THE BUTCHERS COMPANY
As early as the year 1180 the fraternity or guild of Butchers of the City, then and long after called “bochers,” was in existence.
This Company was incorporated in the year 1606, having existed without a charter from time immemorial. I venture to advance the theory that one reason why the Butchers did not seek corporation before this date was the authority which the City claimed and exercised in all matters connected with food, and especially with meat, fish, and bread; and that which every alderman exercised in his own ward. Thus it was the duty of the alderman to be notified as to the names of every person in the ward exercising any trade connected with food; and the mayor’s regulations as to the trade of butcher (see Liber Albus, passim) seem to leave little need for the scrutiny of a Master.
The principal seat of the butchers was in Newgate Street, then called St. Nicholas Shambles. The spot was chosen as a place near the principal communications of the City with the north and west respectively. Animals brought in to be slaughtered had not far to go within the City. Moreover, it was not a crowded part of London, and was removed from the principal place of trade and from the port. The butchers had also a market at the “Stocks,” and another at East Chepe. There was, however, a very great dislike to living near the Shambles or to keeping shops and stalls near those of the butchers.
Thus Riley (Memorials) quotes a complaint against the butchers that they carried their offal through the streets to a jetty called Butchers’ Bridge. The way, I suppose, was down Warwick Lane, Creed Lane, and St. Andrew’s Hill to Puddle Dock or near it. The carriage of this stuff, often stinking and always dripping blood along the street, caused great complaints. Thus orders were issued one after the other in 1368, 1369, and 1371, commanding the butchers to find a place outside the City for a slaughter-house. The law was never obeyed: probably the butchers made some kind of compromise or were more careful in the carriage of the offal. They had already a place on the banks of the Fleet to which they were allowed to cart their refuse, on condition that it was thrown in at the turn of the tide.
The livery of the Company is 159; their trust and charitable Income amounts to £831 a year.
Daniel Defoe, son of James Foe, citizen and butcher, was a member of this Company by patrimony; admitted January 12, 1687.
CLOTH FAIR
The first glimpse of Cloth Fair from the Smithfield end is full of interest and attraction. It abounds in very old houses with projecting stories and gable ends. Many of these have the bowed curve of old age resembling the curving back of an old man. In others door-lintels and window-frames have slipped out of their horizontal lines. Barley Mow Passage is dull; it contains only plain warehouse-like buildings. In Cloth Fair, Nos. 6 to 4 are covered with rough stucco and have bayed windows and gable ends. These are the fronts of those seen over the churchyard. In New Court are buildings of a similar nature. There are interspersed with these quaint remnants of old domestic architecture business houses of no particular style. No. 13 on the north side, and the next one or two following it, are really old, and then we come to the corner of Kinghorn Street, where one of the oldest taverns remaining in London stands. This is the Dick Whittington. The corner is rounded off, and each story projects a little farther than the lower one. There is an ornamental cornice and gable end; the whole is covered with rough stucco.
OLD COACH AND HORSES, CLOTH FAIR
Smithfield.—Stow says: “Then is Smithfield Pond, which of old times in recordes was called Horse Poole, for that men watered horses there, and was a great water. In the 6th of Henry the fifth a new building was made in this west part of Smithfielde betwixt the said Pool and the River of the Wels or Turnemill Brooke in a place (then called the Elmes, for that there grew many Elme trees), and this had been the place of execution for offenders, since the which time the building there hath been so increased that now remaineth not one tree growing.”
LONG LANE, SMITHFIELD, 1810
The Elms here mentioned was the place of public execution until the middle of the thirteenth century; an honour transferred to St. Giles-in-the-Fields, and later to the more notorious Tyburn. Among the best known of those who suffered execution at Smithfield is William Wallace. Jack Straw, the rebel, was hanged at Smithfield, and here took place the picturesque scene, when the beautiful boy-king, Richard II., met Wat Tyler, and showed courage such as won admiration for the promise of his future, a promise destined to remain unfulfilled. Then and later Smithfield was the great jousting field and playground of London. Many were the brilliant tourneys held here, when knights met in chivalrous contest, and all the flower of England’s manhood drew together to try prowess at arms.
