The Council’s collection contains:—
[[515]]No. 25, Endell Street—Queen Anne’s Bath (photograph).
No. 41, Endell Street—Exterior (photograph).
L.—NORTH OF SHORT’S GARDENS.
The land to the north-east of Short’s Gardens seems also to have formed part of that acquired by William Short in 1590, for certain premises which can be identified as occupying a site to the rear of the centre of the frontage to Drury Lane between Short’s Gardens and Broad Street, are stated to be bounded on the south by ground of Robert Clifton, “which ground was heretofore the inheritance of William Short, deceased.”[[516]] The fact that the property in Crown Court sold by Thomas Short in 1679[[517]] was also bounded on the south by land “late in the possession of Robert Clifton” shows that the Short property originally extended further westwards. It stretched, in fact, as far as the eastern boundary of Marshland.[[518]]
The Subsidy Roll for 1646 gives three names between that of the Earl of Downe, probably representing Lennox House, and Paviors Alley, afterwards Ashlin Place. The first is that of “Mr. Edw. Smyth,” who was taxed 6s. 8d. for land, and 8s. for goods, and was evidently a person of much more substance than his two neighbours, who figure each at 2s. for land only. Mr. Smith had caused much concern by his building. As early as June, 1618, the Privy Council wrote[[519]] to the justices pointing out that “there is a faire building now goeing up in Drury Lane, wch is by credible information erected upon a new foundacion,” that the “said building is under his Maties eye as he passeth that way, and is observed as a speciall marke of contempt amongst all the rest,” and asking for particulars as to the date of the foundation, etc. As a result it was found that Smith’s new building, which had been assigned him by William Short,[[520]] was contrary to the proclamation as going beyond the old foundations, and converting a stable into a dwelling house,[[521]] and order was accordingly given for the demolition of that part,[[522]] but Smith seems to have made a successful protest. Eighteen years elapsed, and Smith was again in trouble. On 20th June, 1636, the Earl of Dorset reported to the Privy Council that “one Smith hath lately erected an house in or neare Drury Lane suddenly and for the most part by stealth in the night, not onely contrary to His Maties proclamation, but after he was commanded by his Lopp to forbeare to proceed in the building thereof.” Smith was thereupon committed to prison until the house should be wholly demolished.[[523]]
The north-eastern angle of land formed by Drury Lane and Broad Street, like the land on the opposite side of the way, is one of the very few sites which can be identified with certainty in the book of grants to the Hospital of St. Giles. In some unknown year, but apparently in the reign of Henry III., John de Cruce demised to Hugh, the smith, “all that his land situate at the angle or corner formed by the meeting of the two streets, whereof the one comes from St. Giles and is called St. Giles Street, and the other goes towards the Thames by the forge of the said Hugh, and is called Aldewych. And which land begins on the east part of the said corner, and stretches westwards towards the Hospital of St. Giles; and again beginning at the said corner or forge, and facing the spring,[[524]] extends southwards towards the Thames, in a line with the street called Aldewych, by the garden of Roger, the son of Alan.”[[525]] Before Elizabethan times the forge had disappeared, and the site in question was occupied by The Bear inn, and property connected therewith.
In 1567 George Harrison purchased[[526]] from Lord and Lady Mountjoy, inter alia, the messuage called The Bear, two messuages lying between The Bear on the east and the tenement of Godfrey Matthew (i.e., The Swan) on the west, and all other houses, etc., lying between Godfrey Matthew’s tenement on the west and the Queen’s highway from the Strand to St. Giles on the east. Harrison sold the property in 1568 to John Walgrave who in the following year parted with it to Johanna Wise, who subsequently married James Briscowe, and in 1582[[527]] the property, including brewing vessels and other implements belonging to the inn and the brewhouse, was acquired by James Mascall, brewer, who was then actually in occupation of The Bear. The property continued in the Mascall family, and in 1634, according to a deed[[528]] relating to the marriage portion of Frances Godman, daughter of Olive Godman (née Mascall) it included (i.) a messuage sometime in the tenure of John Vavasour and then of Matthew Quire, (ii.) the messuage, inn or tenement commonly called The Black Bear, sometime in the tenure of Richard Robins and then of Matthew Quire, (iii.) ten messuages in Black Bear Yard, (iv.) a number of other messuages,[[529]] and (v.) two gardens to the rear of Black Bear Yard, one of them formerly in the tenure of John Vavasour, and the other occupied with the inn. Vavasour’s house, it is known, occupied the site of Ragged Staff Court,[[530]] which was situated about 60 feet northwards from Paviors Alley,[[531]] and as no mention of it occurs in the sale to Mascall, it may be taken for granted that it was built either by the latter within the course of the next three years,[[532]] or by John Vavasour, who married Mascall’s widow. The first building on that spot therefore was erected some time between 1582 and 1608.[[533]]
To the west of The Bear property was The Swan. In 1566 Lord and Lady Mountjoy sold to Thomas Allen[[534]] all that messuage or tenement “sometyme called ... The Swanne,” in the tenure of Geoffrey Matthew, abutting to the east on The Bear, west on the tenement of Robert Bromeley, “sometyme called The Grayhounde,” south-west on Matthew’s stables, south on the Greyhound Close, and north on the Queen’s highway. It has unfortunately not proved possible to trace the later history of The Swan, but there can be no doubt that the property is identical with that sold in 1723 by William Gyles to Peniston Lamb and Thos. Hanson,[[535]] and which consisted of three houses in the main street with the alley behind, formerly called Cock alley and then Gyles’ Court, and is described as having a frontage to the street of 44½ feet and a depth of 114 feet, and bounded on the south by the brewhouse late Mr. Theedham’s,[[536]] on the east partly by messuages and lands in the occupation of Theedham, and on the west by messuages and lands “heretofore of one Short” (i.e., The Greyhound).
A comparison between the names of the occupiers of the three houses as given in the deed of 1723, and the entries in various issues of the sewer ratebook, shows that the houses in question corresponded with the present Nos. 59 to 61 (formerly 56 to 58).