriptures they
burned with fire; the tombs of the holy martyrs they covered with mounds
of earth; the clergy who escaped the slaughter fled with the relics of
the saints to the caves and recesses of the earth, to the woods and
deserts and the crags of the mountains.'
I do not suppose that Roger of Wendover (he died in 1237) had access to
documents of the time. I would rather incline to the belief that, given
certain undoubted facts of battle, murder, and sacrilege, he presented
the world with a little embroidery of his own. An Assault on London is,
however, possible; in which case the desertion of the City would be only
hastened. With the ruin and desolation of Augusta came also the ruin of
the southern settlement.
This silence--this desolation--lasted some hundred years. Then the men
of Essex--the East Saxons--came down, a few at a time, and took
possession of the deserted City; the merchants began timidly to bring
their ships again with goods for trade; the East Saxons learned the
meaning of bargains; Augusta was dead, but London revived. The City
preserved its ancient name, but the southern settlement lost its name.
We know not what the Romans or the Britons called it, but the Saxons
called it Southwark. And they repaired the embankment and restored the
ancient causeways, and cleared away the ruins.
Another point of difference: in London the new streets, laid out without
rule or order, grew by degrees; they did not follow the old Roman
streets, which were quite obliterated and utterly forgotten--one cannot
imagine a more decisive proof of complete desertion and ruin. In
Southwark, on the other hand, the streets remained the same--they were
the two causeways and the embankment--because none others were then
possible. High Street, Borough, is still, as it always has been, the
ancient causeway connecting the new port of London with the Dover road.
Between the years 600 and 1000 Southwark suffered the vicissitudes which
must happen in a period of continual warfare to an undefended suburb. In
times of peace, when trade was possible, the place was what the
Icelander Snorro Thirlesen calls an 'emporium.' All the merchandise
carried to London from the south for export lay there waiting to be
carried across the quays: the merchants themselves found accommodation
there. But we cannot believe that when the Danish fleets brought their
fierce warriors to the very walls of London, Southwark--or any other
settlement--would continue to exist unfortified. That the place remained
without a wall, except for certain temporary walls put up by the Danes,
proves that it was regarded by itself as of small importance. This is
also proved by another fact--namely, that the place was always occupied
without defence. When, for instance, the Danes held London for twelve
years, leaving it a wreck and a ruin, can we believe that any people
remained in Southwark? In times of peace the fishermen lived here for
greater convenience of their work; London by this time was impossible
for them, because it was walled all along the river side. If peace was
prolonged, inns were set up for the merchants: people built houses along
the causeway. When war began again, and the enemy once more appeared,
Southwark was again abandoned. This is the history of South London for a
thousand years--alternate occupation and abandonment.
There exists a very singular heresy concerning Southwark. I would deal
with it tenderly, because one, if not more, of the heretics is a
personal friend of my own. It is that the site of the first or original
London was on the South; that Roman London stood on the site of
Southwark; and that, at some time or other, there was a transference of
sites, the whole of Roman London migrating to the other side. It is even
maintained that the name of Walworth proves that there was once a wall
round the city of the south. To me the name of Walworth indicates the
proximity of the high causeway running through its midst. The
consideration of the site--the marshy, wet, and unwholesome site--is
quite sufficient for me. At no time, not even in the time of the Lake
dwellers, have marshes been selected by choice for the building of
cities. Before the Embankment and the Causeway, the South of London was
impossible for the residence of man.
The transference of sites is a theory often called in to account for,
and make possible, other theories. Thus, the late James Fergusson
invented the transference of sites in order to bolster up certain
theories of his own on the Holy Places of Jerusalem. Here, however,
there is no theory: only a statement by a geographer evidently ignorant
of the boundaries of an obscure province of a district in a distant
country which he had never seen. London, Ptolemy said, was in Kent. All
the Roman remains, as we have seen, are found by the Causeway and the
Embankment--there never could have been any wall; and, indeed, the only
answer that is required to such a theory is to point to the natural
conditions of the site. Is it conceivable that people would settle
themselves in a marsh when they had firm and dry ground across the
river?