London (Ancient and Modern) from the Sanitary and Medical Point of View

by George Vivian Poore

GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS.

These ecclesiastical foundations generally had gardens attached to them, and in the time of Henry VIII. and the subsequent Tudor monarchs, who discouraged building in London, the houses were by no means so closely packed as at present. It is usual to find in walled cities that the houses are packed as closely as possible within the walls; but this most certainly was not the case in London. A glance at Aggas’s or Ryther’s map (a copy of which is given in Mr. Loftie’s admirable “History of London”) will convince one of this. The houses enclose a great deal of garden ground in every direction, especially in the northern and north-eastern portions of the city. It was along the river bank that the crowding of houses was greatest, but even here there were open spaces; and I must remind you that Pepys, who lived in Seething Lane in the time of Charles II., when the crowding in the City had very much increased, makes frequent mention of his garden.

Mr. Loftie tells us that in 1276 an inquiry was held as to the cause of death of one Adam Shott, who had fallen from a pear tree in the garden of one Laurence, in the parish of St. Michael Paternoster, which was close to Thames Street. St. Martin Pomeroy, a church formerly in Ironmonger Lane, is supposed to have derived its name from an adjoining orchard. We know that Sir John Crosbie built Crosbie Place, now a restaurant, in Bishopsgate Street, on part of the land forming the gardens of the adjoining Convent of St. Helen’s. Sir Thomas Gresham’s house in Bishopsgate Street also had its garden, and we know that the College of Physicians had a physic garden, first at Amen Corner, and subsequently in Warwick Lane.

The Priory of the Augustinians, or Austin Friars, included a large tract of land. A part of it was given to the Marquis of Winchester, who built Winchester House, which occupied the site of Winchester Street and Buildings in Old Broad Street; and Drapers’ Hall was originally the house of Thomas Cromwell, who made what till a very few years since was known as Drapers’ Gardens by the simple process of stealing portions from the gardens of his neighbours, they not daring to quarrel with so great and so arbitrary a person. Immediately outside the walls was any amount of open space. The houses of the nobles along the Strand had each of them its ornamental garden. The Templars had their garden, which still remains. The Priory of St. Bartholomew had its garden; the Carthusians at the Charterhouse had their garden. Hotspur lived in Aldersgate Street, Prince Rupert lived in Barbican, and the dismal spot now known as Bridgewater Square was once occupied by the Earl of Bridgewater’s house and garden. Old Gerard, the herbalist, had his garden in Holborn, where he raised the potato, and he superintended Burleigh’s garden in the Strand. Hatton Gardens were famous when Sir Christopher Hatton lived there in state. Gray’s Inn Garden was planted by Francis Bacon. Grocers’ Hall had its garden, with hedge-rows and a bowling alley. The Merchant Taylors, the Ironmongers, the Salters, and the Barber-Surgeons had each of them gardens attached to their halls. The chief garden, or pleasure ground, for the citizens was Moorfields. This was originally a wild, undrained place, which extended from the City wall right away to the villages of Islington and Hoxton. According to Loftie, it appears that in 1274 the citizens called in question certain Acts of the previous Mayor, one Walter Hervey. They accused him of certain “presumptuous acts and injuries,” and the first of these appears to have been that “He had not attended at the Exchequer to show the citizens’ title to the Moor.” From this it would appear that over 600 years ago Moorfields was regarded as a common for the use and enjoyment of all, and it appears to have been used more or less for these purposes down to the close of the last century, and it is to be found in all maps. Moorfields was used for archery and for exercising the train-bands, that is, it was so used after it was drained, which was first attempted in the fifteenth century. At one time, the people living near Moorfields put up fences and showed a disposition to encroach on the moor, but the citizens, taking the law into their own hands, levelled the obstructions. When Moorfields had been drained, a part of it was planted, and it became a fashionable promenade, and in some maps it is shown as planted with intersecting avenues. According to Mr. Denton, the historian of Cripplegate, the northern part of Moorfields was the property of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s being leased merely to the Corporation, together with the Manor of Finsbury. The southern part, however, was, according to the same authority, the gift of Catherine and Mary Fynes to the City Corporation in trust for the citizens. Finsbury Square was built on the northern part in 1768, and finally, in 1812, the Corporation obtained an enabling Act from Parliament and put Finsbury Circus on the lower half, and thus perished the People’s Park after existing 800 years. The building upon this open space was a very short-sighted policy, and it says very little for the spirit of Londoners that such a policy was able to be carried out. The first encroachments on Moorfields took place, probably, after the fire, when thousands of citizens were homeless, and the Moor was used as a temporary place of encampment. Many of the houses then erected appear to have been fairly substantial, and it is probable that encroachments having been made in consequence of a sudden and dire necessity, and possession being nine points of the law, the City of London lost its park. Part of Moorfields had been used during the plague as a plague pit, and towards the end of the 17th century the great burial ground for dissenters, Bunhill Fields, was here established. The Artillery ground, once the exercising ground of the train-bands, still remains, and it is fortunate that the extinction of the Honourable Artillery Company has been averted and has not resulted in this “eligible building plot” being leased at so much a square foot.

