Old and New London, A Narrative of its History, its People and its Places. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings from the Most Authentic Sources. vol 3
Thornbury, Walter
1872-78
Chapter XII: The Strand:--Southern Tributaries (continued).
Chapter XII: The Strand:--Southern Tributaries (continued).
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It may reasonably be supposed that just on the west of the ground or centuries ago was marshy and low, and that a brook ran thence into the Thames. This, too, is rendered probable by the name of , which leads down from to the river-side; and the supposition is confirmed by the fact that in the remains of a bridge of stone, feet in length, and covered by rubbish, was found on digging between and the east end of , as stated already in a previous chapter. It is suggested by Mr. T. C. Noble, in his that this was probably the very bridge mentioned in the reign of Edward III. as built by the Templars of that day by command of the king. Towards its lower end the lane winds round to the east, meeting the steps at the bottom of . This part of the parish appears to have been always inhabited by the poorer and less classes; and it suffered accordingly most severely from the Plague in . | |
Stow remarks that he could not account for the origin of the name of ; but no doubt it comes from -not over the Thames, as Mr. Timbs suggests, but across the little stream which ran there across and under the Strand into the Thames, near which was a . Mr. Timbs tells us that the former is shown in a print of the reign of James I., and that he has seen a of the Windmill, near ; but this may possibly have been an inn. It is a narrow, crooked, and ill-built thoroughfare, and now contains more stables and warehouses than private dwellings. Yet it was once well tenanted. In it lived Sir Richard Baker, the author of the which, as most readers of the will remember, was the favourite work of Sir Roger de Coverley. The rectors of St. Clement Danes for many generations dwelt about half-way down the lane. The site of the old rectory is now occupied by an infant school. | |
An unwelcome notoriety has been given to this lane in a poem by Henry Saville, commonly attributed to the witty Earl of Dorset, and beginning- and Gay also mentions it in his in the following terms:--
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The lane, it should be mentioned here, when it really was a lane, acted as a boundary between the property of Lord Essex on the east, and that of the Earl of Arundel on the west. | |
In the Strand, it is said by tradition that between and was formerly a chapel dedicated to the Holy Ghost; but no prints of it have been preserved, nor is it known when or by whom it was founded, or when it passed away. Mr. Newton, in his conjectures that it was originally a chapel belonging to the Knights Templars, and that in after time it became the chapel of the Bishop of Exeter's Inn. | |
p.71 [extra_illustrations.3.71.1] [extra_illustrations.3.71.2] | He identifies its site, as nearly as possible, with the Unitarian chapel in already mentioned. |
At the top of the lane, on the eastern side, there stood down to about the year some picturesque wooden houses, with gables and ornamental fronts; but these were pulled down to make room for the erection of Milford House, in which since that date the has been printed. It is published at the corner of and the Strand, on the other side, of the way. This paper--the of our journals--was started by the late Mr. Herbert Ingram, a native of Boston, in , and by his energy and ability soon grew into a splendid property; but it needs no description here. We should, however, record in this place his melancholy death by drowning in , on of the American inland lakes. At the opposite corner, house was published in its short-lived rival, the | |
At the bottom of this lane is the printing-office of Messrs. Woodfall and Kinder. It was Mr. Woodfall's grandfather who printed the famous
says Mr. John Timbs,
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Between and Strand Lane-a narrow and rather winding thoroughfare leading to a few yards to the east of Somerset House--the entire space, about yards in length and the same in breadth, formed the site of the town residence of the Howards, Earls of Arundel and Dukes of Norfolk. It was a dull, heavy structure, as may be seen from Hollar's print; but its gardens and terraces were as extensive as befitted the dignity of so noble a house and family. The outlines and extent of the estate, as it was in the days of the Stuarts, may be easily gathered from the names subsequently given to the streets which were laid out upon its site, perpetuating the names of Norfolk, Arundel, Howard, and Surrey-names so familiar to the readers of English history under the Tudors, and also to the students of art and antiquity. Hollar's prints, however, do not give a very attractive view of it, for though it covered a considerable space, the buildings themselves were low and mean. | |
