London City

by Walter Besant

ST. MARY ALDERMARY

The Church of St. Mary Aldermary stands in a triangle formed by Bow Lane, Queen Victoria Street, and Watling Street. It is called Alder, Older, or Elder, Mary, from its being the oldest church in the City having that dedication. Sir Henry Keble, Lord Mayor in 1510, began to rebuild it, and left at his death £1000 towards its completion; this was augmented by William Rodoway and Richard Pierson in 1626. The building was destroyed by the Great Fire, but rebuilt by Wren in 1681-82. For this purpose the legacy of £5000 was applied, which had been left by Henry Rogers for the rebuilding of a church; stipulation, however, was made that the new church should be an exact imitation of Keble’s, so that Wren was forced to adopt methods very different from his own. The building was greatly restored in 1876-77. The church now serves for four parishes—its original one, that of St. Thomas the Apostle, of St. Antholin, and of St. John the Baptist. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1233.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of Henry III., 1233; the Prior and Chapter of Christ Church, Canterbury, 1288, who exchanged it with the Archbishop of Canterbury, 1401, in whose successors it continued up to 1666, when the parish of St. Thomas was annexed; and thus the Archbishop shared the patronage alternately with the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s.

Houseling people in 1548 were 400.

The church is in the Tudor style of architecture, and consists of a nave, chancel, and two side aisles, separated from the central part by clustered columns and slightly pointed arches. It is 100 feet long, 63 feet broad, and about 45 feet high. The north side of the chancel is longer than the south, which gives the church a somewhat curious appearance. The tower, the upper portion of which was rebuilt about 1701, contains four storeys, with an open parapet, and is surmounted by four pinnacles. The total height is 135 feet.

Sir Henry Keble, the founder of the original church, was buried here, and a monument erected to him in 1534; also Sir William Laxton, mayor, 1556, and Henry Gold, one of the rectors here, who was executed at Tyburn in 1534. “The Holy Maid of Kent” was also buried here. The monuments in the present church are of little interest. Over the west door there is a Latin inscription recording the munificence of Henry Rogers. Mr. Garret gave £100 to the lecturer of this church, to endure as long as the Gospel was preached. The particulars of the numerous other gifts and charities did not come into the possession of Stow. There were two almshouses for the poor of the Salters Company, who are four in number, each of whom has an allowance of 1s. per week.

Thomas Browne (d. 1673), chaplain to Charles I., was rector here; also Robert Gell (1595-1665), Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge; Offspring Blackall (1654-1716), Bishop of Exeter; White Kennett (1660-1728), Bishop of Peterborough; Henry Ware, Bishop of Chichester; Henry Gold, who was executed at Tyburn, 1534; George Lavington, D.D. (1684-1762), Bishop of Exeter.

Budge Row, northward, was spelt Begerow in 1376. Of it Stow says: “So called of Budge fur and the Skinners dwelling there.”

At the south-western corner of Sise Lane, in Budge Row, there is a rectangular railed-in space about a dozen feet by six, sheltered by the corner of the adjoining house. Against the wall, facing eastward, is a monument in stone of considerable size. Two columns with Corinthian capitals support an architrave, and enclose a view in slight relief of St. Antholin’s as it was. Beneath the view are the words:

Here stood the parish church of St. Antholin, destroyed in the Great Fire, A.D. 1666, rebuilt 1677 by Sir Christopher Wren, architect.

On the bases of the columns are inscribed the names of the churchwardens of St. Antholin’s and St. John Baptist’s, Walbrook, respectively. While the following inscription is beneath:

The change of population in the City during two centuries rendering the church no longer necessary, it was taken down A.D. 1875, under the Act of Parliament for uniting City Benefices; the funds derived from the sale of the site were devoted in part to the Restoration of the neighbouring church of St. Mary Aldermary, where are also erected the monumental tablets removed from St. Antholin, and the erection at Nunhead of another church dedicated to St. Antholin greatly needed in that thickly populated district.

And again, right across the bases of the pillars and the stone, run the words:

In a vault beneath are deposited the greater part of the human remains removed from the Old church. The remainder are laid in a vault in the City of London Cemetery at Ilford, where also a monument marks the place of interment.

The Church of St. Anthony or Antholin stood on the north side of Budge Row, at the corner of Shoe Lane, in Cordwainer Street Ward. It derived its name from being dedicated to St. Anthony of Vienna, who had a cell here founded by Henry II., but it is not known when the church was first built. About 1399 it was rebuilt, and again in 1513, but the Great Fire of 1666 destroyed it. From Wren’s design it was rebuilt, and completed in 1682; it was remarkable for its tower, with a spire all of freestone. In 1874 the building (except the steeple) was taken down, and in 1876 the steeple was also demolished, the materials of which were sold for £5. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1181.

