Chapter X: Preface (10)

“The use of Leaden Hall in my youth (says Stow) was thus:—In a part of the north quadrant, on the east side of the north gate, were the common beams for weighing of wool and other wares, as had been accustomed; on the west side of the gate were the scales to weigh meal; the other three sides were reserved for the most part to the making and resting of the pageants showed at Midsummer in the watch; the remnant of the sides and quadrants was employed for the stowage of wool sacks, but not closed up; the lofts above were partly used by the painters in working for the decking of pageants and other devices, for beautifying of the watch and watch-men; the residue of the lofts were letten out to merchants, the wool winders and packers therein to wind and pack their wools” (p. 166).

The market in 1754 is thus described by Strype:

“Leadenhall is a very large building of Free-stone, containing within it three large Courts or Yards, all encompassed with buildings, wherein is kept a market, one of the greatest, the best, and the most general for all provisions in the City of London, nay of the Kingdom; and, if I should say of all Europe, I should not give it too great a praise. The building hath flat battlements leaded at the top; and, for the conveniency of People’s coming to this great market, which is kept every day of the week, except Sundays, for one thing or the other, besides the principal entrance out of Leadenhall Street, there are two or three others, one out of Lime Street, and the rest out of Gracechurch Street.

“Of the three Courts or Yards that it consists of, the first is that at the north-east corner of Gracechurch Street, and opens into Leadenhall Street; this court or yard contains, in length, from north to south, one hundred and sixty-four feet, and, in breadth, from east to west, eighty feet; within this court or yard, round about the same, are about one hundred standing stalls for butchers for the selling only of beef, and therefore this court is called the Beef Market, many of which stalls are eight, ten, or twelve feet long, and four, five, or six feet broad, with racks, hooks, blocks, and all other conveniences for the sale of their meat: All which stalls are either under warehouses above head, or sheltered from the weather by roofs over them. This yard is, on Tuesdays, a market for leather, to which the tanners do resort. On Thursdays the waggons from Colchester, and other parts, come with Baiz, etc., and also the Felmongers with their wool; and on Fridays it is a market for raw hides, besides Saturdays for Beef, as also other provisions.

“The second market-yard is called the Green yard, as being once a green Plat of Ground. Afterwards it was the City’s Store-yard for Materials for building, and the like, but now a market only for veal, mutton, lamb, etc. This yard is one hundred and seventy feet in length, from east to west, and ninety feet broad from north to south: It hath in it one hundred and forty stalls for the butchers, all covered over, and of the bigness of those in the beef-market. In the middle of this Green yard Market, north to south, is a row of shops, with kitchens, or rooms over them, for fishmongers; and, also, on the south side and west end, are houses and shops also for fishmongers. Towards the east end of this yard is erected a fair market-house, standing upon columns, with vaults underneath, and rooms above, with a bell-tower and a clock, and under it are butchers’ stalls. The tenements round about this yard are, for the most part, inhabited by cooks, victuallers, and such-like; and, in the passages leading out of the streets, into this market, are fishmongers, poulterers, cheesemongers, and such-like traders for provision.

“The third market belonging to Leadenhall is called the Herb Market, for that herbs, roots, fruits, etc., are only there sold. This market is about one hundred and forty feet square; the west, east, and south sides have walks round them, covered over for shelter, and standing upon columns; in which walks there are twenty-eight stalls for gardeners, with cellars under them. There is also, in this yard, one range of stalls covered over for such as sell tripe, neats-feet, sheeps-trotters, etc., and, on the south side, the tenements are taken up by Victuallers, Cheesemongers, Butchers, Poulterers, and such-like.

“The rooms in the stone building about the beef-market, which is properly Leadenhall, are employed for several uses, as the west side was wholly used for the stowage of wares belonging to the East-India Company; on the east side is the meal-warehouse and the Wool-hall; on the south end is the Colchester Baiz-hall, and at the north end is the warehouse for the sealing of leather.

“The general conflagration of this city, in 1666, terminated in that part of the City near adjoining to this hall; all the houses about it, and within the yards belonging to it, being destroyed, there did, of this fabric, only remain the stonework; since which, the Courts and yards belonging to this building, and some other adjacent grounds purchased by the City, are wholly converted into a market for the City’s use; the place for the reception of Country butchers, and others who brought provisions before to the City, being then only in Leadenhall Street, between Gracechurch Street and Lime Street, which was very incommodious to the market people, as well as to the passengers.”

LEADENHALL CHAPEL IN 1812
]

=Leadenhall Market= is in four rays of varying lengths; the longest is about 80 feet, the shortest about 30. These are covered in by a wide arched roof of glass, supported by girders, and are about 30 feet wide. At each entrance there is a similar design. On either side a couple of massive fluted columns are surmounted by griffins, which support the arch. These are decorated with gilt. Over the entry is an arch of great height, with a stone relief, and on the frieze below the words “Leadenhall Market.” The market was built in 1881, designed by Sir Horace Jones, and is occupied to a very great extent by poulterers and butchers. There are roughly about fifty holdings and two taverns, the Lamb and the Half Moon.

There was a chapel in the market, to which was attached a Fraternity of the Trinity of sixty priests, with other brethren and sisters, in which service was celebrated every day.

The chapel was taken down in 1812 (see _Mediæval London_, vol. ii. p. 373).

In Leadenhall Street have been found Roman remains, a pavement, pottery, etc.

A crypt existed under the house 153 Leadenhall Street until 1896, when it was destroyed.

