gives a very full account of it in "Londinium Redivivum," says that it
was given "very many centuries past" to the Dean and Chapter of St.
Paul's, and the Abbot and Convent of St. Saviour, Bermondsey, by
Gladerinus, a priest, on condition that the Abbot and Convent paid the
Dean and the Chapter 12s. per annum. We also hear that there was a
grammar-school attached to it, one of Henry VI.'s foundations, and that
there had been previously an alien priory, a cell to the House of Cluny,
suppressed by Henry V. The church continued in a flourishing condition.
Various chantries were bestowed upon it from time to time, and in the
will of the Rector, date 1447, it is stated that there were four altars
within the church. In Henry VIII.'s time the principals of the four inns
or houses in the parish paid a mark apiece to the church, apparently for
the maintenance of a chantry priest. In Elizabeth's reign the tombs were
despoiled: the churchwardens sold the brasses that had so far escaped
destruction, and proceeded to demolish the monuments, until an order
from the Queen put a stop to this vandalism.
In 1665 Stillingfleet (Bishop of Worcester) was made Rector. The church
was rebuilt by Wren in 1686 "in a neat, plain manner." The ancient tower
remained, and was recased in 1704. The building is large, light, and
airy, and is in the florid, handsome style we are accustomed to
associate with Wren. At the west end is a fine late-pointed arch,
communicating with the tower, in which there is a similar window. This
arch was blocked up and hidden by Wren, but was re-opened by the late
Rector, the Rev. Henry Blunt, who also thoroughly restored and renovated
the building some thirty years ago.
The most interesting of the interior fittings is a porphyry altar,
placed by Sacheverell, who was Rector from 1713 to 1724, and who is
buried beneath it. A marble font, at which Disraeli was baptized at the
age of twelve, is also interesting, and the pulpit of richly-carved
wood, attributed to Grinling Gibbons, is very handsome. On the west wall
is a marble slab, in memory of William Marsden, M.D., founder of the
Royal Free and Cancer Hospitals. It was put up by the Cordwainers'
Company in 1901.
In the tower are many monuments of antiquity, but none to recall the
memory of anyone notable. The church stood in a very commanding
situation until the building of the Viaduct, which passes on a higher
level, giving the paved yard in front the appearance of having been
sunk.
On this side of the church there is a large bas-relief of the Last
Judgment, without date. This was a favourite subject in the seventeenth
century, and similar specimens, though not so fine, and differing in
treatment, still exist elsewhere (see p. 17).
Malcolm mentions a house next the White Hart, with land behind it, worth
5s. per annum, called "Church Acre," and in the reign of Henry VII. the
priest was fined 4d. for driving across the churchyard to the Rectory.
In the twenty-fifth year of Elizabeth's reign there was a great heap of
skulls and bones that lay "unseemly and offensive" at the east end of
the church. The register records the burial here, on August 28, 1770, of
"William Chatterton," presumably Thomas Chatterton, as the date accords.
A later hand has added the words "the poet."
Wriothesley, Henry VIII.'s Chancellor, was buried in St. Andrew's
churchyard. Timbs says that this church has been called the "Poets'
Church," for, besides the above, John Webster, dramatic poet, is said to
have been parish clerk here, though the register does not confirm it.
Robert Savage was christened here January 18, 1696.
There is also a monument to Emery, the comedian, and Neale, another
poet, was buried in the churchyard. But these records combined make but
poor claim to such a proud title. The ground on which Chatterton was
buried has now utterly vanished, having been covered first by the
Farringdon Market, and later by great warehouses.
When the Holborn Viaduct was built, a large piece of the churchyard was
cut off, and the human remains thus disinterred were reburied in the
City cemetery at Ilford, Essex.
The earliest mention of Shoe Lane is in a writ of Edward II., when it is
denominated "Scolane in the ward without Ludgate." In the seventeenth
century we read of a noted cockpit which was established here.