But it did not belong to the Towards in very ancient days, having been before the Reformation the or house of the Bishops of Bath and Wells, and known also as Hampton House. In the reign of Henry VIII., or of his successor Edward VI., it was seized and appropriated by royalty, and from royal hands it passed by an easy transition into the hands of Lord Thomas Seymour of Sudley, High Admiral of England, brother of the Protector Somerset, who called it . On the execution of Lord Seymour for treason, the dead lord's house was bought, together with its gardens and lands adjoining, by Henry Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel; and, Strype tells us, for the incredibly small sum of little more than . This Lord Arundel, at his death in , was succeeded in his title by his grandson, Philip Howard, son of the Duke of Norfolk, who had been beheaded for taking part with Mary, Queen of Scots; and though Philip Howard died in exile and attainted, his son Thomas contrived to obtain from James I. a reversal of the attainder and a restoration of his coronet. | |
Under this Earl of Arundel, the house which stood here became not merely a centre, but the very home and centre of art and art-treasures, as the repository of that collection long known as the and to use the words of Mr. Peter Cunningham, We learn that the collection, when in its entire state, comprised no less than statues, busts, and inscribed marbles, besides sarcophagi, altars, gems, and fragments of ancient art, all antique, and obtained with great care and discriminating skill in Italy. Besides these, However faulty he may be represented by Lord Clarendon, his judgment as a connoisseur in the fine arts will always remain undisputed. Views of the galleries in Arundel House are to be seen in the backgrounds of Van Somer's portraits of the Earl and Countess. | |
During the Cromwellian wars, [extra_illustrations.3.71.3] and its contents, of which, especially at that time, any nobleman might well have been proud, were given back to the Earl of Arundel's grandson, Henry Howard, Duke of Norfolk, who, at the recommendation of John Evelyn and John Selden, the author of gave the marbles to the University of Oxford, which they still adorn, and the library to the Royal Society, which held its meetings for some time at Arundel House. | |
, a publication of the century, informs the world, and with some truth, that to the Earl's It may be mentioned here that the remainder of the Earl of Arundel's collection was kept for many years at Tart House, the residence of Howard, the unfortunate Lord Stafford, in , and was ultimately sold in . | |
says Pennant, The whole of Seymour's infamous conduct respecting the unhappy Queen Dowager is fully detailed in Lord Burleigh's State papers. | |
Arundel House came to the Duke of Norfolk from the Earl of Arundel by the marriage which united in line the Fitzalans and the Howards. While tenanted by the Howards, the mansion is | |
p.74 [extra_illustrations.3.74.1] [extra_illustrations.3.74.2] [extra_illustrations.3.74.3] |
described as
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The house was at time occupied by the Duc de Sully, who in spite of its humble appearance on the outside, tells us that it was of the finest and most convenient in London, on account of the number of rooms and apartments on the groundfloor. At Arundel House, too, in its best and palmy days, John Evelyn and his family were frequent visitors. He tells us in his under date , that he was forced to take home his son John,
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Arundel House, too, is in other ways connected with history. To it the Earl invited Hollar, the artist, who engraved some of his finest plates while enjoying its princely hospitality, among others his (now very scarce) There also lived for a short time Lord William Howard, the of border fame. And there also, in , died Thomas Parr, known to the world as having been invited to come thither from his home in Shropshire, in order to become domesticated in the Earl's household, and to be introduced to Charles I., when upwards of a century and a half old. He did not, however, long survive the change; high feeding and the close air of London in a few months brought him to his grave, at the age of years and months. His body, as we learn from the , was dissected at the king's command by Harvey, who attributed the old man's death to peripneumonia, brought on by the impurity of a London atmosphere and sudden change in his diet. | |
Taylor, the water poet, gives us the following description of Old Parr, when he saw him in London:--
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[extra_illustrations.3.74.4] , according to the inscription on his tomb in , was born in Shropshire in ; and it is added, There is a portrait of Old Parr, said to be by Rubens. | |
in the century, we are told by Allen, He adds that it was to Arundel House that the Royal Society removed from Gresham College, after the Fire of London, being invited thither by Henry, Duke of Norfolk. They returned to their old home in , soon after which the house was sentenced to be taken down. The Duke, as we are informed by Pennant, had presented his valuable library to the society. | |
It would seem, from Gay's that for a long time after the demolition of Arundel House the eastern part of the Strand lay forsaken and neglected, though perhaps there may be some little amount of poetic exaggeration in the following lines :
