Clement Kirk.' To this also was attached a galleried yard, but,
according to the woodcut in Diprose's 'St. Clement Danes,' there were
galleries to the first and second floors on one side of the yard only.
And from this house also seven or eight mail-coaches were despatched
nightly, and from here also the royal mails used to start on the King's
birthday for the West of England. Concerning the public conveyances of
those days, the following curious announcement reads amusing: 'On Monday
the 5th April, 1762, will set out from the Angel Inn, behind St.
Clement's Church, a neat flying machine, carrying four passengers, on
steel springs, and sets out at four o'clock in the morning and goes to
Salisbury the same evening, and returns from Salisbury the next morning
at the same hour; and will continue going from London every Monday,
Wednesday and Friday, and return every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Performed by the proprietors of the stage coach, Thomas Massey, Anthony
Coack. Each passenger to pay twenty-three shillings for their fare, and
to be allowed fourteen pounds' weight baggage; all above to pay for one
penny a pound. Outside passengers and children in lap to pay half fare.
N.B.--The masters of the machine will not be accountable for plate,
watches, money, jewels, bank-notes, or writings, unless booked as such,
and paid for accordingly.' Why the proprietors should have called their
coach a 'machine' is a riddle, and as it took a whole day, from four in
the morning till the evening, to get over the eighty-four miles between
London and Salisbury, its rate of progress could hardly be called a
'flying' one.
The Angel inn was of very ancient origin, being mentioned in a
correspondence dated 1503. In the _Public Advertiser_ of March 28,
1769, appeared the following advertisement: 'To be sold a Black Girl,
the property of J.B., eleven years of age, who is extremely handy, works
at her needle tolerably, and speaks English perfectly well; is of an
excellent temper and willing disposition. Inquire of Mr. Owen, at the
Angel Inn, behind St. Clement's Church.' The inn was closed in 1853,
the freehold fetching L6,800, and on its site the legal chambers known
as Danes Inn were erected.
In Philip Lane, London Wall, anciently stood the Ape, an inn with a
galleried yard; all that now remains of this ancient hostelry is a stone
carving of a monkey squatted on its haunches and eating an apple; under
it is the date 1670 and the initial B. It is fixed on the house
numbered 14. The courtyard, where the coaches and waggons used to
arrive and depart, is now an open space, round which houses are built.
A view of the Ape and Cock taverns as they appeared in 1851 is in the
Crace collection.
We should be trying the reader's patience were we to enter into a
discussion as to the origin of the sign of the Belle Sauvage, the inn
which once stood at the bottom of Ludgate, and whose site is now
occupied by the establishment of Messrs. Cassell and Company. The name
was derived either from one William Savage, who in 1380 was a citizen
living in that locality, or, more probably, from one Arabella Savage,
whose property the inn once was. The sign originally was a bell hung
within a hoop. As already mentioned, inn-yards were anciently used as
theatres. The Belle Sauvage was a favourite place for dramatic
performances, its inner yard being spacious, and having handsomely
carved galleries to the first and second floors at the back of the main
building. An original drawing of it is in the Crace collection. In
this yard Banks, the showman, so often mentioned in Elizabethan
pamphlets, exhibited his trained horse Morocco, the animal which once
ascended the tower of St. Paul's, and which on another occasion
delighted the mob by selecting Tarleton, the low comedian, as the
greatest fool present. Banks eventually took his horse to Rome, and the
priests, frightened at the circus tricks, burnt both Morocco and his
master as sorcerers. Close by the inn lived Grinling Gibbons, and an
old house, bearing the crest of the Cutlers' Company, remains.
The old Black Bull (now No. 122), Gray's Inn Lane, was, in its original
state, as shown by a woodcut in Walford's 'Old and New London,' a
specimen, though of the meaner sort, of the old-fashioned galleried
yard.
