65. The Cheshire Cheese Tavern, Fleet Street, from Wine Office Court, 1890 (Black and white).
Now that the Cock in Fleet Street has flown over the way to comparatively modern quarters, and Dick's is no more, the Cheshire Cheese, at No. 145, is the most old-fashioned tavern not only in this neighbourhood, but in all London, and the old style is carefully kept up. Contrary to general belief, and to many printed statements, there is no record that the great Samuel Johnson, who so much appreciated the charms of tavern life, ever frequented it, though this is by no means improbable, as he lived hereabout for many years. Indeed, Gough Square, where he compiled his dictionary, is within a minute's walk, and his friend Oliver Goldsmith wrote the Vicar of Wakefield at No. 6, Wine Office Court, close to the spot from which the drawing is taken, at a time when the evening has begun, and "Tavern lights flit on from room to room." At the old Cheshire Cheese the Modern Johnson Club has often met, traditions of Johnson's visits are repeated, and his portrait hangs in a corner of the principal dining room on the ground floor. This room has been depicted by various artists of distinction, among others by Seymour Lucas, R.A., and Dendy Sadler. The panelled walls, the seventeenth century fireplace, the sawdusted floor, and other quaint survivals, combine to make a pretty picture. An illustrated "Book of the Cheese," which has gone through several editions, is, or was, sold at the bar.
(834 × 614) D. 55-1896.
66. Hare Court, Temple, 1891 (Black and white).
Passing out of Fleet Street through the Inner Temple Gateway, under the old room acquired some years ago by the London County Council, the first opening on the right leads us into Hare Court, which "Elia" has described with less than his usual sympathy as "a gloomy churchyard-like place, with trees and a pump in it." At this pump he had often drunk when a child, and the contents later in life he recommends as "excellent cold with brandy." The back of Dick's coffee-house is here to be seen, nestling against a fine old block of chambers, and overshadowed on the right by a high modern structure which seems to have got in there by mistake. Dick's, sometimes called Richard's, stood on the site of the printing office of Richard Tottel, law stationer in the reign of Henry VIII.; it got its name, however, from Richard Torner or Turner, who was landlord in 1680. From the days of Steele and Addison many eminent men frequented it. As is well known, coffee-houses for half a century or more had a great influence on the sale of books; every new poem or pamphlet of any importance was to be seen in them. Peter Cunningham records that he had several in his possession bearing in large letters on their title-page "Dick's Coffee-house." This picturesque old place of entertainment, like the Rainbow and other houses of a similar description, was approached from Fleet Street by a long passage. In front it was a wooden structure; the back was really half-timbered, the timbering concealed by plaster; inside the original staircase remained. It disappeared in 1899; the rest of the seventeenth century buildings in Hare Court had been swept away some years previously.
(11316 × 778) D. 56-1896.
67. Sion College and the City of London School, Victoria Embankment, 1893 (Black and white).
Sion College, near the north end of Blackfriars Bridge, and next on the west to the City of London School, was founded in 1623, as a College and Almshouse, according to the will of Dr. Thomas White, who was Vicar of St. Dunstan's in the West, and held other clerical appointments. A library was added by the munificence of Dr. John Simson, rector of St. Olave's, Hart Street, and an executor of the will. Until of late years, the home of the College was in London Wall, between Aldermanbury on the east and Philip Lane on the west, the former site of Elsing Spittal. The old library was built along the east side of Philip Lane, the hall stood back in the College garden. Mr. W. Niven, in his volume on London City churches, gives a good etching of the picturesque gateway. New Sion College, here shown, was formally opened by their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales, December 15, 1886.
The City of London School was established in Milk Street about the year 1835 for the sons of persons engaged in professional or commercial pursuits, deriving part of its income from property bequeathed for educational purposes by John Carpenter, town-clerk of London in the reign of Henry V. The school had been transferred to its present site on the Victoria Embankment a short time before this drawing was made.
(658 × 914) D. 76-1896.