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, which was built in on part of the site of Arundel House, has had in its time some distinguished inhabitants. Amongst others were Simon Harecourt, afterwards Lord High Chancellor; Rymer, the antiquary, author of | |
p.75 [extra_illustrations.3.75.1] |
the celebrated John Anstis, Garter King-at-Arms; and the well-known actress, Mrs. Porter. |
At the upper end of this street, on the site of the Temple Club, formerly stood the noted Tavern-so named, no doubt, from the anchor of St. Clement already alluded to-the head-quarters of the Reformers in the days of Fox and [extra_illustrations.3.75.2] . Here, too, were held many of the meetings of the Catholic Association before the passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Act in . The tavern stood as nearly as possible on the site of the buildings in which the Academy of Ancient Music was instituted in the reign of Queen Anne. The premises extended a considerable way down the street, and at the back of them was a large and spacious room, upwards of feet long, which was used as a banqueting apartment. Upon the occasion of Fox's birthday, in , a great banquet was given here, at which Reformers sat down to drink the toast of
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Here the portly form of Dr. Johnson, in company with his friend Boswell, might often be seen; and during the elections in the last century it became of the principal houses where the candidates of both sides were wont to address the constituents. It was at the that Daniel O'Connell assailed that Henry Brougham; and it was here, too, that Cobbett fell foul of Sir Francis Burdett, who, we are told, The was instituted here early in the present century; its members met every Saturday. of the chief members was Richard Sharpe, a West India merchant and a well-known Parliamentary speaker during Addington's and Percival's administrations. | |
The coffee-room of the had for many years hanging upon its walls a picture which caused some stir among the parishioners of St. Clement Danes early in the last century. It appears that in the parish was thrown into a state of commotion by an order from Dr. Gibson, then Bishop of London, for the removal of an altarpiece lately painted by Kent, which had cost no small sum, and was supposed to be really a satire on the reigning house of Hanover, by containing scarcely disguised portraits of the wife and children of The painting, of course, at once became famous, and Hogarth engraved an exact fac-simile of it, as may be seen in Nichol's of that painter. The original, after being removed from the church, was hung up in the coffee-room of this tavern, from which it was subsequently removed into the parish vestry-room. | |
In the Whittington Club was instituted at the under the auspices of Douglas Jerrold and several other gentlemen connected with literature and art. The for such was its ambitious name, was founded as a cheap club for men and women of the middle or upper-middle classes, and Accordingly, in addition to the usual conveniences in the way of dining, &c., courses of lectures, and classes in chemistry, music, modern languages, and literature, &c., were established, together with weekly re-unions, in which dancing had a place. The subscription was low, or pound; yearly, according to the residence of the member in country or in town; and for ladies. | |
The Whittington Club was named after Richard Whittington, the former and in of its large rooms hung a picture of by Newenham, which was given to the club by its founder. The original premises of the were burnt down! in , but they were subsequently rebuilt on the former plan. The Whittington Club, however, languished, and at last came to an end in . The building then underwent considerable alteration, and at the end of the same year was re-opened as the Temple Club. The house, which was erected at a cost of more than , contains above rooms; what was formerly the hall, a magnificent apartment, capable of seating persons, is now the dining-room. of the principal objects which the founders had in view was to The Temple Club already numbers about members. | |
At the opposite corner of , with its principal entrance in the Strand, is that great [extra_illustrations.3.75.3] | |
p.76 [extra_illustrations.3.76.1] | emporium of modern intelligence, the news-agency of Messrs. Smith and Son, which is, perhaps, the most extraordinary house of business in London, not alone from the rapidity and dexterity of its operations, but the facility and certainty with which business is transacted to such an enormous extent in so short a time. The building is lofty, and covers a large space of ground, and is complete in every department. On the ground-floor is a noble and spacious hall, forming almost the extent of the entire premises, and is surrounded by galleries. The bustle is at its height about o'clock in the morning, when vehicles are bringing in the morning papers from the different printing-offices, and are at once folded into oblong packages, wrapped in brown paper covers already addressed, and dispatched in light red carts to the various railway stations for transmission to different parts of the world. Thousands of newspapers are transmitted to their destination in the course of the week from this establishment, and a large staff of clerks are engaged, besides men and boys employed in the packing departments. In addition to this extensive wholesale newspaper business, Messrs. Smith have established a circulating library upon a most extensive scale, from which subscribers can borrow and return, at any of their establishments and agents, all the best and leading books of the day. Printing, advertising, and bookbinding likewise form important items in this vast commercial establishment, and so admirable are the arrangements that each department is complete in itself, and conducted as a separate business; the whole giving employment to something like a hands. |
