“The late edifice of Blackwell Hall appears to have been erected about the year 1672, and it exhibited the dull and prison-like appearance of the older storehouses of London, in the unglazed transom-windows with iron bars, contained in the front. The attic was ornamented with a cornice and pediment, and in the centre was a heavy stately stone gateway between two Doric columns, surmounted by the royal arms, carved in a panel above; and the city arms, impaling those of Christ’s Hospital, supported by winged boys, were sculptured in the head of the arch. The disposition of the interior consisted of two quadrangular open courts, one beyond the other, surrounded by buildings of freestone. Within the Hall were several large rooms or warehouses, both above and on the ground floor, in which the factors employed by the clothiers exposed their cloths on the established market days, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, the first being the principal. These apartments formed the Devonshire, Gloucester, Worcester, Kentish, Medley, Spanish, and Blanket Halls, etc., in which one penny was charged for the pitching of each piece of cloth, and one halfpenny per week each for resting there. The profits paid to Christ’s Hospital arising from those charges are said to have produced £1000 yearly” (Wilkinson’s Londina Illustrata, vol. ii. p. 36).
The changes gradually made in the cloth trade caused the decay of the market. In 1815 an Act was passed enabling the Mayor and Corporation to pull down the hall of St. Mary Magdalene Chapel, which was stated to be in a ruinous condition, and to replace it by buildings for courts.
The present Art Gallery, the Museum, the Library, Guildhall Buildings, the Courts, etc., stand upon the site of the Hall, the Chapel, and the adjacent ground. The Hall was taken down in 1819.
The Guildhall, like the Mansion House, Royal Exchange, etc., is so woven in with the history of the City that an account of it must be sought in the historical volumes preceding this.
We may return to the Poultry by the next north and south thoroughfare, namely:
Ironmonger Lane, which is frequently mentioned in early deeds and documents. As early as the middle of the twelfth century documents are spoken of in “Ismongers’ Lane,” in the parish of St. Mary Colechurch. In 1245 there are shops, solars, and cellars in the street. Riley (Mem. 128. 15) presents two most interesting inquests connected with two murders in this street. The lane is called variously Ismongers’, Iremongers’, and Ironmongers’.
On the east side of this street, near Cheapside, was the Church of St. Martin Pomeroy.
St. Martin Pomeroy is supposed by Stow to have gained its second name from an apple garden there, but it was more probably from a family named Pomeroy. In 1629 the church was repaired, but it was burnt down in the Great Fire and not rebuilt, its parish being united to that of St. Olave, Jewry. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1361.
Photo. Sandell, Ltd.
MERCERS’ HALL