Gunpowder Alley, which ran out of this Lane, was the residence of
Lovelace, the poet, and of Lilly, the astrologer. The former died here
of absolute want in 1658. His well-known lines,
"I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved I not honour more,"
have made his fame more enduring than that of many men of greater
poetical merit. In Shoe Lane lived also Florio, the compiler of our
first Italian Dictionary. Coger's Hall in Shoe Lane attained some
celebrity in the latter half of the eighteenth century. It was
established for the purpose of debate, and, among others, O'Connell,
Wilkes, and Curran, met here to discuss the political questions of the
day. On the west side of Shoe Lane was Bangor Court, reminiscent of the
Palace or Inn of the Bishops of Bangor. This was a very picturesque old
house, if the prints still existing are to be trusted, and parts of it
survived even so late as 1828. It was mentioned in the Patent Rolls so
early as Edward III.'s reign. Another old gabled house, called Oldbourne
Hall, was on the east side of the street, but this, even in Stow's time,
had fallen from its high estate and descended to the degradation of
division into tenements.
Opposite St. Andrew's Church was formerly Scrope's Inn. According to
Stow,
"This house was sometime letten out to sergeants-at-the-law, as
appeareth, and was found by inquisition taken in the Guildhall of
London, before William Purchase, mayor, and escheator for the king,
Henry VII., in the 14th of his reign, after the death of John Lord
Scrope, that he died deceased in his demesne of fee, by the
feoffment of Guy Fairfax, knight, one of the king's justices, made
in the 9th of the same king, unto the said John Scrope, knight,
Lord Scrope of Bolton, and Robert Wingfield, esquire, of one house
or tenement late called Sergeants' Inn, situate against the Church
of St. Andrew in Oldbourne, in the city of London, with two gardens
and two messuages to the same tenement belonging to the said city,
to hold in burgage, valued by the year in all reprises ten
shillings" (Thomas's edit. Stow, p. 144).
This, as may be judged from the above, was not a regular Inn of
Chancery, but appertained to Serjeants' Inn.
Crossing Holborn Circus to the north side, we come into the Liberty of
Saffron Hill, Hatton Garden, and Ely Rents. This Liberty, is coterminous
with the parish of St. Peter, Saffron Hill. Hatton Garden derives its
name from the family of Hatton, who for many years held possession of
house and grounds in the vicinity of Ely Place, having settled upon the
Bishops of Ely like parasites, and grown rich by extortion from their
unwilling hosts. The district was separated from St. Andrew's in 1832,
and became an independent ecclesiastical parish seven years later. As
the Liberty of Saffron Hill, Hatton Garden, and Ely Rents, it has a very
ancient history. It was cut in two by a recent Boundary Commission, and
put half in Holborn and half in Finsbury Borough Councils.
Ely Place was built in 1773 on the site of the Palace of the Bishops of
Ely. The earliest notice of the See in connection with this spot is in
the thirteenth century, when Kirkby, who died in office in 1290,
bequeathed to his official successors a messuage and nine cottages in
Holborn. A succeeding Bishop, probably William de Luda, built a chapel
dedicated to St. Ethelreda, and Hotham, who died in 1336, added a
garden, orchard, and vineyard. Thomas Arundel restored the chapel, and
built a large gate-house facing Holborn. The episcopal dwelling steadily
rose in magnificence and size. It boasted noble residents besides the
Bishops, for John of Gaunt died here in 1399, having probably been
hospitably taken in after the burning of his own palace at the Savoy.