CRYPT IN LEADENHALL STREET, 1825
]

“Under the corner house of Leadenhall and Bishopsgate Streets, and two houses on the east, and one on the north, side thereof, was situate a very ancient church of Gothic construction, the principal part of which is still remaining under the said corner house, and two adjoining in Leadenhall Street; but part of the north aisle beneath the house contiguous in Bishopsgate Street, was lately obliged to make way to enlarge the cellar. When or by whom this old church was founded I cannot learn, it not being so much as mentioned by any of our historians or surveyors of London that I can discover.

“Some other ancient architectural remains, perhaps originally connected with the former, were also found under the houses extending up the eastern site of Bishopsgate Street. The description of their situation, given by Maitland, fixes their locality to the side of the very house at which the fire of 1765 commenced; and which appears to have continued until that time in the same kind of occupation as it was when the ensuing account of these ruins was written. ‘At the distance of 12 feet from this church,’—namely the remains already noticed at the north-east corner of Leadenhall Street—‘is to be seen, under the house at the late Mr. Macadam’s, a peruke-maker in Bishopsgate Street, a stone building of the length of 30 feet, breadth of 14, and altitude of 8 feet 6 inches above the present floor; with a door in the north-side, and a window at the east end, as there probably was one in the west. It is covered with a semi-circular arch, built with small piers of chalk in the form of bricks, and ribbed with stone, resembling those of the arches of a bridge. What this edifice at first was appropriated to is very uncertain; though, by the manner of its construction, it seems to have been a chapel; but the ground having been since raised on all sides, it was probably converted into a subterraneous repository for merchandise; for a pair of stone stairs, with a descending arch over them, seems to have been erected since the fabric was built’” (Wilkinson, _Londina Illustrata_).

The most important house in the street next to the Leadenhall itself was the East India House, which stood near to the Hall. The Company first met, according to tradition, at the Nag’s Head Tavern, Bishopsgate; they then had a house in Leadenhall Street; they took on lease in 1701—perhaps it was their first house—Sir William Craven’s large house in Leadenhall Street, with a tenement in Lime Street. This is probably the house pictured in a print in the British Museum.

In 1726 the “Old” East India House was built, of which several parts were retained in the new buildings of 1799.

Hardly any part of the City, unless it be the south of Cornhill, is so honeycombed with courts and passages as the quarter upon which we are now engaged. For the most part they are not distinguished by any historical associations. Some of them formerly contained taverns and inns. The courts are greatly diminished in size; some of them were narrow lanes with houses standing face to face, a few feet apart; some of them formerly contained gentlemen’s houses. Why were these houses built in a court? The explanation is easy. The town-house of noble or merchant was built like a college: a gateway with a chamber over it in front, rooms beside the gate in case of a nobleman with a retinue; in other cases a wall enclosing a garden in a square, on either side rooms, at the back the Hall and what we call reception rooms, with the private rooms of the family. When land became more valuable the rooms beside the gateway became shops, then there was building at the back of the shops, the sides became contracted, and there were left at last only the court, the gateway, and the house beyond. There are several places in the City where this history of a house may be traced, the modern offices being built on the site of the old foundation, the gateway having disappeared, and the court still remaining.

“Anno 1136. A very great fire happened in the City, which began in the house of one Ailward, near London Stone, and consumed all the way east to Aldgate, and west to St. Erkenwald’s shrine in St. Paul’s Cathedral, both which it destroyed, together with London Bridge, which was then constructed of wood.

“It is reasonable to conjecture, that the accumulation of ruins these extensive fires occasioned left the distressed inhabitants little choice in their determination; and as it would have caused infinite trouble and inconvenience to have cleared and removed the same, they wisely preferred sacrificing a few (to them) useless buildings, raised and levelled the ground, and began a foundation for new dwellings on the site of the roofs of some of their remaining habitations. The amazing descent to the banks of the Thames from several parts of the City confirms the opinion that most of the buildings denominated crypts, oratories, or undercrofts, were, in their pristine states, level in their foundations with the dwelling-places of their original builders. What greatly adds to the probability is the circumstance of our being informed that near Belzeter’s Lane (Billiter Lane) and Lime Street, three new houses being to be built, in the year 1590, in a place where was a large garden plot enclosed from the street by a high brick wall, upon taking down the said wall and digging for cellarage, another wall of stone was found directly under the brick wall with an arched gateway of stone, and gates of timber to be closed in the midst towards the street. The timber of the gates was consumed, but the hinges of iron were then remaining on their staples on both sides: moreover, in that wall were square windows with bars of iron on each side this gate. The wall was above two fathoms deep under the ground, supposed to be the remains of those great fires before mentioned. Again, we learn, on the east side of Lime Street opening into Fenchurch Street, on that site, after the fire of 1666, Sir Thomas Cullum built thirty houses, and that a short time previous to 1757, the cellar of one of the houses giving way, there was discovered an arched room, ten feet square and eight feet deep, with several arched doors round it stopped up with earth” (Wilkinson, _Londina Illustrata_, vol. ii. p. 43).

In 1660 the mayor, Sir Thomas Allen, resided in Leadenhall Street and entertained Monk. At the corner of St. Mary Axe stood, in the fifteenth century, the town-house of the De Veres, Earls of Oxford.

Gibbon’s great-grandfather, one of the last of the younger sons of county families who came to London and went into trade, had his shop as a draper in Leadenhall Street.