From the we learn that [extra_illustrations.3.76.2] , the father of the present proprietor, and founder of this gigantic establishment, was born in the year , and The son of this gentleman, and the present head of the publishing establishment in the Strand, is Mr. William Henry Smith. He was returned to Parliament as of the members for in , and in was appointed to the office of Financial Secretary of the Treasury. | |
A rough idea may be formed of the vast extent of the literary agency which is at work in the dissemination of information through newspapers and other publications of a serial kind, - of which it is calculated pass through the hands of Messrs. Smith, when we give our readers the following statement copied from the for the year :-- On reference to the edition of this useful Directory for we find the following interesting facts, viz., that in that year there were published in the United Kingdom journals; of these were issued daily, viz., in England, in Scotland, and in Ireland; but in there are now established and circulated papers, of which no less than are issued daily, showing that the press of the country has very greatly extended during the last years, and more especially so in daily papers; the daily issues standing against in . The magazines now in course of publication, including the quarterly reviews, number , of which are of a decidedly religious character, representing the Church of England, Roman Catholics, Wesleyan Methodists, Baptists, Independents, and other Christian communities. | |
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It is not a little singular that a century and a half ago the chief news-mart stood not far from this very place. In proof of this assertion we would quote the following passage from the published in :-- The list of these, with which the writer favours us, is strange and well worth a passing note :--The he posts , as superior in credit to any other, excepting the , for the affairs abroad. After him the and , as the intelligencers at home. The takes the right hand of the and , and the weekly journals and pamphlets are piled in the window on side. Those paying no stamp duties are not permitted to herd among the friends of the Revenue. But this is not all. The Strand, if , has been for a century only to in literary interest of this particular kind. At No. an enterprising citizen named Wright established, in , the of those circulating libraries which, for nearly a century and a half, have afforded so large a market for our novelists. Mr. John Timbs tells us that he was so far successful that he shortly had rivals in , , and in his own more immediate neighbourhood; but some of these must have failed, if it be true, as stated by him, that in there were only circulating libraries in the entire metropolis. Another literary celebrity, connected with the Strand, was the friend of Pope, old Jacob Tonson, of whom we give a portrait on page , and of whom we shall have more to say at the close of the chapter. | |
A narrow and rather winding lane a few yards to the east of , and just opposite to , led in former times to the water-side. It was called , and the pier or small landing-place at the bottom of it was known as In it was a row of old tenements formerly known as Golden Buildings, but the name has disappeared. On its western side stood the The at this spot is mentioned by Stow, and no doubt was constantly used by the inmates of the Inn. Occasionally, however, it afforded accommodation to other persons; and in the . , we read how Addison
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Mr. Newton, in his says that the bottom of appears to have been an ancient landing-place, communicating directly with , and with the Via de Aldewych, which led toward the north-west country. | |
It is just worth noting here that the term was applied by Stow and others to a bridge the Strand, by which the roadway just to the west of the Maypole was carried over a brook. In the present century, too, it was the name originally designed for Sir John Rennie's noble structure which subsequently was called . | |
It is thought by antiquaries that , which is somewhat tortuous, follows pretty nearly the line of a little brook or rivulet which carried off the water from the higher grounds about and , passing under the thoroughfare of the Strand, which, as Stow observes, was carried over it by a bridge. On the left-hand side of this lane, in passing from the Strand, may be noticed a somewhat rural-looking cottage, on which hangs a notice that within is It will thus be seen that passengers along the Strand in the present day are within some or feet of of the oldest structures in London, of its few real and genuine remains which date from the era of the Roman occupation of England, and possibly even as far back as the reigns of Titus or Vespasian, if not of Julius Caesar himself. | |