The strawberries of Ely Garden were famous, and Shakespeare makes
reference to them, thus following closely Holinshed. But in the reign of
Queen Elizabeth a blight fell on the Bishops. It began with the envious
desires of Sir Christopher Hatton, who, by reason of his dancing and
courtly tricks, had won the susceptible Queen's fancy and been made Lord
Chancellor. He settled down on Ely Place, taking the gate-house as his
residence, excepting the two rooms reserved as cells and the lodge. He
held also part of the garden on a lease of twenty-one years, and the
nominal rent he had to pay was a red rose, ten loads of hay, and £10 per
annum. The Bishop had the right of passing through the gate-house, of
walking in his own garden, and of gathering twenty bushels of roses
yearly. Hatton spent much money (borrowed from the Queen) in improving
and beautifying the estate, which pleased him so well that he farther
petitioned the Queen to grant him the whole property. The poor, ill-used
Bishop protested, but was sternly repressed, and the only concession he
could obtain was the right to buy back the estate if he could at any
time repay Hatton the sums which had been spent on it. But Hatton did
not remain unpunished. The Queen, a hard creditor, demanded the immense
sums which she had lent to him, and it is said he died of a broken
heart, crushed at being unable to repay them. His nephew Newport, who
took the name of Hatton, was, however, allowed to succeed him. The widow
of this second Hatton married Sir Edward Coke, the ceremony being
performed in St. Andrew's Church. The Bishops' and the Hattons' rights
of property seem to have been somewhat involved, for after the death of
this widow the Bishops returned, and in the beginning of the eighteenth
century the Hatton property was saddled with an annual rent-charge of
£100 payable to the See; and, in 1772, when, on the death of the last
Hatton heir, the property fell to the Crown, the See was paid £200 per
annum, and given a house in Dover Street, Piccadilly, in lieu of Ely
Place. Malcolm says: "When a more convenient Excise Office was lately
wanted, the ground on which Ely House stood was thought of for it, but
its situation was objected to. When an intention was formed of removing
the Fleet Prison, Ely House was judged proper on account of the quantity
of ground about it, but the neighbouring inhabitants in Hatton Garden
petitioned against the prison being built there. A scheme is now (1773)
said to be in agitation for converting it into a Stamp Office, that
business being at present carried on in chambers in Lincoln's Inn." So
much for the history and ownership of a place which played a
considerable part in London history. The fabric itself must have been
very magnificent. There was a venerable hall 74 feet long, with six
Gothic windows. At Ely House were held magnificent feasts by the
Serjeants-at-Law, one of which continued for five days, and was honoured
on the first day by the presence of Henry VIII. and Katherine of Aragon.
Stow's account of this festival is perhaps worth quoting:
"It were tedious to set down the preparation of fish, flesh, and
other victuals spent in this feast, and would seem almost
incredible, and, as to me it seemeth, wanted little of a feast at a
coronation; nevertheless, a little I will touch, for declaration of
the charge of prices. There were brought to the slaughter-house
twenty-four great beefs at twenty-six shillings and eightpence the
piece from the shambles, one carcass of an ox at twenty-four
shillings, one hundred fat muttons two shillings and tenpence the
piece, fifty-two great veals at four shillings and eightpence the
piece, thirty-four porks three shillings and eightpence the piece,
ninety-one pigs sixpence the piece, capons of geese, of one
poulterer (for they had three), ten dozens at twenty-pence the
piece, capons of Kent nine dozens and six at twelvepence the piece,
capons coarse nineteen dozen at sixpence the piece, cocks of grose
seven dozen and nine at eightpence the piece, cocks coarse fourteen
dozen and eight at threepence the piece, pullets, the best,
twopence halfpenny, other pullets twopence, pigeons thirty-seven
dozen at tenpence the dozen, swans fourteen dozen, larks three
hundred and forty dozen at fivepence the dozen, &c. Edward Nevill
was seneschal or steward, Thomas Ratcliffe, comptroller, Thomas
Wildon, clerk of the Kitchen" (Thomas's edit. Stow, pp. 144, 145).
During the Civil War the house was used both as a hospital and a prison.
Great part of it was demolished during the imprisonment of Bishop Wren
by the Commonwealth, and some of the surrounding streets were built on
the site of the garden. Vine Street, Hatton Garden, Saffron Hill, of
which the lower end was once Field Lane, carry their origin in their
names. Evelyn, writing June 7, 1659, says that he came to see the
"foundations now laying for a long streete and buildings on Hatton
Garden, designed for a little towne, lately an ample garden." The
chapel, dedicated to St. Ethelreda, now alone remains. It was for a time
held by a Welsh Episcopalian congregation, but in 1874 was obtained by
Roman Catholics, the Welsh congregation passing on to St. Benet's, on
St. Benet's Hill in Thames Street. The chapel stands back from the
street, and is faced by a stone wall and arched porch surmounted by a
cross. This stonework is all modern. An entrance immediately facing the
porch leads into the crypt, which is picturesque with old stone walls
and heavily-timbered roof. This is by far the older part of the
building, the chapel above being a rebuilding on the same foundation.
The crypt probably dates back from the first foundation of De Luda, and
the chapel from the restoration of Arundel. When the Roman Catholics
came into possession, the late Sir Gilbert Scott was employed in a
thorough restoration, during which a heavy stone bowl, about the size of
a small font, was dug up. It is of granite, and is supposed to be of
considerably more ancient date than the fabric itself, being pre-Saxon.
