London City

by Walter Besant

ALLHALLOWS, LONDON WALL

This church stands on the old Roman wall erected in the third century, and probably marks the site of one of the earliest Christian churches built in this country.

The earliest authentic records give particulars of a church on the present site, which dates from the year A.D. 1300, and there is little doubt that it replaced an earlier structure, which had stood since the Norman Conquest, and had fallen into disrepair. In A.D. 1474 Allhallows Chapel was constructed, probably for the accommodation of the Ankers, or Anchorites, who were closely associated with the church. The most famous of these was Sir Simon, or Master Anker, the author of a devotional book which has been preserved in the British Museum, entitled The Fruits of Redemption, who was a great benefactor to Allhallows.

In A.D. 1527 a new aisle was added to the church. Possibly Sir Simon, when he attached himself to Allhallows, discarded the loft over the chapel, and settled himself in a cell in the bastion of the old Roman wall, which now forms the vestry. If, as is probable, he had taken a vow never to emerge from his retirement, it may be that when the new aisle was added he was persuaded to place his eloquence at the disposal of the parishioners, by consenting to preach on condition that a private passage was made from his cell leading straight into the pulpit. This would explain why, when the present church was built, the conditions were reproduced by which the pulpit is not accessible from the church, but can only be reached by a staircase leading through the vestry.

The list of rectors can only be traced back to A.D. 1335, but there is an interesting record in the Croniques de Londres, which mentions that in A.D. 1320 the priest of Allhallows (whose name is not given) was murdered by Isabel de Bury, who took refuge in the church, but the Bishop of London would not allow her to seek sanctuary there, so she was seized, and was hanged five days afterwards.

The patronage of Allhallows was for many centuries in the hands of the Prior and Convent of Holy Trinity, Aldgate. At the dissolution of the monasteries in the sixteenth century it passed to the Crown, and since then has belonged to the Lord Chancellor.

The church was fortunate enough to escape destruction during the Great Fire in 1666, but it fell into a ruinous state about a century later, and had to be demolished. The present structure, for the erection of which a special Act of Parliament was passed, was commenced in A.D. 1765, and cost £3000. The architect was George Dance the younger, and it was his brother, Sir Nathaniel Dance Holland, R.A., who presented to the church the magnificent painting which hangs over the altar. It was a copy made by himself of the famous picture in the Church of the Conception at Rome by Pietro Berretini di Cortona, a Florentine painter of repute who died in 1669. The subject is the restoration to sight of Saul of Tarsus (St. Paul) by Ananias at Damascus. The fifteenth-century monk in the crowd gives a quaint touch of mediævalism to the scene.

The architecture of the church deserves a passing notice. The plan is intended to reproduce a modified Roman Basilican church, but the evidences of the Greek revival are shown in the character of the Ionic capitals of the interior columns, as well as in the famous Greek honeysuckle ornament, which appears both in the Roman barrel-vault of the ceiling and in the frieze round the interior walls. The church is almost unique in representing the transition stage between the Italian renaissance and the short-lived introduction of the Greek style.

Among the most famous rectors during the nineteenth century were the Rev. William Beloe, the well-known translator of Herodotus and Aulus Gellius; the Rev. Robert Nares, the Shakespearian glossary writer; and the Rev. George Davys, who was tutor to the late Queen Victoria, and became successively Rector of Allhallows, Dean of Chester, and Bishop of Peterborough.

Returning to our section, from which we have somewhat strayed, we find Wood Street has been already described.

In Noble Street stood the houses of Sir Nicholas Bacon and Sergeant Fleetwood, Recorder of London. This street is dismissed by Stow in a few words; it faced the City Wall westward, and so long as the Wall was preserved there was an open space of twenty feet at least free from buildings, while without there was the City Ditch. It began at the end of Foster Lane, having the Church of St. John Zachary in the east, and on the west, separated by a block of houses, the Church of St. Anne-of-the-Willows. Going up the street we pass Lilypot Lane, Oat Lane, leading to St. Mary Staining Church (see p. [47]), and two or three courts.

At the south end of Noble Street was Engain Lane, called also Maiden Lane, Ingelene Lane, or Ing Lane. Here a Roman pavement was found (Proceedings of Soc. Antiq. Series, i. 2. p. 184). Riley, in his Introduction to the Memorials, thinks that this lane is lost. He supposes, however, that the St. Michael “Hoggene Lane” was St. Michael Queenhithe, instead of St. Michael by Huggin Lane, which is adjacent.

A continuation of Maiden Lane is St. Anne’s Lane or Distaff Lane.

In 1339, William de Clif bequeaths tenements in Igene Lane “elsewhere called Ing Lane and Engaynes end, afterwards Maiden Lane” (Prideaux, Goldsmiths’ Company, vol. i. p. 4). In 1560, “Mother Lowndes” had a melting furnace in Maiden Lane. In 1627, Lord Nowell had the lease of a house in the lane. In 1642, Lord Campden wanted to purchase the messuage of which he held a lease, but was refused. In Staining Lane stood the almshouses of the Haberdashers for the men of that Company.

In the modern Noble Street the new Post Office Hotel is a conspicuous object on the east. Close by is Ye Noble Restaurant. Lilypot Lane is one consecutive series of the less ornamental style of modern brick and stone warehouses. Ye Olde Bell next to Oat Lane is evidently an old house, and, seen in the vista of the street, has a considerable bow forward. It is plastered. The coat-of-arms over the wooden doorway of the Coachmakers’ Hall arrests attention for a moment. Then we see Nos. 16 and 17 on either side over the entry of Fitchett’s Court, which are really old. They are of roughened red brick, dating from the rebuilding after the Fire. Fitchett’s Court is a narrow stone-flagged cul de sac lined on either side with similar houses. At the upper end is a modern glass-roofed building. It is inhabited chiefly by manufacturers’ agents, but is quaint, with a projecting bowed window near the entry, and a dark woodwork doorway with two carved brackets supporting the cornice. The house mentioned above in Noble Street on the north of the Court is The Royal Mail Tavern. The remainder of this street contains no point of interest. The Coachmakers’ Hall stands on the east side of Noble Street, north of Oat Lane.