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 V: The Strand (Northern Tributaries).--Clement's Inn, New Inn, Lyon's Inn, etc.
Chapter V: The Strand (Northern Tributaries).--Clement's Inn, New Inn, Lyon's Inn, etc.
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Turning southwards down that portion of St. which still remains, and which lies between Hospital and New Inn, it occurs to us that the narrow, dark, and irregular alleys in the neighbourhood of and , encumbered as they were with low projecting eaves, arched doorways, and bulkheads, must have afforded every facility, a century ago, or even less, for the unforeseen attacks of footpads and for the escape of the offenders; and even now it is almost as true as it was a century ago, that in the words of a writer in the ,
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Fortescue, a celebrated man of letters in the century, was of opinion that the name Inns of Court arose from these places being the inns, hospitals, or hotels where young noblemen and others belonging to the Court temporarily resided; for many persons of rank sent their sons here to pursue a course of study, without designing them to follow the profession of the law. | |
. the west boundary of the New Law Courts, was so named, as we are told by Stow, It is stated by Dugdale to have been an Inn of Chancery in the reign of Edward II.; but Pennant speaks of it as dating back only as far as the reign of Edward IV. | |
The following is quoted from an old writer, whose style at least is quaint and amusing, Sir George Buc :--
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The entrance to from the thoroughfare on the north side of the church of St. Clement Danes was formerly through a noble archway, supported by lofty columns, which, however, has been demolished to make room for the New Law Courts. Our readers will scarcely need to be reminded that St. is the which Shakespeare has made immortal as the home of in his Temple days; if they do, they will forgive the motto prefixed to this chapter. | |
is said by Seymour in his to have descended to the Earls of Clare from Sir William Hollis, Lord Mayor of London in . | |
In the garden is a celebrated bronze figure of a negro supporting a sundial, which was brought from Italy early in the eighteenth century by Lord Clare, by whom it was presented to the Inn. The Hall of , the east end of which overlooks the site of the New Law Courts, is built of brick, and is an elegant, well-proportioned room. It contains, among other pictures, a good portrait of Sir Matthew Hale. | |
[extra_illustrations.3.33.1] , which adjoins , is said by tradition to have been removed to from Seacole Lane, before which time there was here a common hostelry or inn, known by the sign of the
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says Seymour, with his usual quaintness, in his (),
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Pennant, writing in , says of it- The armorial bearings of this Inn are . It became an Inn of Chancery in . | |
, in this immediate neighbourhood, is worthy of a passing note as having been the birthplace of the famous clown, Grimaldi, who here saw the light of day, . He seems to have been born in the purple of the theatre. His father was of Italian extraction; his mother, according to Mr. Diprose, was a Miss Rebecca Brooker, who had been from infancy a dancer at , and subsequently played at Sadler's Wells. From we learn that made his appearance at in in the character of a monkey, became part proprietor of the house in , and finally quitted it in . He died, somewhat suddenly, at his house in , , at the end of , and was buried in the churchyard of St. James's, , by the side of his friend Charles Dibdin. | |
There is but little in the way of antiquarian lore or of recent anecdote to be told concerning , which no doubt received its name-not, we fear, much in keeping with its real character--from the already mentioned near . Leigh Hunt, in his passes it by with discreet silence. Allen, in his dismisses it in a line, styling it a and Mr. Peter Cunningham
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It appears from honest Strype that in his day it was tenanted by and was commonly called Mr. Timbs says that the which gave to it its name was (No. ); but this is clearly a mistake. He adds that the A few lofty-gabled and deep-bayed fronts still remain upon some of the houses, especially on the southern side. It is only fair to add that during the last few years the character of the street has shown a marked improvement, owing to the stringent enforcement of Lord Campbell's Act against the sale of bad books and prints, for which formerly this thoroughfare was a notorious market. At the corner of of the houses on the south side, near the centre of the street, there still remains a grotesque carving--a lion's headpro- bably the last of such ornaments now to be found in the metropolis. | |
contains several ancient houses, and was formerly used as the emporium of the mercers, who had their appropriate signs. Of these still remains, the a carved | |
p.34 | projecting sign; another--the painted by of the members of the association o the Royal Academy, Catton-might be seer down to a very recent period. The was a noted house for silk remnants in this street and continued in repute to the end of the las century. As the mercery trade declined in Holy , the traffic in frippery and old clothes took its place, and has, to a certain extent, con tinued to the present time. |
Of late years many houses in this street have been occupied by booksellers of a certain classthose who deal in indecent and immoral literature: and so bad has been its reputation that, in the interest of the more respectable inhabitants it has been proposed more than once to alter the name to but the idea has not been carried out by the Metropolitan Board of Works, with whom rests the power of changing the names of the streets of the metropolis. It is only right to add that in the street at the present time are many -hand bookshops of a far different character from those above mentioned. | |
Wych Street-our pathway as we walk from towards Drury Lane-derives its name from the Via de , whereof it originally formed a part, a lane leading from the north side of the Strand to , . It still contains, especially on the south side, some of those curious old wooden-fronted and gabled houses which are equally picturesque and inconvenient. Like , of late years this thoroughfare has gained a notoriety for the sale of books and prints of an immoral class, and at present the sale of them is only partially suppressed. In bygone days, however, it was tenanted by a very different class of persons; although in , according to a statement quoted by Mr. Diprose, this street was
