Chapter XIV: Part I: p. 3) in 1259; “St. Michael de Paternoster-cherch” in 1284; (1)

and “Paternostercherche near la Rayole” in 1301. It was rebuilt by
Sir Richard Whittington. Early in the fifteenth century the old
church was small, frail, and ruinous: it stood where it now stands,
but north and east lay unbuilt spaces, green with grass, and
possibly tree-planted. Across the green to the north stood “The
Tabard,” the dwelling-house of Whittington, who rebuilt the church
on a larger scale, granting land of his own for the purpose in 1411.
The site available measured 113 feet long from east to west, just as
now there is a graveyard 26 feet long. The new building had a
castellated parapet: the tower stood at the west end, square,
embattled, surmounted by a great cross. Beneath the tower a great
doorway opened upon Paternoster Lane. It was destroyed in the Great
Fire and rebuilt by Edward Strong, Wren’s master-mason, in 1694; the
steeple was added in 1713. The church of St. Martin Vintry was not
rebuilt after the Fire, its parish being annexed to this. The
parishes of Allhallows the Great and Allhallows the Less were also
annexed in 1893. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1282.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Prior and
Convent of Christ Church, Canterbury, 1282; the Dean and Chapter of
Canterbury from 1550 to 1666, when St. Martin Vintry was annexed and
the patronage was alternate with the Bishop of Worcester.

Houseling people in 1548 were 213.

The church is oblong in shape, 67 feet in length, 47 feet in width,
and 38 feet in height. The oak altar-piece is said to be the work of
Grinling Gibbons, and above it there is a painting by William
Hilton, R.A., presented in 1820 by the directors of the London
Institution. The tower is square and contains three stories
terminated by a cornice and parapet, with vases at the angles; it is
surmounted by a shallow dome on four arches, and encircled by Ionic
columns. Above this the steeple is octagonal, crowned by a pedestal
with finial and vane. The total height is 128 feet 3 inches. The
church was repaired and the interior arrangements remodelled in
1864; in 1895 was again repaired; at this date the carved woodwork
and the organ case from Allhallows the Great were utilised on the
demolition of that church. Beneath the tower is preserved a carving
of the royal arms (William and Mary); this stood above the reredos
before the placing of the picture there in 1820. The tower contains
one bell.

A chantry was founded here by Lawrence Duket in 1289.

The church contained but few monuments of note. There was one in
memory of John Haydon, mercer, Sheriff 1582, and benefactor of the
parish. Sir Richard Whittington, the founder of the church, was also
commemorated; he was buried here with his wife, and the traditional
site of the tomb, which was destroyed in the Great Fire, is where
the sanctuary rail and organ are.

The only monument of any interest in the present building is one to
Sir Samuel Pennant, who died 1750, during his mayoralty; he died of
gaol fever, caught in discharging his duty in visiting Newgate.
There is a memorial tablet to Jacob Jacobsen on the west wall;
Bishop Wadington’s arms can be seen in the south-west window.

Reginald Peacock, Bishop of Chichester, 1449, was rector here; also
William Ive (d. 1485), Vice-Chancellor of Oxford; Humphrey Hody
(1659-1707), Regius Professor of Greek, Oxford; and Richard Smith
(1500-1563), Dean of Douai and a great pillar of the Catholic
Church.

Under Whittington’s will, the church became collegiate in 1424. A college of St. Spirit and St. Mary, the college house, the almshouse, also of Whittington’s foundation, and a parcel of ground then a garden, but intended for consecration as a new churchyard, were grouped north of the church, between that and Whittington’s own dwelling. They probably composed a quadrangle. The almshouse was called “God’s House or Alms-house or the hospital of Richard Whittington.” It was for twelve poor folk, men and women, and a “tutor” who had custody of the goods, and was to preserve order. He had a separate apartment—the twelve others lived more together; all dined and supped in common hall. They were to pray daily for their founder, his wife and others; to behave seemly; to read, work, or meditate; to dress in dark brown, “not staring nor blazing in colour.” The college house was for the accommodation of five fellows or chaplains, two clerks, and four choristers; these composed the collegiate staff. The fellows were secular priests, that is to say, not regulars or conventual clergy; they were to be masters of art, poor men, unbeneficed. One of them was to occupy the position of master. The church ceased as a rectory when it became a collegiate. The then rector was appointed the first master and he was to continue his parochial duties.

Before the end of the century the members had formed themselves into a fraternity—_Fraternitas Scantæ Sopluæ_—for the reading of a divinity lecture. A little later a divinity reader was provided by a bequest, and another legacy was allotted to the fellows, so that each should deliver two additional sermons every year, either in the City or out. Whittington’s estates originally produced £63 per annum for the college and £40 per annum for the almshouse. At the suppression of the former, under Edward VI., the value was returned at only £20 : 1 : 8 per annum; the college house and garden were sold for £92 : 2s. to Armagil Waad, or Wade, Clerk of the Council, in 1548. The almshouse was not then affected, but was and is administered by the Mercers Company. It was rebuilt after the Great Fire. In 1808 the almshouse people were removed to Highgate. The Mercers’ School, rebuilt in Old Jewry in 1670, removed to Budge Row in 1787, and burnt down and removed to 20 Red Lion Court, opposite to St. Antholin’s, Watling Street, in 1804, was settled in the old almshouses on their becoming empty. In 1832 the premises were rebuilt. Externally they present a plain structure of stone, with a great projecting cornice; the interior is spacious, the flagged playground still preserves a suggestion of collegiate cloisters. Here almsmen walked, here college fellows paced, here hearty schoolboys shouted—now all is silent and untenanted. The Mercers’ School is now removed to Holborn.

