Bygone London

by Frederick Ross

In 1760 the meeting was given up, and the room taken by a congregation of Sandemanians from Glovers' Hall, who held it many years until they removed to Paul's Abbey Barbican. In 1767 appeared "A Plain and Full Account of the Christian Practices Observed by the Church in St. Martin's-le-Grand, etc.," which was attributed to the Rev. John Bernard, minister of the chapel, a learned man, and author of some other works, who was eventually expelled from his pulpit for "not being sufficiently humble, and for thinking too highly of his preaching abilities." He died in 1805.

Trinity Hall, at the corner of Little Britain, was occupied by a congregation of Nonjurors, and afterwards by a society of Moravians. It was here that a memorable event took place, which had an important influence in the great revival of religion in the last century, and resulted, along with other predisposing causes, in the outgrowth of the now large and influential sect of Wesleyan Methodists. John Wesley, in his journal, May 24th, 1738, writes: "In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther's Preface to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the changes which God makes in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins—even mine—and saved me from the law of sin and death."

Hare Court Independent Chapel was built on ground leased for 999 years, from Sir Henry Ashurst, in the year of the Revolution, 1688. Originally it stood with an open space in front, facing Aldersgate Street, with a single entrance therefrom. It was built by a society gathered together in the reign of Charles II. by the Rev. Geo. Cockayn, who had been ejected from St. Pancras, Soper Lane, in 1662, consisting of many of the foremost citizens and several officers of the army. It was rebuilt in 1772, with three galleries, and a new entrance from Paul's Alley. In 1857, the chapel was disposed of, and out of the proceeds a new one built in Canonbury, to which was given the time honoured name of Hare Court, and which maintains the popularity of its predecessor.

In 1804 a congregation of Calvinistic Methodists assembled in a large room of Shaftesbury House, under the pastorate of the Rev. T. Madden, who removed hither with his flock from Bartholomew Close.

From the time of the Plantagenets to that of the Stuarts, Aldersgate Street was the Belgravia of London, the place of residence of prelates and nobles. Compared with other streets of the City, it was spacious and open, lined with magnificent buildings, and adorned with clusters and lines of ancient trees. Howell, in his Londinopolis, 1657, speaks of it as resembling a street in an Italian city; and Malcolm, in his Londinium Redivivum, 1805, says; "Aldersgate Street is very unequal in its buildings, but the majority are of superior excellence, and the various shops and warehouses of the first respectability. In width it is superior to most of the streets within the walls of the City."

The only one of the famous old mansions recently remaining was Shaftesbury or Thanet House. It was built by Inigo Jones for the Tuftons, Earls of Thanet, and was purchased by Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, the Achitophel of Dryden. Pennant says: "It was hired or purchased by the incendiary statesman, Lord Shaftesbury, for the purpose of living in the City to inflame the minds of the citizens, among whom he used to boast he could raise 10,000 brisk boys by the holding up of his finger. He attempted to get into the magistracy, but being disappointed in his views and terrified at the apprehension of the detection of a conspiracy he had entered into against his prince, he fled, in 1683, into Holland, where he soon died of the gout, heightened by rage and frustrated ambition."

The house was afterwards let for manufacturing purposes; in 1750 it became a Lying-in-Hospital, which was removed to the City Road, when it was opened as a Dispensary, with a Dissenting Chapel, called Shaftesbury Chapel, on the first floor, until the migration of the congregation to a new chapel opposite Westmoreland Buildings, called Aldersgate Chapel.

Petre, Dorchester, or London House stood on the west side of the street nearly opposite Shaftesbury House. It is supposed to have been built by Sir William Petre, who became rich by monastic plunder at the dissolution of monasteries, and died in 1572. It was occupied by his descendants until 1639, when it came into possession of Henry Pierrepoint, Marquis of Dorchester. During the Commonwealth it was made use of as a state prison, and after the Great Fire of 1666 had destroyed the palace of the Bishop of London, in St. Paul's Churchyard, became the episcopal residence of the see, many alterations being made, and the chapel built by various bishops, and was held by them until 1725. In 1748 it was occupied by Jacob Ilive, "the crazy printer and fanatical writer," and twenty years after by Seddon, the eminent cabinetmaker, ancestors of the Seddons of Gray's Inn Road, who had the misfortune to have it burnt, with the whole of his uninsured stock, on two occasions. Afterwards, also, Miss Seddon was burnt to death in the house, by her clothes catching fire.