The Gift of Mr. Lewis Newbury.
Built by
Thomas Glover Esq.,
his Executor, committed
to the management of the
Company of Skinners,
London.
The houses, twelve in number, were for poor widows. There was a chapel and a garden at the further end. In 1892 the Skinners' Company invited tenders for the purchase of the property, and about two years afterwards the old buildings here represented were swept away.
(7316 × 538) D. 27-1896.
24. The Old George Inn, Trinity Square, 1890 (Black and white).
This was a picturesque building, but with no special history. A drawing of it in the Crace collection shows trees in front and a horse-trough. To the gallery, people may have flocked to see executions on Tower Hill, for instance, those of the rebel lords in 1746 and '47. The house was burnt down early in 1894.
(858 × 1138) D. 28-1896.
25. Gateways on the east side of College Hill, 1891 (Black and white).
College Hill is so named because Richard Whittington, the famous Mayor of London, here founded a College of St. Spirit and St. Mary. He was buried in St. Michael's Church hard by, which was destroyed in the Great Fire and rebuilt by Wren. A view of its tower is given in this drawing, and here in the foreground appear two gateways with sculptured pediments which are quite in the style of the same great architect. It is worthy of remark that on College Hill was the house and courtyard of "Zimri," the second and last Duke of Buckingham of the Villiers family, who, as Strype tells us, lived in this street for some time "upon a particular humour." Hatton in his "New View of London," 1708, says that this is "a spacious building on the east side of College Hill, now or late in the possession of Sir John Lethieullier," and as regards the position of the house he is followed by Peter Cunningham. However, in Ogilby and Morgan's map of 1677, and in the map attached to Strype's edition of Stow, the Duke's dwelling is distinctly shown on the west side of College Hill.
At present the gateways shown in the drawing are incorporated in a frontage which in old leases is always called "the stable"; they form the means of access to two houses joined together; that to the south—No. 21, College Hill, being a capital specimen of a merchant's dwelling of the early part of the eighteenth century, with a handsome staircase, carved over-doors, and a finely panelled room on the first floor. The other has been rebuilt of late years. They stand back some distance from the street, and have no special relation with the gateways, which are older in style. Underneath both houses run, or ran, very large cellars, connected, and within memory there was a small garden at the back of No. 21. In 1746 this house belonged to Charles Lethieullier, and was then tenanted by Sir Samuel Pennant, the previous occupant having been Sir Robert Godschall. The house afterwards passed by marriage to the Hulses; for many years it has been in the hands of the Wilde family, which has produced two eminent judges—Lord Truro and Lord Penzance.
Taking into consideration the fact of the property having belonged to the Lethieullier family, from its ground plan, and from the style of the gateways themselves and of the building to which they belong, it seems not improbable that here were the stables of Buckingham House with a garden at the back. The house between the gateways and the church was built for the Mercers' School, being opened by the Master and Wardens, June 6th, 1832, and is said to occupy the site of Whittington's dwelling. The school has of late years, in its turn, been removed to Barnard's Inn, of which there are drawings in this collection. The school building on College Hill at the time of writing remains.