The name College Hill does not occur in Stow, but Newcourt’s map of 1658 so styles it: it bore reference to Whittington’s College. As the Duke of Buckingham’s “Litany” (1679) has it, there was thus “Nought left of a College, but College Hill.” Ogilby’s post-Fire map (1677) names the street College Hill only so far north as Cloak Lane; above that it was Tower Royal Street: both portions are now reckoned as College Hill as far as Cannon Street. At the corner of the present Maiden Lane was situated, in the fourteenth century, the house and tavern of Richard Chaucer, vintner, step-grandfather to Geoffrey Chaucer, the poet. Perhaps the latter dwelt here.

After the Great Fire “a very large and graceful building” with great courtyards was erected on College Hill. Here lived the second and last Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, “for the more security of his trade, and convenience of driving it among the Londoners.” This dissolute but clever courtier was nicknamed “Alderman Buckingham” and satirised by Dryden as “Zimri” who was “everything by starts and nothing long.” The house was sometime the residence of Sir John Lethieullier, merchant and alderman, sheriff in 1674; it has since disappeared, but portions of the courtyard remain. One of these is Newcastle Court, on the west of College Hill, now merely a yard between backs of great houses, and a postern entrance to the Cloak Lane Police Station.

WHITTINGTON’S HOUSE
]

Of the general houses which Strype (1720) says were “well built and inhabited by merchants and others,” none remain, except Nos. 3 and 4 on the west side, of which the latter has a quaintly carved tympanum above the front door: and Nos. 21 and 22 on the east side. The two last or some part of them stand upon the site of “The Tabard,” Whittington’s own dwelling-house. Here are two stories of cellars in the northern house, whose foundation walls are built from stones possibly once forming the materials of Whittington’s mansion. Both premises have massive staircases, and the southernmost possesses some well-carved doorcases. The little courtyards before them are each entered through a great porch with timbered sides, and heavy panelled doors shut it off from the street. The arched gateways of the porches are pedimented, the tympanums filled with a profusion of luxuriant carvings—grotesque heads, drapery, garlands of flowers and fruit. Above the gateways stand porch-rooms; still higher little latticed dormer windows peep out of the quaint, tiled roofs. The porches are the pride of the hill, and well serve to mark so illustrious a site.

Stow calls =Dowgate Hill= “the high street called Downgate,” and by that he doubtless includes both the hill on the north side of Thames Street and Dowgate Dock on the south side of the same. The east side is now wholly occupied by the immense wall of Cannon Street hotel and station. Only a portion of the former is in the ward. Beneath the latter, opening upon the street, are several cellars called Dowgate vaults. Previously to the erection of the station a lane called Chequer Yard ran from opposite Dyers’ Hall to Bush Lane. Stow terms it Chequer Lane, or Alley, “of an inn called the Chequer.” Its former name, he says, was Carter Lane, “of carts and carmen having stables there.” Strype calls it “a pretty good open space.” Malcolm (1802) says Chequer Yard then consisted of a vast range of warehouses, many stories in height, always filled with tobacco, cotton, coffee, etc. Amongst these were the Plumbers’ Hall warehouses. Here formerly stood Plumbers’ Hall (see Appendix) and the Chequer Inn. “The Chequer” is mentioned as a brew-house so early as the reign of Richard III., when it appears to have appertained to the Erber. It was rebuilt as an inn after the Great Fire, and stood in a courtyard on the south side of the lane, near the west end. It had a gate and a passage into Dowgate Hill. Strype (1720) says it was “an inn of no great account, being chiefly for livery stables and horses.” In Strype’s 1754 edition all mention of the inn is omitted, so that it had, presumably, vanished during the intervening thirty-four years. At the north-west corner of Chequer Yard was the site of the Erber (p. 245). Previously to the erection of the station, the hill forked opposite to Skinners’ Hall and turned into Cannon Street by two narrow lanes. Of these the north-eastern was Turnwheele Lane, “from a turnpike in the middle thereof”; the north-western retained the name of Dowgate Hill. They had between them at the fork a block of buildings. When the station was built, Turnwheele Lane was covered and Dowgate Hill was widened by absorbing the block. Towards “the upper end of the hill, stood the fair Conduit-upon-Dowgate,” mentioned by Stow as “castellated, and made in the year 1568, at charges of the citizens.” In Ryther’s map, 1604 (British Museum), it is shown to stand in the middle of Dowgate Hill opposite the end of Cloak Lane. It was destroyed in the Great Fire and not rebuilt. Allen, in his _History of London_, places it at the south-east corner of Walbrook, in Walbrook ward; evidently he is mistaken. On the west side the ward begins at the corner of Cloak Lane, of which only a part of the southern side is in Dowgate. Thence proceeding southwards is Tallow Chandlers’ Hall (see p. 243).

At 8 Dowgate Hill is

THE SKINNERS COMPANY

It is probable that, like other traders who came to London in early
times, men following the trade of Skinners were assigned some
separate locality in the town and associated together for the
purposes of a guild.

In course of time, as the guild grew in importance, the Skinners
seem to have absorbed or affiliated unto themselves two other
trades, the Upholders and the Tawyers.

It is clear that as long ago as the reign of Henry VI. the guild
included among its members other than those who exercised the trades
of Skinner, Tawyer, and Upholder, for in one of the Company’s books,
dated 25th July, 23 Henry VI., there is a list of names of the
brethren and sistren of the guild at that time. They amount to
twenty in all, and include one doctor, three gentlemen, nine of no
trade or description, two butchers, one dyer, one joiner, one
skinner, one grocer, as brethren, and one sister as silkwife.

The Company has a copy of the charter of Henry VI., but none of that
of Philip and Mary. They are Inspeximus charters, as also is that of
22nd March, 2 Elizabeth.

