Guildhall is at the end of a tolerable vista, which shews the building to some advantage, though the Gothic front has nothing very extraordinary in it. The hall within is a fine one, but the entrance would have been better at the lower end than in the middle, for by this means all the beauty of the perspective is lost. The ascent of steps across the hall not being opposite the gate, as it ought to have been, is another material defect. A noble front in the situation of Guildhall, would have had an advantage hardly to be met with elsewhere, and give an architect a fine opportunity of displaying his genius. But the present front is full of little parts which have no effect at a distance.
Guildhall alley, Basinghall street, leading to Guildhall.
Guildhall Chapel, situated between Blackwell hall, and Guildhall, was founded in the year 1299, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen and All Saints, and called London College. A chantry was founded in this chapel for four chaplains, and lands and tenements left for their support. It was rebuilt in the reign of Henry VI. and received new endowments: but at the suppression of religious houses it reverted to the Crown, and was bought of King Edward VI. with other lands and tenements, for the sum of 456l. 13s. 4d. and the city holds it in soccage of the manor of Greenwich. It was defaced, but not burnt down by the fire of London in 1666, and has been since repaired.
This edifice is perfectly in the Gothic taste. In several niches are set the figures in stone of King Edward VI. of Queen Elizabeth, with a phœnix under her; and of King Charles I. treading on a globe. The windows are extremely large, and on the inside the walls are hung with tapestry. Over the Aldermen’s seats there is a wainscot covering, and a particular seat for the Lord Mayor, adorned with cartouches. There is a gallery at the west end, a handsome wainscot pulpit and desk, and a neat altar piece inclosed with rails and banisters.
On the south side of this chapel was formerly a library belonging to Guildhall and the College. But it is said that in the reign of King Edward VI. Edward Duke of Somerset, then Lord Protector, sent for the books with a promise of returning them shortly; upon which three carriages were loaded with them; but they being never returned, the room has been long made a storehouse for cloths.
Guildhall yard, 1. King street, Cheapside.☐ 2. King street, Westminster.
Guilford, or Guildford, a considerable borough in Surry, situated on the river Wey, thirty miles from London, and governed by a Mayor, Recorder, and Aldermen. Here the assizes are sometimes held, and always elections for members of parliament, the town itself returning two. Not far from the town are the ruinous wails of an old castle, this having been in the Saxon times a royal villa, where many of our Kings long after kept their festivals. Here were formerly two or three convents, one of which was not long ago the seat of Daniel Coswall, Esq; and had a delightful park adjoining to it. There were also three churches in the town; but one of them fell down in the year 1740. Here is a charity school founded by King Edward VI. and an almshouse founded by George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury, who endowed it with lands worth 300l. a year, 100l. of which he ordered to be employed in setting the poor at work, and the other 200l. he allotted for the maintenance of a master, twelve brethren, and eight sisters, who are to have 2s. 6d. a week: the Archbishop’s birth day is annually commemorated in it; and the Archbishop of Canterbury is its visitor. There are here likewise two charity schools for thirty boys, and twenty girls; and a fine circular course for horse races, which begin when the Newmarket races are ended. Guilford had formerly a considerable manufacture of cloth, of which there are still some remains. The great road from Chichester and Portsmouth lies through the town, which has been always famous for good inns, the cleanest of linen, and other excellent accommodations; and as the river Wey is made navigable to this town, a great quantity of timber is carried down it to London, not only from this neighbourhood, but from the Sussex and Hampshire woods, above thirty miles off, from whence it is brought to Guilford in the summer by land carriage.
The road from hence to Farnham is very remarkable, for it runs along the ridge of a high chalky hill, no wider than the road itself, and the declivity begins on either hand, at the edge that bounds the highway, and is very steep and high. From this hill is a surprizing prospect; to the north and north west over Bagshot Heath; to the south east into Sussex, almost to the South Downs; and to the west it is so unbounded that the view is only terminated by the horizon. On this hill, which is called St. Catharine’s, stands the gallows in such a position, that the town’s people of Guilford may, from the High street, sit at their shop doors and see the criminals executed.
Guillam’s wharf, St. Catharine’s.†
Gullyhole alley, Wheeler street.