London City

by Walter Besant

ST. MARY WOOLCHURCH HAW

This church was situated on the eastern side of the market. It probably derived its name “Woolchurch” from the fact that a beam was erected in the churchyard for the weighing of wool. It was probably built about the time of William I. by one Hubert de Ria, founder of the Abbey of St. John in Colchester. His son Eudo Dapifer, Steward to the Conqueror, endowed his newly-built Abbey and Convent of St. John, Colchester, with it. The charter of foundation (1096) calls it St. Mary de Westcheping, or Newchurch, and states that Ailward Gross the priest held the living by gift of Hubert de Ria. The exact words are these, and constitute the earliest mention of the church:

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THE MANSION HOUSE AND CHEAPSIDE

Et ecclesiam S. Mariae de Westcheping, London, quae vocatur Niewecherche, concedente Ailwardo Grosso, presbytero qui in eadem ecclesia et donatione antecessoris mei Huberti de Ria personatum consecutus fuerat (Newcourt 1. p. 459).

In the “Taxatio Ecclesiastica” of Pope Nicholas IV. (1291) occurs reference to ecclesia Sancte Marie de Wolchurche hawe, indicating that the names of St. Mary de Westcheping and Niewecherche had alike disappeared to give place to a title in some way derived from the wool staple and market. This is Stow’s etymology of the name. Mr. J. H. Round doubts the theory; he suggests that this St. Mary’s was a daughter-church to St. Mary Woolnoth (Athenæum, August 17, 1889, p. 223) (Woollen-hithe-hatch, or haw). This would give as the full and new name of our “Niewecherche” St. Mary-in-Woollenhaw, Church-Haw, and by contraction St. Mary Woolchurch Haw. It is actually styled St. Mary Wolmaricherch in 1280-81, which certainly appears to support Mr. Round’s theory.

The first rector given by Newcourt is John Dyne, who resigned in 1382. By licence granted 1442 (20 Henry VI.), the church was rebuilt; the new building stood farther south than the old, in accordance with a condition imposed by the licence, which ordained it to be 15 feet from the Stocks Market “for sparing of light to the same.” The foundation stone of this new building was discovered when digging the foundations of the Mansion House in 1739.

The stone was drawn by R. West, engraved by Toms, and relegated to an obscurity from which it has never since emerged: its whereabouts is unknown. The new church, whose foundation was laid on May 4, 1442, is described by Stow as “reasonably fair and large.”

The church was destroyed in the Great Fire and not rebuilt, its parish being annexed to the neighbouring one of St. Mary Woolnoth. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1349.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of: Hubert de Ria, father of Eudo, Steward of the Conqueror’s household; Abbot and Convent of St. John, Colchester, being the gift of Eudo; Henry VIII. seized it, and thus it continued in the Crown until the church was burnt down and the parish annexed to St. Mary Woolnoth, of which the Crown shares the alternate patronage.

Houseling people in 1548 were 360.

Chantries were founded here by: Anne Cawood, at the Altar of St. Nicholas, whose endowment fetched £8 in 1548, when Henry Cockes was priest, and to which John Chamberlayne was admitted June 2, 1525; Roger Barlow, whose endowment fetched £3 : 6 : 8 in 1548, which was spent on maintaining the Cawood chantry: by Godwine le Hodere in 1313 for himself and his wife, for which the King granted his licence July 8, 1321.

The church formerly contained monuments to several benefactors, amongst whom were John Winger, mayor in 1504, donor of £20 for church purposes; Richard Shaw, sheriff in 1505, and donor of £20.

Stow records that the list of legacies and gifts was too long for the churchwardens to give account of in their parochial visitation of 1693, but that it could be seen in the parish registers.

William Fuller (1608-75), Bishop of Lincoln, was rector here.

