part of the seventeenth century, possibly before the great fire, which
did not extend so far north. In the year 1705 it came into the hands
of Herman Olmius, merchant, descended from an ancient family of Arlon
in the Duchy of Luxembourg, and naturalised by Act of Parliament,
29 Charles II. He was a member of the French Protestant Church in
Threadneedle Street, and made a large fortune; he died in 1718. His
eldest son was a deputy-governor of the Bank of England, and his
grandson was raised to the Irish peerage as Lord Waltham, but the
title became extinct in the next generation. For many years, beginning
in 1783, the well-known Huguenot family of Minet occupied the house,
and in 1838 Messrs. Thomas, Son & Lefevre were established here, the
last-named being a brother of the late Lord Eversley. This house,
a drawing of which the writer hopes at some future time to add to
the collection, was remarkable as having come down to us in almost
unchanged condition from its earliest time. To the west it formerly
overlooked the Drapers' Garden, and it had a garden of its own about
half an acre in extent, with brewery, coach-house, and stables. Inside,
there was a good staircase, some of the rooms were charmingly panelled,
a strong room and parts of the kitchen were lined with Dutch tiles,
and in front of a Purbeck marble mantelpiece there was a coat of arms
in white marble (No. 37), with various foreign quarterings. It may be
described as follows:—
Quarterly: 1. Per fess azure and argent,
a fess counter embattled or; in chief a
mullet of six points of the second; in base
on a mount vert an elm tree proper. OLMIUS.
2. Sable, a dexter hand proper, issuing out of a cloud
and grasping five wheat ears or. GERVERDINE.
3. In chief a deer's head couped azure, crowned argent;
in base six besants or. REYNSTEIN.
4. Azure, a goat erect argent, hoofed and horned or,
browsing on a vine proper. CAPPRÉ.
On an escutcheon of pretence sable, a herring or in
bend. DRIGUE.
These are the arms of Herman Olmius, whose name was the Latinised form
of the Flemish or Dutch word for elm. The Gerverdine arms are those of
his mother Margareta; the arms on the escutcheon of pretence are those
of his wife Judith. No. 21, Austin Friars was swept away in 1888. The
boundary at the end of its garden had been formed by one side of the
premises known as No. 23, Great Winchester Street, to which allusion
will next be made.
(4-3/4 × 4-1/4) D. 38-1896.
38. Kitchen Range in No. 23, Great Winchester Street, 1889 (Black
and white).
(10 × 12-1/2) D. 40-1896.
39. Chief Reception Room, No. 23, Great Winchester Street, 1889
(Black and white).
The fine old mansion in which these drawings were done stood back
from the street, and was approached through a paved yard with a lodge
on each side of the entrance. Outside, its chief characteristics
were a somewhat high pitched roof, and wings projecting forward.
Within, the staircase with its plaster decorations, was handsome. The
well-proportioned room of which a drawing is here given (No. 39) was on
the first floor. There were other panelled apartments, and the kitchen
range (No. 38) was very old-fashioned. After the dissolution, the
house and gardens of the Augustine Friars had passed into the hands of
William Paulet, first Marquis of Winchester, hence the name Winchester
Street. From a date carved on a grotesque bracket, formerly to be seen
at the north-east corner, it appears that the street was constructed,
partly at least, in the year 1656, during the government of Cromwell.
Strype, writing in 1720, says that here was "a great messuage called
the Spanish Ambassador's house, of late inhabited by Sir John Houblon,
Knight and Alderman, and other fair houses." Even down to our time it
was a remarkably picturesque specimen of a London street. No. 23, Great
Winchester Street was destroyed in 1890.
(10-1/8 × 12-1/2) D. 39-1896.
40. The City Greenyard, No. 18, Whitecross Street, 1895 (Black
and white).
This was formerly the place to which stray horses or cattle found
in the City were taken for safe custody. It is stated in an Act of
Parliament, May, 1765, that "The Commissioners appointed to remove
nuisances may seize the waggon, cart, dray, or other carriage
so placed, together with the horse or horses, etc., etc., and to
remove the same to the Common Pound of the City, commonly called
the Greenyard." Here are now (and have been for many years) the
Lord Mayor's stables, his wonderful State coach, and the carriage
he uses on ordinary occasions, which is shown in the illustration;
the figure of the Lord Mayor's coachman may also be seen standing
in a doorway. Between the open space and Whitecross Street were the
Gresham almshouses, removed to Brixton in 1883. They had been
originally at the back of old Gresham College, between Broad Street and
Bishopsgate Street. The almshouses in Whitecross Street were, after
1883, for a time utilised as quarters for married men in the City
Police.
