The adjoining properties (L and M) have already been referred to. The house (M) next to The Unicorn was in Elizabeth’s reign in the possession of John Miller, and in 1607 was described as “all that messuage, cottage, tenement or house with a forge,” in High Holborn, “reaching to a certeyne pasture adjoyninge to Lincolnes Inne on the south syde,” and bounded on the west by the house and land of John Thornton.[[44]] Beatrice Thornton, widow, is shown in the Subsidy Rolls as far back as 1588 as resident at or near this spot, and this circumstance is undoubtedly to be connected with the name of Thornton’s Alley, which was hereabouts.[[45]]
The premises (N), which in the early part of the seventeenth century comprised a single inn, The Unicorn, had in 1574 been purchased by Francis Johnson from John and Margaret Cowper, as three messuages and three gardens,[[46]] and are described in 1626[[47]] as having been “now longe since converted into one messuage or inn commonly called The Unicorne.” Apparently its use as an inn was of recent date, for in the description of (M), dated 1607, the eastern boundary of that property is said to be “a tenement in the occupation of John Larchin, baker,” and in 1629, when the premises had been re-divided into two, one is said to be[[48]] “now in the tenure of Mary Larchin, widdowe, and is now used by her as a common inne, and is called by the name or signe of The Unycorne.” The dimensions of the premises are given as 45 feet wide on the north, 40 feet on the south on Lincoln’s Inn Fields, and 156 feet long.
No records of the time of Elizabeth relating to property between The Unicorn and the house at the corner of Great Turnstile have, so far, been discovered. The latter (O), having a frontage to High Holborn of 39 feet, was certainly at the time in the possession of the same John Miller[[49]] who held the property (M).
XXIII-XXIV.—Nos. 3 and 4, GATE STREET.
Ground landlord.
The ground landlord of No. 3 is the London County Council.
General description and date of structure.
The area lying between Great Queen Street, Little Queen Street and Gate Street (the east to west portion of which street was formerly known as Princes Street) was originally a portion of Purse Field, the early history of which has already been detailed.[[50]]
On 27th May, 1639, William Newton sold to John Fortescue[[51]] “all that peece or parcell of ground, being part of Pursefeild and the pightells, designed for two messuages to be built thereon by the said John Fortescue, the foundations whereof be now laid.” The ground is described as measuring 50 feet 3 inches from north to south, and 127 feet from east to west. Between the ground and Princes Street (“a way leading upon a backgate of an Inn lately called The Falcon and Greyhound”) lay the houses (or their sites) of Lewis Richard and John Giffard, and a slip of ground afterwards bought by Arthur Newman, having widths of 25 feet, 25 feet and 8½ feet respectively[[52]]. From these measurements it can be shown that the ground sold to Fortescue was the site of what afterwards became Nos. 3 and 4, Gate Street. The indenture contained, in common with those relating to Richard’s and Giffard’s houses, a provision “that there doth and soe perpetually shall lye open from the front of the said messuage eastward, three score foote of assize, wherein there shall be noe building erected or builded by the said William Newton, his heirs ... or any other person or persons whatsoever, it being the principall motive of the said John Fortescue to purchase the estate and interest aforesaid, to have the said 60 foote in front to lye open for an open place from the front of the building, except 11 foote to be inclosed in before the house, and that there shal be noe buildinges erected at the south-east end of the said open place by the space of 30 foote, to take away the prospect of the greate fielde, otherwise than a fence wall, whether he, the said William Newton or his assignes, keepe the same in his or their owne hands, or doth or doe depart with it to any other.” It was also agreed “that there shall not at any tyme or tymes hereafter be erected or built any manner of building whatsoever” in the gardens of any of the four messuages[[53]] in question. These conditions, as will be seen, have been more than observed.
From the above it is clear that the foundations of the two houses had already been laid by 27th May, 1639, and the premises were accordingly probably completed by the end of the year. No exact date can be assigned to the rebuilding of the houses, but it seems probable that this took place about the middle of the 18th century. The carved mouldings of the joinery on the first floor of No. 3 are interesting, and details are given in Plate 7.