And a river flows on through the vale of Cheapside.
Within one of the inner courts of the Bank of England there is a garden tastefully planted with trees and shrubs, some of considerable age; and in the centre there springs forth a large fountain, mushroom-shaped, which plays during the office hours for the benefit of the clerks who inhabit that portion of the building, and for the ‘toilers’ who pass in and out with their bills of exchange and their bags of gold. The sparrows which congregate here flutter from branch to branch, twittering, ‘as though they called to one another,’ as Charles Dickens describes it, ‘Let us play at country;’ a place where ‘a few feet of garden,’ he says in Edwin Drood, ‘enable them to do that refreshing violence to their tiny understandings.’ This green spot, like many others still to be seen in the City of London, was once a churchyard; it belonged to the church of St Christopher in Threadneedle Street.
But one of the greenest spots in the City, although only a corner of it remains, is perhaps Drapers’ Hall Gardens. It is shut in on all sides by newly constructed mansions, and only those who have business to transact among the stockbrokers, who have their offices in these buildings behind Throgmorton Street, have any suspicion of its existence. It may be reached by wandering through courts and alleys; it has almost a park-like appearance, if you are fortunate enough to gain a glimpse of it from an elevated and slightly distant point of view. Here there is also a fountain visible among the trees. But how different this garden once was! In the sixteenth century it was an estate, the property of Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex. It was purchased from him, in the reign of Henry VIII., by the Drapers’ Company. The gardens then extended northwards as far as London Wall, and commanded a fine view of Highgate and the adjoining heights. In Ward’s London Spy, it is spoken of as a fashionable promenade an hour before dinner-time.
In the neighbourhood of the Monument and of Thames Street, these gardens may be met with at nearly every turning by those who care to wander into nooks and corners in search of them. By walking up St Mary-at-Hill out of Thames Street, and entering through a narrow iron gateway with bars like a prison, above which may be seen in stone a grinning skull and crossbones, one comes upon some fine trees with their branches extending overhead in the passage-way. Or, again, when descending St Dunstan’s Hill, hard by, what is more beautiful in the City than the trees in the churchyard of St Dunstan, with the gray and black masonry of the church, against the green leaves, with its four lofty towers rising above?
To the account of the trees and gardens mentioned above may be added a short statement of many others existing in out-of-the-way nooks and corners within the boundary of the city of London. Many of the small open patches where these trees are found were once undoubtedly burial-grounds of churches, or the sites of churches long since taken down. After the beautiful grounds of the Temple, the only other large open spaces within the boundaries of the City are Finsbury Square, Finsbury Circus, Charterhouse Square, and Trinity Square. All these are well laid out with grass, shrubs, trees, and flowers, and are used as promenading places by the inhabitants. It should be here mentioned that the trees referred to in this notice are all young, or at most middle-aged, and that no such thing as a really ‘old’ tree exists anywhere within the City of London.
We will now continue our ramble, or tour of inspection; and starting from Temple Bar, we proceed eastward down Fleet Street. Here the first trees we notice are two or three small and sickly specimens growing in the churchyard of St Bride, Fleet Street; they are not very ornamental, or much to look at. Passing on up Ludgate Hill, St Paul’s Cathedral is reached. The grounds round the church are prettily laid out, and contain many trees, but all young, small, and weedy. Just to the east of St Paul’s, in Watling Street, is a little inclosure very neatly planted with shrubs only, and having in its midst a large square altar-tomb of some departed City worthy. This spot was once a burying-ground, or the site of a church long since removed. Proceeding eastward, and turning down Queen Street, just out of Cannon Street, two tall and rather fine plane-trees are observed growing in the front of a grand old mansion, once, of course, the residence of a City magnate, but now cut up and let out as offices. These planes are worthy of remark as affording one of the few instances now occurring of trees found in private grounds inside the City.
We now pass up Queen Street into Cheapside, and thence into Aldersgate Street. Here we find the ground, once the churchyard of St Botolph, Aldersgate, has been beautifully laid out as a garden, planted with trees, flowers, and shrubs, and furnished with numerous seats, and affording a delightful promenade or resting-place in summer-time, and is much enjoyed by the immediate neighbourhood. Another plot of ground, lying on the west, but belonging to Christ Church, Newgate Street, has also been planted and laid out; but, because it belongs to another parish, it is separated from the St Botolph’s garden by a low wall and railing, although the two grounds actually adjoin.
Continuing our walk northward, we arrive at Charterhouse, once celebrated for its high-class school, which has now been removed into the country. Adjoining, is Charterhouse Square, laid out with trees, shrubs, and grass like an ordinary London square, and surrounded by private dwellings. Returning south, and then going east, we reach St Alban’s, Wood Street, which has a little ground round it, decorated with four trees and shrubs. Close by is St Mary-the-Virgin, Aldermanbury, with four trees round it. Just beyond is a small churchyard that once belonged to St Mary, Staining, containing two trees and shrubs; and a little farther is St Olave, Jewry, with six trees and shrubs, all weedy and sickly.
Passing on into Cannon Street, we turn down Lawrence Poultney Hill, where we discover a disused burial-ground, with a public passage-way passing through the midst of it. The plot is planted with eighteen sickly-looking, weedy trees, large and small, as well as some stunted shrubs. Passing over King William Street, we reach the top of Lombard Street, where one little sickly-looking tree is seen in front of the church of St Mary Woolnoth. Continuing down Lombard Street, and turning to the right, we come upon the disused burial-ground of St Nicholas Acon, situated in Nicholas Lane. This little plot is very neatly laid out with shrubs, and planted with three small trees. Passing on into King William Street, we ultimately reach London Bridge, where, close by in Thames Street, we find the large church of St Magnus-the-Martyr, with its tall and peculiar tower and spire, near the Monument. It has no churchyard, but a small inclosed space round it contains a dozen unhealthy-looking young trees. A little beyond this, close to the church of St Mary-at-Hill, three trees are observed growing in what is apparently the private ground or garden in the rear of a dwelling-house. A few minutes farther east, we come to the fine church of St Dunstan-in-the-East, standing in the midst of a well-kept churchyard, and having ten goodly young trees, of fair height and girth, which always have a very agreeable appearance in the summer-time. Still farther on east, we come to St Olave, Hart Street, with its little churchyard, planted with ten small trees; and close by we see the church of Allhallows (Barking), Tower Street. This fine old church is one of the few which escaped the great fire of 1666. It stands in a roomy churchyard, decorated with twenty-four trees, and having somewhat the appearance of a village church and churchyard.
We now emerge into one of the most interesting spots in all London, interesting not only in an historical sense, but peculiarly so from the terrible tragedies of which it was so constantly the theatre—namely, Tower Hill. This vast space, extending from the Tower gates northward to the Trinity House, was once entirely open; but now a small portion of its northern extremity is inclosed and neatly planted with grass, shrubs, and trees. As the Tower itself is situated outside the City boundaries, we must not include its trees and plantations in this notice, which strictly applies to trees in the City only. We therefore turn our steps westward; and in a little court, leading from Mark Lane to Fenchurch Street, called Star Alley, we come on a curious relic of the past, a gray medieval church tower, square in shape, with its stair turret at one corner, which once belonged to the church of Allhallows (Staining), Mark Lane. The nave of the church has long since been removed, and the small plot of ground round the old tower is now prettily laid out with six young trees, many shrubs, yuccas, and other ornamental plants.