no special history, but, to judge by its style, must have dated from
immediately after the Great Fire. St. Andrew's Hill was first called
Puddle Hill, and then Puddle Dock Hill, after the neighbouring wharf of
that name. Shakespeare owned a house in Ireland Yard hard by, where,
in 1900, remains of the Blackfriars Priory were brought to light. The
Green Dragon was the badge of William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, who
died in 1570. This house was pulled down in 1896. Its better known
namesake in Bishopsgate Street, an old galleried coaching inn, had
disappeared in 1877.
(9-11/16 × 5) D. 47-1896.
53. Interior of the Church of Allhallows the Great, 1893
(Water-colour).
(13-3/8 × 16-9/16) D. 70-1896.
54. Carved Emblematical Figures, Allhallows the Great, 1893
(Water-colour).
The church of Allhallows the Great, Upper Thames Street, is mentioned
in a will of 1259. The patronage of the living was anciently in the
hands of the Le Despencers; it afterwards came to Richard Nevil, Earl
of Warwick, "the King maker." This church had a large cloister on
the south side. The whole was destroyed or very much injured in the
great fire, and rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren, who, according to
his custom, worked in such parts of the walls and foundations as were
available. The tower and north aisle or ambulatory of this structure
(which seems never to have been open to the nave) were removed in
1876 for the widening of Upper Thames Street. Under the Union of
Benefices Act, the church itself was sold by auction March 31st,
1894, and shortly afterwards pulled down, the ground being bought by
the neighbouring brewery. It is now an open space with its fragment
of churchyard. The interior was of singular beauty, and retained its
original fittings to the end, among them the fine open screen shown
in drawing No. 53 and now at St. Margaret's, Lothbury. This screen is
sometimes said to have been made at Hamburg, and given by the Hanseatic
merchants, so long connected with the neighbouring Steelyard. It is,
however, undoubtedly English work. The earlier documents bearing on
the subject make it almost certain that both screen and pulpit were
presented by Theodore Jacobsen, who in 1680 succeeded his brother
Jacob as house-master of the Steelyard, an office which the latter
had held at the time of the Great Fire. It was chiefly through their
efforts that the Steelyard was rebuilt, and the Jacobsen family thereby
acquired claims over it, which, after protracted litigation, were
bought up by the Hanseatic towns in 1748. These retained the Steelyard
and some slight connection with the church until after the middle of
the nineteenth century. It may be observed also that the screen has
on it an eagle "displayed." The beautiful sounding board of the pulpit
also has an eagle. This is now at St. Margaret's, Lothbury; the pulpit
itself has been removed to a church at Hammersmith.
The second drawing represents a carved allegorical group—Charity
trampling on Envy—formerly on the front of the organ gallery,
from which the general view was taken. There, in the place it was
designed for, it had a very telling effect. It is now fastened on to
a lectern in the church of St. Michael, Paternoster Royal, with which
parish that of Allhallows has been united.
(11-3/8×7) D. 86-1896.
55. Doorways of Nos. 1 and 2, Laurence Poultney Hill, 1895
(Water-colour).
These very handsome doorways, of a style which was not unusual in
the reign of Queen Anne, are situated in so narrow a lane that it
was difficult to get an effective view of them. An important brick
mansion, built on this site immediately after the Great Fire, and
occupied by one, "Justus Otgher," so named in an indenture, was taken
down at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and replaced by the
two houses of which these doorways form part. Within one of these
shell-shaped canopies is the date of erection, 1703; in the other is a
representation of two boys playing at marbles. On July 15th, 1704, the
two houses were sold to Thomas Denning, citizen and salter, for £3,190.
The Rev. H. B. Wilson, D. D. and F.S.A., who wrote a history of the
parish of St. Laurence Poultney, was residing in 1831 at No. 1 (which
still has a handsome staircase), while No. 2 was occupied by Mr. Justin
Fitzgerald.
(10-3/8×7-3/4) D. 90-1896.
56. Back of the Swan and Horseshoe and of the Admiral Carter
Inns, from Montagu Court, 1887 (Black and white).
Montagu Court is situated almost at the junction of Little Britain and
Duke-Street. The next turning to the west leads into Bartholomew Close.
