General description and date of structure.
The area lying between Great Queen Street, Little Queen Street and Gate Street (the east to west portion of which street was formerly known as Princes Street) was originally a portion of Purse Field, the early history of which has already been detailed.[[50]]
On 27th May, 1639, William Newton sold to John Fortescue[[51]] “all that peece or parcell of ground, being part of Pursefeild and the pightells, designed for two messuages to be built thereon by the said John Fortescue, the foundations whereof be now laid.” The ground is described as measuring 50 feet 3 inches from north to south, and 127 feet from east to west. Between the ground and Princes Street (“a way leading upon a backgate of an Inn lately called The Falcon and Greyhound”) lay the houses (or their sites) of Lewis Richard and John Giffard, and a slip of ground afterwards bought by Arthur Newman, having widths of 25 feet, 25 feet and 8½ feet respectively[[52]]. From these measurements it can be shown that the ground sold to Fortescue was the site of what afterwards became Nos. 3 and 4, Gate Street. The indenture contained, in common with those relating to Richard’s and Giffard’s houses, a provision “that there doth and soe perpetually shall lye open from the front of the said messuage eastward, three score foote of assize, wherein there shall be noe building erected or builded by the said William Newton, his heirs ... or any other person or persons whatsoever, it being the principall motive of the said John Fortescue to purchase the estate and interest aforesaid, to have the said 60 foote in front to lye open for an open place from the front of the building, except 11 foote to be inclosed in before the house, and that there shal be noe buildinges erected at the south-east end of the said open place by the space of 30 foote, to take away the prospect of the greate fielde, otherwise than a fence wall, whether he, the said William Newton or his assignes, keepe the same in his or their owne hands, or doth or doe depart with it to any other.” It was also agreed “that there shall not at any tyme or tymes hereafter be erected or built any manner of building whatsoever” in the gardens of any of the four messuages[[53]] in question. These conditions, as will be seen, have been more than observed.
From the above it is clear that the foundations of the two houses had already been laid by 27th May, 1639, and the premises were accordingly probably completed by the end of the year. No exact date can be assigned to the rebuilding of the houses, but it seems probable that this took place about the middle of the 18th century. The carved mouldings of the joinery on the first floor of No. 3 are interesting, and details are given in Plate 7.