Of the Wool Haw it is interesting to know: “They set up a beam for the tronage or weighing of wool in the churchyard of St. Mary, Westcheping, which was henceforth known as the Wool Haw or yard, and became a wool market. The date is not known, but it was before 1275 (‘S. Mary de Wolcherche’ occurs in a will of 1265 (see Calendar of Wills, vol. i. p. 26)). ‘Les Customes de Wolchirchaw’ as ordained in the reign of Edward I., were as follows (Liber Albus, p. 216):—‘For one pound of wool (sold) to a foreigner (non-freeman) one halfpenny; and for one sack, only one halfpenny. For two woolfels and more, one halfpenny, and for one hundred only one halfpenny. For one pound of woolen yarn, one halfpenny; for one hundred only one halfpenny. If any foreigner brings wool, woolfels, or yarn through the city for sale, to the value of ten pence and more, he shall pay as custom one farthing.’

“The weighing of wool was continued here until 1383 (6 Richard II.) when John Churchman, having built the Custom House upon Wool Quay (Tower Ward) the tronage was discontinued in this spot” (Strype).

When the watercourse of the Walbrook was open, there was a bridge over it at the junction of Walbrook, Broad Street, and Cheap wards. At the east side of the Mansion House, running from Mansion House Street to Church Row, is Mansion House Place. It contains only the sides of buildings.

Previously to the erection of the Mansion House, Mansion House Place formed merely the east side of Stocks Market, and was planted with rows of trees. On the east, about the middle, was a court, and in it, says Strype (1720), “a good large house, the habitation of Godfrey Woodward, one of the attorneys of the Sheriff’s court.” Strype’s map shows the position of the court, which opened into a fair-sized quadrangle.

Stocks Market.—In Plantagenet London the Westcheping (Westcheping comprised at least the present Cheapside, Poultry, and Mansion House Street) had an open space, “very large and broad,” where the Mansion House now stands. South of the space was St. Mary Woolchurch Haw, already described; in the space itself a pair of stocks for punishment of offenders. By patent of Edward I., in 1282, Henry Waley, several times mayor, built sundry houses in the City, whose profits were destined for the maintenance of London Bridge. The void space by the Woolchurch he built and otherwise turned into a market, known as “Les Stokkes,” otherwise Stocks Market, sometimes Woolchurch Market. He appointed it a market-place for fish and flesh. The keepers of the bridge let out the stalls to fishmongers and butchers for term of their lives, until 1312-13, when John de Gisors, mayor, and the whole commonalty decreed that life-leases should not be granted in future without the consent of the mayor and commonalty (for full text of the decree see Strype, 1754 ed.). In 1322, Edward II. sent Letters Patent from the Tower commanding that no one should sell fish or flesh save in the markets of Bridgestreet, Eastcheap, Old Fish Street, St. Nicholas Shambles, and Stocks Market—a first offence to be punished by forfeiture of such fish or flesh as was sold, second offence by loss of freedom; and it was accordingly thus decreed by the mayor, Hamo de Chigwell. The rents of the market at that time amounted to £46 : 13 : 4 per annum. Foreigners, i.e. non-freemen, were allowed to sell in this “house called the Stocks,” but under conditions. None might cut meat after 2 P.M. rung at St. Paul’s; meat cut and remaining unpurchased at that time was all to be sold by vespers, “without keeping any back or carrying any away.” In 1320 three alleged “foreigners” were accused of selling their pork and beef by candlelight, after curfew had rung at St. Martin’s-le-Grand. One did not appear to defend himself, one acknowledged his offence; the meat of both was forfeited. The third contended that he possessed the City freedom, and his meat was returned to him (Riley, Memorials of London).

The “butchers of the Stokkes” were jealous of their honour. In 1331 they petitioned Sir John Pountney, mayor, and the aldermen, that ordinance should be made against certain abuses. Their prayer was granted; henceforth no butcher having once or twice failed in payment should trade in the market until he had paid his debts. The trade had evidently got into bad repute owing to insolvent butchers. Likewise no “foreigner” was to sell by retail in the market; no butcher to “take another’s man” except such man had paid his former master that he owed him, otherwise the new master was to be held responsible for his servant. Also that butchers of the market who had bought their freedom should be obliged to live in the City. Hitherto some of them had dwelt in Stratford, and had thus avoided bearing “their part in the franchise of the City.” Infringement of the ordinance was punishable by a fine of 40s. payable to the Chamber of London (Riley, ibid.).