The Black Lion, on the west side of Whitefriars Street, was a quaint and
picturesque edifice, and its courtyard showed a gallery to the
first-floor of the building, rather wider than usual, and with massive
banisters, pillars supporting the roof. The old house was pulled down
in 1877, and a large tavern of the ordinary uninteresting type now
occupies its site.
One of the once famous Southwark inns was the Boar's Head, which formed
a part of Sir John Fastolf's benefactions to Magdalen College, Oxford.
This Sir John was one of the bravest Generals in the French wars under
Henry IV. and his successors. The premises comprised a narrow court of
ten or twelve houses, and two separate houses at the east end, the one
of them having a gallery to the first-floor. The property was for many
years leased to the father of Mr. John Timbs, which latter, in his
'Curiosities of London,' gives a lengthy account of the premises. They
were taken down in 1830 to widen the approach to London Bridge. The
court above mentioned was known as Boar's Head Court, and under it and
some adjoining houses, on their demolition, was discovered a
finely-vaulted cellar, doubtless the wine-cellar of the Boar's Head.
Most noted among theatrical inns was the Bull, in Bishopsgate Street, so
much so that the mother of Anthony Bacon (the brother of the great
Francis), when he went to live in the neighbourhood of the inn, was
terribly frightened lest he and his servants should be led astray by the
actors performing at the inn. Tarleton, the comedian, often acted there.
It was while giving representations at the Bull that Burbage,
Shakespeare's friend, and his fellows obtained a patent from Queen
Elizabeth for erecting a permanent building for theatrical performances,
though the Bull afforded them every convenience, its yard and galleries
being on a large scale and in good style. It was at the Bull that the
Cambridge carrier Hobson, of 'Hobson's choice,' used to put up.[#] A
portrait and a parchment certificate of Mr. Van Harn, a customer of the
house, were long preserved at the Bull inn; this worthy is said to have
drunk 35,680 bottles of wine in this hostelry.
[#] Though I find it stated in other authorities that he put up at the
Four Swans; possibly he resorted to both.
The Bull and Gate, in Holborn, probably took its name from Boulogne
Gate, as the Bull and Mouth in Aldersgate Street was a corruption of
Boulogne Mouth, and both were, no doubt, intended as compliments to
Henry VIII., who took that town in 1544. Tom Jones alighted at the Bull
and Gate when he first came to London.
Holborn at one time abounded in inns. Says Stow: 'On the high street of
Oldbourne have ye many fair houses builded, and lodgings for gentlemen,
inns for travellers and such like up almost (for it lacketh but little)
to St. Giles' in the Fields.' We shall have to mention one or two more
as we go on.
The Bull and Mouth inn alluded to above in the olden time was a great
coaching-place. It had a large yard and galleries, with elegantly
designed galleries to the first, second, and third floors. There is a
view of it in the Crace collection. Its site was afterwards occupied by
the Queen's Hotel, which was pulled down in 1887 to make room for the
post-office extension.
The Catherine Wheel was a sign frequently adopted by inn-keepers in
former days. Mr. Larwood, in his 'History of Signboards,' assumes that
it was intended to indicate that as the knights of St. Catherine of
Mount Sinai protected the pilgrims from robbery, he, the innkeeper,
would protect the traveller from being fleeced at his inn. But this
surmise seems too learned to be true. What did the bonifaces of those
days know of the knights of St. Catherine? But in Roman Catholic
countries saints were, and are still, seen on numerous signboards, and
so the one in question may have descended in English inns from
ante-Reformation times, or it may have been the fancy of one particular
man, who may have read the story of St. Catherine, and been moved by it
to adopt the wheel. St. Catherine was beheaded, after having been
placed between wheels with spikes, from which she was saved by an angel.
But to come to facts.
There were two inns in London with that sign. One was in Bishopsgate
Street, and was in the last century a famous coaching inn, built in the
style of such inns, with a coach-yard and galleried buildings round. It
has disappeared. The other was in the Borough, and was a much larger
establishment, and a famous inn for carriers during the last two
centuries. It remains, but has lost its galleries and other distinctive
features.