(8-1/8 × 11-7/16) D. 78-1896.
41. Bunyan's Monument, Bunhill Fields, 1894 (Black and white).
Bunhill Fields Burial Ground in the City Road, near Finsbury Square,
described by Southey as the "Campo Santo" of the Dissenters, was one of
the three great fields, namely "Bonhill Field," "Mallow Field," and the
"High Field or Meadow Ground, where the three windmills stand, commonly
called 'Finsbury Field.'" As early as the year 1315 it seems to have
been let to the City authorities, and in 1553 a lease was granted to
the Corporation of this with other land, being a part of the church
property of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, and the lease was again
and again renewed. In 1661 the ground was underlet to a person of the
name of Tindal for fifty-one years. In the deed it is described as
meadow land, and the citizens are to be allowed to use it for purposes
of recreation. Up to that date, therefore, it does not appear to have
become a burial ground; but it was probably set apart for the burial of
victims of the Great Plague, although not so used. It is a mistake to
connect it with "the Great Pit in Finsbury" mentioned by Defoe in his
Memoirs of the Plague, which was situated near the upper end of Goswell
Street. However, about this time Tindal turned it into a burial ground.
For many years called by his name, it was adopted as their place of
interment by several Dissenting sects, and from 1665 to 1852, when all
City cemeteries were closed, no fewer than 123,000 burials took place
here. For some years after this the place was neglected, but in 1867-68
it was put in order and opened to the public October 14th, 1869. In
Bunhill Fields there are now about six thousand tombs; a record of them
is kept in the Surveyor's Office, Guildhall. Among eminent persons
here buried are General Charles Fleetwood (Cromwell's son-in-law),
Defoe, Susannah Wesley, mother of John and of Charles, Dr. Isaac Watts,
Joseph Ritson, the antiquary, William Blake, painter and poet, Thomas
Stothard, R.A. But perhaps the most widely known is John Bunyan, who
wrote "The Pilgrim's Progress." He died at the house of his friend, Mr.
Strudwick, a grocer at the Star on Snow Hill, and was buried in that
friend's vault. The monument was restored by public subscription, under
the presidency of the Earl of Shaftesbury in 1862; a drawing of it is
here given.
(6-1/2 × 8-1/8) D. 79-1896.
42. Chimneypiece and part of room in No. 4, Coleman Street, 1892
(Water-colour).
Until a few years ago a house was standing on the west side of
Coleman Street, near the north end, which, like houses innumerable,
was reputed to have been a residence of Oliver Cromwell; at first
sight it appeared to date from the earlier part of the eighteenth
century. There was in it a good eighteenth century staircase with
a skylight above, and one of the rooms had a handsome mantelpiece,
also apparently Georgian. Another room, on the first floor, was
distinguished by very remarkable features: it was panelled with
cedar, and, as will be seen, the style of this panelling and of the
handsome carved chimneypiece are distinctly Jacobean. The house,
therefore, was much older than appeared at first sight, or else it
had been rebuilt early in the eighteenth century, the chimneypiece and
panelling being insertions from an older building. The houses at the
north end of Coleman Street were not destroyed in the Great Fire. In
1891-92 the cedar room was used as an office by Mr. H. S. Foster, then
Sheriff of London. In 1896 the house was pulled down by Messrs. Colls
and Son, whose offices adjoined, and in clearing away the foundations
the workmen came upon three ancient wells—two of them went down 20 ft.
below the pavement level. The following is quoted from an illustrated
article in the "City Press" for June 6th, 1896:—"The construction of
these wells or elongated water-butts was simplicity itself. Tubs or
casks, bound with wooden hoops, were sunk into the ground and banked
up with puddled clay to keep them water-tight. The clay remains to
this day, as also do the wooden hoops (or did till very recently), but
the latter are as soft as touchwood." The description of these casks
reminds one of casks somewhat similar which have been found in Roman
wells at Silchester, and were exhibited in the rooms of the Society of
Antiquaries at Burlington House. In the wells beneath No. 4, Coleman
Street, were discovered various pieces of pottery in remarkably good
preservation, which are now in the Guildhall. The collection represents
types ranging from the beginning of the fifteenth to the end of the
seventeenth century. The soil in which these old wells were sunk was
dark and peaty, like that of Moorfields, on the other side of the City
Wall.
(12 × 9-13/16) D. 84-1896.