In this street Peter Anthony Motteux, translator of _Don Quixote_, kept an “East India” shop. He was a Huguenot, and could speak and understand many languages. He was also employed as a linguist at the Post Office. In addition to his shop and his office, he worked as a poet and man of letters generally; being the author of plays, prologues, and epilogues. He is best known by his completion of Urquhart’s _Translation of Rabelais_. He was a loose liver, and died in a disorderly house in St. Clement Danes. Like the lady of Père la Chaise, “Resigned unto the Heavenly Will, His wife kept on the business still.”

ST. KATHERINE CREE

St. Katherine Cree, in Leadenhall Street, is on the site of the
cemetery of the Priory of Holy Trinity, whence it derives its name
Creechurch or Christchurch. This priory is said to have been built
in the same place where Siredus sometime began to erect a church in
honour of the Cross and of St. Mary Magdalen. This ancient church
contributed thirty shillings to the Dean and Chapter of Waltham. The
abbey church here is also dedicated to the Holy Cross, and when
Matilda founded Christ Church or Trinity she gave to the Church of
Waltham a mill instead of this payment. But little is known of the
building of Siredus; but Matilda’s Priory is said to have occupied
parts of the parishes of St. Mary Magdalen, St. Michael, St.
Katherine, and the Blessed Trinity, which now was made but one
parish of the Holy Trinity, and was in old time of the Holy Cross or
Holy Rood parish. At this time, therefore (1108), the old parish of
the Holy Rood had disappeared, and four parishes appear on its site.
In the perambulation of the old soke of the Priory we find the
parishes of Coleman Church (St. Katherine), St. Michael, St. Andrew
(Undershaft), and of the Trinity (now St. James’s, Duke’s Place),
but St. Mary Magdalen and Holy Rood are not mentioned. This loss of
St. Mary Magdalen is not easily explained. Could the Church of St.
Andrew have been dedicated formerly to St. Mary Magdalen? Such
changes in dedication are known, and, even in this ward or soke,
Stow tells us that St. Katherine Coleman was called St. Katherine
and All Saints.

This would make up all the parishes which are given at the several
periods in this locality. The existence of St. Katherine Coleman and
St. Katherine Cree as two distinct parishes adjoining is remarkable.
The parish of St. Katherine Coleman belonged to the ancient
establishment of St. Martin’s-le-Grand, and so remained until the
Dissolution. Was it a part of this parish which was taken into the
precinct of the Trinity? The inhabitants of the enclosed parish of
Cree Church at first used the Priory church, but it was agreed
afterwards that they should have a church erected, and use the
Priory church only at certain times. This would be what we might
expect of a part of a parish detached at the establishment of the
Priory, but which desired to be released from the control of the
prior, and to be a parish of itself, with its own church. We must
not confound the parish of St. Mary Magdalen with a small parish of
St. Mary the Virgin, St. Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins. This was on
the west side of St. Mary Axe, and belonged to the Priory of St.
Helen. The church was destroyed, and the parish united, by Edmund
Grindal, Bishop of London, to St. Andrew, Undershaft, in the year
1561.

The parishioners had been allowed to worship at an altar in the
Priory church, but this being inconvenient, St. Katherine’s was
built through the agency of Richard de Gravesend, Bishop of London,
1280-1303. It was rebuilt in 1628-1630, possibly after the design of
Inigo Jones. The steeple, which was built in the early sixteenth
century, is still standing. The church was consecrated by Laud in
1631. In 1874 the parish of St. James’s, Duke’s Place, was annexed.
The earliest date of an incumbent is 1436.

The patronage of which was in the hands of the Prior and Canons of
Holy Trinity, London. Henry VIII. seized it in 1540, and soon after
granted it to Sir Thomas Audley, who gave it, by his will dated
April 19, 1544, to the Master and Fellows of Magdalene College,
Cambridge, in whose successors it continued.

Houseling people in 1548 were 542.

The church is a mixture of the Gothic and classical styles. It
contains two narrow aisles separated from the nave by Corinthian
columns and round arches, above which is a clerestory. The roof is
groined, and the arms of the City and several City Companies are
displayed on it. The building is 94 feet long, 51 feet broad, and 37
feet high. It is larger than the original church, of which the sole
relic now existing is a pillar at the south-west, less than three
feet above ground, owing to the higher level of the new church. The
stone steeple rises at the west and consists of a tower surmounted
by a Tuscan colonnade with a cupola and vane; its total height is 75
feet.

A chantry was founded here at the Altar of St. Michael.

The church is not rich in historical monuments. It contains,
however, the tomb of Nicholas Throckmorton, Chief Butler of England
and intimate friend of Lady Jane Grey and Queen Elizabeth.

Tradition said that Hans Holbein was buried here, but there is no
evidence for it except that he died in the vicinity.

There is a brass in the floor in front of the communion table,
commemorating Sir John Gayer, Lord Mayor in 1646 and staunch
adherent of Charles I., for which he suffered imprisonment.

At the west end there is a bas-relief to Samuel Thorpe (died 1791):
this is only interesting as being the work of the elder Bacon.

Sir John Gayer bequeathed £200 for charitable purposes, amongst them
a fee for a sermon to be preached on October 16 annually, and though
the charity is now diverted, yet the “Lion sermon,” in commemoration
of the donor’s delivery from a lion in Arabia, is still kept up.

There was a charity school at the end of Cree Church Lane, in which
forty boys were clothed and taught, by subscriptions from the
inhabitants of the ward.

Roger Maynwaring (1590-1653), Bishop of St. David’s, was a perpetual
curate here; also Nicholas Brady (1659-1726), joint author of Tate
and Brady’s version of the Psalter.

