General description and date of structure.
The largest of the three sections into which Aldwych Close was divided, when roads were formed thereon, was that lying to the south of Great Queen Street, and east of Wild Street. In 1618[[192]] Henry Holford leased to John Ittery the southern portion of this section, and on 13th August, 1629, Richard Holford sold the remainder to Sir William Cawley and George Strode in trust for Sir Edward Stradling and Sir Kenelm Digby.[[193]] A wall was erected parallel to Great Queen Street, and distant from it 197 feet, dividing Stradling’s part from Digby’s. The later history of Stradling’s portion, lying to the south of the dividing wall, is dealt with later.[[194]] Here we are concerned with that in the ownership of Sir Kenelm Digby, forming the site of the houses and gardens on the south side of Great Queen Street as far as Aldwych Close extended. The ground in question (including that purchased by Sir Edward Stradling) is described on 13th August, 1629, as “late in the tenure of Richard Brett and John Parker,”[[195]] and a petition of the inhabitants of the district, dated[[196]] 1st September, 1629, states that Parker and Brett had “divers times attempted to build on a little close called Old Witch, which has always lain open, free to all persons to walk therein, and sweet and wholesome for the King and his servants to pass towards Theobalds.” It is further alleged that Parker and Brett had been imprisoned for these attempts, “but now they have pulled down the bridges and stiles, and carried great store of bricks thither, and give forth threatening speeches that they will go forward.” The petitioners asked that the proposed buildings might be stopped, and expressed their willingness to take a lease of the close and plant trees.
Parker and Brett seem in this latest instance to have been merely acting for Sir Kenelm Digby, for the report[[197]] of the Commissioners for Buildings, made only nine days later, definitely mentions the latter as the person desirous of building. The Commissioners expressed themselves as adverse to Digby’s proposal, which for a time dropped.
On 27th March, 1630, both Digby and Stradling petitioned for a licence for each “to build a house with stables and coach houses in Old Witch Close.” The Attorney-General was instructed to draw the licence, but although Stradling in due course built his mansion[[198]], there is no evidence that Digby ever availed himself of the permission.
The ground seems to have been used as a garden[[199]] until 1635. On 13th April in that year Digby sold it to William Newton for building purposes. No licence to Newton to build can be traced, but on 7th May, 1636, one was granted to Sir Robert Dalyell,[[200]] who probably assigned it to Newton. From that document[[201]] it appears that the intention was to build “14 faire dwelling houses or tenementes to conteyne in front one with another neere 40 (fortie) feete a peice fitt for the habitacon of able men.” Permission to build that number of houses “to front only towardes Queene’s Streete” was granted, as well as “twelve coach howses and stables in some remote part of the said ground,” all to be built of brick or stone, “according to the true intent and meaning of our Proclamations in that behalfe published.”
Signature of William Newton.
Newton seems to have taken care that the houses erected on that part of Great Queen Street which was on the site of Purse Field should conform generally to the style of those built in accordance with the above-mentioned licence on the site of Aldwych Close[[202]]. The houses as a whole occupied 13 ground plots, having a total frontage of about 628 feet, and a depth of 200 feet. Their general character was the same throughout; the main cornices and front roofs were continuous, but the pilasters were so arranged as to indicate the separate buildings without the usual expedient of placing a pilaster partly on one plot and partly on another.[[203]] On the middle house was placed a statue of Charles I.’s Queen, Henrietta Maria. It has already been noticed[[204]] that Newton a few years later adorned the central house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields with a crowned female bust, and there can be no doubt that this was also in honour of the Queen.
Various statements have been made as to the designer of the houses on the south side of Great Queen Street. Horace Walpole, in his Anecdotes of Painting[[205]] writes as follows: “Vertue says that Mr. Mills, one of the four surveyors appointed after the fire of London, built the large houses in Queen Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, but this must be a mistake, as we have seen in the preceding volume that Gerbier, a contemporary, and rival, ascribed them to Webb.” It is known[[206]] that Peter Mills built the original houses on the site of Nos. 66 to 68, Great Queen Street, but there is no evidence that he had any hand in the erection of other houses on the south side of the street.
The reference concerning Gerbier [1591?–1667], to which Walpole alludes as occurring in his previous volume, seems to be the following: “He [Gerbier] ridicules the heads of lions, which are creeping through the pilasters on the houses in Great Queen Street built by Webb, the scholar of Inigo Jones.” If this ascription could be found in any of Gerbier’s works it would be very valuable evidence, but it has not been discovered, and the passage relating to the pilasters contains no mention of Webb.[[207]]