43. Interior of The Two Brewers Public-house, No. 27, London
Wall, 1886 (Black and white).
The Two Brewers Public-house, at the entrance to Fox and Goose Yard,
London Wall, destroyed a few weeks after the completion of this
drawing, was evidently a very old building. The sign was in former days
a common one, being usually represented by two brewers' men carrying
a barrel of beer slung between them on a pole. It is curious that a
sign of a similar description was used by the Romans; one representing
two men carrying between them an amphora was found at Pompeii. It is
figured in Larwood and Hotten's "History of Signboards," that of the
Two Brewers being placed alongside for comparison.
(7 × 9) D. 41-1896.
44. Part of the Chapter Coffee House, from Paul's Alley, 1887
(Black and white).
The Chapter Coffee House in Paternoster Row (No. 50) and also opening
into Paul's Alley, a passage from St. Paul's Churchyard, was noted
in the 18th century as a house of call for London publishers. In
the "Connoisseur," No. 1, January 31st, 1754, is the following
notice of it:—"And here my publisher would not forgive me was I to
leave the neighbourhood without taking notice of the Chapter Coffee
House, which is frequented by those encouragers of literature,
and, as they are styled by an eminent critic—'not the worst judges
of merit'—the booksellers. The conversation here naturally turns
upon the newest publications, but their criticisms are somewhat
singular. When they say a _good_ book they do not mean to praise
the style or sentiment, but the quick and extensive sale of it." Late
in the 18th century and early in the 19th, several clubs met here,
of which an account is given in the "Curiosities of London," by John
Timbs. Goldsmith appears to have known it well. Chatterton says, in
a letter to his mother, "I am quite familiar at the Chapter Coffee
House." And here Charlotte and Anne Brontë stayed on their first visit
to London in June, 1848. It had been visited by their father, and
thus they gained their knowledge of it. The late Mr. George Smith, the
famous publisher, remembered calling on them there, and Mrs. Gaskell
gives a graphic description of the low ceilings, the wainscotted rooms,
and the high narrow windows. After the death of the proprietor, Charles
Faithfull, in November, 1853, the house became an ordinary tavern; it
was rebuilt before 1890, there are now no rooms over the passage. From
the Chapter Coffee House were issued in the seventeenth century two
leathern trade tokens, specimens of which are preserved in the Beaufoy
Collection at the Guildhall Museum. The larger one, representing a
groat, has on it:—
O.—CHAPTER COFFEE HOUSE (4)—In the field, a mitre.
R.—Blank.
The leather appears to have been gilded.
(8-3/4 × 4-1/4) D. 44-1896.
45. Royal Mail Tavern, from Fitchett's Court, Noble Street, 1889
(Black and white).
This house, on the south side of Noble Street, from the style of the
brickwork must have been built in the early part of the eighteenth
century, but little is known of its history. The sign was comparatively
modern, suggested, no doubt, by the proximity of the General Post
Office, which was moved from Lombard Street to St. Martin's-le-Grand in
1829. The Royal Mail Tavern was destroyed in May, 1897.
(8-3/4 × 5-3/8) D. 42-1896.
46. Reminiscence of the Oxford Arms, Warwick Lane, 1875
(Water-colour).
The structure, of which a small part is here shown, was approached by
a passage from Warwick Lane, being bounded on the west by the old wall
of the cathedral precinct and touching Amen Corner on the south. It was
a fine example of its kind. As was said by a writer in the "Athenæum"
of May 20th, 1876:—"Despite the confusion, the dirt, and the decay,
he who stands in the yard of this ancient inn may get an excellent
idea of what it was like in the days of its prosperity, when not only
travellers in coach or saddle rode into or out of the yard, but poor
players and mountebanks set up their stage for the entertainment
of spectators who hung over the galleries or looked on from their
rooms—a name by which the boxes of a theatre were first known." The
house must have been rebuilt after the Great Fire, which raged over
all this area. That it existed before, is proved by the following odd
advertisement from the "London Gazette" for March, 1672-73:—"These
are to give notice that Edward Bartlet, Oxford Carrier, hath removed
his Inn in London from the Swan at Holborn Bridge to the Oxford
Arms in Warwick Lane, where he did Inn before the Fire. His coaches
and waggons going forth on their usual days, Mondays, Wednesdays
and Fridays. He hath also a hearse and all things convenient to carry
a corps to any part of England." In the palmy days of coaching, just
before the advent of the railways, the Oxford Arms was in the hands
of Mr. Edward Sherman, who carried on the chief coaching business
at the Bull and Mouth, St. Martin's-le-Grand. After 1868 many of
the rooms were let out in tenements, but the inn still did a good
carriers' business, carts leaving daily for Oxford and other places.
