Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold;
There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st,
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-ey’d cherubins;
Such harmony is in immortal souls,
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.”
The original Church of St. Sepulchre, founded during the time of the Crusades, was so denominated in honour of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. The name of St. Bride’s Church, Fleet Street, is a contraction of St. Bridget’s Church. The Church of St. Andrew Undershaft, Leadenhall Street, dedicated to St. Andrew, was originally so called because its steeple was of lesser altitude than the tall shaft or maypole which stood opposite the south door. Hence, the church was literally “under the shaft.” The parish of St. Mary-Axe is now united to that of St. Andrew Undershaft. The Church of St. Helen’s, Bishopsgate, was built and dedicated to St. Helena, the mother of Constantine, in 1180, just thirty years before William Fitzwilliam, a rich goldsmith, founded in connection therewith a priory of Benedictine nuns, dedicated to the Holy Cross and St. Helena. The neighbouring Church of St. Ethelburga was so named in honour of the daughter of King Ethelbert. The Church of Allhallowes Barking, at the bottom of Mark Lane, derived the second portion of its title from the fact that it belonged to the ancient abbey and convent at Barking, in Essex. St. Olave’s Church, Tooley Street, is properly described as St. Olaf’s Church, being dedicated to Olaf, a Norwegian prince of great renown, who came over to this country at the invitation of the King Ethelred, and rendered good service in expelling the Danes.
The central portion of the Tower of London, supposed to have been built by Julius Cæsar, is known as the White Tower on account of the white stone employed in its construction. In the Bloody Tower the Infant Princes were murdered by order of their uncle, Richard III.; and in the Beauchamp Tower, Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, was imprisoned by Richard II. for leading the conspiracy of the Barons for the removal of Sir Simon de Burley, the young King’s favourite. At the accession of Henry IV. the Earl obtained his liberty. Traitors’ Gate denotes the river gate by which all State prisoners convicted of high treason were admitted into the Tower. Newgate Prison derived its name from its original situation next to the newest of the five principal gates of the City. The prison is first mentioned in history under date 1207. The present gloomy edifice was built in 1782. The open space between the prison and the Old Bailey was formerly known as the Press Yard, because here it was that prisoners who refused to plead upon trial were barbarously pressed to death. The Old Bailey Sessions House received its name from the street in which it stands [see [Old Bailey] in the article “[London Streets and Squares].”] The old Marshalsea Prison, Southwark, abolished and pulled down in 1842, was so called because it contained the Court of the Knight-Marshal, whose duty it was to settle disputes occurring between the members of the Royal Household. This office now belongs to the Steward of the Royal Household. Bridewell was a corruption of “St. Bridget’s Well,” discovered in the grounds attached to an ancient hospital, afterwards converted into a house of correction for females. An iron pump let into the wall of the churchyard at the upper end of Bride Lane indicates the exact spot where the dames of old were wont to drink the virtuous waters. The Fleet Prison took its name from the river, now a common sewer, near which it stood. The northern boundary of the prison is now defined by Fleet Lane, which runs from Farringdon Street to the Old Bailey.
St. John’s Gate, Clerkenwell, is the sole remaining portion of the priory of St. John of Jerusalem, the seat in this country of the Knights Hospitallers, instituted by Godfrey de Boulogne. The Gate now forms the headquarters of the St. John’s Ambulance Association. Temple Bar was not one of the City fortifications, but the ordinary gateway of the Temple. It was popularly known as The City Golgotha, owing to the spiked heads of traitors exposed thereon—Golgotha being Hebrew for “the place of skulls.” The Bar was taken down in 1878. London Bridge—that is to say, the original structure—was the first bridge over the Thames. The present structure was thrown open August 1, 1831. Billingsgate traces its origin to Belin, one of the early kings of Britain, who built a gate on the site of the present market and gave it his name. St. Katherine’s Docks received their title from an ancient hospital dedicated to St. Katherine, swept away by their construction in the year 1828. The Mint is so called in accordance with the Anglo-Saxon mynet, coin [see [Money]]. The Trinity House, the seat of the Trinity Corporation, which controls the pilotage of the Thames and the various lighthouses, buoys, harbour-dues, &c., around our coast, owed its foundation to Sir Thomas Spert, Comptroller of the Navy of Henry VIII., and commander of the Harry Grace de Dieu, originally situated at Deptford; it was incorporated in 1529 under the style of “The Master-Wardens and Assistants of the Guild, or Fraternity, or Brotherhood, of the most glorious and undivisible Trinity, and St. Clement, in the parish of Deptford, Stroud, in the County of Kent.” The present edifice was built in 1795. Crosby Hall, Bishopsgate, at one time a palace, but now converted into a restaurant, was built by Sir John Crosby about the middle of the fifteenth century. The Congregational Memorial Hall, Farringdon Road, which occupies part of the site of the old Fleet Prison, was built in 1872 to memorate the ejection of more than two thousand Church of England ministers from their charges, August 24, 1662, consequent upon their refusal to subscribe to the “Act of Uniformity” [see [Nonconformists]]. The Guildhall is the hall of the City guilds; the word Guild being derived from the Anglo-Saxon gildan, to pay, alluding to the fee paid for membership. Doctors’ Commons, originally established as a college for the Professors of Canon and Civil Law, received its name from the rule which required the Doctors to dine at a common table. That sombre-looking structure, the College of Arms, otherwise Heralds’ College, is the office where the records of the genealogical descent of all our noble families are preserved, and where searches for coats-of-arms may be instituted. The Corporation of the College dates back to the year 1484. The General Post Office is officially denominated St. Martin’s-le-Grand because it occupies the site of a collegiate church and sanctuary of that name founded by Within, King of Kent in 750, and chartered by William the Conqueror in 1068.