The north of Leadenhall Street between St. Katherine Cree and Aldgate, from the year 1130 and the suppression of the Religious Houses, was covered with the buildings of the Priory of the Holy Trinity already described (see _Mediæval London_, vol. ii. p. 241).

The buildings of the Priory were given by the King to Sir Thomas Audley in 1531 after the surrender.

The Earl of Suffolk, son of the Duke who was beheaded in 1572, sold the house and precinct to the City of London, and built Audley End in Essex. The City seems to have pulled down the mansion and laid out the grounds in streets and courts. The disposition of these seems to preserve, to a certain extent, that of the old Priory.

When the people began to settle in the precinct, they found themselves, although so close to St. Katherine Cree, without a parish church. They therefore petitioned the Archbishop of Canterbury, who obtained permission of the King to build a new church here, and to erect a new parish. The church was finished and dedicated to St. James in 1622. The memory of the consecration is described at length by Strype. This quarter was assigned to the Jews by Oliver Cromwell in 1650. Here is the Great Synagogue of the German Jews.

St. James’s was one of the most notorious of the many places for irregular marriages, those without licence, because as standing in the ancient precinct of the Priory it was without the jurisdiction of the bishop.

=St. James’s, Duke’s Place=, escaped the Great Fire of 1666.

In 1873 the church was pulled down and its parish united with that
of St. Katherine Cree Church. The earliest date of an incumbent is
1622.

This church was in the gift of the Lord Mayor and Commonalty of
London from 1622.

Few monuments, and none of much note, are recorded by Stow. Booker,
an astrologer, was commemorated by a stone inscription.

Sir Edward Barkham is the only benefactor whose name is recorded by
Stow.

The modern Leadenhall Street is at the west end full of fine, well-executed Chambers. Of these, New Zealand Chambers are the most noticeable. The building is by R. Norman Shaw in the pseudo-ancient style. It was erected in 1872, and is carried out in red brick. The bayed windows on either side of the entrance are placed in wide recesses which run right up the frontage. Africa House is in a commonplace style, but has rather good stone panels on the front. On the north Leadenhall House is solidly faced in granite, with granite columns on the frontage. West India House is neatly built in white stone.

Farther eastward the street is singularly dull; it is lined at first by dreary blocks of imitation stone buildings. These are succeeded by brick buildings all turned out of the same mould. The north side is better than the south, and is chiefly made up of solid, well-built houses on various designs.

At No. 153 the ground-floor is occupied by a bric-à-brac shop. Below the parapet there is a curious triangular pediment let into the brickwork. This encloses a round stone with an inscription on it, of which the first word seems to be “incendio”; on either side is a small shelf.

The London Joint Stock Bank is a few doors off. No. 140, an Aerated Bread Shop, is fantastically built, in imitation of an old style. The Peninsular & Oriental Steamship Company is in a stone and terra-cotta building, with well-designed figures in slight relief in the corners of the windows.

=Aldgate=, spelt otherwise Alegate or Algate, was probably, but not certainly, opened and constructed by Queen Matilda, Consort of Henry I., who is also said to have built the bridge over the Lea at Bow. There seems no reason for doubting the story.

On the spelling of the name Professor Skeat writes, September 18, 1897:

“It occurs to me to say that in any case of interpreting spellings, the date of the spelling is of the greatest service. We now know the meanings of all the vowel symbols at all dates. If we can obtain a few early spellings of Aldgate, with approximate dates, we ought to be able to decide it. We have to remember that _all_, in composition meant ‘wholly,’ and was adverbial as in Al-mighty, and ‘wholly gate’ gives no sense. If ‘for all’ were intended, it would be _alra_, _aller_, or _alder_, the genitive of plural. This is not a question of etymology but of grammar. On the other hand, if the M.E. _Ald_ [now spelt _Old_] were meant, I have proof that a Norman scribe would be apt to omit the _d_; so that _Alegate_ would, in fact, be quite regular. And it would _not_ necessarily become _Oldgate_ in course of time; just as Acton, though it means _Oaktown_, is called Acton still. This is due to what we call the preservation of a short or shortened vowel, owing to stress.”

And again, writing on 21st September, he says:

“The list of spellings which you send me is most interesting, but it is not easy to explain it. I can remember a time when I should have drawn the conclusion that they are very much against connecting the word with the Old Mercian _ald_, which we now spell _old_. But my recent investigations tell the other way; not only were perfectly common words persistently (but regularly) mis-spelt in Domesday and early charters, from the time of the Conquest till about 1350, but in many instances (as would likely be the case in official documents) such habits became stereotyped. The early scribes were nearly all Norman, and they brought in Norman spelling to that extent that the whole of modern English is pervaded by it; indeed, no one who does not know the phonetic laws of Anglo-French can explain why the word _house_ is spelt with _ou_, or the word _build_ with _ui_.... The explanation of the spelling Ald in 1270 is probably simply this: that this particular charter (contrary to practice) was entrusted to an English scribe. It is a simple supposition—English spellings began to prevail in these matters in the period from 1350-1400, and it is just here that we get two instances. The Normans learnt Latin easily: to an English scribe it was a foreign language. This is why the French scribes were preferred for writing Latin documents. After 1400 such French spellings as affect the true sound are rare; this is why, after that the E. form prevails. But we must remember that many Englishmen do not fully pronounce the _d_ in _Aldgate_ even now, but slur it over; and in days of phonetic spelling such things were reproduced. I should say the evidence can only be explained, on the _whole_, from the supposition that the English word was _Ald_, preserved in composition instead of being turned into _old_ (as it did when standing alone); and this will explain _eald_ also, as _eald_ is the Wessex form of _Ald_, adopted in 1598 as a mere bit of pedantry, but at the same time showing that the belief then prevailed. This is all I have to say about Aldgate.”