It was closed in 1875 and pulled down in the following year. Views
of this house formed the first of a series issued by the Society for
Photographing Relics of Old London. The late Mr. Alfred Marks, the
accomplished secretary, wrote useful accompanying notes. Another old
galleried house, which long lingered on the east side of Warwick Lane,
was the Bell Inn, where Archbishop Leighton died in 1684. As Burnet
tells us, he had often said that "if he were to choose a place to
die in it should be an Inn; it looked like a pilgrim's going-home, to
whom this world was all as an Inn, and who was weary of the noise and
confusion in it." Thus his desire was fulfilled.
(10-9/16 × 7-1/4) D. 43-1896.
47. Deanery of St. Paul's, 1891 (Black and white).
This house was built by Wren, after the Great Fire, on the site of the
former Deanery, but shorn of the chief part of its garden stretching
down to the river, which was portioned off in building leases to
defray the cost of the new structure. In our drawing the high gates
almost concealed the porch, which is ornamented with carved festoons
of flowers. There is also a handsome staircase. Many years ago rooks
used to build in the plane-trees in front. The drawing was taken
from the steps of No. 5 Dean's Court, now destroyed, where was the
Vicar-General's Office for Marriage Licences.
(8-1/4 × 10-7/8) D. 45-1896.
48. Dean's Court, St. Paul's Churchyard, 1894 (Water-colour).
The Deanery stands in Dean's Court, and the wall enclosing it is here
shown on the left, the artist's standpoint being very close to that
in No. 47. In 1894 great changes took place at this spot, which had
before been singularly quiet and old-fashioned. The entrance from St.
Paul's Churchyard was, before, through an archway, under a house dating
from immediately after the Great Fire, which was said traditionally
to have been used by Wren as an office during the rebuilding of
St. Paul's. This house appears in course of demolition, while the
ground on the right lies vacant, and we are thus enabled to have
a glimpse of the cathedral, soon afterwards again quite concealed.
The buildings to the east, facing St. Paul's Churchyard, together
with the Vicar-General's office and other houses on the same side
of Dean's Court, were cleared away to enable Messrs. Pawson and Co.
to extend their warehouses, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners having
granted them a building lease for that purpose. Dean's Court did
not actually form part of the precincts of Doctors' Commons (finally
cleared away in 1867), but was associated with it and in its immediate
neighbourhood. Sam Weller, in "Pickwick," thus humourously refers
to the entrance:—"St. Paul's Churchyard—low archway on the carriage
side, bookseller's at one corner, hotel on the other, and two porters
in the middle as touts for licences." It was here that his father was
inveigled into matrimony.
(8-3/4 × 6-3/8) D. 74-1896.
49. St. Paul's Churchyard, laid out as a Garden (Black and
white).
The present cathedral of St. Paul is the third dedicated to that
Saint and built more or less on the same site. The first was founded
in the early part of the seventh century by Ethelbert, King of Kent;
the second, known as _old_ St. Paul's, was begun A.D. 1087. This,
having been destroyed by the Great Fire, was replaced by the present
marvellous building, which we owe to the genius of Sir Christopher
Wren. It will thus be seen that St. Paul's Churchyard has had hallowed
associations for about 1,300 years. The name, in its fullest sense,
is applied to the irregular area surrounded by houses encircling
the cathedral and including the burial-ground. These houses, before
the Fire and for some time afterwards, were largely inhabited by
booksellers and publishers, who by degrees worked their way into
Paternoster Row, where they still flourish. For many years after
burials had ceased, the burial-ground attached to St. Paul's was in a
somewhat neglected condition. In 1877 an agreement was entered into
between the City Corporation and the Dean and Chapter, by which the
former pledged themselves to lay out a considerable sum on the enclosed
space if they were allowed to convert it into a garden for the benefit
of the public, and on September 14th, 1879, the north-eastern part,
which is here represented, was publicly opened by the Lord Mayor. Here
the weary may sit amidst trees and flowers beneath the shadow of the
great cathedral, and enjoy seclusion from the turmoil of City life. The
scene here represented is, however, a thing of the past. The fountain
has disappeared, and with it most of the pigeons, its place being taken
by a cross erected under the will of the late Mr. H. C. Richards, as a
memento of the old St. Paul's Cross.