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On the north side of , nearly about the centre, is the entrance to New Inn, through which in the day-time there is a thoroughfare into the dismal region of . In a narrow court of this street the notorious Jack Sheppard served his apprenticeship to Mr. Wood, the carpenter; and in White Lion Passage stood the of the the scene of many of the events in the career of that prince of who used nightly to meet in the taproom his professional friends and acquaintances, and with whose feats and various adventures the pen of Mr. Harrison Ainsworth has made us so familiar. | |
The site of the old was at the corner of of the small courts on the northern side, and is now occupied as a carpenter's shop. | |
Speaking of as it was in the days of Jack Sheppard, we may say of the Via de , as the writer of says of -
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From the Inn, at the bottom of , Bishop Hooper was taken in to Gloucester to be burnt at the stake. Something more than centuries later, the Inn figured in a curious advertisement which appeared in the , :
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It is said by Allen, in his that the of was not the of its kind which laid London waste, for that but he does not mention the precise spot where this fire ended at the west. | |
We have seen that the parish of St. Clement Danes was not considered remarkable for decency and order in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; for in spite of the rank, wit, and fashion which distinguished it a century and a half later, we find that it even then bore no better character; and the of the and Georges was no bad precursor to the of our own day. The of that date observes, half in earnest and half in jest, that it
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According to the same authority, published in , there was formerly in the parish of the custom of which, the writer adds, It would seem that whatever this custom may have been-and as far as we have been able to discover, history preserves a discreet silence as to its nature--it was a rough and boisterous ,
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[extra_illustrations.3.35.1] , was an old Inn of Chancery, belonging in former days to the Inner Temple. It faced , on its eastern side, between and ; entrance led to it from the latter, and also another through Horne Court, next door to an | |
p.35 [extra_illustrations.3.35.2] |
inn known as the Mr. Diprose, in his tells us that this same had been a hostelry for some years at least before its demolition in , for the purpose of carrying out a building speculation of the a speculation which ended in failure. It is said-but we know not with what amount of truth--that the once holy well, which gave its name to the street, was under the
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Howes, in his in continuation of Stow, quaintly tell us that it was Sir Edward Coke was a student there in . | |
This Inn, never of much importance, had fallen utterly into disrepute before the beginning of this century, and become the resort of gamblers and swindlers. Here lived [extra_illustrations.3.35.3] in . The latter in defence pleaded in extenuation that Weare had cheated him at cards out of . | |
Each of the Inns alluded to in this chapter was governed by a Principal or Treasurer, and a number of corresponding to Benchers; and Seymour tells us, in his that there were in each Inn in every term. | |
The property of was sold about the year I, and on its site now stand theatres, the as if in memory of Shakespeare's theatre, and the
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The Globe Theatre, which covers its western portion, was built and opened in . It has a narrow frontage in . On this site the Architectural Association had its home. The theatre was built from the instructions of Mr. Sefton Parry, the proprietor, and will seat persons. The auditorium is effectively decorated in relief, and has a domed ceiling, with a sunlight in the centre. The site having been excavated very considerably for the proposed hotel, the floor of the pit has been made many feet below the line of the street, and is approached by a steep flight of steps from . In also are the entrances to the gallery stairs, and that to the The ordinary boxes are entered from , and are on a level with the street, so that stairs are avoided. Here, too, enter the occupants of the stalls. The seats are all fairly commodious, and conveniently placed, so that all that is passing on the stage can be distinctly seen and heard from any part of the house. The house opened in , with Mr. J. H. Byron's comedy of which in itself proved a great success. | |
The principal front of the is in the Strand, and observant passengers who know the narrowness of the area between the Strand and will find it difficult to imagine how, even in London, where now-a-days theatres are edged in among houses anyhow, an can have been formed there. This frontage, however, is, in truth, nothing but the entrance to an underground way leading across to a theatre which has been built between that and . The building, which is very small, backs on the and is to a considerable extent underground, as will be understood when we mention that a long flight of stairs in leads down to the stage level, and that the pit, of course, is lower than that again. The theatre was opened in , and has seen several changes of lessees. It is a pretty little theatre, very nicely decorated, but has no marked characteristic with regard to the entertainments given. These consist principally of French plays or , and are presented sometimes in French and at other times in English. | |
[extra_illustrations.3.36.1] , at the end of , occupies the site of old Craven House, which was taken down in , the ground being purchased by [extra_illustrations.3.36.2] of the over , who constructed what was called at the time which he styled It was opened as such in , but the speculation does not appear to have been successful. In the lease was sold to Robert Elliston, who introduced pieces of sufficient merit to attract the fashionable dwellers in the West-end, and by that means raised the theatre to something like successful popularity. The building was destroyed by fire in , but rebuilt and opened again in the same year, and is now of the most popular theatres in London. Madame Vestris had the management of the from to , and many of the most eminent actors of the day have appeared upon its boards. The pieces brought out at this theatre are principally melodramas of the superior kind. For many years Robson, of the most gifted modern comedians, attracted thousands here to witness his wonderful delineations of the tears and laughter, the joys and sorrows, of human life in its humbler aspects. Mr. Horace Wigan was for some time manager here; Mr. Benjamin Webster has likewise had the management, and since then Miss Ada Cavendish took it in hand and redecorated it. | |
Footnotes: [extra_illustrations.3.33.1] New Inn [extra_illustrations.3.35.1] Lyon's Inn, lately demolished [extra_illustrations.3.35.2] Joseph Hunt- With Thurtell and Probert [extra_illustrations.3.35.3] Mr. Weare, who was murdered near Edgware by Thurtell [extra_illustrations.3.36.1] The Olympic Theatre [extra_illustrations.3.36.2] Mr. Phililp Astley |