The gate was rebuilt by Norman, first Prior of Holy Trinity. The weigh-house for weighing corn was in the gateway.

After the Fire, Aldgate was used for the prisoners who had been confined in the Poultry Compter.

In 1374 the gate was let on lease to Geoffrey Chaucer. Here followeth the lease itself:

“To all persons to whom this present writing indented shall come, Adam de Bury, Mayor, the Aldermen, and the Commonalty of the City of London, greeting. Know ye that we, with unanimous will and assent, have granted and released by these presents unto Geoffrey Chaucer the whole of the dwelling-house above the gate of Algate, with the rooms built over, and a certain cellar beneath, the same gate, on the South side of that gate, and the appurtenances thereof; to have and to hold the whole of the house aforesaid, with the rooms so built over, and the said cellar, and the appurtenances thereof, unto the aforesaid Geoffrey, for the whole life of him, the said Geoffrey. And the said Geoffrey shall maintain and repair the whole of the house aforesaid, and the rooms thereof, so often as shall be requisite, in all things necessary thereto, competently and sufficiently, at the expense of the same Geoffrey, throughout the whole life of him, the same Geoffrey. And it shall be lawful for the Chamberlain of the Guildhall of London, for the time being, so often as he shall see fit, to enter the house and rooms aforesaid, with their appurtenances, to see that the same are well and competently, and sufficiently, maintained and repaired, as aforesaid. And if the said Geoffrey shall not have maintained or repaired the aforesaid house and rooms competently and sufficiently, as is before stated, within forty days after the time when by the same Chamberlain he shall have been required so to do, it shall be lawful for the said Chamberlain wholly to oust the before-named Geoffrey therefrom, and to re-seise and resume the same house, rooms, and cellar, with their appurtenances, into the hand of the City, to the use of the Commonalty aforesaid; and to hold the same in their former state to the use of the same Commonalty, without any gainsaying whatsoever thereof. And it shall not be lawful for the said Geoffrey to let the house, rooms, and cellar, aforesaid, or any part thereof, or his interest therein, to any person whatsoever. And we, the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty aforesaid, will not cause any gaol to be made thereof, for the safekeeping of prisoners therein, during the life of the said Geoffrey; but we and our successors will warrant the same house, rooms, and cellar, with their appurtenances, unto the before-named Geoffrey, for the whole life of him, the same Geoffrey, in form aforesaid: this however excepted, that in time of defence of the city aforesaid, so often as it shall be necessary, it shall be lawful for us and our successors to enter the said house and rooms, and to order and dispose of the same, for such time, and in such manner, as shall then seem to us to be most expedient. And after the decease of the same Geoffrey, the house, rooms, and cellar aforesaid, with their appurtenances, shall wholly revert unto us and our successors. In witness whereof, as well the Common Seal of the City aforesaid as the seal of the said Geoffrey, have been to these present indentures interchangeably appended. Given in the Chamber of the Guildhall of the City aforesaid, the 10th day of May, in the 48th year of the reign of King Edward, after the Conquest the Third” (Riley’s _Memorials_, pp. 377-378).

“This,” says Stow, “is one and the first of the four principal gates, and also one of the seven double gates, mentioned by Fitzstephen. It hath had two pair of gates, though now but one; the hooks remaineth yet. Also there hath been two portcloses; the one of them remaineth, the other wanteth, but the place of letting down is manifest.”

“This gate being very ruinous, was pulled down Anno 1606; when, in digging for a new foundation, divers Roman coins were discovered, two of which Mr. Bond, the Surveyor, caused to be cut in stone, and placed in the east front on each side the passage. The first stone of this edifice was laid Anno 1607, at the depth of sixteen feet, and finished Anno 1609.

“Here was only one postern, and that on the north side, for foot-passengers; and a water-conduit at the south-east angle thereof; but the last being disused for many years, two houses were erected in lieu of it, in the year 1734, and a postern made on the south side of the gate. The apartments over this gate are appropriated to the use of one of the Lord Mayor’s Carvers, and at present are lett to the Charity School founded by Sir John Cash” (Maitland, vol. i. pp. 22-23).

The gate was taken down in 1761.

_Drawn by Thos. H. Shepherd._

ALDGATE IN 1830
]

In 1291, Thomas de Alegate leaves to his wife Eleanor, his houses within Alegate (_Calendar of Wills_). The street is often mentioned afterwards.

The ward of Aldgate in the year 1276 was called the ward of John of Northampton, the then alderman. There was a hermitage on the south side of the gate within a garden; the garden was let, in 1325, to one Peter a “blader,” or corn merchant. It is not stated whether the hermitage was then occupied. There were houses beside the gate in 1354. The Prior of Holy Trinity, Aldgate, was alderman _ex officio_ of Portsoken Ward; in 1378 we find him sworn to fill the office “and faithfully to do all things touching that office.”

In 1349, the _Calendar of Wills_ speaks of tenements in “Algate Street.” Roman remains have been found in Aldgate; at the gate there was a “Roomland”; without the gate was a great pit for the burial of those who died of the plague. In 1315 Sir John de Sandale, leaving London on business of the King, put the Great Seal into the custody of Sir William de Ayremynn at his inn near Aldgate. In the same year he received at his inn Edward de Baliol, newly returned from beyond the sea.

