The Survey of London

by John Stow

In this St. George’s lane, on the north side thereof, remaineth yet an old wall of stone, enclosing a piece of ground up Seacole lane, wherein by report sometime stood an inn of chancery; which house being greatly decayed, and standing remote from other houses of that profession, the company removed to a common hostelry, called of the sign Our Lady inn, not far from Clement’s inn, which they procured from Sir John Fineox, lord chief justice of the king’s bench, and since have held it of the owners by the name of the New inn, paying therefore six pounds rent by the year, as tenants at their own will, for more (as is said) cannot be gotten of them, and much less will they be put from it. Beneath this St. George’s lane, the lane called Fleet lane, winding south by the prison of the Fleet into Fleet street by Fleet bridge. Lower down in the Old Bayly is at this present a standard of timber, with a cock or cocks, delivering fair spring water to the inhabitants, and is the waste of the water serving the prisoners in Ludgate.

Next out of the high street turneth down a lane called the Little Bayly, which runneth down to the east end of St. George’s lane. The next is Seacole lane, I think called Limeburner’s lane, of burning lime there with seacole. For I read in record of such a lane to have been in the parish of St. Sepulcher, and there yet remaineth in this lane an alley called Limeburner’s alley. Near unto this Seacole lane, in the turning towards Oldborne conduit is Turnagain lane, or rather, as in a record of the 5th of Edward III., Windagain lane, for that it goeth down west to Fleet dike, from whence men must turn again the same way they came, for there it stopped. Then the high street turneth down Snore hill to Oldborne conduit, and from thence to Oldborne bridge, beyond the which bridge, on the left hand, is Shoe lane, by the which men pass from Oldborne to Fleet street, by the conduit there. In this Shoe lane, on the left hand, is one old house called Oldborne hall, it is now letten out into divers tenements.

On the other side, at the very corner, standeth the parish church of St. Andrew, in the which church, or near thereunto, was sometime kept a grammar school, as appeareth in another place by a patent made, as I have shown, for the erection of schools. There be monuments in this church of Thomas Lord Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, buried 1550; Ralph Rokeby of Lincoln’s inn, esquire, Master of St. Katherine’s and one of the masters of requests to the queen’s majesty, who deceased the 14th of June, 1596. He gave by his testament to Christ’s Hospital in London one hundred pounds, to the college of the poor of Queen Elizabeth in East Greenwich one hundred pounds, to the poor scholars in Cambridge one hundred pounds, to the poor scholars in Oxford one hundred pounds, to the prisoners in the two compters in London two hundred pounds, to the prisoners in the Fleet one hundred pounds, to the prisoners in Ludgate one hundred pounds, to the prisoners in Newgate one hundred pounds, to the prisoners in the King’s Bench one hundred pounds, to the prisoners in the Marshalsea one hundred pounds, to the prisoners in the White Lion twenty pounds, to the poor of St. Katherine’s twenty pounds, and to every brother and sister there forty shillings; William Sydnam founded a chantry there. There was also of old time (as I have read in the 3rd of Henry V.) an hospital for the poor, which was a cell to the house of Cluny in France, and was, therefore, suppressed among the priories aliens.

From this church of St. Andrew, up Oldborne hill be divers fair built houses, amongst the which, on the left hand, there standeth three inns of Chancery, whereof the first adjoining unto Crookhorn alley is called Thaves inn, and standeth opposite, or over against the said Elyhouse. Then is Fewter lane, which stretcheth south into Fleet street, by the east end of St. Dunstone’s church, and is so called of Fewters’[268] (or idle people) lying there, as in a way leading to gardens; but the same is now of latter years on both sides built through with many fair houses.

Beyond this Fewter lane is Barnard’s inn, alias Mackworth’s inn, which is of Chancery, belonging to the dean and chapter of Lincoln, as saith the record of Henry VI., the 32nd of his reign, and was founded by inquisition in the Guildhall of London, before John Norman, mayor, the king’s escheator; the jury said, that it was not hurtful for the king to license T. Atkens, citizen of London, and one of the executors to John Mackworth, Dean of Lincoln, to give one messuage in Holborn in London, with the appurtenances called Mackworth’s inn, but now commonly known by the name of Barnardes inn, to the dean and chapter of Lincoln, to find one sufficient chaplain to celebrate Divine service in the chapel of St. George, in the cathedral church of Lincoln, where the body of the said John is buried, to have and to hold the said messuage to the said dean and chapter, and to their successors for ever, in part of satisfaction of twenty pounds lands and rents, which Edward III. licensed the said dean and chapter to purchase to their own use, either of their own fee or tenor, or of any other, so the lands were not holden of the king in capite.

Then is Staple inn, also of Chancery, but whereof so named I am ignorant; the same of late is for a great part thereof fair built, and not a little augmented. And then at the bar endeth this ward without Newgate.

Without Ludgate, on the right hand, or north side from the said gate lieth the Old Bayly, as I said, then the high street called Ludgate hill down to Fleet lane, in which lane standeth the Fleet, a prison house so called of the Fleet or water running by it, and sometime flowing about it, but now vaulted over.

I read that Richard I., in the 1st of his reign, confirmed to Osbert, brother to William Longshampe, Chancellor of England and elect of Elie, and to his heirs for ever, the custody of his house or palace at Westminster, with the keeping of his gaol of the Fleet at London; also King John, by his patent, dated the 3rd of his reign, gave to the Archdeacon of Welles, the custody of the said king’s house at Westminster, and of his gaol of the Fleet, together with the wardship of the daughter and heir of Robert Loveland, etc. Then is Fleet bridge pitched over the said water, whereof I have spoken in another place.

Then also against the south end of Shoe lane standeth a fair water-conduit, whereof William Eastfield, sometime mayor, was founder; for the mayor and commonalty of London being possessed of a conduit head, with divers springs of water gathered thereinto in the parish of Padington, and the water conveyed from thence by pipes of lead towards London unto Teyborne; where it had lain by the space of six years or more; the executors of Sir William Eastfield obtained licence of the mayor and commonalty for them, in the year 1453, with the goods of Sir William to convey the said waters, first in pipes of lead into a pipe begun to be laid beside the great conduit head at Maribone, which stretcheth from thence unto a separall, late before made against the chapel of Rounsevall by Charing cross, and no further, and then from thence to convey the said water into the city, and there to make receipt or receipts for the same unto the common weal of the commonalty, to wit, the poor to drink, the rich to dress their meats; which water was by them brought thus into Fleet street to a standard, which they had made and finished 1471.

The inhabitants of Fleet street, in the year 1478, obtained licence of the mayor, aldermen, and commonalty, to make at their own charges two cisterns, the one to be set at the said standard, the other at Fleet bridge, for the receipt of the waste water; this cistern at the standard they built, and on the same a fair tower of stone, garnished with images of St. Christopher on the top, and angels round about lower down, with sweet sounding bells before them, whereupon, by an engine placed in the tower, they divers hours of the day and night chimed such an hymn as was appointed.