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 IV: St. Clement Danes (continued).--A Walk Round the Parish.
Chapter IV: St. Clement Danes (continued).--A Walk Round the Parish.
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Leaving the site of the New Law Courts on our left hand, we will now continue our way westwards from the top of what was once , but which, as before mentioned, gradually developed into Serle's Place. | |
At right angles to and Serle's Place, from east to west, runs , the south side of which has been demolished to form the north side of the New Courts of Law. These houses, at the time of their demolition, were almost all tenanted by solicitors and law-stationers. Although, as compared with the rest of the neighbourhood, markedly wanting in memories of the past, has its reminiscences. The heroic Lady Fanshawe tells us, in her that in - she and her family spent a twelvemonth in it, as tenants of a house belonging to Sir George Carey, from whom apparently the street was named. It is said by Mr. Diprose that at No. Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have lived whilst working as a journeyman printer in the neighbourhood. Sir William Blackstone lived in this street in , and the celebrated Mrs. Chapone, authoress of and an ardent disciple of Richardson, also resided here until her husband's death. | |
It is difficult to imagine any levity of conduct in a street once inhabited by this most decorous lady; indeed, , to its credit be it spoken, seems, in spite of its surroundings, to have been which is perhaps the reason why its name is scarcely mentioned by Stow, Pennant, Northouck, or Malcolm, or even by such modern writers as Peter Cunningham and John Timbs. If there be truth in the old adage, the denizens of are much to be congratulated. | |
Though the street was dull and sober in outward appearance, yet it may probably have been the scene of more than gay frolic in other days. The Inn---removed in to make room for Hospital--with its picturesque yard and offices, was much patronised in its day by the actors of the Duke's Theatre hard by, and of other places of the same kind. It is mentioned by Sir W. Davenant, in his The Tavern, also in this street, --kept at time by Mr. John Gully, the prizefighter, afterwards M.P. for Pontefract- was an ancient hostelry of good repute, as among those who made it their head-quarters in London was the antiquary, Browne Willis. Another inn in the street was the formerly the a corruption of the denoting the United Provinces. | |
Little is known of the family of Serle, after whom this street is named, except what Mr. P. Cunningham tells us in his namely, that it was called after a Mr. Henry Serle, of the benchers of , who died about , having bought some property in this parish from the executors of Sir John Birkenhead, the writer of during the civil war against Charles I. | |
The early name of , , which lies on the north side of , was Serle's Court; and the arms of Serle may still be seen, quartered with those of the Inn over the gateway leading into , formerly known as Serle's Gate. | |
is so called on account of its comparatively recent erection (about ). Seymour, in his (), speaks of the centre of the Court being he adds, The garden in the centre was not railed in until about the year .. In a temporary building was erected in it for the purpose of exhibiting the various architectural designs for the New Law Courts. | |
In is the shop of Messrs. Ravenscroft, the well-known wig-makers, which has been for a century a rendezvous of legal celebrities. Here | |
p.27 [extra_illustrations.3.27.1] | > may be seen on the walls of the shop a series of portraits of big-wigged lawyers, from Judge Blackstone downwards, and a book of legal autographs is kept in the shop with an almost religious veneration. |
At the corner of and stood the celebrated coffee-house, so long known to law and to literature as The entrance, flanked with massive doorposts of a classical design, still stands, we are assured, unaltered from what it must have been in the days of Akenside, and his friend and patron, Jeremiah Dyson, who used to make this his head-quarters. Addison frequented it in order to study the humours of the young barristers who met there of an evening, and it is not difficult to imagine him seated in a quiet nook, and watching all that is said and done. He thus mentions the house in No. of the
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It ceased to be known as a coffee-house about a quarter of a century ago, but it may be said still to have a connection, though slight, with literature, as it is now a wholesale and retail stationer's shop. | |
As the author of writes so graphically in allusion to this neighbourhood-
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But it is time that we took up our walking-sticks and pursued our journey a little further to the north and north-west, and entered . | |