Smithfield, however, will be always best remembered by the blood of the martyrs which watered the ground. The spot where these cruelties took place is probably somewhere near the gate of St. Bartholomew’s. Between 1555 and 1611, many were the sufferings endured at Smithfield. Timbs says that of the 277 martyrs in Mary’s reign the greater number suffered here.
BARTHOLOMEW FAIR, 1721
In Henry VIII.’s reign poisoners were boiled to death at Smithfield. A place more closely associated with the life of London than this could hardly be imagined, yet nowadays who associates Smithfield with anything but markets!
In the centre of the open space is an inclined plane winding downward with a corkscrew turn until it passes into the basement of the Meat Market. Northward is the huge building erected by Act of Parliament in 1860, the year preceding the dismarketing of Newgate, which was closed at its opening seven years later. Sir Horace Jones was the architect, and the style is that generally known as Italian. The chief points of architectural effect are the four towers, the frontispieces or façades of the public roadway, which passes through the market from north to south, and the pedimented gateways to the east and west fronts. The plan or interior arrangement of the ground-floor is exceedingly simple. A great central roadway runs through from north to south. This was a compromise or concession to existing interests. It is from 50 to 60 feet wide, and the gateways at the entrances are very fine.
That on the south is ornamented by emblematical figures representing London and Edinburgh, and that on the north by similar figures symbolic of Dublin and Liverpool.
The central roadway is bisected by an east and west avenue 25 feet in width. The entrance gates at the ends of this are somewhat similar to those of the larger roadway. Six smaller avenues run parallel to the central roadway, cutting this secondary avenue at right angles. The blocks between the avenues contain the shops. These average about 36 feet by 15, and have offices and accommodation rooms above. The four corner blocks formerly contained taverns, but only two of these now remain. The roof is an adaption of the Mansard principle, and is filled in with glass louvres. A peculiar feature of the market is the great underground basement which is hollowed out to a depth of 22 feet, and extends even some distance beyond the limits of the building. This is supported by iron girders measuring roughly about five miles, and containing about 3000 tons of wrought iron. This is intersected by railway lines. Over the northern half the Metropolitan Railway has running powers; the southern forms a depot of the Great Western Railway. There are here two hydraulic hoists, and the meat brought by the Great Western lines is hoisted straight into the market. The circular depression mentioned as being in the centre of West Smithfield is in connection with this depot. All other meat is brought in vans and unloaded in the usual way. From 1 o’clock in the middle of the night for three mornings in the week, and from 2 o’clock the other two mornings the market is open, and closes alternately at 1 o’clock and 2 o’clock in the daytime.
From very early times Smithfield has been a market in addition to its manifold other uses. Stow says:
“There be the pens or folds, so called of sheep there parted, and penned up to be sold on market days.”
The Poultry Market adjoining was opened December 1, 1875. It covers an area of rather less than 1½ acres. It is similar generally in exterior treatment to the market already described but differs in small particulars. It is also on a different plan internally from the Meat Market, having a square of shops round the outer edge and four intersecting avenues which cut it up into central blocks. Here every shop has its cellar beneath, and the vaults which run beneath the avenues are occupied by a cold-air storage company, to whom belongs the great ventilating shaft in the triangular bit of land facing King Street. The London, Chatham, and Dover line also cuts diagonally beneath the market, but though the tunnelling is raised a little above the level of the flooring it still leaves room for vaults where it passes. There is one tavern in the Poultry Market.
The General Market is more expensive to the holder than either of the above, for it is let by tender to the highest bidder, whereas the others, by Act of Parliament, cannot claim a higher rental than a penny per square foot, and something extra for office space, etc.
This market was built to supersede the old Farringdon Market, and was at first meant for vegetables. At the time (1883) there was a movement towards a new Fish Market, and so the building was devoted to that purpose. The fish business, however, was not successful, and in December 1889 the market was transformed into a general market supplementary to the meat and poultry. It is now fully occupied, and brings in a very good rental.
