Baptist’s Head court, Whitecross street.*
Barbers. The art of surgery was anciently practised in this city by none but the Barbers, who were incorporated by letters patent granted by King Edward IV. in the Year 1461, and in 1512 an act was passed to prevent any persons besides the Barbers practising surgery within the city of London, and seven miles round. At length several persons, who were not Barbers, being examined and admitted as practitioners in the art of surgery, the parliament united them in the thirty-second year of the reign of King Henry VIII. by the appellation of the Masters or Governors of the mystery or commonalty of Barbers and Surgeons of the city of London; and by this act all persons practising the art of shaving, are strictly enjoined not to intermeddle with that of surgery, except what belongs to drawing of teeth. Thus this company obtained the name of Barber-Surgeons, which they continued to enjoy till the eighteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty King George II. when the Surgeons applying to Parliament to have this union dissolved, were formed into a separate company; though the Barbers were left in possession of the hall and theatre, and were constituted a body politic, under the name of the Master, Governors and Commonalty of the mystery of Barbers of London.
This company has a Master and three other Governors, a court of Assistants of twenty-four members, and a very numerous livery.
Barbers Hall, a fine edifice on the west side of Monkwell street, consisting of a spacious hall room, a court room, theatre, library, and other commodious offices. The grand entrance from Monkwell street is enriched with the company’s arms, large fruit, and other decorations. The court room has a fretwork ceiling, and is also adorned with the pictures of King Henry VIII. and the court of Assistants, in one fine piece; a portrait of King Charles II. and other paintings. The theatre contains four degrees of cedar seats, one above another, in an elliptical form, and the roof is an elliptical cupola; this room is adorned with a bust of King Charles I. the figures of the seven liberal sciences, and the twelve signs of the Zodiac; the skins of a man and woman on wooden frames, in imitation of Adam and Eve; the figure of a man flayed, done after the life, all the muscles appearing in their due place, and proportion; the skeleton of an ostrich; an human skeleton, with copper joints, and five other skeletons of human bodies. But as this furniture was introduced by the Surgeons, it is now of no use, and the theatre is entirely deserted.
This Hall is one of the works of that great architect Inigo Jones, and is a masterpiece in its kind, that elegant simplicity which characterises all his works, giving the spectator the highest satisfaction.
Barber’s alley, Brown’s lane, Spitalfields.*
Barber’s Pole alley, St. Margaret’s hill, Southwark.*
Barbican, Aldersgate street, so called from a high watch tower which stood there, from which a view might be taken of the whole city. Barbican, according to Camden, being an Arabic word signifying a watch tower.
Bare lane, Gravel lane.
Baremere’s Almshouse, in Almshouse yard, Hoxton, which was built about the year 1701, by the Rev. Mr. Baremere, a Presbyterian Minister, for eight poor women, who have no other allowance but half a chaldron of coals each per annum. Maitland.