(6-1/4 × 8-5/8) D. 75-1896.
50. The Yard of the Swan with Two Necks, 49, Carter Lane, 1894
(Water-colour).
There has been more than one hostelry with this sign in the City of
London. The most famous was the Swan with Two Necks in Lad Lane,
at one time owned by Mr. William Chaplin, perhaps the greatest
coach proprietor that ever lived. After the advent of railways,
in partnership with Mr. Horne, he established the great carrying
business which still flourishes on the old site in Lad Lane, now
absorbed by Gresham Street. The Swan with Two Necks, in Carter Lane,
was also a coaching house, but although picturesque, of comparatively
small importance. Outside was a painted sign, placed flat against
the wall, and visible from Dean's Court. Times having changed,
the building in front became an ordinary public-house, while the
galleried portion was occupied by persons in the employment of
Messrs. Pawson, the great warehousemen. This drawing was made in
October, 1894, when the place had just been vacated, having been
taken over by the Post Office authorities. It was shortly afterwards
destroyed, and a Post Office Savings Bank has been built on the
site. The origin of the sign may be thus explained. The swans on
the upper reaches of the Thames are owned respectively by the Crown
and the Dyers' and Vintners' Companies of the City of London, and,
according to ancient custom, the representatives of these several
owners make an expedition each year up the river and mark the cygnets.
The Royal mark used to consist of five diamonds, the Dyers' of four
bars and one nick, and the Vintners' of the chevron or letter V and
two nicks. The word "nicks" has been corrupted into "necks," and as
the Vintners were often tavern-keepers, the Swan with Two Necks became
a common sign. The swan-marks which I have described continued in use
until the year 1878, when the swanherds were prosecuted by the Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, on the ground that they
inflicted unnecessary pain. Although the prosecution failed, the marks
have since been simplified.
(6-11/16 × 8-5/8) D. 72-1896.
[Illustration: No. 51. VIEW FROM PAUL'S PIER. 1891.]
51. View from Paul's Pier, 1891 (Black and white).
The spectator may here suppose himself to be standing near the site
of Paul's Wharf, which Stow describes as "a large landing place with
a common stair upon the river Thames, at the end of a street called
Paul's Wharf Hill, which runneth down from Paul's Chain." The bridge in
the middle distance is Southwark Bridge. In the immediate foreground is
a curious riverside dwelling, squeezed in between two great warehouses;
its quaint bay window projecting over a wide doorway for the passage
of goods, which opens on to the Thames. The house, containing nineteen
rooms and two staircases, was, in 1891, still occupied as a private
residence, being let in apartments, and was one of the last of its
kind on the Thames bank in London. It was popularly supposed to be 300
years old, and to have been occupied by James I., an adjoining wharf
being used as a barrack for his soldiers, but, from the architectural
point of view, there was nothing to indicate that it dated from before
the end of the seventeenth, or beginning of the eighteenth century.
East Paul's Wharf, immediately beyond, had been rebuilt in 1890,
but the large warehouse adjoining it on the west, known as Paul's
Wharf, and sometimes called the "barracks," looked as if it had been
built about a hundred years. It ran back some distance, having twelve
gables alongside the way to Paul's Pier. Shortly after the completion
of this drawing, a subterranean brick tunnel (partly under the old
house) was discovered. It began at a distance of about 50 feet from
the Thames, and extended in a northerly direction for about 110 feet.
It was 14 feet wide with a clear way of some 8 feet, after allowing
for a deep deposit of mud along the floor. The arch within was covered
with stalactites, in some cases a yard long; the two ends had been
bricked up. The writer of an article in the "Builder" for August 2,
1891, suggests that "this tunnel may possibly have been made to carry
off some of the torrents that used to run down the steep inclines in
this part of the town after great and sudden rains, sometimes to the
peril of human life, as witness the story told by Stow apropos of
Dowgate (1574)." The old house, the "barracks," and the tunnel were all
destroyed in 1898. During the work of reconstruction, ancient timber
piling came to light, which had been used for the embankment of the
river. Paul's Pier has of late years been abolished. A seventeenth
century trade token, issued from Paul's Wharf, reads as follows:-
O.—AT . YE . NEXT . BOAT . BY PAVLS = A boat containing
three men; over it, NEXT BOAT.
R.—WHARFE . AT . PETERS . HILL . FOOT = M. M. B.
(10-5/8 × 8-1/4) D. 46-1896.
52. Back of the Green Dragon Inn, St. Andrew's Hill, 1890 (Black
and white).