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth differences arose between the
working “artesans” of the guild and the rest of the fraternity,
especially the governing body, which continued for many years and
culminated in a surreptitious application in 1606 by the Artisan
Skinners for new Letters Patent from the Crown without the consent
or privity of the master and wardens of the guild, and in December
1606 (4 James I.) a charter was issued. Full inquiry was made. The
Lord Mayor and aldermen made their report to the lords of the Privy
Council, who thereupon ordered (March 22, 1606) that the privy seal
that had been procured by the Artisan Skinners for this new charter
appertaining to the Company of Skinners should be cancelled.

The charters and title deeds of the Skinners Company were
surrendered in 1625 like those of the other City Companies, but in
1641 their privileges were restored.

After the restoration of King Charles II. the Skinners Company
obtained the charter dated 20th June, 19 Charles II. It grants
nothing new, but merely confirms to the master and wardens of the
guild or fraternity all they had under any of their previous
charters.

Passing to 1744, the Artisan Skinners appear to have thought that if
they could only be more fully represented on the governing body of
the Company, their trade grievances would be redressed, and they
accordingly, in October 1744, presented a remonstrance to the Court.

The result of this was that in three months the master and three
wardens were served with a copy of a rule for a mandamus commanding
them to choose a number of Artisan Skinners to be wardens and
assistants. The governing body, in reply, set out the whole of the
proceedings of 1606, but the mandamus was ultimately issued and a
return made to the writ. At the hearing, counsel for the
prosecutors, the artisans, informed the Court of King’s Bench that
he had perused the return and could not find any fault with it, and
accordingly the judges ordered the return of the master and wardens
to be affirmed.

In December 1747 similar hostile proceedings were renewed, and led
finally to an information for a false return being filed against the
master and wardens in June 1748. The cause came on for trial at the
King’s Bench bar on the 24th April following, and the jurors,
without going out of court, brought in a verdict of not guilty.

The number of liverymen is 200; the Corporate Income is £27,500; the
Trust Income is £17,500.

A freeman of the Skinners Company is eligible, as vacancies from
time to time occur, to a presentation for his child to Christ’s
Hospital, ten such presentations being given to the Company under
the benefaction of Mr. William Stoddart. Besides being eligible for
certain almshouses and pensions, poor freemen who have fallen into
straitened circumstances obtain charitable assistance from the
Company at the discretion of the governing body, as also do the
widows and children of such poor freemen. Freemen are entitled to a
preference among applicants for loans under trusts administered by
the Company. They are also with their sons and apprentices eligible
under certain conditions for exhibitions founded by the Company, and
their sons will have a preference for admission into the Company’s
Middle School, referred to in another part of this return, if there
should not be room for all the candidates. Liverymen have similar
claims. They also attend at dinners given to the livery at the
Company’s Hall, and have the privilege of occasionally introducing
friends at such dinners. The master and wardens and other members of
the court have similar rights and privileges. They also receive fees
as members of the governing body in respect of their attendance at
courts and committees as already stated.

Assistance is granted by the Company to members if it appears upon
inquiry that from misfortune or by reason of sickness, infirmity, or
from other good cause they are in need.

Stow describes Skinners’ Hall as “a fair house, which was sometime
called Copped Hall by Downgate.” Copped Hall was purchased by the
Skinners, together with several small tenements adjacent, in the
reign of Henry III. (about 1260-62). The Company afterwards held it
under a licence of mortmain granted by that king. It was
subsequently alienated, though by what means is uncertain, and in
1326, according to Stow, it was possessed by Ralph de Cobham, the
brave Kentish warrior, who made Edward III. his heir. Edward III.
restored the hall to the Skinners at about the time of the Company’s
legal incorporation (1327).

Of Copped Hall no plan exists, but it is probable that four small
tenements occupied the Dowgate Hill frontage (50 feet), and it is
known that there was a court or quadrangle somewhat like the present
one with an entrance from it direct into the hall. It perished in
the Great Fire of 1666, soon after which the rubbish and lead were
sold. There still remain, however, some of the old walls, and the
great stone fireplace of the kitchen was discovered when excavating
in the present cellars about 1870. On October 15, 1668, a committee,
of which Sir George Waterman, Master of the Skinners, and Sir Thomas
Pilkington were members, was appointed to carry out the rebuilding,
the Company meanwhile holding their courts in various places as at
Salters’ Hall, the Red Bull Inn, Bishopsgate, and in the church of
St. Helen.

In November 1688 “the front houses at Skinners’ Hall” were ordered
to be rebuilt; in the February following the Renter was empowered to
make a gateway of stone or timber as he thought fit; and the
quadrangle was ordered to be 40 feet square. By 1672 the rebuilding
must have been practically finished, for Sir George Waterman kept
his mayoralty here in 1672-73, renting the hall for £160.

The Dowgate Hill front was rebuilt under the Company’s surveyor in
1777, and Mr. Jupp, afterwards surveyor to the Company, also made
some alterations. This front is somewhat like that of Old Covent
Garden Theatre in the time of Garrick. It is a regular three-storied
building of the Ionic order. The basement part to the level of the
first story is of stone, and rusticated; from this rise six
pilasters supporting an entablature and pediment all of the same
material. In the tympanum are the Company’s arms. In the facade are
two doorways, one leading to the quadrangle before the great hall,
the other to the clerks’ offices. Across the quadrangle is a carved
doorway, the principal entrance to the lobby in front of the great
hall. This hall is a very handsome apartment. It was rebuilt 1849-50
under the direction of Mr. G. B. Moore, and was restored and
decorated in 1891 at much expense. Up to that time the walls had
been wainscotted; they are now panelled in light oak to a higher
level, the panelling being crowned by a fine frieze decorated with
raised shields, and a cornice. The carved roof is richly decorated
and contains a wagon-headed skylight. The entrance to the hall is at
the north end through a splendid carved oak screen, which in 1891
supplanted the original Ionic screen ordered for the hall in 1760.
Behind the hall is a small Committee room with a good fireplace,
above which is a carved panel in the style of Grinling Gibbons.
Beyond is the court room. On the floor above is the great cedar
parlour or withdrawing room. It is a magnificent chamber, redolent
with the scent of the red cedar, in which material the whole of the
interior is executed. The cedar wood is said to have been presented
by the East India Company. The walls are wainscotted up to the
frieze and cornice, the former of which is carved both in light and
dark wood, the whole being richly gilt. From the cornice springs the
coved ceiling, which is panelled and painted, and which, some years
ago, when the room was redecorated under the mastership of Mr.
Charles Barry, architect, was substituted for the old ceiling. The
doors are handsomely carved and pedimented. Over the fireplace is a
panel carved in Grinling Gibbon’s best style, displaying the
Company’s arms wreathed about with festoons of dark wood on the
light cedar panel.

