OLD COACH AND HORSES, CLOTH FAIR
Smithfield.—Stow says: “Then is Smithfield Pond, which of old times in recordes was called Horse Poole, for that men watered horses there, and was a great water. In the 6th of Henry the fifth a new building was made in this west part of Smithfielde betwixt the said Pool and the River of the Wels or Turnemill Brooke in a place (then called the Elmes, for that there grew many Elme trees), and this had been the place of execution for offenders, since the which time the building there hath been so increased that now remaineth not one tree growing.”
LONG LANE, SMITHFIELD, 1810
The Elms here mentioned was the place of public execution until the middle of the thirteenth century; an honour transferred to St. Giles-in-the-Fields, and later to the more notorious Tyburn. Among the best known of those who suffered execution at Smithfield is William Wallace. Jack Straw, the rebel, was hanged at Smithfield, and here took place the picturesque scene, when the beautiful boy-king, Richard II., met Wat Tyler, and showed courage such as won admiration for the promise of his future, a promise destined to remain unfulfilled. Then and later Smithfield was the great jousting field and playground of London. Many were the brilliant tourneys held here, when knights met in chivalrous contest, and all the flower of England’s manhood drew together to try prowess at arms.
Smithfield, however, will be always best remembered by the blood of the martyrs which watered the ground. The spot where these cruelties took place is probably somewhere near the gate of St. Bartholomew’s. Between 1555 and 1611, many were the sufferings endured at Smithfield. Timbs says that of the 277 martyrs in Mary’s reign the greater number suffered here.
BARTHOLOMEW FAIR, 1721
In Henry VIII.’s reign poisoners were boiled to death at Smithfield. A place more closely associated with the life of London than this could hardly be imagined, yet nowadays who associates Smithfield with anything but markets!
In the centre of the open space is an inclined plane winding downward with a corkscrew turn until it passes into the basement of the Meat Market. Northward is the huge building erected by Act of Parliament in 1860, the year preceding the dismarketing of Newgate, which was closed at its opening seven years later. Sir Horace Jones was the architect, and the style is that generally known as Italian. The chief points of architectural effect are the four towers, the frontispieces or façades of the public roadway, which passes through the market from north to south, and the pedimented gateways to the east and west fronts. The plan or interior arrangement of the ground-floor is exceedingly simple. A great central roadway runs through from north to south. This was a compromise or concession to existing interests. It is from 50 to 60 feet wide, and the gateways at the entrances are very fine.