THREE HATS, ISLINGTON
The Three Hats was a picturesque old inn standing in the Upper Street, Islington, a few doors from the corner of the Liverpool Road and on the site of the present Islington branch of the London and County Bank.
It first became known as a place of amusement in 1758, when, in the field adjoining, Thomas Johnson, “the Irish Tartar,” one of the earliest equestrian performers in England, made his début. He galloped round the field standing first on one horse, then on a pair, then on three horses. At one time he rode the single horse standing on his head, but as this posture “gave pain to the spectators” he discontinued it. His feats seem to have been of a simpler kind than those afterwards performed by the rider Price at Dobney’s in 1767. One of Johnson’s performances at the Three Hats (17 July, 1766) took place in the presence of the Duke of York and of about five hundred spectators.
In the spring of 1767 Johnson was succeeded by the equestrian Sampson, who announced his appearance at five o’clock at a commodious place built in a field adjoining the Three Hats. “A proper band of music” was engaged for this entertainment. In the summer of this year Sampson introduced his wife into his entertainment, and inserted the following advertisement in the Public Advertiser for 23 July: “Horsemanship at Dingley’s, Three Hats, Islington. Mr. Sampson begs to inform the public that besides the usual feats which he exhibits, Mrs. Sampson, to diversify the entertainment and prove that the fair sex are by no means inferior to the male, either in courage or agility, will this and every evening during the summer season perform various exercises in the same art, in which she hopes to acquit herself to the universal approbation of those ladies and gentlemen whose curiosity may induce them to honour her attempt with their company.”
JOHNSON AT THE THREE HATS, 1758.
The Three Hats had other attractions besides the horsemanship and at least as early as 1768 had become a favourite Sunday resort. In Bickerstaffe’s comedy the “Hypocrite,” published in 1768, Mawworm says: “Till I went after him (Dr. Cantwell) I was little better than the devil. My conscience was tanned with sin like a piece of neat’s leather, and had no more feeling than the sole of my shoe, always aroving after fantastical delights. I used to go every Sunday evening to the Three Hats at Islington—mayhap your ladyship may know it. I was a great lover of skittles, but now I can’t bear them.”
Sampson’s performances still continued in 1770 and additional diversions were occasionally provided: “At the Three Hats, Islington, this day, the 1st of May (1770) will be played a grand match at that ancient and much renowned manly diversion called Double Stick by a sett of chosen young men at that exercise from different parts of the West country, for two guineas given free; those who brake the most heads to bear away the prize.” “To begin precisely at four.” “Before the above mentioned diversion begins, Mr. Sampson and his young German will display alternately on one, two, and three horses, various surprising and curious feats of famous horsemanship in like manner as at the Grand Jubilee at Stratford-upon-Avon. Admittance one shilling each person.”
In 1771 Sampson was under a cloud—he is said to have been ensnared “into gay company” by Price, his rival at Dobney’s—and sold his horses to Coningham, who performed in the evening at the Three Hats (1771 and 1772), and was announced as follows:—“First: He rides a gallop, standing upright on a single horse, three times round the room without holding. Second: He rides a single horse on full speed, dismounts, fires a pistol, and performs the boasted feat of Hughes’s leaping over him backwards and forwards for forty times without ceasing; also flies over three horses on full speed, leaps over one and two horses on full speed as they leap the bar, plays a march on the flute, without holding, upon two horses, standing upright.” It was also announced that “Mr. and Mrs. Sampson, Mr. Brown, &c., will perform to make these nights the completest in the kingdom. The Tailor and Sailor upon the drollest horses in the kingdom. The doors to be opened exactly at five, and to mount at a quarter to five. Admittance in the front seats two shillings, and the back seats one. Mr. Coningham will engage to fly through a hogshead of fire upon two horses’ backs, without touching them, and, for a single person, will perform activity with any man in the world.”
In 1772 Sampson resumed his performances at the Riding School of the Three Hats and gave lessons there. On Whit Monday some other curious attractions were advertised in the Gazetteer (June 6, 1772): “A young gentleman will undertake to walk and pick up one hundred eggs (each egg to be the distance of one yard apart) and put them in a basket within an hour and fifteen minutes; if any egg breaks he puts down one in its place, for a wager of ten guineas. And on Whitsun Tuesday will be run for an holland shift by a number of smart girls, six times round the School.”
About this period the riding seems to have come to an end,[157] though the Three Hats continued for many years to be a favourite tea-garden until the ground at the back of the house was built over. The Morning Chronicle gives us a glimpse of the place in 1779 (21 July): “Yesterday morning upwards of twenty fellows who were dancing with their ladies at the Three Hats, Islington, were taken by the constables as fit persons to serve his Majesty, and lodged in Clerkenwell Bridewell, in order to be carried before the commissioners.”
On 6 January, 1839, a fire (which destroyed two neighbouring houses) so damaged the roof of the Three Hats, then a mere public-house, that in April of the same year the whole place was demolished, and the present branch office of the London and County Bank was erected on the site.
[Lewis’s Islington; Pinks’s Clerkenwell.]
VIEWS.
1. Engraving of Three Hats and other old houses adjacent, in Gent. Mag. 1823, pt. 2, frontispiece; cp. p. 113.
2. A sepia drawing by C. H. Matthews, 1839. Crace, Cat. p. 596, No. 110.
3. Engraving in the Grand Magazine, showing Johnson’s equestrian feats, 1758, W. Coll.; cp. Crace, Cat. p. 596, No. 108.