At one end, in glass cases, are two curious coloured statuettes, one
representing Edward III., the other Sir Andrew Judd, both neat
pieces of work.

The grand staircase is well designed, and displays some of the massy
carving and rich ornaments in vogue just after the Great Fire.
Attached to the hall is a small garden, in which are a tree and
several flower-beds, also a curiously embossed cistern dated 1768.
The original cost of the Skinners’ Hall was, according to the _New
View of London_ (1708), £18,000, but much has since been spent upon
it. Several Lord Mayors and sheriffs have kept their year of office
here, and in 1691 the new East India Company, before their
incorporation with the old Company, began to hold their meetings
here, paying an annual rent of £300. In consequence of these
meetings the new Company afterwards presented to the hall a carved
mahogany court-table and silver candlesticks.

THE DYERS COMPANY

The Dyers Company was in existence in 1381, and probably even
earlier.

The first charter was that granted by Henry VI. in 1471; this was
renewed by Edward IV. in 1472. The charter was confirmed or renewed
by Henry VIII., Edward VI., Elizabeth, and Mary. An Inspeximus
charter was granted, 2 Elizabeth 1559 and by 4 James I. 1606; James
II. gave the Company a charter 1688, and they were re-incorporated
by Anne 1704.

The number of the livery is now 61; the Corporate Income is £5000;
the Trust Income £1000.

The Company has the right to keep swans on the river Thames. This
privilege they share with the vintners, and the “Barge masters” of
both Companies have the care of the swans.

Dyers’ Hall extends from Skinners’ Hall to the corner of College
Street, and occupies the site of Jesus’ Commons, which was, says
Stow (1598), “a college of priests, a house well furnished with
brass, pewter, napery, plate, etc., besides a fair library well
stored with books, all which of old time was given to a number of
priests that should keep commons there, and as one left his place,
by death or otherwise, another should be admitted into his room, but
this order within this thirty years being discontinued, the said
house was dissolved, and turned to tenements.”

The Dyers’ Hall consists of a plain four-storied building, the
basement being of stone, the upper part of white brick with stone
facings. Part of the lower story is let out as business premises,
the corner at College Street being allotted to the Bunch of Grapes
Inn. The great hall is a large and lofty room, but comparatively
plain. It is relieved by rather handsome frieze and cornice and is
lighted by two windows, one at either end.

The Company’s Hall in use prior to 1666 stood at the south end of
what is now Dyers’ Hall Wharf, Upper Thames Street. It was destroyed
in the Great Fire and apparently rebuilt in a stately manner, but
again destroyed by fire in 1681. (Malcolm, 1802.) For several years
the Company met in Salters’ Hall. Maitland (1739) says “the Company
has converted one of their houses in little Elbow Lane into a hall
to transact their business in.” This fell down in 1768. The next
hall was erected about 1770. It was a tolerably spacious unassuming
building, the exterior distinguished by a double flight of steps,
but was not of any architectural merit. The present hall was built
1839-40 (Charles Dyer, architect). Some additions and alterations
were made to it 1865-67 by D. A. Corbett, architect. (See Lond. and
Mid. _Arch. Trans._ vol. v. p. 452.)

The Dyers’ Wharf estate is now covered with warehouses. Those on the
riverside are known as the Monument Bonded Warehouses. The archives
of the Company were destroyed in the Great Fire.

The slope of Dowgate Hill is now a gradual one, but Stow speaks of it as of rapid descent, and relates that in 1574 the channels became so swollen and swift in a heavy storm of rain, that a lad of eighteen, endeavouring to leap over near the conduit, was taken with the stream and carried thence against a cartwheel that stood in the watergate, “before which time he was drowned and stark dead.” Strype (1720) mentions that the hill was still so steep that in great rains floods arose in the lower parts. Ben Jonson speaks of “Dowgate torrents falling into Thames.”

Dowgate Wharf or Dock is supposed to have gained its name from its steep descent to the river, as it was sometimes called Downgate, but this derivation sounds highly improbable. One of the most ancient ferries over the Thames was at Dowgate. On the east side of the dock is Walbrook Wharf, showing the spot where the ancient stream, the Walbrook, reached the Thames.

Robert Green the dramatist, from whom Shakespeare borrowed the plot of his _Winter’s Tale_, died (1592) in an obscure lodging at the house of a shoemaker in Dowgate, indebted to his landlord for the bare necessaries of life.

At the north end of Dowgate Hill near Cloak Lane stood St. John the Baptist’s Church.

=St. John the Baptist= was situated on the west side of Dowgate Hill
in the ward of Walbrook. _Ecclesia Sancti Johannis super Walbroc_,
occurs about 1181; _ecclesia Sancti Johis de Walbrook_ is set down
in the “Taxatio Ecclesiasticus” of Pope Nicholas IV. (1291). The
first mention of the church is contained in a book at the Cathedral
(Newcourt, i. p. 371) compiled in the time of Ralph de Diceto made
dean 1181. The entry is as follows:—“_Ecclesia Sancti Johannis super
Walbroc_ est Canonicorum, & reddit eis ii sol. per manum _Vitalis_
clerici, solvit Synodalia ivd, Archidiacono xiid. & habet in domino
suo quondam terram, quae reddit ii sol. & est de feodo _Willimi de
la Mare_, & etiam terrulam, quae est inter ecclesiam & _Walbroc_ &
reddit iii sol. non habet coemiterium.”

