It was built by sir William Drury, an able commander in the Irish wars, in the reign of Elizabeth. During the time of the fatal discontents of the queen's favourite, the earl of Essex, it was the place his imprudent advisers resolved on such counsels as terminated in the destruction of him and his adherents. In the next century it was possessed by the heroic lord Craven, afterwards earl Craven,. who rebuilt it. It was lately a large brick pile, concealed by other buildings, and was a public-house, bearing the sign of the queen of Bohemia's head, the earl's admired mistress, whose battles he fought, animated by love and duty. When he could aspire at her hand, he is supposed to have succeeded; and it is said that they were privately married, and that he built for her the fine seat at Hampstead Marshal, in the county of Berks, afterwards destroyed by fire. The services rendered by the earl to London, his native city in particular, was exemplary. He was so indefatigable in preventing the ravages of the frequent fires of those days, that it was said his very horse smelt it out. He and Monk, duke of Albemarle, heroically staid in town during the dreadful pestilence, and at the hazard of their lives preserved order in the midst of the terrors of the times.

[] In Craven Buildings was a very good portrait of this hero, in armour, with a truncheon in his hand, and mounted on his white horse; on each side an earl's and a baron's coronet, and letters W. C. It was painted in fresco, but has been long destroyed. There is a good engraving of it in Smith's Antiquities of London.