The wooden building to spectator's right is the back of the Admiral
Carter, which faces this latter precinct. About the year 1889 it was
modernised. The house took its sign from Admiral Richard Carter, who
was killed at the battle of Barfleur, May 19th, 1692. We may suppose
that it was built shortly afterwards. The Swan and Horseshoe Inn, with
its incongruous double sign, beyond being old and somewhat picturesque,
was of no special interest. Of late years it has been rebuilt, and is
now absolutely commonplace.
(8-1/2 × 4-3/16) D. 48-1896.
57. Old House at the entrance to Bartholomew Close, 1886 (Black
and white).
This old wooden house, with its quaint gable and barge-board, was
destroyed early in 1887 for the widening of the entrance from Little
Britain. It was occupied by a greengrocer, whose family had lived there
for nearly half-a-century.
(8-7/8 × 6-13/16) D. 50-1896.
58. The Blakeney's Head Public-house, 35, Bartholomew Close, 1887
(Black and white).
A sign derived from a famous commander, like that mentioned in the
note to No. 56, was the Blakeney's Head, 35, Bartholomew Close—a
memorial of the man who so bravely defended Minorca against the
French in 1756. In the year 1890 the house was untenanted. It
remained closed and in a dilapidated condition for some time,
but about 1895 was done up and re-christened the Rahere, after
the founder of St. Bartholomew's Priory and Hospital. In June, 1900,
having changed its name a second time, it was again closed, and was
destroyed soon afterwards.
(11-1/4 × 7-7/16) D. 49-1896.
59. The Green Man and Still, Cow Cross Street, Clerkenwell, 1886
(Black and white).
This picturesque little ale-house had absolutely no history as far as
the writer could discover, but it must have dated from the latter part
of the seventeenth century. It was rebuilt about 1889. Stow says:—"On
the left-hand side of St. John Street lieth a lane called Cow Cross,
of a cross some time standing there, which lane turneth to another lane
called Turnmill Street."
(11-1/4 × 5-7/8) D. 51-1896.
60. Chimney-piece in the Baptist's Head Public-house, St. John's
Lane, Clerkenwell, 1889 (Black and white).
On the eastern side of St. John's Lane, Clerkenwell, near the old
Priory Gate, a stuccoed public-house with the above sign stood until
about the year 1895. Though outwardly modern and commonplace, a
fragment of it had once formed part of a mansion which, early in the
sixteenth century, belonged to Sir Thomas Forster, a judge of the
Common Pleas, who died in 1612. The chimney-piece, here portrayed,
was in the taproom. It is of fine Reigate stone, the frieze being
ornamented with fruit and flowers. In the centre are arms, and on each
side a crest, thus heraldically described by Cromwell in his History
of Clerkenwell:—"The arms are quarterly; first and fourth argent;
a chevron vert between three bugle-horns sable, for the family of
Radclyffe with which that of Forster intermarried, the crescent being
introduced as the filial distinction of a second house. The Buck at
one end was the original crest of the Forsters; the Talbot's head
at the other, with the crescent, might be that of this branch of the
Radclyffe's." The frieze was supported by pilasters in the same style,
and one side of the room had panelling of the linen pattern. This
was apparently all that remained of the original house, which, in the
days of its splendour, must have covered a good deal of ground, for
it had another frontage in St. John Street; it was then ornamented
by grotesque carvings, and had bay windows with painted glass. The
sign may have been selected out of compliment to Sir Baptist Hicks,
afterwards Lord Campden, who built a Sessions-house hard by. In the
18th century the Baptist's Head was doubtless resorted to by some of
the literary men who worked for Cave; it also afforded solace to a
very different class, as we learn from a print in the "Malefactor's
Register," which represents prisoners, on their way to Newgate, halting
here for refreshment; the view of the old house is interesting. For
further information on the subject of this chimney-piece and of the
Forster family, see Archer's "Vestiges of Old London (1851)," where
it is also figured. It has now found its way into an upper room of St.
John's Gate, which is occupied by the St. John's Ambulance Association.
(6-1/4 × 8-3/16) D. 52-1896.
61. Old Bell Inn, Holborn, 1890.
This old galleried inn on the north side of Holborn was of great
interest and picturesqueness. The earliest notice of it which has come
to the writer's knowledge was on the 14th of March, 1538 (30 Hen.