From the size, it is improbable it was used as a font, being more likely
a holy-water stoup, for which purpose it is now employed. Having been
placed on a fitting shaft, it stands outside the entrance to the church,
on the south side, in the cloister, which is probably on the site of the
ancient cloister. There is a simple Early English porch, beautifully
proportioned with mouldings of the period. Within the church corresponds
in shape with the crypt; two magnificent windows east and west are
worthy of a much larger building. Those on each side are of recent date,
having been reconstructed from a filled-in window on the south side of
the chancel. The reliquary contains a great treasure--a portion of the
hand of St. Ethelreda, which member, having been taken from the chapel,
after many wanderings, fell into the possession of a convent of nuns,
who refused to give it up. Finally judgment was given to the effect that
the nuns should retain a portion, while the part of a finger was granted
to the church, which was accordingly done. It was this saint who gave
rise to our word "tawdry." She was popularly known as St. Awdrey, and
strings of beads sold in her name at fairs, etc., came to be made of any
worthless glass or rubbish, and were called tawdry. The crypt is used as
a regular church, and is filled with seats; service is held here as well
as above.
The timber beams in the roof are now (1903) undergoing thorough
restoration, and the outer walls of the chapel are being repointed.
From this quaint relic of past times, rich with the indefinable
attraction which nothing but a history of centuries can give, we pass
out into Ely Place. This is a quiet cul-de-sac composed almost wholly of
the offices of business men, solicitors, etc. At the north end, beyond
the chapel, the old houses are down, and new ones will be erected in
their place. At the end a small watchman's lodge stands on the spot
where stood the Bishops' Gateway, in which the parasite, Sir Christopher
Hatton, first fastened on his host.
Hatton Garden is a wide thoroughfare with some modern offices and many
older houses, with bracketed doorways and carved woodwork. It has long
been associated with the diamond merchant's trade, and now diamond
merchants occupy quite half of the offices. It is also the centre of the
gold and silver trade. The City Orthopædic Hospital is on the east
side.
In Charles Street is the Bleeding Heart public-house, which derives its
name from an old religious sign, the Pierced Heart of the Virgin. This
is close to Bleeding Heart Yard, referred to in "Little Dorrit," and
easily recalled by any reader of Dickens.
In Cross Street there is an old charity school, with stuccoed figures of
a charity boy and girl on the frontage. The Caledonian School was
formerly in this street; it was removed to its present situation in
1828. Whiston, friend of Sir Isaac Newton, lived here, and here Edward
Irving first displayed his powers of preaching.
Kirkby Street recalls what has already been said about the first Bishop
of Ely, who purchased land whereon his successors should build a palace.
It is a broad street, and in times past was a place of residence for
well-to-do people.
The lower part of Saffron Hill was known at first as Field Lane, and is
described by Strype as "narrow and mean, full of Butchers and Tripe
Dressers, because the Ditch runs at the back of their Slaughter houses,
and carries away the filth." He also says that Saffron Hill is a place
of small account, "both as to buildings and inhabitants, and pestered
with small and ordinary alleys and courts taken up by the meaner sort of
people, especially to the east side into the Town. The Ditch separates
the parish from St. John, Clerkenwell, and over this Ditch most of the
alleys have a small boarded bridge."
We can easily picture it, the courts swarming with thieves and rogues
who slipped from justice by this back-way, which made the place a kind
of warren with endless ramifications and outlets. All this district is
strongly associated with the stories of Dickens, who mentions Saffron
Hill in "Oliver Twist," not much to its credit. In later times Italian
organ-grinders and ice-cream vendors had a special predilection for the
place, and did not add to its reputation. Curiously enough, the resident
population of the neighbourhood are now almost wholly British, with very
few Italians, as the majority of the foreigners have gone to join the
colony just outside the Liberty, in Eyre Street Hill, Skinner's Street,
etc. Within quite recent times the clergyman of the parish dare only go
to visit these parishioners accompanied by two policemen in plain
clothes. Now the lower half is a hive of industry, and is lined by great
business houses. Further north, on the east side, the dwellings are
still poor and squalid, but on one side a great part of the street has
been demolished to make way for a Board school, built in a way
immeasurably superior to the usual Board school style. Opposite is the
Church of St. Peter, which is an early work of Sir Charles Barry. This
is in light stone, in the Perpendicular style, and has two western
towers. It was built at the time of the separation of the district,
about 1832.