One of the oldest inns in London, bearing the sign of the Cock, stood
till 1871 on the north side of Tothill Street. It was built entirely of
timber, mostly cedar-wood, but the outside was painted and plastered,
and an ancient coat of arms, that of Edward III. (in whose reign the
house is said to have been built), carved in stone, discovered in the
house, was walled up in the front of the house. Larwood says that the
workmen employed at the building of the east end of Westminster Abbey
used to receive their wages there, and at a later period, about two
centuries ago, the first Oxford stage-coach is reported to have started
from that inn. In the back parlour there was a picture of a jolly and
bluff-looking man, who was said to have been its driver. The house was
built so as to enclose a galleried yard, and it no doubt originally was
one of some importance. Under the staircase there was a curious
hiding-place, perhaps to serve as a refuge for a 'mass priest' or a
highwayman. There were also in the house two massive carvings, the one
representing Abraham about to offer up his son, and the other the
adoration of the magi, and they were said to have been left in pledge
for an unpaid score. There is a water-colour drawing of the house as it
appeared in 1853 in the Crace collection. It is supposed that the sign
of the Cock was here adopted on account of its vicinity to the Abbey, of
which St. Peter was the patron. In the Middle Ages a cock crowing on
the top of a pillar was often one of the accessories in a picture of the
Apostle.
A sign frequently adopted by innkeepers was the Cross Keys, the arms of
the Papal See, the emblem of St. Peter and his successors. There was an
inn with that sign in Gracechurch Street, having a yard with galleries
all round, and in which theatrical performances were frequently given.
Banks, already mentioned, there exhibited his wonderful horse Morocco;
it was here the horse, at his master's bidding to 'fetch the veriest
fool in the company,' with his mouth drew forth Tarleton, who was
amongst the spectators. Tarleton could only say, 'God a mercy, horse!'
which for a time became a by-word in the streets of London. At this inn
the first stage-coach, travelling between Clapham and Gracechurch Street
once a day, was established in 1690 by John Day and John Bundy; but the
house was well known as early as 1681 as one of the carriers' inns.
The Four Swans (demolished) was a very fine old inn, with courtyard and
galleries to two stories on three sides complete.
Whether St. George ever existed is doubtful; probably the story of this
saint and the dragon is merely a corruption of the legend of St. Michael
conquering Satan, or of Perseus' delivery of Andromeda. The story was
always doubted, hence the lines recorded by Aubrey:
'To save a maid St. George the dragon slew,
A pretty tale if all is told be true.
Most say there are no dragons, and it's said
There was no George; pray God there was a maid.'
But the George is, and always has been, a very common inn sign in this
as well as in other countries. We are, however, here concerned with one
George only, the one in the Borough. It existed in the time of Stow,
who mentions it in the list of Southwark inns he gives, and its name
occurs in a document of the year 1554. It stood near the Tabard. It
had the usual courtyard, surrounded by buildings on all sides, with
galleries to two stories on three sides giving access to the bedrooms.
The banisters were of massive size, of the 'footman leg' style. In 1670
the inn was in great part burnt down and demolished by a fire which
broke out in the neighbourhood, and it was totally consumed by the great
fire of Southwark some six years later. The fire began at one Mr.
Welsh's, an oilman, near St. Margaret's Hill, between the George and
Talbot inns. It was stopped by the substantial building of St. Thomas's
Hospital, then recently erected. The present George inn, although built
only in the seventeenth century, was rebuilt on the old plan, having
open wooden galleries leading to the bedchambers. When Mrs.
Scholefield, descended from Weyland, the landlord of the inn at the time
of the fires, died in 1859, the property was purchased by the governors
of Guy's Hospital. The George now styles itself a hotel, but still
preserves one side of its galleries intact.