The patronage of the church was always in the hands of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s, who granted one part to John, son of Wizo the goldsmith, about 1141.

Houseling people in 1548 were 240.

In 1623 a very beautiful gallery was added to the church, every division of which (52 in number) was filled with the arms of kings, queens, and princes of the kingdom, from Edward the Confessor to Frederick, Count Palatine of the Rhine.

Chantries were founded here by: Nicholas Bole, citizen and skinner, at the Altar of St. Katherine, to which William Pykon was admitted chaplain, 1390, on the resignation of Richard Hale—the endowment fetched £6 : 13 : 4 in 1548, when Robert Smythe was chaplain; John Grantham, whose endowment fetched £4 in 1548.

In this church Thomas Hind and Hugh Acton, benefactors to the parish, were buried. There was also a monument to William Daunsey, mercer and alderman of the City.

Some of the donors of gifts and charities were: the Mercers and Drapers, of £6 respectively; Sir William Craven and William Parker, £100, to which £118 were added by the parishioners, for establishing a daily lecture. There were a considerable number of charities in this parish.

Among the rectors of this church were William Colwyn, who made a recantation at St. Paul’s Cross, Advent 1541, and Thomas Lamplugh (1615-91), Archbishop of York.

On the opposite side of the street extends for some way a really old brick building, evidently built immediately after the Fire. Over a centre window is a curved pediment of brickwork. Beneath, an opening leads into a yard, and the building is used by Stationers. The west side of the lane is modern.

St. Pancras Lane was formerly Needlers’ Lane. The church, the parish, the chantries and endowments, and the parishioners are mentioned frequently in the Calendar of Wills. The earliest entry there is of A.D. 1273, where John Hervy bequeaths to Juliana his daughter his mansion in the parish of St. Pancras, and to his daughter Johanna his shop in the parish of Colechurch. The Lane, except that it contained two parish churches, was of little importance.

Pancras Lane is an open space, once the graveyard of St. Pancras, Soper Lane. The houses are dull brick and stucco. The graveyard bears a great similarity to all that is left of the others; it is covered with dingy gravel and decorated by blackened evergreens. The iron gate bears a little shield telling that it was erected in 1886. There are one or two tombs still left.

The Church of St. Pancras, Soper Lane, stood near a street called Soper Lane, but since the Fire called Queen Street. It was repaired 1621, and in 1624 Thomas Chapman the younger built a porch to it. The building was destroyed by the Great Fire, when its parish was annexed to that of St. Mary-le-Bow. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1312.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of the Prior and Convent of Christ Church, Canterbury, who granted it, April 25, 1365, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, in whose successors it continued up to 1666, when the church was destroyed in the Great Fire and the parish annexed to St. Mary-le-Bow.

Houseling people in 1548 were 146.

Chantries were founded here by: John Causton at the Altar of St. Anne, which was augmented by Simon Rice and Lettice his wife, before 1356, to which William de la Temple was presented by the King, January 10, 1374-75—the endowment was valued at £13 in 1548, when Adam Arnolde was priest; Margaret Reynolds, who bequeathed £233 : 6 : 8, which the Mercers had, and guaranteed a rent charge of £8 : 13 : 4 for the same to find a priest.

The church originally contained monuments to John Stockton, mercer and mayor, 1470; Richard Gardener, mercer and mayor, 1478; and Thomas Knowles, twice Lord Mayor.

Two charitable gifts are recorded by Stow, the donors of which were Thomas Chapman, whose benefaction was lost by Stow’s time, and Thomas Chapman his son, to the amount of £11 : 3 : 8.

Only a few steps farther on is another melancholy little spot, with a stone slab on the wall near with inscription as follows: “Before the dreadful Fire, Anno 1666, stood the church of St. Benet Sherehog.” The railing and low wall were put up in 1842. Within the enclosure stands a tomb over the “Family Vault of Michael Davison, 1676.”

The church was called St. Benet Sherehog, from one Benedict Shorne, or Shrog, or Shorehog, who was connected with it in the reign of Edward II. It was repaired in 1628, but destroyed by the Great Fire and not rebuilt, its parish being annexed to St. Stephen, Walbrook, and its site made into a burying-ground. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1285.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of the Prior and Convent of St. Mary Overy, of Southwark, 1324; then the Crown, since Henry VIII. seized it in 1542.

Houseling people in 1548 were 300.

