London City

by Walter Besant

ST. BRIDE

St. Bride’s or St. Bridget’s is another Fleet Street church. It derives its name from St. Bridget, a saint of the seventh century. No mention of the church has been discovered earlier than 1222. It was destroyed by the Great Fire and rebuilt in 1680 by Wren; the steeple, one of his greatest achievements, was added in 1701. This has been struck several times by lightning, and in 1764 part of it was taken down and lowered by 8 feet. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1306.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Abbot and Convent of Westminster as a rectory from 1306 up to 1507, when a vicarage was ordained in the same patronage; Dean and Chapter of Westminster, in whose successors it continues, since 1573.

Houseling people in 1548 were 1400.

The interior of this church is considered to be one of the best specimens of Wren’s work. It is entered by a porch within the tower, and is divided into a nave and aisles by an arcade of doubled columns on both sides. The length of the church is 111 feet, its breadth 57 feet, and its height, to the roof of the nave, 41 feet. The height of the tower to the top of the parapet is 120 feet, above which the spire rises in four octagonal stories, surmounted by an obelisk and vane. There are vases at the corners of the parapet, introduced to soften the transitions. St. Bride’s Avenue, designed by J. B. Papworth in 1825, affords an open view of this steeple, before obstructed by intervening houses.

The only relics of the old church which now survive are a font in the west part of the middle aisle, and outside, on the north, the entry stone to the vault of the Holdens, dated 1657.

Chantries were founded here: For William de Evesham, John de Uggeley and Lettice his wife, at the Altar of St. Katharine, of which Thomas de Weston was chaplain in 1564—the endowment fetched £6 : 10s. in 1548; by Nicholas Sporinge, citizen of London, for himself and for Thomas Bryx and Elene his wife at the Altar of St. John Baptist, of which Ralph Archer was chaplain (d. 1383); for John de Merlawe in 1315; by John Ulstrape, whose endowment fetched £10 : 13 : 4 in 1549, when Robert Walker was chaplain; by John Wigan and John Hill whose endowments yielded £15 : 14 : 8 in 1548; by Simon atte Nax, whose endowment fetched £15 : 14 : 4 in 1548 when John Matthew and Philip Dey were chaplains. Richard Beauchamp, Bishop of Sarum, Walter Devereux, Miles, Lord of Ferrers, and Master Alexander Leigh had licence to found a guild here, May 26, 1475.

This church contains many interesting monuments, and is especially rich in memories of the poets. The Rev. John Pridden, a zealous antiquary, who died in 1825, is commemorated by a tablet on the north wall; here, too, a brass plate has been placed to the memory of John Nichols, author of The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester and other works. Wynkyn de Worde, the sixteenth-century printer, was buried in this church; also Sir Richard Baker, author of the Chronicle of the Kings of England; and also, perhaps, Richard Lovelace, the cavalier poet. Samuel Richardson, the novelist, who died in 1761, was interred in the middle aisle. In the vestry-room there is a portrait of the Rev. Thomas Dale, a former vicar (see below). Milton is recorded to have taken up his abode for a short time in lodgings in St. Bride’s Churchyard on his return from his travels.

FLEET DITCH, WEST STREET, SMITHFIELD, AS IT WAS IN 1844

Only two benefactors’ names are recorded by Stow—Robert Lewis, who gave £30 per annum for coals for the poor, and Robert Dove, £50 for a bell to warn prisoners of their approaching death.

There was one charity school for fifty boys and fifty girls, who were clothed, taught, and apprenticed by voluntary subscriptions, added to a yearly collection at the church door.

John Taylor or Cardmaker was vicar here; he was burnt at Smithfield for heresy, May 30, 1555. Also Richard Bundy, D.D. (d. 1739), Prebendary of Westminster; John Thomas (1712-93), Bishop of Rochester; Thomas Dale (1797-1870), Dean of Rochester.

The Fleet River, which gave its name to all this district, was anciently known as Turnmill Brooke or the River of Wells, under which name Stow speaks of it. He says that in 1307, at a parliament held at Carlisle, Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, complained of the “decay” of this river, for “whereas in times past the course of water running at London, under Oldbourne Bridge, and Fleet Bridge into the Thames had been of such breadth and depth that 10 or 12 ships, navies, at once with merchandizes, were wont to come to the foresaid Bridge of Fleet, and some of them to Oldbourne Bridge, now the same course by filth of the tanners and such others, was sore decayed.” He also complained of the diversion of the water by mills of the Templars at Baynard’s Castle. After this the river was cleansed and the mills removed, but the old depth was never restored so that the river became a mere brook and was called Turnmill Brook. The Fleet Bridge, connecting Fleet Street with Ludgate Hill, was destroyed in the Great Fire and another built which was removed in 1765.

Fleet Ditch became very dirty and proved a nuisance; it is several times referred to in no complimentary terms in the Trivia and the Dunciad. Part of it was arched over and the Fleet Market held here. In 1765, the Thames end was arched over at the building of Blackfriars Bridge. Since 1841, the whole has been covered in and now runs underground as a sewer; its course is marked by Farringdon Street and New Bridge Street.