STOCKS MARKET

By degrees the flesh and fish trade centred hereabouts overflowed into the King’s highway from Cheap conduit to the market, and became an obstruction. The common serjeant complained to the mayor and aldermen in 1345. As a result, ordinary butchers, poulterers, and fishmongers were to confine their operations to their houses and shops: market men to sell within the market. On fish days the fishmongers were to occupy the market enclosure, and the butchers the pent-house adjoining; on flesh days the enclosure was for the butchers, and the pent-house for the fishmongers. Obstruction of the highway henceforth entailed forfeiture of goods exposed for sale. That same year the common serjeant found three butchers selling from stalls in the highway of Poultry, and confiscated their meat (Riley, ibid.).

The butchers of the “Stokkes” gave £17 to Edward III. for the carrying on of the French Wars. This was a large contribution, showing their prosperous condition. Their brethren, St. Nicholas Shambles, gave only £9, those of West Cheap only £8; the greater Companies £20 to £40, the lesser mostly below £7. This old market was under strict supervision. In 1319 the market wardens cited one William Sperlyng for offering two putrid beef carcases for sale. A jury of twelve pronouncing the carcases putrid as alleged, the unhappy man was ordered to be put in the pillory and to have the two carcases burned beneath him (Riley), as in the case of the pork butcher already mentioned. In 1351 one Henry de Passelewe, cook, was cited before the commonalty on a charge of selling at the Stocks a pasty in which the two capons baked therein were “putrid and stinking, and an abomination to mankind: to the scandal, contempt and disgrace of all the City,” and the manifest peril of the life of the purchaser. Passelewe contended that when sold the capons were “good, well-flavoured, fitting and proper.” However, eight good and trusty cooks pronounced them “stinking and rotten, and baneful to the health of man.” So poor Passelewe was sentenced to the pillory, the offensive pasty to be carried before him, and a proclamation to be made as to the reason of his punishment.

Considerable prejudice existed against non-freemen using the market. In 1382 Adam Carlelle, late alderman of Aldgate, approached the places of the “foreign fishmongers” and “in a haughty and spiteful manner cursed the said strangers, saying that he did not care who heard it or knew of it, but that it was a great mockery and badly ordained than such ribalds as those should sell their fish in the City, and further that he would rather a fishmonger who was his neighbour in the City should make 20s. by him, than such a ribald barlelle was adjudged to have thus expressed contempt for the command of the king and the ordinance of the City, and was excluded from ever holding any offices of dignity in the City” (Riley, Memorials).

In 1410 (2 Henry IV.) it was found necessary to rebuild the market, and the work was completed in the next year. The annual rents were valued at £56 : 19 : 6 in 1507, an increase of £10 on 185 years. In 1543, only 36 years later, the sum reached £82 : 3s. per annum. The market must have been fully let at that time: fishmongers had 25 stalls, producing £34 : 13 : 4 in rent; the butchers rented 18 stalls at £41 : 16 : 4; there were also 16 upper chambers rented at £5 : 13 : 4—total £82 : 3s. per annum (Stow’s Survey, p. 243, 1754).

In 1509 (1 Henry VIII.) the dwellers about the Stocks obtained leave of the Common Council to substitute for a leaden water-pipe at the south-east of the market a stone conduit, or, as it is called in the petition, “a portico of stone, with a cesterne of lead therein” from which water was “to bee drawne out by cocks.” Time wrought changes in the market and its uses. After the Great Fire, the fishmongers and most of the butchers gave place to the sellers of fruits, roots, and herbs. It was of note, says Strype (1720), “for having the choicest in the kind of all sorts, surpassing all other markets in London.” The post-Fire market was increased by the addition of the sites of St. Mary Woolchurch Haw and its churchyard, the sites of three houses belonging to the parish, purchased for £350, and of the site of the rectory house, obtained at a perpetual rental of £10 per annum. Thus the new market was 230 feet from north to south, and 108 feet from east to west, measured at the middle; besides the open roadways or passages on the west and east sides. The eastern side was planted with “rows of trees, very pleasant.” The market-place itself had twenty-two covered fruit stalls, most of them at the north side; two ranges of covered butchers’ stalls, with racks, blocks, and scales, in the south-east corner; the remaining space was occupied by gardeners and others who sold “fruits, roots, herbs, and flowers” (Strype, 1720). Well might Shadwell ask in his Bury Fair (1689), “Where is such a garden in Europe as the Stocks Market?” Here follows an amusing description of it taken from a paper called The Wandering Spy (1705):