Chantries were founded here: For Ralph le Fever and Lucy his wife—the endowment fetched £3 : 11 : 8 in 1548, when Anthony Gyplyn, lately deceased, had been priest; for Thomas Romayn and Julia his wife, to which John de Loughebourgh was admitted, August 12, 1326.

Edward Hall, who wrote the large chronicle from Richard II. to Henry VIII., was buried here. The church formerly contained a monument to Sir Ralph Warren, twice Lord Mayor of London, who died in 1553. Mrs. Katherine Philips of Cardigan, the poetess, who died in 1664, was also buried here.

Only one charitable gift is recorded by Stow in this parish, that of £5 per annum left by Mr. Davison for keeping his family vault in repair. Some of this was used for charitable purposes.

John Wakering (d. 1425), Bishop of Norwich, was rector here.

Queen Street was constructed in part after the Fire, and covers the old Soper Lane, so called from the soap-makers who formerly lived here (though Stow wants to derive the name from an ancient resident). The south end, leading to the river, seems to have been the later part.

Soper Lane is mentioned in the Calendar of Wills as early as 1259, when Nicholas Bat, a member of the old City family of that name, bequeathed to his wife rents in Sopers’ Lane.

Here, in 1297, there sprang up an evening market—“Eve Chepynge”—called the New Fair. It was established against the knowledge of the mayor by “strangers, foreigners, and beggars,” and was the cause of many deeds made possible by selling in the dark, and of much strife and violence. Therefore it was abolished.

In the reign of Edward II. Soper Lane was the market-place of the Pepperers; seventy years later of the Curriers and Cordwainers. In the reign of Queen Mary there were many shops here for the sale of pies.

In the year 1316 the “good folks in Soper Lane, of the trade of Pepperers,” agreed upon certain regulations for the observance of the trade and the prevention of dishonesty.

In 1375 we find cordwainers between Soper Lane and the Conduit.

The name of Size Lane is derived from St. Osyth.

For Bucklersbury we will first let Stow speak:

“Bucklersbury, so called of a manor and tenements pertaining to one Buckle, who there dwelt and kept his courts. This manor is supposed to be the great stone building, yet in part remaining on the south side of the street, which of late time hath been called the Old Barge, of such a sign hanged out near the gate thereof. This manor or great house hath of long time been divided and letten out into many tenements; and it hath been a common speech, that when Walbrooke did lie open, barges were rowed out of the Thames, or towed up so far, and therefore the place hath ever since been called the Old Barge.

“Also on the north side of this street, directly over against the said Bucklersbury, was one ancient and strong tower of stone, the which tower King Edward III., in the 18th of his reign, by the name of the king’s house, called Cornet stoure in London, did appoint to be his Exchange of money there to be kept. In the 29th he granted it to Frydus Guynysane and Landus Bardoile, merchants of Luke, for twenty pounds the year. And in the 32nd he gave the same tower to his college or free chapel of St. Stephen at Westminster, by the name of Cornet Stoure at Bucklersbury in London. This tower of late years was taken down by one Buckle, a grocer, meaning in place thereof to have set up and built a goodly frame of timber; but the said Buckle greedily labouring to pull down the old tower, a part thereof fell upon him, which so sore bruised him that his life was thereby shortened, and another that married his widow set up the new prepared frame of timber, and finished the work.

“This whole street called Bucklersbury on both the sides throughout is possessed of grocers and apothecaries towards the west end thereof: on the south side breaketh out one other short lane called in records Peneritch street; it reacheth but to St. Sythe’s Lane, and St. Sythe’s church is the farthest part thereof, for by the west end of the said church beginneth Needler’s Lane, which reacheth to Soper Lane, as is aforesaid” (Stow’s Survey, p. 276).

The origin of the name of Bucklersbury is Bukerel, and not Buckle; Bukerel was the name of an old City family. Andrew Bukerel was mayor from 1231 to 1236.

Many Roman antiquities, pavements, bronzes, Samian ware, spoons, etc., have been found in Bucklersbury. A bronze armlet also found there may belong to pre-Roman times. The street is mentioned in many ancient documents, beginning with the thirteenth century. In the fifteenth century there were tenements here known as “Sylvestre tour” assigned by the Dean of St. Stephen, Westminster, to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, druggists, furriers, herbalists, and tobacconists had shops in Bucklersbury.

In 1688 there was a Roman Catholic chapel in Bucklersbury, which was one of those destroyed or burned by the mob, chiefly consisting of London apprentices, during the riots pending the arrival of the Prince of Orange.