The Fish Market on Snow Hill was opened in 1888. It is of triangular shape, and contains an inner triangle also. This is managed on much the same plan as the rest, but does not seem to be very successful; for some reason the fish trade does not flourish at Smithfield.
For a full account of Bartholomew Fair, so popular while it lasted, see London in the Eighteenth Century, p. 465.
GROUP VII
FLEET STREET AND ADJACENT STREETS
On the south side, Fleet Street presents a long line of historical associations—Bridewell, the Carmelites or Whitefriars, the Fleet Prison, Alsatia, and Sanctuary. These are all described in other parts of this work (see London in the Eighteenth Century). On the north side are the courts and streets of later origin. These, with the houses and shops of that side, present memories chiefly of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Roman remains have been found all along the river on the west of the City. In the year 1800 was discovered a sepulchral monument, now in the Guildhall Museum; a tessellated pavement was found in 1681, near St. Andrew’s, Holborn; in 1595, a stone pavement supported on piles was found near Chancery Lane, the piles proving the marshy character of the ground; the “old Roman bath” is in Strand Lane; in 1722, in digging for the foundations of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, an arch, a stone sarcophagus, and other Roman relics were found; and on Thorney Island itself numerous Roman remains have been discovered. In other words, there were Roman villas and residences all along the river from Ludgate to Westminster inclusive.
Fleet Street began to be settled before the thirteenth century; in 1228, one Henry le Buke slew another in Fleet Street and took sanctuary in St. Mary Overies, Southwark. In 1311, certain servants of the King’s household were arrested for a burglary in Fleet Street; at the same time complaints were made that the way from “La Barre du Novel Temple” and the Palace of Westminster was choked with bushes and thickets. One of the residents of Fleet Street supplied Edward II. with boots and tassels of silk in 1321. Shortly after, the houses from the Temple Church northwards were erected by the Templars.
The history of Fleet Street from the sixteenth century is much more detailed than can be given here; the reader must be referred to the special histories of the street and the locality. It suffered greatly in the Plague of 1625, when over 500 of the parishioners of St. Dunstan’s were carried off.
The Fire of London terminated on this side in the third house, east of St. Dunstan’s Church. The plan of the ruins drawn up by Wren and Hooke shows that Fleet Street was 37 feet in width west of Fetter Lane; at Water Lane it was 70 feet; at St. Bride’s Court 63 feet; thence to Bride Lane 32 feet; and to Fleet Bridge only 23 feet. Shoe Lane was only 9 feet wide at the south end; Water Lane 11 feet at the north, and 26 at the south; Salisbury Court 23 feet at the north end. After the Fire parts of Fleet Street were set back, and the street made more convenient for the increasing traffic.
Fleet Street is especially remarkable for its taverns, its booksellers, and its banking-houses. In a valuable paper contributed by Mr. Hilton Price to the Archæological Journal, December 1895, may be found a list as complete as can be hoped for of all the houses in Fleet Street with their signs. The learned writer has collected 315 signs, and has been able to fix 250 of them.
Among the taverns we may notice:
(1) The Devil, called also St. Dunstan’s, or the Old Devil, sacred to the memory of Ben Jonson. Here was the Apollo, a room in which all kinds of clubs and societies met and entertainments were held. Ben Jonson’s “Rules” are well known. They are painted in letters of gold on a black board still preserved in Childs’ Bank:
Welcome all who lead or follow
To the oracle of Apollo—
Here he speaks out of his pottle,
Or the tripos, his Tower bottle;
All his answers are divine,
Truth itself doth flow in wine.
Hang up all the poor hop drinkers,
Cries old Sim, the King of Skinkers;
He who the half of life abuses,
That sits watering with the Muses,
Those dull girls no good can mean us;
Wine it is the milk of Venus,
And the poets’ horse accounted:
Ply it and you all are mounted.
’Tis the true Phoebian liquor;
Cheers the brain, makes wit the quicker,
Pays all debts, cures all diseases,
And at once three senses pleases.