“I saw Stocks Market, all garnished with nuts, and pears, and grapes, and golden pippins, all in rank and file most prettily. And then on the other side for physic herbs there is enough to furnish a whole country, from the nourishing Eringo, to the destructive Savine, where a man may buy as much for a penny as an apothecary will afford for half-a-crown, and do a man twice as much good as their specific bolusses, hipnotic draughts, sudorific hausteses, anodyne compositions, and twenty other flip-flops with hard names, which only disorder the body, put nature into convulsions, and prepare a man for the sexton. But here a man may consult a female doctor in a straw hat without fee, have what quantity he pleases, of what herb he pleases, be his distemper what it will, and convert it into a juice, concoction, syrup, purge, or glister, in a quarter of an hour, without any danger to body or pocket” (Malcolm, Londinium Redivium).

Oak Apple Day, 1672, was a gala day for the market. Then it was that Sir Robert Vyner inaugurated the “nobly great statue of King Charles II. on horseback” which he had, at his own charge, caused to be set upon the conduit at the north end of the same. The King was represented in armour, his head uncovered; the horse trampled beneath its feet the fallen form of Oliver Cromwell. The whole, which was of white marble, stood upon a freestone pedestal 18 feet high, carved with the royal arms and niches containing dolphins. Handsome iron gates and rails enclosed this loyal tribute to a great king. That day the market conduit ran with wine; three years afterwards Sir Robert Vyner was Lord Mayor. Alas! the glory of the statue, as of the monarch it portrayed, was short-lived. It was soon criticised as a clumsy work, and the revelation of its history turned it into a laughing-stock. Early in the eighteenth century it was discovered that the loyal Vyner had found somewhere abroad a statue of John Sobieski, King of Poland, conqueror of the Turks at Choozim. The statue represented the King’s horse trampling on a Turk. It lay on the sculptor’s hands. Sir Robert, seeing the means of paying his sovereign a compliment without great expense, obtained the statue, and secured Latham to substitute the head of Charles for that of the Pole. The downtrodden Turk was christianised into Cromwell, only, unfortunately, Latham omitted to alter the Turk’s turban, which remained intact and incongruous upon Oliver’s head, and served as a confirmation of the story. There is a lampoon on the statue worth quoting. It occurs in Lord Rochester’s History of the Insipids (1676):

Could Robert Vyner have foreseen

The glorious triumphs of his master,

The Woolwich Statue gold had been,

Which now is made of alabaster:

But wise men think had it been wood

’Twere for a bankrupt king too good.

When Stocks conduit was removed, the “ridiculous statue” was relegated to the rubbish heaps of Guildhall; finally the Common Council granted it to Mr. Robert Vyner, a descendant of Sir Robert, in 1779, and it was taken by its new owner to adorn his country seat at Gantly Park, Lincolnshire. The year 1737 saw the end of Stocks Market in this place. On March 12 the sheriffs petitioned the House of Commons to remove it to Fleet Ditch, and to erect the Mansion House upon its site. Their prayer was granted; the market was removed at Michaelmas 1737, and the ancient market-place was enclosed with a broad fence. In its new home the name which it had borne for 255 years was lost, and it became known as the Fleet Market. At Michaelmas 1829, exactly 82 years after its removal, it was closed and the site cleared to form Farringdon Street. St. Christopher le Stocks, so called from its proximity to the market, stood on part of the site of the present Bank of England. Seven streets now meet before the Bank and pour forth omnibuses, cabs, and other vehicles in an endless stream of traffic. Below are the white-bricked subways of the electric railway which form a safe crossing for those who cannot ford the river of traffic.

