Until a few years ago a house was standing on the west side of Coleman Street, near the north end, which, like houses innumerable, was reputed to have been a residence of Oliver Cromwell; at first sight it appeared to date from the earlier part of the eighteenth century. There was in it a good eighteenth century staircase with a skylight above, and one of the rooms had a handsome mantelpiece, also apparently Georgian. Another room, on the first floor, was distinguished by very remarkable features: it was panelled with cedar, and, as will be seen, the style of this panelling and of the handsome carved chimneypiece are distinctly Jacobean. The house, therefore, was much older than appeared at first sight, or else it had been rebuilt early in the eighteenth century, the chimneypiece and panelling being insertions from an older building. The houses at the north end of Coleman Street were not destroyed in the Great Fire. In 1891-92 the cedar room was used as an office by Mr. H. S. Foster, then Sheriff of London. In 1896 the house was pulled down by Messrs. Colls and Son, whose offices adjoined, and in clearing away the foundations the workmen came upon three ancient wells—two of them went down 20 ft. below the pavement level. The following is quoted from an illustrated article in the "City Press" for June 6th, 1896:—"The construction of these wells or elongated water-butts was simplicity itself. Tubs or casks, bound with wooden hoops, were sunk into the ground and banked up with puddled clay to keep them water-tight. The clay remains to this day, as also do the wooden hoops (or did till very recently), but the latter are as soft as touchwood." The description of these casks reminds one of casks somewhat similar which have been found in Roman wells at Silchester, and were exhibited in the rooms of the Society of Antiquaries at Burlington House. In the wells beneath No. 4, Coleman Street, were discovered various pieces of pottery in remarkably good preservation, which are now in the Guildhall. The collection represents types ranging from the beginning of the fifteenth to the end of the seventeenth century. The soil in which these old wells were sunk was dark and peaty, like that of Moorfields, on the other side of the City Wall.
(12 × 91316) D. 84-1896.
43. Interior of The Two Brewers Public-house, No. 27, London Wall, 1886 (Black and white).
The Two Brewers Public-house, at the entrance to Fox and Goose Yard, London Wall, destroyed a few weeks after the completion of this drawing, was evidently a very old building. The sign was in former days a common one, being usually represented by two brewers' men carrying a barrel of beer slung between them on a pole. It is curious that a sign of a similar description was used by the Romans; one representing two men carrying between them an amphora was found at Pompeii. It is figured in Larwood and Hotten's "History of Signboards," that of the Two Brewers being placed alongside for comparison.
(7 × 9) D. 41-1896.
44. Part of the Chapter Coffee House, from Paul's Alley, 1887 (Black and white).
The Chapter Coffee House in Paternoster Row (No. 50) and also opening into Paul's Alley, a passage from St. Paul's Churchyard, was noted in the 18th century as a house of call for London publishers. In the "Connoisseur," No. 1, January 31st, 1754, is the following notice of it:—"And here my publisher would not forgive me was I to leave the neighbourhood without taking notice of the Chapter Coffee House, which is frequented by those encouragers of literature, and, as they are styled by an eminent critic—'not the worst judges of merit'—the booksellers. The conversation here naturally turns upon the newest publications, but their criticisms are somewhat singular. When they say a good book they do not mean to praise the style or sentiment, but the quick and extensive sale of it." Late in the 18th century and early in the 19th, several clubs met here, of which an account is given in the "Curiosities of London," by John Timbs. Goldsmith appears to have known it well. Chatterton says, in a letter to his mother, "I am quite familiar at the Chapter Coffee House." And here Charlotte and Anne Brontë stayed on their first visit to London in June, 1848. It had been visited by their father, and thus they gained their knowledge of it. The late Mr. George Smith, the famous publisher, remembered calling on them there, and Mrs. Gaskell gives a graphic description of the low ceilings, the wainscotted rooms, and the high narrow windows. After the death of the proprietor, Charles Faithfull, in November, 1853, the house became an ordinary tavern; it was rebuilt before 1890, there are now no rooms over the passage. From the Chapter Coffee House were issued in the seventeenth century two leathern trade tokens, specimens of which are preserved in the Beaufoy Collection at the Guildhall Museum. The larger one, representing a groat, has on it:—
O.—CHAPTER COFFEE HOUSE (4)—In the field, a mitre.
R.—Blank.
The leather appears to have been gilded.