VIII.), when William Barde sold a messuage and garden called the Bell,
in the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn, to Richard Hunt, citizen and
girdler. Richard Hunt, who died in 1569, gave thirty sacks of charcoal
yearly for ever, as a charge on the property, to be distributed on St.
Thomas's Day to thirty poor persons of the parish, one half below and
the other above Bars: now represented by an annual payment of £2 5s.
from the ground landlords to St. Andrew's parish.
On February 20th, 1605, by deed poll, Thomas Hunt, citizen and vintner
of London, son and heir of Richard Hunt, releases to John Corder,
citizen and vintner, all his right in that messuage "called the Bell
with the appurtenances in the parish of St. Andrew, Holborne, in
the suburbes of the cittie of London, between the tenement sometime
of John Davye on the east, and a tenement heretofore of the Prior
and convent of the late dissolved Pryorie or Hospitall of our Ladie
without Bishopsgate" (which must have been the Hospital of St. Mary
of Bethlehem, sometimes called Bedlam) "on the west; one head thereof
extending upon the Kinge's high waye of Holborne, and the other
head thereof upon the garden of Elie place." After various changes
of ownership the property in 1679-80 passed into the hands of Ralph
Gregge, whose family came from Bradley in Cheshire. His grandson,
Joseph, finally parted with it, May 3rd, 1725, to Christ's Hospital,
for £2,113 15s. In the deed of sale three houses are mentioned, so the
various parts were let separately. They are described as "formerly
one great mansion-house or inn, commonly known by the name of the
Bell or Blue Bell Inn." A very short time, probably two years, before
this sale the front of the premises facing Holborn had been rebuilt, a
small part to the west being turned into a shop, latterly occupied by a
silversmith. The sculptured arms, not as sometimes has been asserted,
of the Fowlers of Islington (who had never been connected with the
house), but of the Gregges, then owners, were built into the wall.
These arms are now in the Guildhall Museum.
The inn is mentioned by John Taylor (1637) as a place of call for
carriers. It eventually became a coaching house of considerable
reputation, this part of its business being, about the year 1836,
in the hands of Messrs. B. W. and H. Horne, the most famous coach
proprietors in London, except William Chaplin. For many years until
finally closed, September 25th, 1897, the inn was occupied by the
Bunyer family. Architecturally the Bell was interesting, because, with
one possible exception, it was the last galleried inn in London on the
Middlesex side of the river, though until the advent of railways such
houses were common. The galleries were perhaps as old as the reign
of Charles II. A still older portion was a cellar immediately to the
left of the entrance, which was built of stone with well laid masonry
and might have been mediæval. All the rest of the buildings seem to
have dated from the earlier part of the eighteenth century. There is
a sympathetic reference to the old Bell Inn by William Black in his
"Strange Adventures of a Phaeton."
(10-1/4 × 7-11/16) D. 53-1896.
62. Part of Barnard's Inn, Holborn, 1886 (Water-colour).
(15-5/16 × 12-3/8) D. 54-1896.
63. The old Hall, Barnard's Inn, 1886 (Water-colour).
Barnard's Inn, on the south side of Holborn, was originally called
Mackworth's Inn, from having been the residence of Dr. John Mackworth,
Dean of Lincoln in the reign of Henry VI. His successor and the Chapter
of Lincoln leased it to Lyonel Barnard, from whom was derived the
name by which it has so long been known. As early as the middle of
the fifteenth century it was let to legal students, for Stow tells
us that anno 1454 there was "a great fray" in Fleet Street between
"men of court" and the inhabitants there, in the course of which the
Queen's attorney was killed. For this act the principal governors of
Clifford's Inn, Furnival's Inn, and Barnard's Inn, were sent prisoners
to Hertford Castle. Barnard's Inn, like its neighbour, Staple Inn,
was a place of legal study—an Inn of Chancery attached to Gray's Inn.
The establishment was governed by a Principal and various Ancients. A
Reader also was appointed from Gray's Inn, and great respect was shown
to him. The Principal, accompanied by the Ancients and gentlemen in
commons in their gowns, used to meet him on his coming and conduct
him into the hall. Barnard's Inn had latterly no more than a nominal
connection with Gray's Inn, the houses being let out as chambers, and
not occupied by students of the law. In 1854 the Society consisted
of a Principal, nine Ancients, and five Companions. The advantage of
being a Companion was stated to be "the dining," and the advantage of
being an Ancient, "dinners and some little fees." In 1888 the whole was
advertised for sale, and early in the nineties it was bought by the
Mercers' Company and adapted for the purposes of their school, which
was removed thither from College Hill in 1894.
