The Survey of London

by John Stow

There are buried in that church, Leoftane, provost, shrive or domesman of London, 1115; Sir William Bowes, knight, and Dame Elizabeth his wife; Sir Thomas Pikeworth, knight; Dame Anne Audley; George, son to John Lord Audley; John Winkefield, esquire; Sir Nicholas Blonket, knight; Dame Bridget, wife to William Trussell; Holgrave, baron of the exchequer; etc.

Next unto this abbey church standeth a proper church of St. Mary Magdalen, built by the priors of Bermondsey, serving for resort of the inhabitants (tenants to the prior or abbots near adjoining) there to have their Divine service: this church remaineth, and serveth as afore, and is called a parish church.

Then in Kent street is a lazar house for leprous people, called the Loke in Southwark; the foundation whereof I find not. Now, having touched divers principal parts of this borough, I am to speak somewhat of its government, and so to end.

This borough, upon petition made by the citizens of London to Edward I., in the 1st year of his reign, was, for divers causes, by parliament granted to them for ever, yielding into the exchequer the fee-firm of ten pounds by the year; which grant was confirmed by Edward III., who, in the 3rd of his reign gave them license to take a toll towards the charge of paving the said borough with stone. Henry IV. confirmed the grant of his predecessors, so did Edward IV., etc.

But in the year 1550, King Edward VI., for the sum of six hundred and forty-seven pounds two shillings and one penny, paid into his court of augmentations and revenues of his crown, granted to the mayor and commonalty all his lands and tenements in Southwark, except, and reserved, the capital messuage, two mansions, called Southwark place, late the Duke of Suffolk’s, and all the gardens and lands to the same appertaining, the park, and the messuage called the Antilope. Moreover, he gave them the lordship and manor of Southwark, with all members and rights thereof, late pertaining to the monastery of Bermondsey. And all messuages, places, buildings, rents, courts, waifs and strays, to the same appertaining, in the county of Surrey, except as is before excepted. He also granted unto them his manor and borough of Southwark, with all the members, rights, and appurtenances, late of the possession of the Archbishop of Canterbury and his see in Southwark. Moreover, for the sum of five hundred marks, he granted to the said mayor and commonalty, and their successors, in and through the borough and town of Southwark, and in all the parishes of St. Saviour, St. Olave, and St. George, and the parish of St. Thomas Hospital, now called the King’s hospital, and elsewhere, in the said town and borough of Southwark, and Kentish street, Bermondsey street, in the parish of Newington, all waifs and strays, treasure trove, all felons’ goods, etc., within the parishes and precinct aforesaid, etc.: the return of writs, processes, and warrants, etc.: together with a fair in the whole town for three days, to wit, the 7th, 8th, and 9th of September, yearly, with a court of pye powders. A view of franke pledge, with attachments, arrests, etc. Also to arrest all felons, and other malefactors, within their precinct, and send them to ward, and to Newgate. Provided that nothing in that grant should be prejudicial to the stewards and marshal of the king’s house. The same premises to be holden of the manor of East Greenwich, in the county of Kent, by fealty in free forage. Dated at Westminster, the 23rd of April, in the 4th of his reign. All which was also confirmed by parliament, etc. And the same year, in the Whitsun week, in a court of aldermen, kept at the Guildhall of London, Sir John Aylophe, knight, was sworn the first alderman of Bridge ward without, and made up the number of twenty-six aldermen of London.

This borough at a subsidy to the king yieldeth about one thousand marks, or eight hundred pounds, which is more than any one city in England payeth, except the city of London. And also the muster of men in this borough doth likewise in number surpass all other cities, except London. And thus much for the borough of Southwark, one of the twenty-six wards of London, which hath an alderman, deputies three, and a bailiff, common-council none, constables sixteen, scavengers six, wardmote inquest twenty. And is taxed to the fifteen at seventeen pounds seventeen shillings and eight pence.

THE SUBURBS WITHOUT THE WALLS OF THE SAID CITY BRIEFLY TOUCHED. AS ALSO WITHOUT THE LIBERTIES MORE AT LARGE DESCRIBED.

Having spoken of this city, the original, and increase, by degrees: the walls, gates, ditch, castles, towers, bridges, the schools, and houses of learning: of the orders and customs, sports, and pastimes: of the honour of citizens, and worthiness of men: and last of all, how the same city is divided into parts and wards: and how the same be bounded: and what monuments of antiquity, or ornaments of building, in every of them, as also in the borough of Southwark: I am next to speak briefly of the suburbs, as well without the gates and walls as without the liberties, and of the monuments in them.

Concerning the estate of the suburbs of this city, in the reign of Henry II., Fitz Stephen hath these words:—“Upwards, on the west (saith he), is the king’s palace, which is an incomparable building, rising with a vawmure and bulwark aloft upon the river, two miles from the wall of the city, but yet conjoined with a continual suburb. On all sides, without the houses of the suburbs, are the citizens’ gardens and orchards, planted with trees, both large, sightly, and adjoining together. On the north side are pastures and plain meadows, with brooks running through them, turning water-mills with a pleasant noise. Not far off is a great forest, a well wooded chase, having good covert for harts, bucks, does, boars, and wild bulls. The corn fields are not of a hungry sandy mould, but as the fruitful fields of Asia, yielding plentiful increase, and filling the barns with corn. There are near London, on the north side, especial wells in the suburbs, sweet, wholesome, and clear. Amongst which, Holywell, Clarkenwell, and St. Clement’s well, are most famous, and most frequented by scholars and youths of the city in summer evenings, when they walk forth to take the air.” Thus far out of Fitz Stephen for the suburbs at that time.

The 2nd of King Henry III. the forest of Middlesex, and the warren of Staines, were disafforested; since the which time the suburbs about London hath been also mightily increased with buildings; for first, to begin in the East, by the Tower of London, is the hospital of St. Katherine, founded by Matilda the queen, wife to King Stephen, as is afore shown in Portsoken ward; from this precinct of St. Katherine to Wapping in the west,[275] the usual place of execution for hanging of pirates and sea rovers, at the low-water mark, and there to remain, till three tides had overflowed them, was never a house standing within these forty years; but since the gallows being after removed farther off, a continual street, or filthy strait passage, with alleys of small tenements, or cottages, built, inhabited by sailors’ victuallers, along by the river of Thames, almost to Radcliff, a good mile from the Tower.