The piece of land in which the bath is situated formed part of the property of a very ancient family, the Danvers (or D'Anvers), of Swithland, in Leicestershire; and although the existence of the bath was evidently unknown to Stow, Maitland, Pennant, and Malcolm, from the absence of any mention of it in their pages, yet, from time immemorial, in the neighbourhood, the fact of its being a Roman bath has been received with implicit credence. | |
There is apparently a dim tradition existing, to the effect that the bath had been closed up for a long period, and then re-discovered. Of this old bath Mr. Newton observes, in his that it is A descent of or steps leads to a lofty vaulted passage, on the left of which is a doorway leading into a vaulted chamber, about feet in length, the same in height, and about | |
p.78 | feet in width, in the floor of which is the bath itself. This is about feet long, broad, and feet inches deep. Mr. Charles Knight, in his tells us that The walls of the building are formed of layers of brick, of that peculiar flat and neat-looking aspect which certainly seem to imply the impress of Roman hands, divided only |
by thin layers of stucco; whilst the pavement consists of a layer of similar brick covered with stucco, and rests upon a mass of stucco and rubble. The bricks are inches and a half long, inches and a half broad, and an inch and threequarters thick. At the farther end of the bath is a small projecting strip or ledge of white marble, and beneath it a hollow in the wall slanting down to corner. These are beyond doubt the remains of a flight of steps which once led down into the water. Mr. Charles Knight adds :-- The bath is perpetually supplied from the spring, and discharges at the rate of tons per day. The water in this old Roman bath, which is beautifully clear and extremely cold, is now used solely for drinking; there is, however, another bath-room on the right of the passage by which we entered, which is used as a plunging bath, and is open all the year round. This new bath, the proprietor tells us, The source of the water which supplies this bath is unknown. It bubbles up | |
| through the sandy bottom, and its flow is pretty even, both winter and summer. There are no pipes which supply it; and as it has in no way been affected by the excavations for the Law Courts, nor for the Underground Railway, which runs along ; it is clearly natural, and not artificial, and sparkles as clear as crystal. | |
It may as well be mentioned here, though we have not travelled quite as far westward yet, that at No. in the Strand, between and the corner of , on a site now covered by part of , was the book-shop of Jacob Tonson, the friend and publisher of Pope, &c. Hither he removed from Gateway in , and the shop was known by the sign of the
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p.80 | It is described as being
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The subsequent history of the house occupied by Tonson is thus told by Mr. Peter Cunningham:--
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The name of Jacob Tonson is familiar to every reader, not only of Pope, but of Horace Walpole, as the secretary of the Club. The son of a barber-surgeon in , he was born about the year . At years of age he was bound apprentice to a bookseller, and on reaching manhood joined with his brother Richardin partnership. He published extensively for Addison, Dryden, and Pope; and his edition of Clarke's which issued from his shop in , is said to have been the largest and most expensive work which up to that time had been published in England. It was this Jacob Tonson who had the portraits of the members of the Club painted for him in a uniform size, which still retains the name. On retiring from business he lived chiefly at Barne Elms, in the village of Barnes, where his house was for many years a centre of literary society. He died in , but his memory survives, having been kept alive on the title-pages of so many great works in the eighteenth century, and by the pen of Mr. Charles Knight, in his In a dialogue between Tonson and Congreve, published in , in a volume of poems by Rowe, there is a pleasant description of Tonson before he was spoiled by grand associates :
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Footnotes: [extra_illustrations.3.71.1] Graphic artists, Milford Lane [extra_illustrations.3.71.2] Publishing Christmas Graphic [extra_illustrations.3.71.3] Arundel House [extra_illustrations.3.74.1] Chelsea Pensiones [extra_illustrations.3.74.2] Young Parr [extra_illustrations.3.74.3] Parr's Life Pills [extra_illustrations.3.74.4] Thomas Parr [extra_illustrations.3.75.1] Arundel Hotel- Strand [extra_illustrations.3.75.2] Sir Francis Burdett [extra_illustrations.3.75.3] Portraits of Martyrs [extra_illustrations.3.76.1] Headings of London newspapers [extra_illustrations.3.76.2] Mr. W. H. Smith |