Welcome all who lead or follow
To the oracle of Apollo.
Price, Signs of Old Fleet Street.
(2) The Rainbow, opened in 1657 as a coffee-house by one James Farre, barber surgeon. It was the second coffee-house in London.
(3) The Mitre, where the Society of Antiquaries dined from 1728 to 1775 on St. George’s Day. Here also the Royal Society held its meetings for some years.
(4) The Bolt in Tun, an ancient tavern of the fifteenth century. The Daily News now occupies its site.
(5) The Cock. Everybody knows Tennyson’s lines. The tavern has been taken down and the site built over.
Mr. Hilton Price enumerates nearly fifty more.
If the street was full of taverns, it was equally the favourite place of business for printers and booksellers. Again referring to Mr. Price’s paper we can compile the following list, omitting names of no importance in the commercial history of literature.
Richard Pynson (1493). At Temple Bar.
William How (1571-90). Printer over Temple Bar.
Ward and Mundee. Booksellers over Temple Bar (1578).
John Starkey (1660-81). At the Mitre, between the Temple gates. Publisher of Shadwell’s Plays.
Richard Tottell (1553-97). Printer between the Temple gates.
Abel Roper }
John Martyn } The Sun, next the Rainbow. Publishers (1652-75) of
H. Herringman } Dugdale’s Baronage.
Bernard Lintot, No. 16. The Cross Keys and Cushion (1704-28). Publisher for Pope, Colley Cibber, and Gray.
Arthur Collins (1709-14). Publisher of the Peerage.
William Sandby (1786). Bookseller, afterwards partner in Snow & Co., Strand.
William Griffin (1556-71).
John MacMurray, afterwards John Murray, who succeeded William Sandby (1760-1812).
John Pemberton (1709- ), No. 53, at the Golden Buck. Published (1716) The Cries of London.
Jacob Tonson. At the Judge’s Head (1682-98). Published Dryden’s works, and was secretary to the Kit Kat Club.
Edmund Curll. At the Bible and Dial (1709).
Richard Banks. At the White Hart (1539). Printer.
Thomas Fisher. At the White Hart (1600). Published first edition of Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Roger Warde. At the Castle, opposite the Conduit (1593). Printer.
Wynkyn de Worde. At the Sun, over against the Conduit (1502-34).
Thomas Berthelet. At the Lucrece, near the Conduit. King’s Printer (1528-55).
Thomas Marsh. At the Prince’s Arms (1556-87). Printer of Stow’s Chronicle.
Richard Pynson, at the George, near Clifford’s Inn. Printer (1493-1527).
William Middleton (1525-47) }
Robert Redman (1529-40) }
Eliz. Pickering (1540) } at the same house. Printers.
William Redman (1556) }
Pictorial Agency.
FLEET STREET
Robert Copland, an assistant of Caxton (1508-47).
William Copland (1553-69). Printer of Juliana Berner’s Book of Hawking, etc.
In addition to this long list, Mr. Hilton Price gives the names of 702 booksellers and printers. It is true that their names cover two centuries at least, but they show conclusively that the real home of the book trade from the sixteenth century to the end of the eighteenth was Fleet Street. As we have seen, there were booksellers in St. Paul’s Churchyard, in Paternoster Row, in Little Britain at different times, but Fleet Street contained by far the greater number of those in the “trade.”
A third point of interest in Mr. Price’s list is that of the banking-houses and goldsmiths who kept “running cashes.” Among these are the names of Blanchard and Child, afterwards Child; James Chambers (1680), from whom are descended Messrs. Gosling and Sharpe; John Mawson & Co. (1677), the forerunners of Messrs. Hoare & Co.; James Heriot, brother of George Heriot of Edinburgh; and others of less note.
We must not forget to notice the residence of Izaak Walton. Mr. Price places it at the third house in the south-west corner of Chancery Lane. At the corner was the King’s Head Tavern; next, on the west side, the sign of the Harrow; the next house, sometimes called the Harrow and Crown, was Izaak Walton’s.