In spite of the levelling of the burying-ground on its southern side, and the erection of Hospital on its site, it must be owned that has a dull and dingy look, as if it had met with misfortune. The blank dead wall presented by the back of the museum of the Royal on the northern side contributes to this effect, and the few shops which it contains are mostly those of law-stationers and printers. Its very name, suggestive of the unhappy wife of Charles II., would seem to have cast a blight on it; and we are told that it inherited the name when the south side of ceased to be called . Yet, in olden days, it must have been lively and gay; for did not the once cover the site of the museum just named? and was not the hard by, in ? | |
In Strype's time the street was without a name; and that venerable antiquary, with good reason, proposed to call it though his suggestion fell on dull and heedless ears. | |
says a writer in ,
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We have said that in this street there were formerly theatres; but in reality there have been , as is careful to remind us. He writes, Here Pepys, in , saw acted (for the time), , and , adding, on the last occasion, that he saw Here, too, as he tells us, he saw, and sat next to, Nell Gwynne, when King Charles and Lady Castlemaine were there to see Lord Orrery's performed. It is said also, that in this theatre female characters were played by women, among whom the most famous were Elizabeth Davenant, Mary Saunderson (afterwards Mrs. Betterton), Mary (or Moll) Davis, Mrs. Long, and Mrs. Barry. Davenant having acted musical pieces before the Restoration, Pepys frequently calls his theatre though, in fact, tragedies and comedies only were performed there. It should be added that among the principal actors here was Thomas Betterton, Sir William Davenant made this theatre his head-quarters, if not his home. Early in - the players of the Duke's Theatre removed to Dorset Gardens; and the King's Company, being burnt out from , made use | |
p.28 | of it for about a year, when it was again turned into a tennis-court. The rest of its history shall be told in the words of Mr. Timbs:--
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In Mr. Gifford, who had opened another place of amusement in , took this theatre, lately vacant by the withdrawal of Rich and his company to Covent Garden, but gave it up at the end of years, when it was closed, and having undergone several vicissitudes became ultimately the pottery and china warehouse of Messrs. Spode and Copeland. It was here that in Macklin killed Mr. Hannam; and Nightingale, in the volume of the gives the following strange account of its last performance:
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With regard to the we find the following remonstrance in the , :--
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Here is the copy of a playbill of this theatre a century and a half ago :--
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This performance was patronised by royalty, as we find that on Monday, the ,
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To this we cannot resist appending a playbill culled from Mr. Diprose's :
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In , George I. paid a visit to the theatre in , and the event is thus recorded in of the newspapers of the day:-- | |
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The after history of the place is curious. Having been used as a barrack and then as an auction room, it was bought by Messrs. Copeland and Spode, as a repository for their china-ware; and finally the premises were taken down in , or the following year, to make room for the enlargement of the museum of the , which was finished in . | |
By the rate-books of St. Clement Danes for we find to have been the residence of many distinguished personages in the century. The Earl of Rochester lived from whence he gives notice to a correspondent,
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John Timbs tells us that was the last place where the [extra_illustrations.3.29.2] were set up in London, those of St. Clement Danes, which had formerly stood in the Strand, near , having remained here until about the year . He adds that they were on the north side, facing the hospital. He also reminds us that even in recent days the street enjoyed from the fact of the Insolvent Debtors' Court being in it. | |
On the south side of , near the centre of the few small courts that have not been swept away, stands [extra_illustrations.3.29.3] , which owes its existence mainly to the exertions of Dr. R. B. Todd. It forms a plain, substantial, and unpretending block of buildings, storeys in height, and is hardly old enough as yet to have a history, having been founded only as far back as the year . It grew naturally out of the wants of the Medical Department of in the Strand, of which we shall have more to say in another chapter. It stands on the site of the old workhouse of St. Clement Danes, and of of the burial-grounds already mentioned. Its design was twofold: to offer the medical students of the college the advantage of witnessing medical and surgical practice, and receiving clinical instruction from their own professors; and secondly, to afford medical and surgical aid to a poor neighbourhood, at a distance from any other hospital. The architect was Mr. T. Bellamy. The patients relieved by the hospital in were about , a