The two mighty and illustrious northern families of Percy and Nevil had both of them a town mansion in Aldersgate Street on the western side—Northumberland House, on the site of Bull and Mouth Street; and Westmoreland House, on the site of Westmoreland Court, extending to Bartholomew Close. On the death of Henry, first Earl of Northumberland, at the Battle of Bramham Moor, 1408, and his subsequent attainder, King Henry IV. gave Northumberland House to Queen Joan for a wardrobe. Afterwards it became a printing office, then a tavern, and finally was divided into shops and tenements. Lauderdale House stood on the east side, a little north of Shaftesbury House. It was the residence of the Earl of Lauderdale, a member of the "Cabal" ministry of Charles II. Upon the site was built Bote and Walsh's distillery. Close by Shaftesbury House stood Bacon House, the residence of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper to Queen Elizabeth, and father of Lord Chancellor Bacon, one of the greatest of our philosophers. Ralph Montagu, third Baron and first Duke of Montagu, "as arrant a knave as any in his time," as Swift observed when he was raised to a dukedom, lived in Aldersgate Street until he built Montagu House, Bloomsbury (the British Museum), when he removed thither. Charles Mordaunt, third Earl of Peterborough, one of the foremost men of the court of Queen Anne, was also a resident. On the west side of the street there is a picturesque old house (now a newsagent's shop) with an inscription stating that "This was Shakespeare's House," which may possibly be true, but there does not appear to be any documentary evidence in proof thereof. Mary, Countess of Pembroke, sister of Sir P. Sydney, the subject of Ben Jonson's famous epitaph, which was not inscribed on her tomb, died at her house in the street in 1621.
Many other distinguished personages have been born, lived, or died in Aldersgate Street, amongst whom may be noticed Milton, who in 1641 was living in a house at the bottom of Lamb (now Maidenhead) Court; Brian Walton, Bishop of Chester, the learned editor of the first English Polyglot Bible; Thos. Flatman, the poet, who was born in the street in 1657; the brothers Rawlinson, who resided in London House—Thomas, the "Tom Folio" of the Tatler, No. 158, and Richard, LL.D., F.R.S., and F.S.A., both antiquaries and great collectors of books. The Right Hon. Thos. Harley, a memorable member of the Corporation, and M.P. for the City, also resided here.
The Company of Cooks had their hall on the western side of Aldersgate Street, adjoining Little Britain. The company was incorporated by Letters Patent in 1480, by Edward IV., under the style and title of "The Masters and Governors and Commonalty of the Mystery of Cooks in London," and their charter was confirmed by Elizabeth and James I. with "a master, four wardens, and 25 assistants." The hall escaped the fire of 1666, but was destroyed by fire in 1771, and was not rebuilt.
There have been and still are many taverns and hostelries of considerable note in Aldersgate Street and St. Martin's-le-Grand. The most interesting is the "Mourning Bush," a very ancient tavern with a carved ivy bush for its sign—a timber-gabled house—with portions of the old wall of London for its foundations. It stood on the east side of the street, and had a back entrance in St. Anne's Lane. The landlord, during the time of the Civil War, was a devoted royalist, and on the execution of King Charles had the courage to paint his ivy bush black, and call it the "Mourning Bush." In 1749, the sign was changed to "The Fountain," and is referred to by Tom Brown as one of the "four or five topping taverns of the City," whose owners might look for an alderman's gown. In 1830, it was repaired and refitted, and instead of restoring the old historically interesting name, it has since been christened "The Lord Raglan." "The Bull and Mouth" (a corruption of Boulogne Mouth, or Harbour) a very ancient hostelry, originally standing in Bull and Mouth and Angel streets, with a galleried and gabled court-yard, now taken down. It was rebuilt in 1830, and to meet the more fastidious taste of the time its somewhat vulgar name was changed to the more euphonious "Queen's Hotel." On a stone tablet was the following inscription: —
"Milo the Cretonian
An ox slew with his fist,
And ate it up at one meal,
Ye gods, what a glorious twist!"
The new branch of the Post Office is being built on the site. Two doors from Barbican stood the "Bell," an inn worthy of being remembered as having been the resort of John Taylor, the Water Poet. The Albion is celebrated for its public dinners, and for the trade sales of London publishers. The Castle and Falcon is also a famous and very old inn, standing close by, and probably on a portion of the site of the gate.
Aldersgate Street has been the scene of some incendiary fires for the sake of plunder. Pepys, in his Diary, July, 1687, refers to a case in which two boys, one "a son of Lady Montagu's, I know not what Lady Montagu—got into the company of some rogues, who persuaded them to rob their fathers' houses of plate and other valuables, of which they appropriated the greater portion, and afterwards to set fire to a house in the street, that they might abscond with the goods that were thrown into the streets." Again in May, 1790, some scoundrels fired a house at the corner of Long Lane, which eventuated in the destruction of all the houses to Catherine (? Carthusian Street), involving the loss of property amounting to £40,000, that they might plunder them in the confusion. One John Flindall was apprehended, tried, and sentenced to transportation for robbery during the fire, when he offered to turn king's evidence, was accepted, and he revealed the diabolical plot, implicating especially two accomplices, Lowe and Jobbins, the ringleaders, who were hanged in front of the ruins. The Corporation took advantage of the clearance to widen Aldersgate in this part of the street, which had previously been very narrow, at a cost of £4,035.