On the south side, Fleet Street presents a long line of historical associations—Bridewell, the Carmelites or Whitefriars, the Fleet Prison, Alsatia, and Sanctuary. These are all described in other parts of this work (see London in the Eighteenth Century). On the north side are the courts and streets of later origin. These, with the houses and shops of that side, present memories chiefly of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Roman remains have been found all along the river on the west of the City. In the year 1800 was discovered a sepulchral monument, now in the Guildhall Museum; a tessellated pavement was found in 1681, near St. Andrew’s, Holborn; in 1595, a stone pavement supported on piles was found near Chancery Lane, the piles proving the marshy character of the ground; the “old Roman bath” is in Strand Lane; in 1722, in digging for the foundations of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, an arch, a stone sarcophagus, and other Roman relics were found; and on Thorney Island itself numerous Roman remains have been discovered. In other words, there were Roman villas and residences all along the river from Ludgate to Westminster inclusive.
Fleet Street began to be settled before the thirteenth century; in 1228, one Henry le Buke slew another in Fleet Street and took sanctuary in St. Mary Overies, Southwark. In 1311, certain servants of the King’s household were arrested for a burglary in Fleet Street; at the same time complaints were made that the way from “La Barre du Novel Temple” and the Palace of Westminster was choked with bushes and thickets. One of the residents of Fleet Street supplied Edward II. with boots and tassels of silk in 1321. Shortly after, the houses from the Temple Church northwards were erected by the Templars.
The history of Fleet Street from the sixteenth century is much more detailed than can be given here; the reader must be referred to the special histories of the street and the locality. It suffered greatly in the Plague of 1625, when over 500 of the parishioners of St. Dunstan’s were carried off.
The Fire of London terminated on this side in the third house, east of St. Dunstan’s Church. The plan of the ruins drawn up by Wren and Hooke shows that Fleet Street was 37 feet in width west of Fetter Lane; at Water Lane it was 70 feet; at St. Bride’s Court 63 feet; thence to Bride Lane 32 feet; and to Fleet Bridge only 23 feet. Shoe Lane was only 9 feet wide at the south end; Water Lane 11 feet at the north, and 26 at the south; Salisbury Court 23 feet at the north end. After the Fire parts of Fleet Street were set back, and the street made more convenient for the increasing traffic.
Fleet Street is especially remarkable for its taverns, its booksellers, and its banking-houses. In a valuable paper contributed by Mr. Hilton Price to the Archæological Journal, December 1895, may be found a list as complete as can be hoped for of all the houses in Fleet Street with their signs. The learned writer has collected 315 signs, and has been able to fix 250 of them.
Among the taverns we may notice:
(1) The Devil, called also St. Dunstan’s, or the Old Devil, sacred to the memory of Ben Jonson. Here was the Apollo, a room in which all kinds of clubs and societies met and entertainments were held. Ben Jonson’s “Rules” are well known. They are painted in letters of gold on a black board still preserved in Childs’ Bank:
Welcome all who lead or follow
To the oracle of Apollo—