Dragons, though fabulous monsters, asserted themselves on signboards;
green appears to have been their favourite colour. When Taylor, the
water poet, wrote his 'Travels through London,' there were no less than
seven Green Dragons amongst the Metropolitan taverns of his day. The
most famous of them, which is still in existence, was the Green Dragon
in Bishopsgate Street, which for two centuries was one of the most
famous coach and carriers' inns. It is even now one of the best
examples of the ancient hostelries, its proprietor having strictly
retained the distinctive features of former days, the only innovation
introduced by him being a real improvement, in the removal of one of the
objections to the open galleries of the old inns. He has enclosed these
with glass, and on a trellis-work leading up to them creeping plants
have been made to twine, so as to give a cool and refreshing aspect to
the old inn yard in summer time. Troops of guests now daily dine in its
low-ceilinged rooms with great beams in all sorts of angles, and shining
mahogany tables. The Dragon is great in rich soups and mighty joints of
succulent meat; in old wines, appreciated by amateurs.
The King's Head was another of the many inns once to be found in the
Borough. Their great number is easily explained by the fact that London
Bridge was then the only bridge from south to north, and _vice versa_,
and that therefore the traffic of horses and men had to pass through
Southwark--of course, necessitating much hotel accommodation. The
King's Head was a great resort of big waggons, for the loading of which
a large crane stood in the yard, in consequence of which one side of the
yard had a gallery to the second floor only, the crane occupying the
space of the lower one, whilst on the other side there were galleries to
the first and second floors.
The Old Bell in Holborn, recently pulled down, bore the arms of the
Fowlers of Islington, the owners of Barnsbury Manor and occupiers of
lands in Canonbury. In its galleried yard the boys used to meet to go in
coaches to Mill Hill School.
The Oxford Arms stood south of Warwick Square and the College of
Physicians, and is mentioned in a carrier's advertisement of 1672.
Edward Bartlet, an Oxford carrier, started his coaches and waggons
thence three times a week. He also announced that he kept a hearse to
convey 'a corps' to any part of England. The Oxford Arms had a red-brick
facade, of the period of Charles II., surmounting a gateway leading into
the yard, which had on three sides two rows of wooden galleries with
exterior staircases, the fourth side being occupied by stabling, built
against a portion of old London Wall. This house was consumed in the
great fire, but was rebuilt on the former plan. The house always
belonged to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, and the houses of the
Canons Residentiary adjoin the Oxford Arms on the south, and there is a
door from the old inn into one of the back-yards of the residentiary
houses, which is said to have been useful during the riots of 1780 for
facilitating the escape of Roman Catholics from the fury of the mob, by
enabling them to pass into the residentiary houses; for which reason, it
is said by a clause always inserted into the leases of the inn, it is
forbidden to close up the door. John Roberts, the bookseller, from
whose shop most of the libels and squibs on Pope were issued, lived at
the Oxford Arms.
The Queen's Head was another of the Southwark inns. Its inner yard had
galleries on one side only, one to the first and another to the second
floor. Like all others, the yard was approached by a high gateway from
the street, and another under the building between the outer and inner
yards.
At Knightsbridge there stood till about 1865, when it was pulled down,
the Rose and Crown, anciently called the Oliver Cromwell. It was one of
the oldest houses in the High Street, Knightsbridge, having been
licensed above three hundred years. The Protector's bodyguard is said
to have been stationed in it, and an inscription to that effect was,
till shortly before its demolition, painted on the front. This is
merely legendary, but there are grounds for not entirely rejecting the
tradition. In 1648 the Parliament army was encamped in that
neighbourhood; Fairfax's headquarters were for a while at Holland House.
There was a house not far from the inn called Cromwell House, and at
Kensington there still exists a charity called Cromwell's Gift,
originally a sum of L45, but, having been invested in land in the
locality, of great value now. Cromwell House was also known as Hale
House; a portion of the South Kensington Museum now occupies the site.