At the east end of the street, under a house facing the pump, was still to be seen, until 1868, a crypt formerly supposed to have been that of an ancient church, dedicated to St. Michael and taken down when the Priory of the Holy Trinity was first founded.

This handsome Gothic structure, which is situated between the east end of Leadenhall and Fenchurch Streets, under the houses fronting the pump at Aldgate, is still remaining entire, exhibiting a most beautiful specimen of ancient architecture.

It is shown (_L. & M. Archæological Journal_, iv. p. 223 _et seq._) that the crypt could not have been that of St. Michael’s Church. The paper referred to proved that the Church of St. Michael was not on that site at all. It quotes from the _Liber Dunthorne_ the boundaries of the soke of the monastery of the Trinity, which are very nearly the same as those of Aldgate ward.

It concludes that it was more likely the crypt of a great house, perhaps the ward house.

Rowland Taylor, before being burned for heresy, was taken to the Woolpack, an inn without Aldgate, and kept there.

A curious story is told concerning the Duke of Buckingham in 1663. “When the Duke came from Newmarket he stayed at an Inn by Aldgate. Here a fellow told him his fortune, saying that he would die unfortunately, as his father did, or that a similar attempt would be made upon him by the 1st of April. On the Tuesday prior to the date of the letter, the usher of the duke’s hall went to bed about 9 at night and rose again about one in the morning and came up at the back and private way to the duke’s chamber where only he, his lady, and a maid were talking. The maid opened the door at his knock and the usher rushed in with a naked sword, at which the maid squeaking gave my lord an alarm and he turning back snatched up a knife and by his boldness daunted the fellow so that he got within him, became master of his sword, and by that time company came in. The duke sent after the fortune-teller but the writer did not know whether he had heard of him.”

Northward of Aldgate, Mitre Street leads to Mitre Square which is surrounded by large new buildings belonging to merchants. The ward school is reached through a rounded tunnel-like entry and proves a pleasant surprise. In itself it is only a square old brick house without an atom of style or ornament, but before it is a garden plot where lilac bushes grow, and over the blackened bricks of the house and adjoining wall climb big trees, hiding the dinginess. From here we get a view of the old red-tiled roofs of the houses in Duke Street. In the school there is free education, and 110 children are clothed at the expense of the charity.

At the back of the ward school stood, until 1874, St. James’s, Duke’s Place (see p. 165).

ST. BOTOLPH, ALDGATE

St. Botolph, Aldgate, stands at the junction of Aldgate Street and
Houndsditch, and is said to have been originally founded about the
reign of William the Conqueror. The old building remained standing
till 1741, when it was pulled down and the present one erected under
the direction of the elder Dance and completed in 1744. The earliest
date of an incumbent is 1362. The patronage of the church was in the
hands of: The Prior and the Canons of Holy Trinity, London; Henry
VIII.; Robert Halywell, by grant of Elizabeth; George Puttenham,
granted by Elizabeth in the 30th year of her reign; Francis Morrice,
by James I., in the 7th year of his reign, since which time it has
been held by several private persons, but is now in the hands of the
Bishop of London. The benefice, which had been previously united
with that of St. Katherine by the Tower, was in 1899 united with
that of Holy Trinity Minories.

Houseling people in 1548 were 1530.

The present church is built of brick, with stone dressings. It
includes two side-aisles separated from the central portion by
Tuscan columns, supporting a flat ceiling. There are a great many
windows, mostly filled with stained glass. The tower stands at the
south, facing Aldgate High Street, and is surmounted by a small
spire.

Chantries were founded here: For John Romeney, at the Altar of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, to which Humphrey de Durham was admitted
chaplain, June 3, 1365; by Thomas Weston, whose endowment fetched
£5 : 6 : 8 in 1548; by Alex. Sprot and John Grace, whose endowments
yielded £22 : 15 : 8 in 1548.

The most interesting monument in this church is a tomb inscribed to
the memory of Thomas, Lord Darcy and Sir Nicholas Carew, both of
whom were concerned in the Roman Catholic plots against Henry VIII.
and beheaded on Tower Hill, the former in 1537 and the latter in
1538. The memory of Robert Dowe, the charitable Merchant Taylor, is
preserved by a monument erected by his Company, originally affixed
to a pillar in the chancel, but now removed to the east gallery.

A great number of benefactors are recorded by Stow, some of the most
notable of whom were: Robert Cockes, donor of £100; George Clarke,
donor of £200 for a public school, and other large sums for parish
purposes. The sum total of all the yearly gifts belonging to this
parish recorded, amounted to £151 : 15 : 8.

There were two charity schools, one in the Freedom having fifty boys
and forty girls, erected by Sir John Cass, alderman; the other, in
East Smithfield, having forty boys and thirty girls maintained by
subscription.

James Ardene (1636-91), D.D., Dean of Chester, 1682, was perpetual
curate here in 1666; also White Kennett (1660-1728), Bishop of
Peterborough.

St. Botolph’s Churchyard is a wide gravelled space with seats provided by the Metropolitan Public Spaces Association. There is an altar-tomb near the centre, and a row of flat tombstones of the usual pattern set back against the wall of the church. There are a few plane-trees and a row of little limes. It is a pleasant breathing space, used by the poorest of humanity, who come here for a little rest and sleep.

=High Street, Whitechapel=, is of great width and contains some large new brick and stone buildings. The Three Nuns Hotel, an immense red-brick building erected in 1877, and recently added to, stands near the station. By Crown Place, No. 23, is an old bow-windowed chop-house. On the east the chief feature is the large number of shops or stalls open to the street, covered by an awning or by a glass roof. These belong chiefly to butchers, and have a characteristic aspect. The last five or six houses before Mansell Street are all of considerable age and very picturesque.