Thus the earliest church stood upon the east side of the stream, a
little tract of land intervening between its west wall and the bank.
When the watercourse was diverted to flow more eastwards, the
chancel bordered on the brook. It was rebuilt about 1412, and again
in 1621, but destroyed by the Great Fire in 1666, when its parish
was annexed to that of St. Antholin. The earliest date of an
incumbent is 1150.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of: the Dean and
Chapter of St. Paul’s in 1150, who granted it to the Prioress and
Convent of St. Helen about 1373, till it was seized by Henry VIII.
and so continued in the Crown up to 1671, when it was annexed to St.
Antholin.

Houseling people in 1548 were 375.

Only two monuments are recorded by Stow as being of note—W.
Combarton, Skinner, who gave lands to the church, buried 1410; and
John Stone, Taylor, Sheriff 1464.

The site of the building was converted into a churchyard, and upon the wall is a stone with this inscription:

“‘Before the dreadfull Fire, anno domini 1666, here stood the parish
church St. John Baptist, upon Walbrook—William Wilkins, James
Whitchurch, churchwardens this present year anno domini 1674.’ The
above stone was refaced, and the letters fresh cut anno domini
1836—Rev. John Gordon M.A. rector, Edward Jones, Lewis Williams,
churchwardens.”

The parsonage was not rebuilt, and Strype notes (1754, vol. i. p. 516) that neither its site nor that of its garden was given in the 1693 visitation. Newcourt (_Repertorium_, i. p. 371) further notes that the same visitation records great encroachments having been made on the churchyard since the Fire “to some of which the parish had consented, and others have been done by the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen, without the consent of the Archbishop and Bishop of London (as ’tis said) and the Chamberlain of London receives the rent for them.”

It was reserved for the commercial civilisation of this century to “encroach” the churchyard out of existence. The Act of the Metropolitan Railway gave the Company power to construct their Cannon Street Station (1883) under the burial-ground, and to remove the human remains. The churchyard is no more; the greater part of its site is enclosed by a brick wall which screens the opening in the roof of the station below. At the extreme west end an asphalted square has been railed in and reserved as a home for gravestones, and a large ornament bearing this melancholy and curious inscription:

Sacred to the memory of the dead interred in the ancient church and
churchyard of St. John the Baptist upon Walbrook during four
centuries. The formation of the District Railway having necessitated
the destruction of the greater part of the churchyard, all the human
remains contained therein were carefully collected and re-interred
in a vault beneath this monument A.D. 1884.—Rev. LEWIS BORRETT
WHITE, D.D., rector; JOHN R. W. LUCK, EDWARD WHITE, churchwardens.

But why sacred to the memory of the dead during “four centuries” only? Had not those buried previously to 1484 any right to commemoration? The churchyard existed in 1378 and the church in 1181. Truly inscription writers are marvellous in their discriminating powers. The vault containing the remains is situated alongside the railway line beneath.

Very interesting discoveries were made when excavating for the station. Mr. E. P. Seaton, the resident engineer, has preserved some careful notes, from which the following is an extract: “At the west end of the churchyard was found a subway running north and south. The arch was formed of stone blocks (Kentish rag) placed 3 feet apart, the space between being filled up with brickwork. The sides were of worked red ragstones, 8 by 11 inches, and 3 feet long (some 1 foot 4 inches long), surrounded with rough rubble masonry, set in mortar of a brown colour. The flat bottom varied from 2 to 4 feet in thickness and was formed of random rubble masonry. The brick invert was of much later date, about 6 inches thick and almost a semicircle. The space between the underside of that and the bottom was filled with made earth. A portion of the arch had been broken in, and was filled with human bones. The other parts of the subway or sewer were filled with hand-packed stones. This is supposed to be the centre of the ancient Walbrook (this supposition is quite correct) and made earth was found to a distance of 35 feet from the surface. Clay of a light grey colour was then found, impregnated with the decayed roots of water-plants. The foundations (it is a matter of regret that no plan of the foundations was taken; the opportunity is now lost for ever) of the old church of St. John the Baptist, destroyed 1666, and pulled down about 1677, were discovered about 10 to 12 feet from the surface and composed of chalk and Kentish ragstones. They ran about north-north-east to south-south-west. Piles of oak were found which seem to denote that the church was built on the edge of the brook, which must have been filled up during the Roman occupation, as numerous pieces of Roman pottery were found.” The bottom of the Walbrook valley was reached at 32 feet below the present street level, and is now 11 feet below the level of the lines in the station. During the excavations the piles and sill of the Horseshoe bridge which crossed the Walbrook hereabouts were also found near the churchyard, together with the remains of an ancient boat. These were unfortunately too rotten to preserve, but a block of Roman herring-bone pavement, formerly constituting part of a causeway or landing-place on the brook, is now at the Guildhall Museum. It was found beneath the churchyard 21 feet below the present level of the street, and was presented by the rector and churchwardens. Most of the Samian pottery and Roman coins found at this time were also presented to the Guildhall.

THE TALLOW CHANDLERS COMPANY

The first charter of incorporation of this Company bears date the
8th of March 1462, 2 Edward IV., wherein the then members of the
Company are described as “our beloved and faithful subjects, the
Freemen of the Mystery or Art of Tallough Chandlers of our City of
London.”

It is evident, however, that a company, guild, or other association
of tallow chandlers existed in London before the date of the above
charter, seeing that in the year 1426, or thirty-six years prior
thereto, Letters Patent were granted by Henry VI. to the mayor of
the City of London, and the master and wardens of the Mystery or
Craft of Tallow Chandlers of the same city for the time being,
empowering them to search for and destroy all bad and adulterated
oils.