number which, in a quarter of a century, has been multiplied nearly tenfold. New buildings on an extensive scale were added in , very much to the advantage of both the College and the neighbourhood. The medical staff of the College comprises a physician, physicians, and physicians, surgeons, surgeons with a surgeon-dentist, &c.; and the syllabus of its lectures embraces nearly twentydifferent subjects. It will accommodate about patients. The medical students attending hospital practice within its walls average about . It is under a committee of management, and is but slenderly endowed. The hospital has appended to it a medical library, several museums, a chemical laboratory, and other appliances. The usual course extends over years, though some few students complete it in . Though so recently established, it can already boast of a long list of distinguished names among its professors and lecturers. | |
A part of the buildings of this hospital stands on ground which, up to about the year , was of the burial-places belonging to the parish. It was about the of an acre in extent, and called the as if in mockery. From a report of a parochial committee in , we learn that upwards of bodies had been interred within it in the previous quarter of a century. The scenes witnessed here were of the most offensive character. In it was interred, among other lesser celebrities, Joe Miller, the author of the which bears his name, who died in . A monument was erected to his memory, with an inscription, said to be by Stephen Duck, who began life as a thresher, but afterwards entered the Church, and wrote some poems, which incurred the satire of Dean Swift. This monument, having become decayed and almost illegible, was renewed in , and is to be seen leaning up against the wall of | |
p.30 | of its offices. The inscription on it ran as follows:--
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Of little is known except what may be gathered from his tombstone. He was famous Old Houses In . in his day as an actor for his excellent personations of some of the characters in the comedies of Congreve, and as a gleaner and compiler of other men's witticisms he has enjoyed a reputation for wit and humour which in all probability he never deserved. Allibone's tells us that
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Mr. Peter Cunningham, in his published in , speaks of Joe Miller's headstone as standing in the old burying-ground and draws the special attention of his readers to It may be remembered that Sir William Davenant, in his mentions this hostelry in a way which implies that it was a haunt of players. But alas! for the progress of modern improvements, the and its yard are gone. It was taken down in , and its site in now covered by a part of Hospital. | |
But far worse than the graveyard alluded to above, was another place of burial within the limits of this parish, long known as Enon Chapel, but afterwards converted into a chapel of ease to , and called Chapel. The | |
| building stands close to the eastern entrance to , and the access to it is through a gateway leading into a narrow and extremely dingy court, which opens out into It was converted from secular to religious uses in , by a Dissenting congregation, of whom Mr. Diprose writes- | |
This loathsome abomination ceased in -, when a surgeon, Mr. G. A. Walker, gained possession of the chapel with the intention of removing the remains from the vault, or as it was usually called, to a more appropriate place. The work of exhumation was then commenced, and a pyramid of human bones was exposed to view, separated from piles of coffin wood in various stages of decay. This was visited by about persons, previous to its removal, and some idea may be formed of the horrid appearance of the scene, when it is stated that the quantity of remains comprised upheaved van loads. The whole mass of bodies was decently interred by Mr. Walker, at his own cost, in pit in the cemetery at Norwood, the coffinwood being piled up and burnt. It is indeed strange to think that such foul abuses were not swept away until the reign of Victoria. | |
Was it in jest and scorn, or in a fit of royal pleasantry, that the little thoroughfare which joins the west end of to the south-west angle of was called ? At all events it is not a little strange that this should have been the case when the Queen of Charles II. was Catharine of , and of his court favourites the Duchess of It is a short, narrow, and not very interesting street, though it still contains or of the few surviving wooden houses of the Stuart times. Mr. Peter Cunningham tells us that the in this street, still standing, was a favourite hostelry of Joe Miller, and was long known as the on account of the fact that another of its frequenters, that hero of our town. bred urchins, once jumped out of its -floor window, to escape the emissaries of Jonathan Wild. John Timbs tells us that here used to meet, until the year , the members of a club known as the
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Footnotes: [extra_illustrations.3.27.1] Duke's Theater- interior [extra_illustrations.3.29.2] stocks [extra_illustrations.3.29.3] King's College Hospital |