An argument between the Dean and Canons of St. Paul’s and a carpenter of Bucklersbury shows that the parish of St. Benet Sherehog was called in 1406 the parish of St. Osyth, in which part of Bucklersbury stood. In 1455 the former name is given to the parish.

Bucklersbury was cut in two when Queen Victoria Street was made. The upper portion consists chiefly of large modern many-windowed business houses. Near the north-east corner there is an old brick house containing part of Pimm’s restaurant. In the southern half Barge Yard is modern. The Bourse Buildings, occupied by a great number of engineers, accountants, and business men of all sorts, take up a large part of the street.

Passing westward we come to Bow Lane, which was formerly called in the lower part Hosier Lane, from the trade of those who occupied it, and in the upper part, for a similar reason, Cordwainers’ Street.

The street spoken of in the Calendar of Wills by the name of Hosier Lane belonged to the parish of St. Sepulchre without the wall. The same street is mentioned in Riley’s Memorials.

For the Church of St. Mary-le-Bow see p. [10].

In its modern aspect Bow Lane is not uninteresting.

A covered entry, inappropriately named New Court, leads into a fascinating corner. There is a gateway really and ruinously old; it is said to have survived the Fire. The ironwork pattern is lost now in meaningless and broken twists, though there is a semblance of what might have been a monogram over the centre gate. The houses all round the court evidently date from the period directly after the Fire. That facing the street is of red brick toned by age, and is said to have been the residence of a Lord Mayor. The others are of dark brick, picked out in red. No. 5 contains the offices of the Financial World.

Beyond it a narrow passage leads at an angle round to the churchyard. A more spacious way runs beside the church itself. At the corner of this is a polished granite drinking fountain, erected in 1859, supporting green painted dolphins.

In the churchyard a scene of confusion and turmoil daily takes place on the pavement which lies over the bones of the “ancient dead.” Great wooden crates and packing-cases are littered about. They are from that large modern building on the west, facing the church, belonging to warehousemen and manufacturers. But one old seventeenth-century house, of a date immediately succeeding the Fire, remains, on the south side of the churchyard, facing Cheapside. Its quiet blackened bricks and flat windows have beheld many a change of scene on the stage before it. The ground-floor windows and doorway are connected by an ornamental cornice. The red bricks of the church in Bow Lane contrast with a long narrow building of the eighteenth century which is squeezed against them. These contrast with the gaping cellars and basements of the more modern buildings.

Of Bread Street there is very early mention. In 1204 the leprous women of St. James’s received a charter respecting a certain tenement in Chepe, at the head of Bread Street; in 1290 this tenement again becomes the subject of a charter. In 1263 there was a fire which consumed a part of Bread Street.

“So called of bread in old time there sold: for it appeareth by records, that in the year 1302, which was the 30th of Edward I., the bakers of London were bound to sell no bread in their shops or houses, but in the market: and that they should have four hall-motes in the year, at four several terms, to determine of enormities belonging to the said Company.

“Bread Street is now wholly inhabited by rich traders; and divers fair inns be there, for good receipt of carriers and other travellers to the city. It appears in the will of Edward Stafford, Earl of Wyltshire, dated the 22nd of March, 1498, and 14 Hen. VII., that he lived in a house in Bread-street in London, which belonged to the family of Stafford, Duke of Bucks afterwards; he bequeathing all the stuff in that house to the Lord of Buckingham, for he died without issue” (Strype, vol. i. pp. 686-687).

The bakers gave continual trouble to the City by their light-weight loaves and their bad bread. When they were “wanted” by the alderman they gat themselves out of the City and to their hills beyond the jurisdiction of the mayor. It was ordained, in order to meet this difficulty, that the servants who sell the bread thus complained of should be punished as if they were masters. It was also discovered that “hostelers and habergeons” bought bread in the market and sold it to their guests at a profit. This was not allowed in mediæval times. It was ordered that every loaf was to be bought of a baker, with his special stamp, and sold at the price regulated by the assize of bread.

But there were others besides bakers who used the market of Bread Street, Cheapside; it became a place for cooks. In 1351, one Henry Pecche bought a caper pasty of Henry de Passelowe, cook at the Stocks, and found on opening it that the fowl was putrid. The case coming before the mayor, experts were called in, among them six cooks of Bread Street and three of Ironmonger Lane. The story shows how the exclusive character of a market had to be broken up for the conveniences of the people. Here we have cooks carrying on their trade in three different parts of the great market of Chepe. A few years later, one of the Bread Street cooks, John Welburgh Man by name, was convicted by the evidence of his neighbours of selling a pie of conger, knowing the fish to be bad.