Also in the year 1456, or six years prior to the said charter, a
grant of arms and crest was made by John Smert, Garter King-at-Arms,
to John Priour, John Thurlow, William Blakeman, and Richard
Grenecroft, sworn wardens or keepers (gardiens) and several other
notable men of the trade and of the Company of Tallow Chandlers
(Chandeliers de Suif) of the City of London, on behalf of and in the
name of their whole confraternity.

At present there is a livery of 102; the Corporate Income was not
returned to the Commissioners. The Trust Income is £220. Maitland
says that the Fraternity anciently dealt not only in candles, but
also in oils, vinegar, butter, hops, soap, etc.

Stow designates the hall of the Tallow Chandlers “a proper house.”
After the Great Fire it was rebuilt (1672). In 1884 a large red
brick and terra-cotta building of five stories, standing upon a
granite base, was erected on Dowgate Hill instead, and upon the site
of the old house of the Company’s clerk and beadle, and the hall is
now approached by a vestibule running under this building. The
vestibule leads into an open quadrangle, which was diminished when
the above-mentioned house was built. It is surrounded by a Tuscan
piazza of ten arcades. This piazza in part belongs to the 1672
building. It was restored in 1871. The building itself is of red
brick. On the first floor is the great hall, a handsome apartment 50
feet long by 27 feet wide, having a decorated ceiling, and walls
wainscotted with oak panelling and looking-glass to a height of 30
feet. On the south wall are three great mirrors; in a broken
pediment over the central one are the arms of Charles II. At the
north end is a carved oak screen, in the centre of which are the
entrance doors, of handsome carved work filled with stained glass,
erected in 1894. The screen itself is of the 1672 building. A heavy
carved frieze and cornice passes round the hall above the long
windows. The pictures include two by Sir Godfrey Kneller. The court
parlour is the handsomest room. It is wainscotted to the ceiling,
which is magnificently panelled in oak, and richly gilt, having in
the centre an oval compartment enclosed by an exquisitely moulded
wreath of flowers. The rest is divided into squares and oblongs,
filled with groups of flowers and fruit.

An inscription tells us:

“This parlour was wainscotted at the expense of Sir Joseph Sheldon,
Knt., a member of this Company and Lord Mayor of this City A.D.
1675. Who also gave this Company a barge with all its furniture.”

On the second floor is the court-room, which is also wainscotted to
the ceiling.

Dowgate, the Steelyard, and Cold Harbour were all very near together. The Steelyard was so called from the beam of steel by which goods imported into London were weighed. It stood just where Cannon Street Station now is. It had a fine hall and courtyard, and was for 300 years held by the members of the Hanseatic League, a community of foreigners who enjoyed the monopoly of importing hemp, corn, wax, linen and many other things into England, to the great loss of our own traders. (See _London in the time of the Tudors_, p. 82.)

Beyond the station is the City of London Brewery. The archway spanning the central entrance to this occupies the site of an earlier arch which once carried the choir and steeple of Allhallows the Less, and led to what Stow speaks of as “the great house called Cold Harbrough.” Its site is now covered by the brewery. The name of the house is conjectured to be a corruption of the German words Colner Herberg (Cologne Inn), which passed into Coln Harbrough, Cole Harbrough, Cold Harbrough, and Cold Harbour. Cologne being one of the principal of the Hanse towns, the proximity of the steelyard makes this derivation appear likely. There are several Cold Harbours in England, none of them remarkable for bleak situations, but most of them existing in places where commerce once greatly throve. The house stood at the water’s edge. It was a large building, with steps leading down to the river through an arched door. About the year 1600 it is represented with five gables facing the water, and rows of mullioned diamond-pane windows—a beautiful building. It had the right of sanctuary, though how or when gained is not known.

Until 1607 Cold Harbour had been outside the City jurisdiction, for it is one of the places added to the City’s rule by the charter of James I. to the mayor, commonalty, and citizens of London in that year. It must have been deserted by its original inhabitants, the Cologne merchants, before the reign of Edward II. It belonged to the Poultney family, and was for some time called Poultney’s Inn.

“In the year 1397, 21 Richard II., John Holland, Earl of Huntingdon, was lodged there, and Richard II., his brother, dined with him. It was then counted a right fair and stately house: but in the next year following Edmond, Earl of Cambridge, was there lodged, notwithstanding the said house still retained the name of Poultney’s Inn in the reign of Henry VI., the 26th of his reign” (Stow).

In 1410 Henry IV. gave it to Henry, Prince of Wales, for life. Margaret, Countess of Richmond, mother of Henry VII., lodged here temporarily; in the reign of Henry VIII., the Bishop of Durham’s house, already mentioned, “being taken into the King’s hands,” Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of Durham, was lodged in “the Cold Harbrough.” This Bishop of Durham remained here until 1553, when he was deposed from his bishopric and Cold Harbour was taken from him. It was granted by Edward VI., together with its appurtenances and six houses or tenements in the parish of St. Dunstan’s-in-the-East, and certain lands in Yorkshire, to the Earl of Shrewsbury and his heirs. Edward VI. is said to have given it to the Earl at the instance of the Duke of Northumberland, “who practised to gain as many of the nobility as he could to his purpose.” It then became known as Shrewsbury House. Francis, fifth Earl of Shrewsbury, who died in 1560, and his son, the sixth Earl, the guardian for fifteen years of Mary, Queen of Scots, took it down, “and in place thereof built a great number of small tenements, now letten out for great rents to people of all sorts” (Stow). The Earl died in 1590. The tenements were destroyed in the Fire of 1666. No remains of the building exist unless Wren utilised some of the stones in rebuilding Allhallows the Great. Hubbard, writing in 1843, says that a foundation wall of the house and the ancient stairs still survived in his time.

