Nos. 7 and 9, Broad Street. Exterior (photograph).
LI.—SITE OF MARSHLAND (SEVEN DIALS.)
Included in the property transferred to Henry VIII. in 1537 was “one close called Marshland.”[[561]] In 1594, Queen Elizabeth farmed the close to Thomas Stydolph, his wife, and his son, Francis, for the life of the longest liver, and in 1598 she farmed it for the sixty years following the death of the longest lived of the three to Nicholas Morgan and Thomas Horne. The latter immediately conveyed their interest to James White, and subsequently it came into the hands of Sir Francis Stydolph, who thus held a lease for the length of his own life and for sixty years afterwards. In 1650, while he was still in possession of the close, it was surveyed by Commissioners appointed by Parliament[[562]]. In their report, the close is described as “all yt peice or parcell of pasture ground comonly called ... Marsh close alias Marshland ... on the north side of Longe Acre,[[563]] and ... betwene a way leadinge from Drury Lane to St. Martin’s Lane on the north;[[564]] and a way leadinge from St. Gyles to Knightsbridge, and a way leadinge from Hogg Lane into St. Martin’s Lane on the west;[[565]] and Bennet’s Garden[[566]] and Sir John Bromley[[567]] and Mr. Short on the east.” These boundaries are in accord with the plan showing the design for laying out (Plate 39), and with Faithorne’s Map of 1658 (Plate 4). The extension of Marshland to the east of Neal Street (formerly King Street) has never been noticed, but the fact is quite clear. One proof will suffice. On 23rd September, 1728, James Joye sold to trustees of the charity schools of St. Giles, Cripplegate, property specified as “part of the Marshlands in St. Giles-in-the-Fields,”[[568]] and situated on the east side of King Street. Part of the property has since been thrown into the public way, but part can still be identified as No. 82, Neal Street,[[569]] on the east side.
In 1650 the buildings on the Close were:—
(i.) The Cock and Pye inn, a brick building of two storeys and a garret, standing on ground 117 feet from north to south, with a breadth of 48 feet at the north end. This is probably the building shown on Hollar’s Plan of 1658 (Plate 3), at the southern angle of the close. From it the close was sometimes known as Cock and Pye Fields.
(ii.) A house with wheelwright’s shop and shed attached, covering with yards, gardens, etc., 3 roods.
(iii.) A shed of timber and Flemish wall, with tiled roof, containing two small dwelling rooms, occupying, with a garden, half an acre.
(iv.) A piece of ground, half an acre in extent, “late converted into a garden, beinge very well planted wth rootes.”
(v.) Three tenements of timber and Flemish wall, with thatched roof, on the north side of what was afterwards Castle Street, occupying, with gardens, etc., half an acre.
(vi.) “All that conduit scituate and adjoyninge to the aforesaid 3 tenements, and standeth on the southest corner of the aforesaid Marsh Close, consistinge of one roome heirtofore used to convey water to the Excheqr. Office, but of late not used.”