St. Christopher le Stocks stood on the north side of Threadneedle Street in the ward of Broad Street. The date of its foundation is unknown. The building was much injured by the Great Fire and subsequently repaired. In 1780, after the Gordon Riots, it was taken down and its site is now covered by part of the Bank of England. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1280.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The family of Nevil in 1281; the Bishop of London, 1415, in whose successors it continued up to 1783.

Houseling people in 1548 were 221.

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BANK OF ENGLAND FOUNTAIN

The church originally contained monuments to Robert Thorne, a donor of £4445 to the parish for charitable uses; William Hampton, mayor, 1472, and great benefactor, and other donors. Few of these were to be seen after the Fire.

Chantries were founded here: By John Walles, mercer, whose endowment fetched £10 : 13 : 4 in 1548; for Thomas Legg, to which William Swynbrok was admitted chaplain, January 10, 1370-71; for John Gedney, Mayor of London, 1427, at the Altar of Holy Trinity; for Margerie de Nerford, William de Bergh, cl. and Christian Vaughan, widow, at the Altar of Holy Trinity, for which the King granted his licence, February 23, 1406-1407: the endowment was valued at £10 : 4s. in 1548; by John Plonkett, whose endowment fetched £13 : 17 : 8 in 1548; by Alice, wife of Benedict Harlewyn, late citizen and clothier, at the Altar of Holy Trinity, for the king, John Wenlok, Knt., herself, Richard, Duke of York, and Benedict her husband; the King granted his licence, March 20, 1461-62: the endowment fetched £5 : 13 : 4 in 1548.

Robert Thorne was donor of more than £4445 to the parish. John Kendrick was also a great benefactor, whose will is recorded in full by Stow. Sir Peter le Maire bequeathed £100 to the poor of the parish. There were many other donors of smaller amounts.

Among notable vicars were John Pearson (1631-86), Bishop of Chester, the theologian, and William Peirse, Bishop of Peterborough in 1630.

The site of the Church of St. Bartholomew is now also absorbed by the Bank.

St. Bartholomew Exchange, formerly called Little St. Bartholomew, stood at the south-east corner of St. Bartholomew Lane, over against the Royal Exchange. The date of its foundation is unknown, but about 1438 it was rebuilt. In 1840 it was sold, and possession given to Kames William Freshfield, junr., for the Bank of England; instead thereof the Church of St. Bartholomew, Moor Lane, was built. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1331.

The patronage was in the hands of: Simon Goddard, citizen and draper of London, who bequeathed it to his heir, Johanna, in 1273-74; Edward III. in 1364; Richard Plessy; Abbot and Convent of St. Mary Graces, 1374, confirmed February 19, 1422-23; Henry VIII., and continued in the Crown.

Houseling people in 1548 were 392.

Chantries were founded here for: Richard de Plessis, Dean of the Arches, who died 1362, when John Radyng was admitted chaplain; Mary, wife of Sir John Lepington.

Sir William Capell, mayor, 1509, was buried here, also James Wilford, sheriff, 1499. The church originally contained a monument to Richard Croshawe, Master of the Company of Goldsmiths. He lived in this parish for thirty-one years, and left by his will over £4000 for the maintaining of lectures, relief of the poor, and other charitable uses. There are no other gifts recorded.

Ralf Brideoake (1613-78), Bishop of Chichester, was rector here; also John Sharp (1645-1714), Archbishop of York, and Zachary Pearce (1690-1774), Bishop of Rochester and Bangor.

Threadneedle Street.—The derivation of this extraordinary name is very uncertain. Stow calls it Threeneedle Street, and it may possibly have arisen from some tavern with the sign of the three needles. The arms of Needlemakers Company are “three needles in fesse argent.” This is one of the humbler Companies and has no hall.

On the north side there were in the sixteenth century “divers fair and large” houses, after which came the Hospital of St. Anthony, close to the Royal Exchange.