Returning now westward we find:

The church and parish of =St. Mary Axe=, which are mentioned in the
_Calendar of Wills_ in the thirteenth century. Stow says of it:

“In St. Marie street had ye of old time a parish church of St. Marie
the Virgin, St. Ursula and the eleven thousand Virgins, which church
was commonly called St. Marie at the Axe, of the sign of an axe,
over against the east end thereof, or St. Marie Pellipar, of a plot
of ground lying on the north side thereof, pertaining to the
Skinners in London. This parish, about the year 1565, was united to
the parish church of St. Andrew Undershaft, and so was St. Mary at
the Axe suppressed and letten out to be a warehouse for a merchant.”

Cunningham corrects this statement. The church was called St. Mary
Axe because it possessed an Axe, one of the three with which the
11,000 Virgins were beheaded.

The parish is now united with that of St. Andrew Undershaft.

ST. ANDREW UNDERSHAFT

The Church of St. Andrew Undershaft stands at the corner of St. Mary
Axe, and on the north side is the churchyard, a little space where a
few young trees grow. It derives its name from the May-day custom of
setting up a pole higher than the steeple before the south door.
This custom was discontinued after “Evil May Day” (see _Tudor
London_, p. 24). The present building, occupying the site of the
original one, of unknown date, was erected, according to Stow, in
1520, at the expense of a Sir Stephen Jennings, William
Fitzwilliams, and others. The work of restoration has been carried
on here during the last thirty years. The earliest date of an
incumbent is 1361. The patronage has always been in the hands of the
Bishop of London, in whose successors it continues; he presented to
it in 1361.

The church is a late example of the Perpendicular style, consisting
of a nave and two side aisles, and surmounted by a tower, rebuilt in
1830, which is about 91 feet in height, and contains six bells. The
aisles are divided from the nave by clustered columns and obtusely
pointed arches, and above this is the clerestory. The spandrels
between the arches were embellished with scriptural paintings in
1726, but they are now much faded. In 1875 the series of full-length
portraits of Edward VI., Elizabeth, James I., Charles I., and
Charles II., were transferred from the east window to the west, and
modern stained glass took their place. A chantry was founded here by
Alan de Chepe in 1311.

The most interesting monument is that of the great antiquarian John
Stow; it is made of terra-cotta and is placed near the eastern end
of the north wall. There is another dedicated to Sir Hugh
Hammersley, sheriff 1618, and Lord Mayor 1627, part of the sculpture
of which is very fine. On the east wall of the north aisle is a
brass to Nicholas Levin, sheriff in 1534, and a liberal contributor
to the work of building the church; the brass is not large, but
twenty well-defined figures have been introduced. Sir William
Craven, Lord Mayor, 1640, a great benefactor to the parish, was
interred here, but has no monument; also Peter Antony Motteux, who
wrote comedies and masques, and died in 1718. Seven remarkable old
books are preserved in the vestry, Foxe’s _Acts and Monuments_, Sir
W. Raleigh’s _History of the World_, and others; a fragment of the
chain which formerly fastened Foxe’s book to a desk is still
retained.

This church and parish received many charitable gifts, some of the
donors of which were: Robert Gayer, £50; Sir Thomas Rich, £400; the
widow of Mr. Van Citters, £200, for the apprenticeship of two parish
children, 1706; and Joseph Chamberlain, £121 : 1s. in 1706. There
was a charity school for fifty boys and thirty girls who were
clothed, taught, and put out as apprentices by contribution. Among
the most notable rectors were: John Russell (died 1494), Bishop of
Rochester; John Pricket, Bishop of Gloucester; Robert Grove
(1631-1696), Bishop of Chichester; and William Walsham How
(1823-1897), Bishop of Bedford and of Wakefield.

ST. ANDREW UNDERSHAFT
]

Stow died in this parish and, it is believed, in St. Mary Axe itself, his windows overlooking the grounds and ruins of St. Helen’s nunnery.

Another parish church stood in St. Mary Axe, at the north end against the wall. It was called St. Augustine’s-in-the-Wall. In the year 1430 the church was allotted to the Fraternity of the Papey, the house for poor priests.

The house was suppressed in the reign of Edward VI., and was afterwards occupied by Sir Francis Walsingham (see _Mediæval London_, vol. ii. p. 377).

The modern St. Mary Axe is not interesting. The old house at the corner of Great St. Helen’s is the first to be noticed. Next to it is another old one, stuccoed. A few doors northward is the Grapes public-house. Then follow a succession of more or less new warehouses, with narrow frontage, chiefly in red brick, not unpicturesquely designed. A very new red brick building with much ornamental detail is St. Anne’s Chambers, Nos. 37 to 41. This is succeeded by the ward school, which is of red brick and bears its name across its frontage. It is the ward school of Cornhill and Lime Street, and was established 1710. The present building was erected in 1846. A little model of St. George and the Dragon gives a touch of vivacity to its appearance. Beyond this are large brick business houses and warehouses. Bishopsgate Avenue is occupied chiefly by stationers and printers.

=Bevis Marks.=—“Then next is one great House, large of Rooms, fair Courts and Garden Plots, sometime pertaining to the Bassets, since that, to the Abbots of Bury in Suffolk, and therefore called Buries Marks, corruptly Bevis Marks. And since the Dissolution of the Abbey of Bury, to Thomas Heneage the Father, and Sir Thomas Heneage the Son.