In Hatton Wall an old yard bore the name of Hat in Tun, which was
interesting as showing the derivation of the word. Strype mentions in
this street a very old inn, called the Bull Inn. The part of Hatton Wall
to the west of Hatton Garden was known as Vine Street, and here there
was "a steep descent into the Ditch, where there is a bridge that
leadeth to Clerkenwell Green" (Strype). In Hatton Yard Mr. Fogg,
Dickens' magistrate, presided over a police-court.
Leather Lane is called by Strype "Lither" Lane. Even in his day he
reviles it as of no reputation, and this character it retains. It is one
of the open street markets of London, lined with barrows and coster
stalls, and abounding in low public-houses. The White Hart, the King's
Head, and the Nag's Head, are mentioned by Strype, and these names
survive amid innumerable others. At the south end a house with
overhanging stories remains; this curtails the already narrow space
across the Lane.
On the west of Leather Lane, Baldwin's Buildings and Portpool Lane open
out. The former consists largely of workmen's model dwellings,
comfortable and convenient within, but with the peculiarly depressing
exteriors of the utilitarian style. Further north these give way to
warehouses, breweries, and manufactories. East of its southern end in
Holborn were two old inns, the Old Bell and Black Bull. The former was a
coaching inn of great celebrity in its day, and picturesque wooden
balconies surrounded its inner courtyard. It has now been transformed
into a modern public-house. It was the last of the old galleried inns of
London. The Black Bull was also of considerable age. Its courtyard has
been converted into dwellings.
Brooke Street takes its name from Brooke Market, established here by
Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, but demolished a hundred years ago. It was
in Brooke Street, in a house on the west side, that poor Chatterton
committed suicide. St. Alban's Church is an unpretentious building at
the north end. An inscription over the north door tells us that it was
erected to be free for ever to the poor by one of the humble stewards of
God's mercies, with date 1860. Within we learn that this benefactor was
the first Baron Addington. The church is well known for its ritualistic
services.
Portpool Lane, marked in Strype's plan Perpoole, is the reminiscence of
an ancient manor of that name. The part of Clerkenwell Road bounding
this district to the north was formerly called by the appropriate name
of Liquorpond Street. In it there is a Roman Catholic Church of St.
Peter, built in 1863. The interior is very ornate. Just here, where Back
Hill and Ray Street meet, was Hockley Hole, a famous place of
entertainment for bull and bear baiting, and other cruel sports that
delighted the brutal taste of the eighteenth century. One of the
proprietors, named Christopher Preston, fell into his own bear-pit, and
was devoured, a form of sport that doubtless did not appeal to him.
Hockley Hole was noted for a particular breed of bull-dogs. The actual
site of the sports is in the adjoining parish, but the name occurring
here justifies some comment. Hockley in the Hole is referred to by Ben
Jonson, Steele, Fielding, and others. It was abolished soon after 1728.
It was in a sponging-house in Eyre Street that Morland, the painter,
died. In the part of Gray's Inn Road to the north of Clerkenwell Road
formerly stood Stafford's Almshouses, founded in 1652.
At present Rosebery Avenue, driven through slumland, justifies its
pleasant-sounding name, being a wide, sweeping, tree-lined road.
Workmen's model dwellings rise on either side.
The northern part of Gray's Inn Road falls within the parish of St.
Pancras. The part which lies to the north of Theobald's Road was
formerly called Gray's Inn Lane. In 1879-80 the east side was pulled
down, and the line of houses set back in the rebuilding. These consists
of uninteresting buildings, with small shops on the ground-floor. On the
west there are the worn bricks of Gray's Inn. At the corner of
Clerkenwell Road is the Holborn Town-Hall, an imposing, well-built
edifice of brick and stone, with square clock-tower, surmounted by a
smaller octagonal tower and dome. The date is 1878.
Gray's Inn Road is familiar to all readers of Dickens and Fielding, from
frequent references in their novels. John Hampden took lodgings here in
1640, in order to be near Pym, at a time when the struggle between the
King and Parliament in regard to the question of ship money was at its
sharpest. James Shirley, the dramatic poet of the seventeenth century,
is also said to have lived here, but was probably in Gray's Inn itself.
GRAY'S INN.
BY W. J. LOFTIE.