St. Bartholomew’s Church, situated at the south east corner of Bartholomew lane, behind the Royal Exchange, was one of the churches consumed in the general conflagration in 1666, and this structure arose in its place. It consists of a very irregular body, with a tower suited to it, the top of which, instead of pinnacles, a spire, or turrets, is crowned with arches, supported by columns of the Corinthian order. It is a rectory, in the gift of the Crown, and the Rector receives 100l. a year in lieu of tithes.
Bartholomew lane, extends from Threadneedle street to Lothbury, and is so named from St. Bartholomew’s church at the corner.
St. Bartholomew the Great, situated near the east end of Duck lane, on the north east side of Smithfield, escaped the flames in 1666, and is a large plain church, with a tower crowned with a turret. It is a rectory in the patronage of the Earl of Holland, The Rector’s profits, besides casualties, amount to about 60l. per annum.
St. Bartholomew the Less, is seated on the south east side of Smithfield, adjoining to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. It was founded in the year 1102, and belonged to the neighbouring convent of the same name; but as it was not destroyed by the fire in 1666, it remains in the same state it was in before that dreadful calamity. It is a low building, composed of brick and rough stone plaistered; and consists of a roofed body with Gothic windows, and a tower with a corner turret. This church is a vicarage, in the gift of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Common Council, who upon receiving the grant of the church and hospital, covenanted to pay the Vicar 13l. 6s. 8d. per annum, which, with an allowance from the hospital, and casualties, amounts to about 120l. per annum.
St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, on the south east of Smithfield, for the cure of the poor, sick and lame, formerly belonged to the Priory of St. Bartholomew in Smithfield; but both the priory and hospital being dissolved by K. Henry VIII. that Monarch, in the last year of his reign, founded the hospital anew, and endowed it with the annual revenue of 500 marks, upon condition that the city should pay the same sum, which proposal was readily embraced, and the managers of this foundation were incorporated by the name of The Hospital of the Mayor, Commonalty and Citizens of London, Governors for the poor, called Little St. Bartholomew’s, near West Smithfield. Since that time the hospital has received prodigious benefactions from great numbers of charitable persons, by which means not only the poor of London and Southwark, but the distressed of any other parts of the King’s dominions, and from foreign countries, are taken in, whether sick or maimed, and have lodging, food, attendance, and medicines, with the advice and assistance of some of the best Physicians and Surgeons in the kingdom, who belong to the hospital, and attend the patients as occasion requires; they have also matrons and nurses, to look after and assist them; and at their discharge when cured, some, who live at a considerable distance, are relieved with money, cloaths, and other necessaries, to enable them to return to their several habitations. Pity it is that so noble and humane a foundation should want any thing to render it perfect, and that every sick person who is admitted, except such as have suffered by sudden accidents, as the fracture or dislocation of a bone, should be obliged to deposit or give security for the payment of a guinea, in case of death, in order to defray the expence of the funeral; for by this some of the poorest and most miserable, and consequently the most proper objects, are unhappily excluded from reaping the benefit they might otherwise receive from it: but this is also the case of several of the other hospitals of this city; however many thousands of persons labouring under the most dreadful diseases and wounds, are annually cured at this hospital, and in those of Kent street in Southwark, and the Lock at Kingsland, both of which are dependent on it. Besides all this, there are great numbers of out-patients, who receive advice and medicines gratis.
The ancient hospital which escaped the fire of London becoming ruinous, it was found absolutely necessary in the year 1729 to rebuild it; a plan for that purpose was formed, and a grand edifice erected, by subscription, which was designed to be only one out of four noble detached piles of building, to be afterwards raised, about a court or area 250 feet in length, and 60 in breadth.
The original design is now nearly compleated, and this hospital altogether forms a very elegant building, or rather buildings, for the sides which compose the quadrangle do not join at the angles, as is usual, but by four walls, each having a large gate which admits you into the area, as may be seen in the print. Here is a staircase painted and given by Mr. Hogarth, containing two pictures with figures large as the life, which for truth of colouring and expression may vie with any thing of its kind in Europe. The subject of the one is the Good Samaritan, the other the Pool of Bethesda.
Bartlet’s buildings, Holborn.†
Bartlet’s court. 1. Bartlet’s street.† 2. Holborn hill.†
Bartlet’s passage, Fetter lane.†