“This House and Ground is now encreased into many Tenements: And among the rest, the Jews of London have of late built themselves a large Synagogue here, wainscotted round. It stands East and West like one of our Churches. The great Door is on the West: Near to which West End is a long Desk upon an Ascent, somewhat raised from the rest of the Floor; where I suppose the Law is read. The East wall is in part railed in; and before the Wall is a Door, which is to open with a Key, where their Law seems to be laid up. Aloft on this Wall are the Ten Commandments, or some part of them, inscribed in Golden Hebrew Letters without Points. There be seven great Branched Candlesticks of Brass hanging down from the Top; and many other Places for Candles and Lamps. The Seats are Benches, with Backs to them that run along from West to East” (Strype, vol. i. bk. ii. p. 73).

The modern Bevis Marks is lined on the west by substantial red-brick buildings chiefly occupied by merchants.

=Heneage Lane=, leading out of Bevis Marks, a narrow and dark thoroughfare, contains the synagogue of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews. It is a plain structure externally, built in the year 1700. Standing in the midst of its courts and almshouses the place has somewhat the appearance of a Spanish convent. The interior is spacious and fitted with two galleries, one for women. The children attend service under one of the galleries.

The derivation of =Houndsditch= as given by Stow is as unsavoury as the reputation the street later earned. “Called Hounds-ditch for that in old time when the same lay open much filth (conveyed forth of the Citie) especially dead dogges was there laid or cast.” Beyond the mud wall that enclosed the ditch was a “fayre field” where were the almshouses of the Priory of Holy Trinity.

“In my youth, I remember,” continues Stow, “devout people as well men as women of the Citie, were accustomed oftentimes, especially on Frydayes weekely, to walke that way purposely, and there to bestow their charitable almes; every poor man or woman lying in their bed within their window, which was toward the street open so low, that every man might see them.”

At present looking down Houndsditch from Bishopsgate Within the street presents a not unpicturesque appearance. On the south, indeed, it is one continuous row of dull brick box-like houses, but on the north one or two old projecting houses break the line. No. 96 is an old stuccoed house which projects in a broad bay above the first floor. Besides these old houses several high plain warehouses break up the monotony of the street line. Houndsditch is the centre of the old-clothes trade. To the north lie huge warehouses and industrial dwellings.

=Bishopsgate=.—There were two northern gates to the Roman wall: one of them corresponding with Newgate and the other with Bishopsgate. But the Saxon and mediæval Bishopsgate was not built on the site of the Roman gate, but a little to the west. The foundations of the Roman gate have been found in Camomile Street; they were built with carved stones taken from some Roman building, perhaps a villa, an illustration of my theory that the wall was built in great haste and that all the stone buildings of the City were used in its construction.

The massive masonry of the ancient “Newgate” has also been found close by the later gate in Giltspur Street.

The traffic along Bishopsgate Street, which led into the Roman Fort, and to the Bridge from the north and eastern parts of the island, caused a settlement and a street to be established here long before the wall was built. For the same reason, when the City began to fill up after its long period of desolation, the line was one of the first to be settled again, while on either side there were vacant spaces, orchards, fields, and gardens. Houses and shops sprang up both within and without the wall; the latter only when the Norman power had removed the fear of another siege. It is impossible to say with any certainty when the street was actually recognised as such. Thus, to quote such facts as are accessible in Riley’s _Memorials_, in the _Calendar of Wills_, etc., we find that in 1259, 1272, 1285, and 1288 there are mentioned “houses near, or within, Bishopsgate,” and in 1309 and 1311 there are “houses without” Bishopsgate. In 1329 we find a brew-house in Bishopsgate Street. Again, in 1314 the shops of one Roger Poyntel are in danger by reason of an overhanging elm-tree, thanks to which we learn that there were at that time residents close by the gate; in 1305 a tourelle in the wall near the gate is given to William Coeur de Lyon, chaplain, on condition that he keeps it in repair; in 1314 another tourelle near the gate is given to John de Elyngham, chaplain in charity, on the same condition; in 1318 the upper chamber of the gate, together with a tourelle on the east, and a garden against the wall, is granted to John de Long, an Easterling, or member of the Hanseatic League, on the same condition. In 1324 he renounced his lease and, apparently, went home. (Here we have an instance of a Hanseatic merchant living outside the _Domus_, or _Aula Teutonicorum_, where they were all supposed to live. But no absolute rule about anything can be laid down in these centuries.) The Almaines or Easterlings who were responsible for the repair and maintenance of the gate, were exempt from toll. On the other hand (another illustration of the conflicting “rights” of the time), the Bishop of London claimed one stock out of every cart-load of wood that passed through the gate. Let the Bishop, then, keep the hinges in repair!

The gate was built, it is said, by Bishop Erkenwald in 685. One supposes, since he did not rebuild on the Roman foundations, that a way had been made through the wall on the west side, and that traffic had, for convenience, chosen that way. The gate was considered, in some sense, to be under the special care of the Bishop. But the burden of its maintenance was laid upon the Hanseatic merchants. The case was tried and decided in 1282, when the merchants were ordered to keep the gate, and to find men and money if necessary in its defence for one-third of the cost. On the antiquities of the gate, hear also Stow:

“The eldest note that I read of this Bishopsgate, is that William Blund, one of the sheriffs of London, in the year 1210, sold to Serle Mercer, and William Almaine, procurators or wardens of London Bridge, all his land, with the garden, in the parish of St. Buttolph without Bishopsgate.