Mansion House and Adjacent Buildings.
A few years after the dissolution in 1539, the property of the Hospital was divided between Lord Lisle and Katherine Legh[[595]], when there fell to the share of the former the mansion place or capital house of the Hospital; a messuage, part of the Hospital, with orchards and gardens, in the tenure of Doctor Borde; and a messuage, part of the Hospital, with orchard and garden, in the tenure of Master Densyle, formerly of Master Wynter. Lisle transferred the property to Sir Wymonde Carew, who at his death was found to be seized of and in “the capital mansion of the Hospital of St. Giles-in-the-Fields and of and in certain parcels of land with appurtenances in the parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields.”[[596]] Thomas Carew, his son, seems to have disposed of the whole of the property, and in 1563 the above-mentioned, described as four messuages, were in the possession of Francis Downes.
On 10th April, 1566, Robert and Edward Downes sold[[597]] to John Graunge “all those messuages, tenements, houses, edyfices, barns, stables, gardens, orchards, meadows, etc., with the appurtenances, now or late in the several occupations of the Right Hon. Sir Willyam Herbert, knyght, now Erell of Pembroke, —— Byrcke, Esq., Johan Wyse, wydowe, Anthony Vuidele, Thomas More, Henrye Hye, and —— Troughton, —— Wylson, lyng and being in St. Gyles in the Fieldes.”
There are no records by which the history of these several houses may be traced, but at the beginning of the 17th century the property, having then passed into the hands of Robert Lloyd[[598]] (Floyd, or Flood), seems chiefly to have comprised five large houses.[[599]]
On 19th March, 1617–8, Robert Lloyd[[600]] sold to Isaac Bringhurst the reversion of a house, formerly in the occupation of Jas. Bristowe and then in that of Thomas Whitesaunder, situated “nere unto the west end of the ... parish church” and to the south of Sir Edward Cope’s residence, having an enclosure on its east side 45 feet wide by 17½ and 18 feet, and gardens and ground on the west side, extending 288½ feet to Hog Lane. Assuming a depth of from 30 to 40 feet for the house itself, it will be seen that the premises stretched between the church and Hog Lane for a distance of about 340 feet, and after making due allowance for the fact that Hog Lane was much narrower than Charing Cross Road, its modern representative, it will be apparent that the only possible course taken by the above mentioned property was along the line of Little Denmark Street, formerly Lloyd’s Court. Unfortunately the history of the house in question cannot be definitely traced after 1629[[601]], but if the site suggested above is correct, the premises subsequently came into the possession of Elizabeth Saywell (née Lloyd) who, by will dated 5th January, 1712–3, gave all her real estate in St. Giles, after several estates for life, to Benjamin Carter for his life, and devised a fourth part of her estate to trustees for charitable purposes. Benjamin Carter on 12th March, 1727, accordingly granted to trustees all that old capital messuage or tenement wherein Mrs. Saywell had resided, “which said capital messuage had been pulled down and several messuages, houses or tenements, had been erected on the ground whereon the said capital messuage stood situated in a certain place, commonly called Lloyd’s Court.”[[602]]
Immediately to the north of the last mentioned house was the mansion of Sir Edward Cope, described in 1612[[603]] as “with twoe litle gardens before on the north side thereof impalled, and a large garden with a pumpe and a banquetting house on the south side of the same tenement, walled about with bricke, and a stable and the stable yard adjoyning to the same garden.”
If the site ascribed to the previous house is correct, Sir Edward Cope’s mansion must have been identical with that shown in the map in Strype’s edition of Stow (Plate 5) as “Ld. Wharton’s,” situated between the houses on the north side of Lloyd’s Court and on the south side of Denmark Street. In 1652, the house was in the tenure of John Barkstead or his assigns.[[604]] Philip, 4th Lord Wharton, was resident in St. Giles in 1677,[[605]] probably at this house, and the “garden of Lord Wharton” is in 1687 mentioned[[606]] as the southern boundary of premises in Denmark Street. It seems a reasonable suggestion that this house was originally the capitalis mansio, or master’s house.
The same deed of 1612 mentions(i) a house in the tenure of Tristram Gibbs, with a stable towards the street on the north side, and a large garden on the south, “walled on the east side and toward a lane of the south side,” abutting west on the garden of Frances Varney’s house; and (ii) a house “now or latelie in the tenure of Alice, the Lady Dudley,” with a paved court on the north side before the door, a stable on the north side towards the street, another paved court backwards towards the south, walled with brick, and a large walled garden on the south side.
The position of Tristram Gibbs’s house can be roughly identified by the fact that a parcel of ground abutting north on Denmark Street and south on Lord Wharton’s garden and ground is stated[[607]] to have been formerly “part of the garden belonging to the messuage in tenure of Tristram Gibbs, Esq.” The house was therefore to the north of Lord Wharton’s house, and its site probably extended over part of Denmark Street.
The position of Lady Dudley’s house may be roughly ascertained from the particulars given in the deed of 1618,[[608]] which mentions the Gatehouse. Therein reference is made to the site of a certain house formerly adjoining the north part of the Gatehouse, “conteyninge in length from the north part to the south part, viz., from the end or corner of a certain stone wall, being the wall of the house or stable there of the Lady Dudley unto the south-east corner post or utmost lymittes of the said Gatehouse 39½ feet, and in breadth att the north end, viz., from the uttermost side of the said stone wall att the south east corner thereof to a certen little shed or building there called a coach house of the said Lady Dudley, 19 feet; and in length from south to north, viz., from the uttermost lymittes or south-west corner post of the said Gatehouse to a certen old foundacion of a wall lying neare unto the south side of the said coache house 28 feet, and in breadth from east to west att the south end and so throughe all the full length of the said 28 feet of the said soile or ground 28½ feet.” The above is not as clear as it might be, but it certainly shows that Lady Dudley’s stable was to the north of the Gatehouse, which, as has been shown, was near the north-west angle of the churchyard. Lady Dudley’s house, therefore, probably occupied a site to the north of Denmark Street.
The most northerly of the five large houses existing here at the beginning of the 17th century was the White House. This was, in 1618, when it was sold by Robert Lloyd to Isaac Bringhurst,[[609]] in the occupation of Edmund Verney, and was then described as “all that one messuage or tenement, with appurtenances, commonly known by the name of the White House, and one yard, one garden and one long walke, and one stable with a hay lofte over the same.” In 1631 it was purchased by Lady Dudley,[[610]] who three years later transferred[[611]] it to trustees to be used for the purposes of a parsonage. At the time a lease of the premises for three lives was held by Edward Smith, and this was not determined until 1681, when the house had become “very ruinous and scarcely habitable.”[[612]] The Rector at once entered into an agreement with John Boswell, a hatmaker of St. Dunstan’s West, for rebuilding, and it was arranged that the houses to be erected on the site should be built “with all materials and scantlings conformable to the third rate buildings prescribed by the Act of Parliament for rebuilding the City of London.” The result was presumably Dudley Court, now Denmark Place.