Stow calls =The Erber= a “great old house” and says that Geoffrey Scroope held it by gift of Edward III. in 1341. It subsequently belonged to John Nevil, Earl of Raby, who appears to have died some years prior to 1396. The last of the honourable family of the Scroopes to possess it was William de Scroope, Knt., who lived in the reign of Henry IV. He gave it for life to his brother Ralph Nevil, Earl of Westmoreland, who married, as his second wife, Joan, daughter of the Duke of Lancaster. Ralph Nevil died, seised of the Erber, in 1426, and his wife in 1441. Their son Richard Nevil, Earl of Salisbury, was lodged here in 1547. He died in 1460, and the Erber passed to his son Richard, Earl of Warwick and Salisbury, “the king-maker,” who was slain at the battle of Barnet Field in 1471. In 1474, George, Duke of Clarence, who had married Isabel, daughter of “the king-maker,” then received it from Edward IV. who gave it to him and his heirs so long as there was living male issue of the Marquis Montacute. If the said male issue should die during the duke’s life, then the duke to remain seised for life, taking precedence of the rights of all others than the marquis and his issue. The Duke of Clarence died in 1479. After his death, Edward, his son, was seised of the Erber, and George, Duke of Bedford, son of John Nevil, Marquis Montacute, dying without male issue in 1483, the lands remained in the hands of Edward till 1500, when he was attainted and the lands thus came to the Crown. Here they remained until 1512, when Henry VIII. gave them to John, Earl of Oxford, and his heirs male. In 1513 the King gave the reversion to Sir Thomas Bulleyn, Knt., and his male heirs. In 1514 he restored Margaret, daughter and heir to George, Duke of Clarence, and to all the lands of Richard, Earl of Salisbury, “who by colour of restitution entered, and was attainted in 1540. So the lands came back to the Crown, and were given in the next year to Sir Philip Hoby, who in 1545 sold the Erber to one Doulphin, a draper, who in 1553 sold it to the Drapers Company. Strype, who gives these particulars, says that notwithstanding this account “by some lawyers and historians in those days,” it appears by the Rolls (1405) that there was a surrender of the Erber from Ralph, Earl of Westmoreland, to the King for the use of John Darrel, and Walter de Arkham; that Richard III. possessed it under the name of “The King’s Palace,” and that one Ralph Dowel, a yeoman of the Crown, was keeper of this place. Dowel seems to have repaired not only the Erber, but also other houses belonging to it, “particularly a brewhouse called the Chequer,” as appears by a ledger-book of the King’s in which the accounts of Dowel are said to be examined by John Hewyk, one of the King’s auditors. Orders were given to Lethington, bailiff of the lordship of the Clavering in Essex, “to content him,” but £14 : 18 : 3 still remained in arrears due to him for the repairs. Stow says that the Erber had been lately rebuilt by Sir Thomas Pullison, and that it was afterwards inhabited by Sir Thomas Drake.

=St. Mary Bothaw= was situated on the east side of Turnwheele Lane,
Cannon Street. The date of foundation is unknown. Newcourt mentions
Adam Lambyn as a rector, who died 1279. In the Taxation Book of Pope
Nicholas IV., 1291, the church occurs as Sancte Marie de Bothaw. It
was destroyed by the Great Fire, but not rebuilt, its parish being
annexed to that of St. Swithin. Stow supposes, for want of a better
theory, that “this church being near unto the Down-Gate in the river
of Thames, hath the addition of Bothaw, or Boat Haw, of near
adjoining to a haw or yard, wherein of old time boats were made, and
landed from Downgate to be mended.” Strype mentions that it seems
“of old to be called St. Mary de Bothache,” and Mr. Loftie in his
_London City_ (1891) says that the name is “most likely from ‘la
board hatch,’ a wooden gate-lock called also in some ancient
documents ‘Board-Hatch.’” The map by Agas _c._ 1560, and Hollar’s
view of London, call the church St. Mary Buttolph Lane. It is
somewhat remarkable that Dowgate is almost the only one of the older
City gates which has no Church of St. Botolph near by, as at
Billingsgate, Aldgate, Bishopsgate, and Aldersgate. The term St.
Mary Bothol occurs more than once in records of the sixteenth
century. Can it be that the name bears witness to the existence of a
St. Botolph’s Church here, which was dedicated to the Virgin, with
the name Botolph attached as a remembrance of the former
appellation? The earliest date of an incumbent is 1281.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Prior and
Convent of Christ Church, Canterbury, before 1281; the Dean and
Chapter of Canterbury from 1552 up to the time it was annexed to St.
Swithin in 1666.

Houseling people in 1548 were 182.

Chantries were founded here: By Lady Joan Fastolf, to which Robert
Kirke was instituted, May 10, 1445; by and for John, son of Adam de
Salusbury, who endowed it with a tenement called the “Key” in
Coleman Street, which fetched £7 in 1548; by and for John Hamond,
before 1387; by James le Butler; by Hugh Fostall.

Many noble persons were buried here, as appeared from the arms in
the windows, the defaced tombs, and print of plates torn up and
carried away. The most remarkable, perhaps, was that of Sir Henry
Fitz-Alwine, draper, the first Lord Mayor of London, who continued
in his position for twenty-four years. Here, too, Robert Chicheley,
grocer and mayor of London in 1422, was buried; he appointed by his
will that 2400 poor men should each have a good dinner on his
birthday, and he also gave a plot of land for the building of the
parish church, called St. Stephen’s, Walbrook.

No charitable gifts are recorded by Stow.

At the construction of Cannon Street station and hotel, in 1866-68, the churchyard was built over. Its site is now immediately under the steps leading from the hotel to the forecourt, and is occupied by part of a corridor, a carpenter’s shop, a knife-cleaning room, and a coal cellar, all of which belong to the hotel basement.