The hall, still in existence, is only 36 feet long by 22 feet
in width, and faces the narrow passage by which one enters from
Holborn. It certainly dates from the foundation of the building in
the fifteenth century, but has been altered and renovated from time
to time. A louvre still adorns the roof, designed doubtless for
the emission of smoke from a central hearth, but it must have been
closed many years ago. There is at each end a projecting fireplace,
apparently Tudor, though the stonework has of late been renewed.
Their carved wooden overmantels have friezes in style belonging
to the sixteenth century, which surmount panelling of the linen
pattern. Similar panelling decorates the walls. Although this has
been much renewed, portions of it are original. The drawing of the
interior (No. 61) shows portraits above the panelling; the full
length over the western mantelpiece, representing Chief Justice Holt,
is now at the National Portrait Gallery. The heraldic glass in the
windows dates mostly from the eighteenth century. The figure seated
at a table is clad in one of the cloaks which were worn on certain
occasions by the Ancients. Beyond the hall was a somewhat irregular
quadrangle; part of it is represented in the painting No. 62. The
quaint gabled houses to the spectator's right, which were close to
the yard of the White Horse Inn, disappeared in the year 1893. Those
in the centre of the drawing, their fronts abutting on Fetter Lane,
remained until quite recently. At No. 2 dwelt Peter Woulfe, F.R.S.,
known as the last true believer in Alchemy, who here strove at the
impossible task of making gold. Sir Humphrey Davy said of him that he
used to hang up written prayers and recommendations of his processes
to Providence. The chambers were then so filled with furniture and
apparatus that it was difficult to reach the fireside. His remedy for
illness was a journey to Edinburgh and back by coach, and a cold taken
on one of these expeditions brought on inflammation of the lungs, from
which he died. Other houses in the quadrangle have been replaced by
the new school buildings. There are various references to Barnard's
Inn, not quite of a complimentary nature, in "Great Expectations," by
Charles Dickens.
(15-3/8 × 18-5/8) D. 71-1896.
64. Old Butchers' Shops, Clare Market, destroyed 1891 (Black and
white).
Much property in this neighbourhood was owned by the Earls of Clare
of the Holles Family, and John Holles, second Earl, whose mansion
was at the end of Clare Court, Drury Lane, founded the market soon
after the middle of the seventeenth century. A stone bas-relief of
the Holles Arms, surmounted by an earl's coronet with the date 1659,
was formerly at the corner of Gilbert passage, and afterwards on the
house numbered 8, Clare Street. The butchers of Clare Market were for
years flourishing, and here "Orator" Henley erected his "gilt tub"
commemorated by Pope, and used to preach on such Scripture texts or
subjects as admitted of a burlesque treatment. By degrees the place
degenerated, and in 1891 most of the buildings here were cleared away;
among others, the old "bulk-shop," in the foreground. It stood at the
north-east corner of Holles Street, and adjoining it on the north were
other shops of a similar kind. For some time before their destruction
they had been unoccupied. According to Oldys, Nat Lee, the dramatic
poet, when one night returning overladen with wine from the Bear and
Harrow in Butcher Row, Strand, through Clare Market, to his lodging
in Duke (now Sardinia) Street, "fell down on the ground, as some say,
according to others on a _bulk_, and was killed or stifled in the
snow." He was buried in the parish church of St. Clement Danes, 6th
May, 1692.
(6-3/8 × 8-1/2) D. 88-1896.
65. The Cheshire Cheese Tavern, Fleet Street, from Wine Office
Court, 1890 (Black and white).