The very interesting foundation of St. Anthony is considered elsewhere, as so long an account would interrupt our perambulation unduly. One of the oddest customs at a time when there were so many odd customs, was that the pigs belonging to this house were allowed to roam about the City as they pleased, and on the 17th January, any year, had the privilege of going into any house that was open. But in 1281, and again in 1292, there are no exceptions made to the rule that all pigs, to whomsoever they may belong, shall be killed, if found in the street.

An open concrete-covered space beyond the Royal Exchange lines part of this street. Here there is a fountain erected in 1878 by the exertions and donations of an alderman. A gilded canopy overhangs a stone group of a mother and two children. The pedestal and basins are of granite. On the east there is a seated figure of Peabody, life size. The buildings on the north side of the street do not require much comment; the North British & Mercantile Insurance Company is the most noticeable, because the horizontal lines are broken by the deeply recessed windows. The Postal Telegraph Office next door has a little tower on the summit, and the frontage is sprinkled with rather conventional stone panels and has a superfluity of stone ornament. The Consolidated Bank, after the following corner, has a plain frontage, which makes a deep frieze across the upper part more striking; this is an allegorical subject in a stone bas relievo under a heavy cornice. The National Bank of India is a solid, well-proportioned building with symmetrical columns of polished granite running up the front.

St. Benet Finck was situated on the south side of Threadneedle Street, east of the Royal Exchange. It was dedicated to St. Benedict and took its additional name from its founder, Robert Fincke. The date of its foundation is unknown. It was burnt down in the Great Fire, and rebuilt by Wren, who completed it in 1673. The church was taken down in 1842, and its parish united with that of St. Peter-le-Poer. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1323. The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The family of Nevils in 1281, who presented to it as a Rectory; Master and Brethren of the Hospital of St. Anthony, then the Dean and Chapter of Windsor, 1474, up to 1844, when it was annexed to St. Peter-le-Poer.

Houseling people in 1548 were 300 and above.

Wren’s church was elliptical in shape, and measured 63 feet by 48 feet. It was traversed by six composite columns, which, with the connecting arches, supported the roof. The steeple, which rose to a height of 110 feet roughly, consisted of a tower, lead-covered cupola, and lantern.

The original church contained monuments to John Wilcocks and Dame Anne Awnsham (d. 1613), both benefactors of the parish. After the Great Fire a Table of Benefactors was set up to the memory of: George Holman, donor of £1000 to the rebuilding of the church; Anne Thriscrosse, donor of £100 for apprenticing poor children, and several other donors. On a table in the organ loft there was an inscription to Mrs. Sarah Gregory, donor of £600 for various charitable purposes. In 1662 Richard Baxter, the celebrated Nonconformist divine, was married here.

In Threadneedle Street, at the corner of Bartholomew Lane, is the Sun Fire Office with glittering gilt suns over the corner and windows. The angle has been sliced off to form an entrance. A heavy wreath of foliage in stone surrounds the window above. The architect was C. R. Cockerell. A graceful new building in white stone with engaged pillars fluted, rising from the top of the ground-floor, contains the Life Alliance and Fire Office in Bartholomew Lane. Next door is Bartholomew House with the usual stereotyped stone detail, and a couple of somewhat cumbrous stone figures reclining over each side window. Capel Court leads to the Stock Exchange.

Drawn by G. Shepherd.
ST. BENET FINCK

At No. 40 Threadneedle Street is a paved courtyard shut in by iron gates and behind an archway, striking because of its size and the massiveness of its stonework. This leads to entrances of the National Provincial Bank of England, and the Mercantile Bank of India. Beyond it is the Baltic and South Sea House. This differs from all the preceding buildings because it belongs to the eighteenth century, as the deep tinge of its well-preserved bricks tells.

The centre window and doorway are encased in stonework, and the solidity of the whole structure is in contrast with its “bubble” reputation. It is now occupied as chambers by merchants, brokers, etc., and the secretary of the Baltic Company finds lodging here among others.

On the south side of Threadneedle Street we have the Bank of Australasia. Then two great doorways with an interval between them. These bear over them the arms of the powerful Merchant Taylors Company, whose hall is behind.