The Elephant, a tavern of great note, stood where is now the northwest corner of Fenchurch Street at Ironmonger's Alley. It was a massive building of stone, and one of the few in this neighbourhood sturdy enough to resist the Great Fire. When the flames rushed by leaving a desert of ruins on every side, the Elephant was a refuge for many who were left homeless. It was taken down in 1826. At the Elephant lived the great picture satirist, William Hogarth, in 1697, at a time when he was very poor indeed.
At the northern end of Mark Lane, crowded about by business houses, may be seen a fine old church tower. In the Great Fire of 1666, this tower of All Hallows, Staining, escaped though the church itself was destroyed. It is reached by narrow Star Alley, on the west side of Mark Lane, and stands in a bit of the old churchyard which is now the court of the Clothworkers' Hall. It was to All Hallows that Queen Elizabeth came to offer up thanks after her deliverance from the Tower.
Hart Street is very short, which makes it easy to discern where once was the house of Richard Whittington, the Lord Mayor of London, on the north side of the road where the fourth house east of Mark Lane now stands. Here, in "Whittington's Palace," Henry V. visited the Mayor, and here Whittington destroyed the king's note for a debt of 60,000 pounds. At which the king cried out: "No other king has had such a subject." To which Whittington bowed low and made answer: "Sire, never had subject such a king." Perhaps they were both right.
The picturesque gateway decorated with skulls, in narrow Seething Lane by Hart Street, is an entrance way to the old church of St. Olave, which escaped the Great Fire. This is the church frequented by Samuel Pepys, who lived close by in Seething Lane. The pew he occupied is still to be seen here, facing the memorial to Mrs. Pepys on the north side of the church. It was from the tower of St. Olave that Pepys watched the great City burn. Both he and his wife were buried here. The skulls surmounting the gate were in remembrance of the plague of 1665, when 100,000 persons died, and many of the victims were buried in this churchyard. In the register yet may be seen entry of the burial of Mary Ramsey, with the fatal letter "P" beside it, for she it is who was supposed to have brought the plague into London.
Aldgate Pump, which has not been in use since 1875, stands at the junction of Leadenhall and Fenchurch streets. Dickens mentions the old pump very often in his books. In "Dombey and Son," Mr. Toots walked to the pump and back for relaxation; and to this neighbourhood Fagan removed secretly when he feared the result of the revelations of Oliver Twist.
The Aldgate was the principal eastern gate of the City in Roman days and later. In 1374 the rooms above the gate were leased by the corporation to Chaucer the poet, for life. In 1471, the gate was attacked by Thomas Neville, the Bastard of Falconbergh, when at the moment of success he was separated from his men and killed. It was demolished in 1760, and there is now no trace of it.
The church of St. Catherine Cree, in Leadenhall Street since 1631, was built on the foundations of an older church. Hans Holbein lived close by the original church, and was buried here when, in 1546, he died of the plague.
In Leadenhall Street at the St. Mary Axe corner, the turreted church of St. Andrew Undershaft takes its name from the fact that in olden times there stood before it, towering above its height, a tall shaft. The church, built in 1520, is almost five hundred years old. To this day the passer-by wonders at the big rings of iron set in its wall. In these rings the shaft or Maypole rested after the May-day sports were over. In the reign of Edward VI. the Maypole was burned, because a preacher at Paul's Cross had told the people they had made an idol of it by naming their parish church "under the shaft." The tomb of John Stow, author of the "Survey of London," is still to be seen here. Stow was a tailor, and his book is thought to be the most important work on London ever written. His efforts were not regarded in his lifetime, and being in great poverty when he was 80 years old, he applied to James I. for aid, receiving only a license to beg for a living—which he did. He died in 1605.
The buildings of the East India Company were to be found where Lime Street touches Leadenhall at the northeast corner. There Charles Lamb, the essayist and critic, worked. He entered the accountants' office of the company and worked each day at his desk for thirty years until he was retired on a pension. He has said that he found recreation in his writings, and that his true works were to be found in the hundreds of folios he had filled for the East India Company and that were filed away in their archives. The East India was a commercial company of renown, which came into existence in 1599 having its main offices here where had been the home of Lord Craven. The building was restored many times, and finally removed in 1862.