[Pinks’s Clerkenwell; Wheatley’s London P. and P., “Coppice Row.”]
“SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE” TAVERN AND GARDENS.
The Sir John Oldcastle Tavern was situated in Cold Bath Fields on the west side of Coppice Row, and was on the same side of the road as the Lord Cobham’s Head, but rather nearer to Bagnigge Wells. It was originally a wayside inn, but during the first half of the eighteenth century became a well-known tavern. In 1707 (July 18th) the Clerkenwell Archers held their annual dinner there, and frequented it for some years.
In the rear of the house were extensive gardens, well planted with trees; and from 1744 to 1746 these were open during the summer for evening entertainments. A band “of the best Masters” played from five o’clock till nine; the walks were lit with lamps, and fireworks were displayed at the close of the evening. The admission was sixpence, including refreshments. In July 1746 concerts of vocal and instrumental music were announced, at which the chief vocalist, Mr. Blogg, sang such songs as “Come, Rosalind,” “Observe the fragrant blushing Rose” and “The Happy Pair.”[62]
In 1753 a Smallpox Hospital was erected on part of the Oldcastle estate, but the Sir John Oldcastle, immediately adjacent, was left standing till 1762 when, being in a ruinous condition, it was pulled down.
[Pinks’s Clerkenwell; Larwood and Hotten, History of Signboards, p. 97; Tomlins’s Perambulation of Islington, p. 172; Low Life (1764), p. 81; The Field Spy (London, 1714); Ashton’s The Fleet, p. 117.]
VIEWS.
South view of the Sir John Oldcastle in Lempriere’s Set of Views, 1731.
ST. CHAD’S WELL, BATTLE BRIDGE.
The site of St. Chad’s Well, a mineral spring and garden at Battle Bridge, is now partly occupied by St. Chad’s Place, a small street turning out of the Gray’s Inn Road (east side) and lying between the King’s Cross Station (Metropolitan Railway) and the Home and Colonial Schools.