The north-western side of the station forecourt stands upon the site of =Turnwheele Lane=, a narrow turning which formerly led from Cannon Street by a westerly slope into Dowgate Hill, which it joined opposite the northern boundary of Skinners’ Hall. Stow calls it “a little lane with a turnpike in the middle thereof.” Strype (1720) terms it Turnwheele Lane, but the _New Remarks of London_ (1732) style it Turnmill Lane. By the eastern side of the station runs Allhallows Lane leading northward into Bush Lane. The church of Allhallows the Great stood here until 1898, and east of it was Allhallows the Less.

=Allhallows the Great= was situated on the south side of
Thames Street. This church has been known, at various times,
as All Saints, Allhallows-ad-foenum, Allhallows-in-the-Hay,
Allhallows-in-the-Ropery (“because,” says Stow, “of hay sold
thereunto at Hay Wharf, and ropes of old time made and sold in
the high street”), Allhallows the More (“for a difference from
Allhallows the Less”), Allhallows the Great, which has been
the name at least since the Fire. Of its first foundation
there is no record, but from the fact that the riverside is
the oldest inhabited part of the City it may be nearly coeval
with the establishment of Christianity in London. The first
actual mention of it is in 1361 when, according to Newcourt,
one Thomas de Wodeford was rector. In 1627 and 1629 it was
repaired and redecorated, and a gallery built at the west end,
but the whole was destroyed by the Great Fire. In 1683 it was
rebuilt, the architect being Wren, and Allhallows the Less,
its neighbour, united with it by Act of Parliament. In 1877
the tower and north aisle were taken down to widen Thames
Street. The church was taken down in 1898. The earliest date
of an incumbent is 1279.

The patronage was in the hands of the family of Le Despensers before
1314; Richard Beauchamp; Richard Nevil, Earl of Warwick and
Salisbury, 1465; George, Duke of Clarence, before 1480; Edward,
eldest son of Isabel, Duchess of Clarence, 1480; Edward IV.; Henry
VII., as a gift from Anne, widow of Richard Nevil, Earl of Warwick
and Salisbury; Henry VIII.; the Archbishop of Canterbury, by
exchange, 1569, in whose successors it continues.

Houseling people in 1548 were 550.

There was a large cloister originally on the south side of the
church, but it was in a considerable state of ruin in 1627.

The plan was nominally an oblong square, but, owing probably to the
desire of Wren to make use of the old foundations, its walls were
neither built parallel nor four-square. The length was 87 feet, the
height 33 feet, and the width 60 feet, of which the nave was made 48
feet wide and a north aisle 12 feet wide. To the north aisle was
also attached a heavy square tower, occupying a portion of the
aisle. The elevation was finished with a cornice and parapet. The
tower rose above the second division from the east to a height of 86
feet. The church was celebrated for its beautiful woodwork, which,
on its demolition, was removed to St. Michael Royal.

Chantries were founded here by: Richard de Preston, citizen and
grocer, at the Altar of St. Katherine, for himself and Agnes his
wife, and to which Alfred Lyndon was admitted chaplain in 1396;
Peter Cosin whose will is dated 1291 (Pat. 43 Edward III. p. 2 m.
12); Sir Nicholas Lovin for himself and dame Margaret his wife;
William Lichfield, augmented by Thomas Westhowe, both of which
endowments fetched £8 : 16 : 8 in 1548; and William Peston.

The church formerly contained monuments to: William Lichfield,
Doctor of Divinity; John Brickles, a great benefactor. Queen
Elizabeth’s monument, “If Royal Vertues, etc.,” was also in this
church.

Two charity schools were erected in 1715, consisting of thirty boys
and twenty girls supported by voluntary subscriptions from the
inhabitants of the ward.

Among the notable rectors of this church are: Thomas White
(1628-98), Bishop of Peterborough; Hon. James York, Bishop of Ely,
1781; Robert Richardson, D.D. (1732-81), Dean of Lincoln; Edward
Waddington (d. 1731), Bishop of Chichester; William Vincent
(1739-1815), Dean of Westminster; William Cave, author (1637-1713).

In 1877 a new vestry was built on the south side of the church. It is approached from Allhallows Lane by steps, through an arched doorway, above which stands what is called “the tower,” a mean erection and a mere apology for a tower. Its height does not extend beyond the church roof. The vestry is fitted with the panelling and the pedimented doorway brought from the old north aisle, from which also come the two fantastically and beautifully carved wooden shields, now placed respectively over the fireplace and the door. The ceiling is a neat piece of panelling. The room is used for the holding of the Dowgate wardmotes. The churchyard (south of the church) is much higher than the lane at its side. It contains one tree, several tombs, and in the north-west corner the vestry-room. The enclosure remains an open space even after the demolition of the church.

Allhallows Church was dismantled in 1894. The screen, the pulpit, the altar rails, the brass candelabra, and some of the woodwork went to St. Margaret, Lothbury; the organ case, the font rails, the statues of Moses and Aaron, most of the carved woodwork, the monuments, and the stained-glass arms of Bishop Waddington went to St. Michael, Paternoster Royal. The carved-wood altar was allotted to the new Church of Allhallows, North St. Pancras, which was to be erected partially from the funds arising out of the sale. The clock by Ericke was bought by a gentleman connected with the City of London Brewery, where it now stands. The site and the materials of the fabric were sold by auction on July 31, 1894, for £31,100.

ALLHALLOWS THE LESS

Allhallows the Less was situated on the south side of Thames Street,
to the east of Allhallows the Great; it was called by some
Allhallows-on-the-Cellars, from its standing on vaults. It is said
to have been built by Sir John Poultney. After the Great Fire the
church was not rebuilt and the parish was annexed to Allhallows the
Great. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1242.