Moorfields is gone, the Drapers’ Garden is gone, and the wealthy City of London has now the proud distinction of being without any public recreation ground within its limits.

It is true that the Corporation has bought Epping Forest, in the county of Essex, and Burnham Beeches, in the county of Buckinghamshire, and all honour to them for so doing; but it must be remembered that a third-class return ticket to Loughton, the centre of Epping Forest, costs 1s. 7d., and that to go from and return to Fenchurch Street takes one and a half hours, while a return third-class ticket from Mansion House to Slough, which is, I think, the station for Burnham Beeches, costs 3s. 6d., and the journey to and fro takes four hours at least, so that if each of the 51,000 people who reside in the City pay one visit to each of their parks, they would do so at a minimum cost of nearly £13,000, and at a necessary loss (collectively) of 281,000 hours, which at 3d. an hour means an additional £3,500.

It is at least doubtful whether, if Moorfields could be restored as a playground for the City, it would not be of more use to the City, from the point of view of the health of those who dwell in it, than are the Essex and Buckinghamshire estates. Almost every inch of available ground in the City has been built upon. Goodman’s Fields, once a farm where Stowe used to buy three pints of milk for a halfpenny, is now covered with houses. Spitalfields was once an open space, but it is an open space no longer. Paternoster Square has its centre packed with buildings, and for aught I know there is nothing to prevent the occupation in a similar way of the centres of Finsbury Square and Circus, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, the Gardens of the Temple and Gray’s Inn, of Russell and Bloomsbury Square, and, in short, of every inch of green that can be turned into money.

The gradual obliteration of open spaces in London is seen not only in public and semi-public spaces, but also in the curtilage of private houses. Before the introduction of our modern system of sewerage and water supply, it was not possible to build houses without adequate curtilage for a well and the bestowal of refuse, and this obvious fact is borne out by a reference to the maps of 1558, 1658, and 1720, which are hung upon the screen. It is noteworthy that Newcourt’s map of the time of Charles II. shows that the houses in the City were much more closely packed than in the time of Elizabeth, and it is probable that just before the Plague and the Fire the crowding of houses was excessive.

DIAGRAM SHOWING THE SIZE OF LONDON AT DIFFERENT PERIODS BETWEEN 1560 AND 1889.

The diagram (p. 23) shows the growth of London between 1560 and 1889. The notable features being (a) the very rapid extension of the London area since 1815, and (b) the fact that the marshy land south of the Thames has only been covered with buildings within comparatively recent times. The frontispiece is a reproduction of part of Newcourt’s map (1658) showing that the houses in the centre of London were very densely packed. It also shows the position of Moorfields, and the Drapers’ Garden, which are alluded to in the text.