Now that the Cock in Fleet Street has flown over the way to
comparatively modern quarters, and Dick's is no more, the Cheshire
Cheese, at No. 145, is the most old-fashioned tavern not only in this
neighbourhood, but in all London, and the old style is carefully kept
up. Contrary to general belief, and to many printed statements, there
is no record that the great Samuel Johnson, who so much appreciated
the charms of tavern life, ever frequented it, though this is by
no means improbable, as he lived hereabout for many years. Indeed,
Gough Square, where he compiled his dictionary, is within a minute's
walk, and his friend Oliver Goldsmith wrote the Vicar of Wakefield
at No. 6, Wine Office Court, close to the spot from which the
drawing is taken, at a time when the evening has begun, and "Tavern
lights flit on from room to room." At the old Cheshire Cheese the
Modern Johnson Club has often met, traditions of Johnson's visits
are repeated, and his portrait hangs in a corner of the principal
dining room on the ground floor. This room has been depicted by
various artists of distinction, among others by Seymour Lucas,
R.A., and Dendy Sadler. The panelled walls, the seventeenth century
fireplace, the sawdusted floor, and other quaint survivals, combine to
make a pretty picture. An illustrated "Book of the Cheese," which has
gone through several editions, is, or was, sold at the bar.
(8-3/4 × 6-1/4) D. 55-1896.
66. Hare Court, Temple, 1891 (Black and white).
Passing out of Fleet Street through the Inner Temple Gateway, under
the old room acquired some years ago by the London County Council,
the first opening on the right leads us into Hare Court, which
"Elia" has described with less than his usual sympathy as "a gloomy
churchyard-like place, with trees and a pump in it." At this pump
he had often drunk when a child, and the contents later in life
he recommends as "excellent cold with brandy." The back of Dick's
coffee-house is here to be seen, nestling against a fine old block
of chambers, and overshadowed on the right by a high modern structure
which seems to have got in there by mistake. Dick's, sometimes called
Richard's, stood on the site of the printing office of Richard Tottel,
law stationer in the reign of Henry VIII.; it got its name, however,
from Richard Torner or Turner, who was landlord in 1680. From the
days of Steele and Addison many eminent men frequented it. As is well
known, coffee-houses for half a century or more had a great influence
on the sale of books; every new poem or pamphlet of any importance was
to be seen in them. Peter Cunningham records that he had several in
his possession bearing in large letters on their title-page "Dick's
Coffee-house." This picturesque old place of entertainment, like the
Rainbow and other houses of a similar description, was approached from
Fleet Street by a long passage. In front it was a wooden structure;
the back was really half-timbered, the timbering concealed by plaster;
inside the original staircase remained. It disappeared in 1899; the
rest of the seventeenth century buildings in Hare Court had been swept
away some years previously.
(11-3/16 × 7-7/8) D. 56-1896.
67. Sion College and the City of London School, Victoria
Embankment, 1893 (Black and white).
Sion College, near the north end of Blackfriars Bridge, and next on the
west to the City of London School, was founded in 1623, as a College
and Almshouse, according to the will of Dr. Thomas White, who was Vicar
of St. Dunstan's in the West, and held other clerical appointments. A
library was added by the munificence of Dr. John Simson, rector of St.
Olave's, Hart Street, and an executor of the will. Until of late years,
the home of the College was in London Wall, between Aldermanbury on the
east and Philip Lane on the west, the former site of Elsing Spittal.
The old library was built along the east side of Philip Lane, the hall
stood back in the College garden. Mr. W. Niven, in his volume on London
City churches, gives a good etching of the picturesque gateway. New
Sion College, here shown, was formally opened by their Royal Highnesses
the Prince and Princess of Wales, December 15, 1886.
The City of London School was established in Milk Street about
the year 1835 for the sons of persons engaged in professional or
commercial pursuits, deriving part of its income from property
bequeathed for educational purposes by John Carpenter, town-clerk
of London in the reign of Henry V. The school had been transferred
to its present site on the Victoria Embankment a short time before this
drawing was made.
(6-5/8 × 9-1/4) D. 76-1896.
68. The Rising Sun, Wych Street, 1890 (Black and white).
In 1900-01 all the picturesque but dilapidated old houses in Wych
Street and the neighbouring Holywell Street were cleared away. Among
them was the structure here represented on spectator's right which
is at the south-east corner of Wych Street, with a front towards the
church of St. Clement Danes. This public-house, then known as the
Rising Sun, previously the Crooked Billet, stood nearly opposite to the
entrance of Dane's Inn, which was built on the site of a more famous
hostelry—the Angel—destroyed in 1854.
(9-9/16 × 6-7/16) D. 57-1896.
[Illustration: No. 69. THE COCK AND PIE, DRURY LANE.]
69. The Cock and Pie, Drury Lane, 1880 (Black and white).