It is apparent from the preceding that Fleet Street, from the fourteenth century at least, has always been a place of great resort. The large number of taverns was chiefly due, without doubt, to the Inns of Court and the lawyers. Suitors from all parts of the kingdom had to come to Fleet Street; in its courts they found lodgings and in its taverns they found refreshment and feasting. The place was convenient also for the Court end of town, and for the people of the great nobles living in the Strand; there were no merchants in the street; the trade was all of the retail character, such as bookselling; when banks began to be established Fleet Street was much more convenient for the country gentlemen and nobles than Lombard Street; its coffee-houses were more easy of access to the lawyers, poets, wits, and actors who lived in the Inns of Court and about Covent Garden, than those of the City or Charing Cross.
The preceding lists do not exhaust the well-known names connected with Fleet Street. In addition, to mention only a few, are those of Cowley, the poet; Drayton; many of the early printers, successors of Caxton; many booksellers of note; Milton, Dr. Johnson, Goldsmith, Samuel Richardson, Tompion the watchmaker, Alderman Waithman, William Hone, Douglas Jerrold, the many distinguished writers who have created the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Chronicle, the Daily News, the Standard, and the host of papers and journals whose offices are in the street. In the burial-ground of St. Andrew’s, Shoe Lane, lie the remains of Thomas Chatterton; in Fetter Lane Wesley and Whitefield preached; in this street was published Abbott’s Weekly Register; we may also enumerate Sedley the poet, Jacob Tonson, John Hoole, Crockford of gambling fame, Sir Symonds D’Ewes, antiquary, Henry Woodfall, Printer “without Temple Bar,” and Charles Knight. It may, indeed, be fairly stated that, during the whole of the eighteenth and a large part of the nineteenth century, Fleet Street was the haunt of all the literary men of the time, and that at the present moment it is the most important centre of journalism. On the east of Ludgate is the office of The Times; all the other London dailies, and a great number of provincial and colonial journals, have their offices in Fleet Street. But poets, novelists, dramatists, and scholars are no longer found in this street; they belong to West End Clubs and no longer congregate in taverns and coffee-houses.
IZAAK WALTON’S HOUSE IN FLEET STREET
Bell Yard, Temple Bar, one side of which is now occupied by the High Courts of Justice, is called by Pope in 1736 a “filthy old place.”
Shire Lane, now built over by the Courts, was known also as Rogers Lane; it was also called Sheer Lane; this lane, in spite of an evil name, possessed many associations. Here, at an inn called the Trumpet, Isaac Bickerstaffe was supposed to receive his friends, and was fabled to have his residence. In this lane was founded the Kit Kat Club, a society of gentlemen devoted to the Protestant interest; here lived Elias Ashmole, the antiquary; here Sir Charles Sedley, the dramatic poet, was born; and here in a spunging-house Theodore Hook made the acquaintance of Dr. Maginn.
On the south side of Fleet Street, Wynkyn de Worde, the printer, lived in Falcon Court; in Mitre Court was the Mitre, where Dr. Johnson and Boswell met to drink port. The Royal Society used to dine at the Mitre (1743-80). Sarah Malcolm, whose portrait was taken by Hogarth, was hanged opposite Mitre Court for the murder of Lydia Duncombe, Elizabeth Harrison, and Anne Price. Ram Alley, now Hare Court, opposite Fetter Lane, was one of the later places of sanctuary; that is to say, a place where bailiffs and writs were not admitted. It had a passage into the Temple and another into Serjeant’s Inn, and was, as might be expected, a place of evil reputation.
The date of the first building of St. Dunstan’s Church is not known, but it was before the thirteenth century. It narrowly escaped the Fire, and was extensively repaired in 1701. The church, which was taken down in 1829-30, was a later edifice; it occupied part of the present street, and had a row of shops along its south side. It was famous for its “Saints,” a couple of figures which struck the hours. They were purchased by the Marquis of Hertford and set up at St. Dunstan’s Villa, Regent’s Park. The statue of Queen Elizabeth, originally on the west front of Ludgate, was happily preserved, and still stands over the vestry of the new church.