(91116 × 5) D. 47-1896.
53. Interior of the Church of Allhallows the Great, 1893 (Water-colour).
(1338 × 16916) D. 70-1896.
54. Carved Emblematical Figures, Allhallows the Great, 1893 (Water-colour).
The church of Allhallows the Great, Upper Thames Street, is mentioned in a will of 1259. The patronage of the living was anciently in the hands of the Le Despencers; it afterwards came to Richard Nevil, Earl of Warwick, "the King maker." This church had a large cloister on the south side. The whole was destroyed or very much injured in the great fire, and rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren, who, according to his custom, worked in such parts of the walls and foundations as were available. The tower and north aisle or ambulatory of this structure (which seems never to have been open to the nave) were removed in 1876 for the widening of Upper Thames Street. Under the Union of Benefices Act, the church itself was sold by auction March 31st, 1894, and shortly afterwards pulled down, the ground being bought by the neighbouring brewery. It is now an open space with its fragment of churchyard. The interior was of singular beauty, and retained its original fittings to the end, among them the fine open screen shown in drawing No. 53 and now at St. Margaret's, Lothbury. This screen is sometimes said to have been made at Hamburg, and given by the Hanseatic merchants, so long connected with the neighbouring Steelyard. It is, however, undoubtedly English work. The earlier documents bearing on the subject make it almost certain that both screen and pulpit were presented by Theodore Jacobsen, who in 1680 succeeded his brother Jacob as house-master of the Steelyard, an office which the latter had held at the time of the Great Fire. It was chiefly through their efforts that the Steelyard was rebuilt, and the Jacobsen family thereby acquired claims over it, which, after protracted litigation, were bought up by the Hanseatic towns in 1748. These retained the Steelyard and some slight connection with the church until after the middle of the nineteenth century. It may be observed also that the screen has on it an eagle "displayed." The beautiful sounding board of the pulpit also has an eagle. This is now at St. Margaret's, Lothbury; the pulpit itself has been removed to a church at Hammersmith.
The second drawing represents a carved allegorical group—Charity trampling on Envy—formerly on the front of the organ gallery, from which the general view was taken. There, in the place it was designed for, it had a very telling effect. It is now fastened on to a lectern in the church of St. Michael, Paternoster Royal, with which parish that of Allhallows has been united.
(1138×7) D. 86-1896.
55. Doorways of Nos. 1 and 2, Laurence Poultney Hill, 1895 (Water-colour).
These very handsome doorways, of a style which was not unusual in the reign of Queen Anne, are situated in so narrow a lane that it was difficult to get an effective view of them. An important brick mansion, built on this site immediately after the Great Fire, and occupied by one, "Justus Otgher," so named in an indenture, was taken down at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and replaced by the two houses of which these doorways form part. Within one of these shell-shaped canopies is the date of erection, 1703; in the other is a representation of two boys playing at marbles. On July 15th, 1704, the two houses were sold to Thomas Denning, citizen and salter, for £3,190. The Rev. H. B. Wilson, D. D. and F.S.A., who wrote a history of the parish of St. Laurence Poultney, was residing in 1831 at No. 1 (which still has a handsome staircase), while No. 2 was occupied by Mr. Justin Fitzgerald.
(1038×734) D. 90-1896.