In 1595 a singular discovery was made at the north-east end of this street. In the construction of a vault was found, 15 feet deep, a “fair” pavement, and at the farther end a tree sawed into five steps—Stow says: “which was to step over some brook running out of the west towards Walbrooke; and upon the edge of the said brook, as it seemeth, there were found lying along the bodies of two great trees, the ends whereof were then sawed off, and firm timber as at the first when they fell, part of the said trees remain yet in the ground undigged. It was all forced ground until they went past the trees aforesaid, which was about seventeen feet deep or better; thus much hath the ground of this city in that place been raised from the main.”

The first turning to the east going down Bread Street was, until recently, called the Spread Eagle Court. One of the corner houses of this court is supposed to have been the work-place of John Milton, whose father traded under the sign of the “Spread Eagle.” He was baptized in the church of Allhallows. House and church were destroyed in the Fire, but the register remains.

On the corner house between Watling and Bread Streets is a stone slab fixed to the wall; this bears a bust of the poet in alto relievo. The rest of the building, which runs along Watling Street as far as Red Lion Court, is in new red brick, dated 1878. It has ornamental brickwork and festoons here and there, and the roof terminates in curiously shaped gables, some of which follow the old shell pattern. The doorways and windows are carried out in stone. The penthouse pediment over Milton’s bust is also in brick. Beneath, two little red cherubs hold a laurel wreath. Below the head is the one word—Milton; and lower follows the inscription:

Born in Bread Street, 1608.

Baptized in the Church of Allhallows, which stood here ante 1678.

The Mermaid, like many other London inns, stood in a court with an entrance from Friday Street and from Bread Street.

On the west side of Bread Street, on a site which, when Stow wrote, was occupied by “large houses for merchants and fair inns for passengers,” stood the Bread Street Compter, one of the two sheriffs’ prisons. As we have seen, it was later removed to Wood Street.

Behind St. Mildred’s Church stood Gerard’s Hall, the entrance from Basing Lane. Of this place Stow speaks at length:

“On the south side of this lane is one great house, of old time built upon arched vaults, and with arched gates of stone, brought from Caen in Normandy. The same is now a common hostrey for receipt of travellers, commonly and corruptly called Gerards hall, of a giant said to have dwelt there. In the high-roofed hall of this house sometime stood a large fir pole, which reached to the roof thereof, and was said to be one of the staves that Gerard the giant used in the wars to run withal. There stood also a ladder of the same length, which (as they say) served to ascend to the top of the staff. Of later years this hall is altered in building, and divers rooms are made in it. Notwithstanding, the pole is removed to one corner of the hall, and the ladder hanged broken upon a wall in the yard. The hosteler of that house said to me, ‘the pole lacketh half a foot of forty in length’: I measured the compass thereof, and found it fifteen inches.

“I read that John Gisors, mayor of London in the year 1245, was owner thereof, and that Sir John Gisors, knight, mayor of London, and constable of the Tower 1311, and divers others of that name and family, since that time owned it. William Gisors was one of the sheriffs 1329. More, John Gisors had issue, Henry and John; which John had issue, Thomas; which Thomas deceasing in the year 1350, left unto his son Thomas his messuage called Gisor’s Hall, in the parish of St. Mildred in Bread Street: John Gisors made a feoffment thereof, 1386, etc. So it appeareth that this Gisor’s Hall, of late time by corruption hath been called Gerard’s Hall for Gisor’s Hall; as Bosom’s inn for Blossom’s inn, Bevis Marks for Buries Marks, Marke Lane, for Marte Lane, Belliter Lane for Belsetter’s Lane, Gutter Lane for Guthuruns Lane, Cry Church for Christ’s Church, St. Michel in the Querne for St. Michel at corne, and sundry such others. Out of this Gisor’s Hall, at the first building thereof, were made divers arched doors, yet to be seen, which seem not sufficient for any great monster, or other man of common stature to pass through, the pole in the hall might be used of old time (as then the custom was in every parish), to be set up in the summer as May-pole, before the principal house in the parish or street, and to stand in the hall before the screen, decked with holme and ivy, at the feast of Christmas. The ladder served for the decking of the may-pole and roof of the hall. Thus much for Gisor’s hall, and for that side of Bread street, may suffice” (Stow’s Survey, 393-394).

GERARD’S HALL CRYPT IN 1795

The crypt of this house escaped the Fire. On its site was erected an inn called Gerard’s Hall, which contained seventy-eight bedrooms, and was one of the principal hotels of the City. The whole was removed for the construction of Cannon Street; Basing Lane, which ran from Bread Street to Bow Lane, disappeared at the same time.