Sir Paul Pindar was a notable merchant and diplomatist, minister of James I. in Turkey, who was born about the end of the sixteenth or beginning of the seventeenth century, and died in 1650. On his return from Turkey he brought with him a diamond valued at £30,000, which the king wished to purchase "on tick," but the cautious merchant, not having sufficient confidence in his credit, declined to let him have it on those terms. However, he agreed to lend it to him to flash it in the eyes of his subjects on State occasions. He afterwards sold it to Charles I., but most probably was never paid for it. He was reputed to have been worth a quarter of a million sterling at one time, an enormous sum for that period. He gave £18,000 towards the repairs of St. Paul's Cathedral, and expended other sums on charitable and philanthropic objects, but although so wealthy he lost so much money in bad debts, arising out of loans to Kings James I. and Charles I. that he fell into comparative poverty, and died in debt himself.
He erected for his residence a magnificent house on the western side of the street, without the gate, a portion of whose picturesque frontal remaining in 1890, attracted the notice and admiration of every passer-by. It was a fine specimen of Elizabethan architecture, and richly decorated both without and within. There were rooms with wainscoted walls, sculptured chimney-pieces, and ceilings profusely ornamented, but most of them terribly mutilated; one splendid ceiling represented the sacrifice of Isaac, with a radiation of beautiful ornamentation. Behind the house was a park, with mulberry trees, some of which were only cut down within the present century; and near by, in Halfmoon Alley, stood a house, with sculptural details, which is supposed to have been the gatekeeper's lodge. A small portion with a narrow frontage was converted into a tavern, with the sign of the Sir Paul Pindar, which has just been taken down by the Great Eastern Railway.
Devonshire House.—Built by one Jasper Fisher, around which he laid out extensive pleasure grounds. It was held by the Cavendishes until 1670, but in the interval, during the ascendency of the Puritans, had been taken possession of by them, and made use of as a chapel. Butler, in his Hudibras, describes the Rump Parliament as like —
"No part of the nation
But Fisher's folly congregation."
After this it was opened as a "Bank of Credit," a sort of pawnshop, which did not last long, as by 1708, Devonshire Square was built, described by Hatton as "a pretty, though very small square, inhabited by gentry and other merchants."
Sir Thomas Gresham, the wealthy and munificent founder of the Royal Exchange, was born circa 1519; died, 1579; was knighted, 1559; married Anne, daughter of William Fernley, and relict of William Read, and had issue an only son, Richard, who died v.p. and s.p. 1564.
He was a parishioner of St. Helen's, and in that parish he built his house, which Stow describes as "the most spacious thereabouts, builded of brick and timber," and that is about all he could say in eulogy of it, for it appears, from engravings of it, to have been more remarkable for size than for architectural grandeur. It was built in the Flemish style, chiefly by Flemish workmen, and extended from the west side of Bishopsgate Street to Broad Street. It consisted of a quadrangle of two galleried stories, with gabled attics; a piazza and rows of trees running round, giving it a quiet, collegiate air, and a picturesque aspect, and was surrounded by gardens and pleasure grounds, with trees. It was commenced about the year 1559, and was finished in 1562. Within its walls Sir Thomas entertained Queen Elizabeth, and had the custody of the Lady Mary Grey.
At his death he left it to his widow for life, and at her decease in trust to the Corporation of London and the Mercers' Company, to be converted into a College of Professors, with salaries of £50 per annum, to lecture weekly on divinity, astronomy, music, law, geometry, medicine, and rhetoric, for the gratuitous instruction of the young citizens of London, which were commenced in 1597. Amongst the professors were several eminent men, one of whom was Sir Christopher Wren, who, in conjunction with others, there laid the foundation of the Royal Society. The trustees allotted two rooms to the Society, one for their meetings, the other for their books and philosophical instruments. Pepys tells of King Charles making merry over the people of Gresham House, and Boyle in particular, amusing themselves with the child's play of weighing air. The society met at Gresham House until 1710, when they removed to Crane Court.
After the Great Fire of 1666, when nearly all the public buildings were destroyed, Gresham House became the Mansion House and residence of the Lord Mayor, the Law Courts, and the Exchange, the merchants assembling in the quadrangle, where they remained until their establishments were rebuilt.