To return to the Rose and Crown. Two sides of the yard had a gallery to
the first floor, but it was of the poorest description. There were no
elegant banisters, the lower part of the gallery was closed up with
boards of the roughest kind, about breast high, and irregularly nailed
on to the posts supporting the roof. Two water-colour drawings, dated
1857, showing the exterior of the house and the yard, are in the Crace
collection. Corbould painted this inn under the title of the 'Old
Hostelrie at Knightsbridge,' exhibited in 1849; but he transferred its
date to 1497, altering the house according to his fancy. In 1853 the
inn had a narrow escape from destruction by fire. Before its final
demolition it had been much modernized, though leaving enough of its
original characteristics to testify to its antiquity and former
importance. The Royal Oak at Vauxhall was an old inn with a galleried
yard. It was taken down circa 1812 to make the road to Vauxhall Bridge,
then in course of construction.
One of the oldest of galleried inns in London was the Saracen's Head, on
Snow Hill. In 1377 the fraternity founded in St. Botolph's Church,
Aldersgate, in honour of the Body of Christ and of the saints Fabian and
Sebastian, were the proprietors of the Saracen's Head inn. In the reign
of Richard II. they granted a lease of twenty-one years to John
Hertyshorn of the Saracen's Head, with appurtenances, consisting of two
houses adjoining on the north side, at the yearly rent of ten marks. In
the reign of Henry VI. Dame Joan Astley (some time nurse to that King)
obtained a license to refound the fraternity in honour of the Holy
Trinity. In the reign of Edward VI. it was suppressed, and its
endowments, valued at L30 per annum, granted to William Harris. The
antiquity of the inn was thus beyond question. Stow, describing this
neighbourhood, mentions it as 'a fair large inn for receipt of
travellers.' The courtyard had to the last many of the characteristics
of an old English inn: there were galleries all round leading to the
bedrooms, and a spacious gateway through which the mail-coaches used to
pass in and out. It was at this inn that Nicholas Nickleby and his
uncle waited on Squeers, the schoolmaster of Dotheboys Hall. It was
demolished in 1863, when the Holborn Valley improvements were
undertaken. A view of the inn as it appeared in 1855 is in the Crace
collection.
As there were many inns on the Southwark side of London Bridge for the
reasons given when we spoke of the King's Head, so for the same reason a
number of inns, some of which we have already mentioned, were on the
northern side of the bridge. Besides those already named, there was the
Spread Eagle, in Gracechurch Street. The original building had perished
in the great fire, but the inn was rebuilt after it. It had the usual
yard and galleries to the two floors. At first only a carriers' inn, it
became famous as a coaching-house, the mails and principal stage-coaches
for Kent and other southern counties arriving and departing from here.
It was long the property of John Chaplin, cousin of William Chaplin, of
the firm of Chaplin and Horne. The inn was taken down in 1865; the plot
of ground which it occupied contained 12,600 feet, and was sold for
L95,000.
The Swan with Two Necks is a curious sign, variously explained. It is
supposed to mean the swan with two nicks or notches cut into swans'
bills, so that each owner might know his. But these nicks being so
small as not to be discernible on an inn sign hung high up, there seems
no sense in referring to them. More likely two swans swimming side by
side, and the neck of one of them protruding beyond that of the other,
took some artist's fancy, and induced him to produce the illusion in a
picture. However, the origin of the sign does not concern us, but the
inn with that sign. There was a famous one in what was Lad Lane, and is
now Gresham Street. It was for a century and more the head coach-inn
and booking-office for the North. Its courtyard was of great size; the
galleries were of somewhat irregular arrangement, there being one only
at the back, communicating at one end with a lower and an upper gallery
on one side, whilst on the other side there was a gallery unconnected
with the others, and which also was wider and more elaborately decorated
than the others. A view of it appeared in the _Illustrated London
News_, December 23, 1865.