ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE
Interior of Royal Exchange [Frontispiece]
Cheapside Cross (as it appeared on its erection in 1606) [5]
St. Mildred, Poultry [18]
Inside the Poultry Compter [19]
St. Lawrence, Jewry [26]
SS. Anne and Agnes [27]
Blackwell Hall, 1819 [31]
Mercers’ Hall: InteriorFacing[32]
Mercers’ Hall [35]
City of London School, Milk Street [39]
Church of St. Vedast [43]
Goldsmiths’ Hall, 1835 [45]
Gerard’s Hall Crypt in 1795 [57]
The Armourers’ and Brasiers’ Almshouses, Bishopsgate Without, 1857 [65]
St. Mary, Aldermanbury, in 1814 [70]
Porch of St. Alphage, London Wall, 1818 [72]
Sion College, London Wall, 1800 [73]
Grub Street Hermit [77]
St. Giles, Cripplegate [81]
London Wall [83]
The Pump in Cornhill, 1800 [93]
St. Peter’s, Cornhill [96]
Confectioner’s Shop, Cornhill [98]
Garraway’s Coffee-House [99]
Pope’s House in Plough Court [103]
St. Mary WoolnothFacing[106]
Altar of St. Mary Abchurch [109]
Salters’ Hall, 1822 [113]
St. Stephen, WalbrookFacing[118]
The Mansion House and Cheapside [120]
Stocks Market [123]
Bank of England FountainFacing[126]
St. Benet Finck [129]
St. Martin Outwich [131]
Gresham College [135]
Carpenters’ Hall, London Wall, 1830 [144]
Ironmongers’ Hall in the Eighteenth Century [149]
A Remarkable Old House in Leadenhall Street [154]
Leadenhall Street [155]
Skin Market, Leadenhall, 1825 [157]
Leadenhall Chapel in 1812 [160]
Crypt in Leadenhall Street, 1825 [161]
Aldgate in 1830 [169]
St. Andrew Undershaft [173]
Bishopsgate Street, showing Church of St. Martin Outwich, and the Pump, 1814 [177]
St. Helen, Bishopsgate, 1817 [179]
Cornhill Military Association, with a View of the Church of St. Helen’s, and Leathersellers’ HallFacing[180]
Council Room, Crosby Hall, 1816 [181]
Principal Entrance to Leathersellers’ Hall. Demolished 1799 [184]
St. Ethelburga, Bishopsgate Street [186]
St. Botolph, Bishopsgate [187]
Blackfriars Bridge, 1796 [193]
Ludgate Circus and Ludgate Hill [198]
Stationers’ Hall in 1830 [199]
Stationers’ Hall (Interior) [201]
Fleur-de-lys Court [203]
British and Foreign Bible Society HouseFacing[206]
The College of Arms [209]
Doctors’ Commons, 1808 [211]
Queen Victoria StreetFacing[214]
A Bas-relief of a Gardener, Gardeners’ Lane, 1791 [219]
Council Chambers, Vintners’ Hall [230]
Whittington’s House [236]
Cannon Street, looking WestFacing[250]
Old Merchant Taylors’ School, Suffolk Lane, Cannon Street [254]
Fishmongers’ Hall, present day [260]
London BridgeFacing[260]
Fishmongers’ Hall in 1811 [261]
St. Magnus [262]
The Monument in 1752 [265]
The Coal Exchange [271]
Billingsgate MarketFacing[272]
Custom HouseFacing[274]
Clothworkers’ Hall [277]
Whittington’s House, Crutched Friars, 1796 [279]
Pepys’ Church (St. Olave, Hart Street) [281]
Trinity House, Tower Hill [284]
Remains of London Wall, Tower Hill, 1818 [285]
Block, Axe, and Scavenger’s Daughter [288]
Newgate Market, 1856 [304]
Newgate, 1799 [305]
Christ’s Hospital, from the Cloisters, 1804 [308]
An Exciting Game, Christ’s Hospital [319]
The Oxford Arms, Warwick Lane [323]
The Post Office, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and Bull and Mouth Inn, London [329]
St. Paul’s Cathedral [334]
Paternoster Row (as it was) [343]
Paternoster RowFacing[346]
The City Boundary, Aldersgate [349]
St. Bartholomew the Great [353]
General Post OfficeFacing[354]
Cloth Fair [356]
Old Coach and Horses, Cloth Fair [357]
Long Lane, Smithfield, 1810 [358]
Bartholomew Fair, 1721 [359]
Fleet StreetFacing[364]
Izaak Walton’s House in Fleet Street [366]
St. Dunstan in the West (Old Church) [368]
Inner Temple Gate HouseFacing[374]
Supposed House of Dryden, Fetter Lane [380]
Dr. Johnson’s House [381]
Fleet Ditch, West Street, Smithfield, as it was in 1844 [383]
St. Paul’s School (before its removal to Hammersmith) [402]

THE ANTIQUITIES OF THE CITY

It seems convenient in treating of the history and archæology of the City to take the streets in groups, each group being in connection with the main street to which it belongs. We may in this fashion conveniently arrange the streets as follows:—

(1)Those north and south of Cheapside and the Poultry.
(2)Those north of Gresham Street and west of Moorgate Street.
(3)Those between Moorgate and Bishopsgate Streets.
(4)Those between Fenchurch and Bishopsgate Streets.
(5)Thames Street and the streets north and south of it.
(6)Newgate Street and the streets north and south of it.
(7)Fleet Street and the adjacent Courts (including the Temple and the Rolls).

GROUP I

Cheapside.—We begin with the true heart of London, West Chepe, as it was formerly called, and the streets lying north and south of this marketplace. St. Paul’s Churchyard and Foster Lane mark our western boundary; Princes Street and Walbrook, our eastern; Gresham Street (formerly Cateaton Street) is on the north, and Cannon Street on the south.

By the time of Queen Elizabeth we find the West Chepe, with its streets north and south, laid out with something like the modern regularity. We must therefore go back to earlier centuries to discover its origin.

West Chepe, from time immemorial, has been the most important market of the City. It was formerly, say in the twelfth century, a large open area. This area contained no fewer than twenty-five churches, of which nine still exist. The churches are dotted about in apparent disorder, which can be partly explained. For the market of Chepe was extended in fact from the Church of St. Michael le Querne on the west, to that of St. Christopher le Stock on the east, and lay between the modern Gresham Street in the north and Watling Street in the south.

It is ordered in Liber Albus that all manner of victuals are to be sold between the kennels of the streets. The so-called streets were narrow lanes, many of which remain to the present day.