Old and New London, A Narrative of its History, its People and its Places. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings from the Most Authentic Sources. vol I
Thornbury, Walter
1872-78
Cheapside Tributaries, North:--Wood Street.
Cheapside Tributaries, North:--Wood Street.
runs from to . Stow has conjectures as to its namefirst, that it was so called because the houses in it were built all of wood, contrary to Richard I's edict that London houses should be built of stone, to prevent fire; secondly, that it was called after Thomas Wood, sheriff in (Henry VII.), who dwelt in this street, was a benefactor to St. Peter in Chepe, and built
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At Cross, which stood at the corner of , all royal proclamations used to be read, even long after the cross was removed. Thus, in , we find Charles II.'s declaration of war against Louis XIV. proclaimed by the officers at arms, serjeants at arms, trumpeters, & c., at Gate, , the end of , , , and the . Huggin's Lane, in this street, derives its name, as Stow tells us, from a London citizen who dwelt here in the reign of Edward I., and was called Hugan in . | |
That pleasant tree at the left-hand corner of , which has cheered many a weary business man with memories of the fresh green fields far away, was for long the residence of rooks, who built there. In fresh nests were built, and is still visible; but the sable birds deserted their noisy town residence several years ago. Probably, as the north of London was more built over, and such feeding-grounds as Belsiie Park turned to brick and mortar, the birds found the fatigue of going miles in search of food for their young unbearable, and so migrated. Leigh Hunt, in of his agreeable books, remarks that there are few districts in London where you will not find a tree. says Leigh Hunt, This famous tree marks the site of St. Peter in Chepe, a church destroyed by the Great Fire. The terms of the lease of the low houses at the west-end corner are said to forbid the erection of another storey or the removal of the tree. Whether this restriction arose from a love of the tree, as we should like to think, we cannot say. | |
in Chepe is a rectory (says Stow),
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The patronage of this church was anciently in the Abbot and Convent of St. Albans, with whom it continued till the suppression of their monastery, when Henry VIII., in the year , granted the same to the Earl of Southampton. It afterwards belonged to the Duke of Montague. This church being destroyed in the fire and not rebuilt, the parish is united to the Church of St. Matthew, . says Maitland,
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[extra_illustrations.1.364.1] has immortalised by his plaintive little ballad-
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Perhaps some summer morning the poet, passing down , saw the plane-tree at the corner wave its branches to him as a friend waves a hand, and at that sight there passed through his mind an imagination of some poor Cumberland servant-girl toiling in London, and regretting her far-off home among the pleasant hills. | |
St. Michael's, , is a rectory situated on the west side of , in the ward of Cripplegate Within. John de Eppewell was rector | |
365 | thereof before the year . Being destroyed in the Great Fire, it was rebuilt, in , from the designs of Sir Christopher Wren. At the east end Ionic pillars support an entablature and pediment, and the circular-headed windows are well proportioned. The south side faces , but the tower and spire are of no interest. The interior of the church is a large parallelogram, with an ornamented carved ceiling. In the church was repaired and the tower thrown open. The altarpiece represents Moses and Aaron. The vestrybooks date from the beginning of the century, and contain, among others, memoranda of parochial rejoicings, such as-
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The Church of St. Mary Staining being destroyed in the Great Fire, the parish was annexed to that of St. Michael's. The following is the most curious of the monumental inscriptions:--
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Here was also a monument to Queen Elizabeth, with this inscription, found in many other London churches:--
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There was buried here (but without any outward monument) the head of James, the King of cots, slain at Flodden Field. After the battle, the body of the said king being found, was closed in lead, and conveyed from thence to London, and so to the monastery of Shene, in Surrey, where it remained for a time. says Stow,
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says Strype,
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St. Mary Staining, in , destroyed by the Great Fire, stood on the north side of , in the Ward of Aldersgate Within. says Maitland, The advowson of the rectory anciently belonged to the Prioress and Convent of Clerkenwell, in whom it continued till their suppression by Henry VIII., when it came to the Crown. The parish, as previously observed, is now united to St. Michael's, . That this church is not of a modem foundation, is manifest from John de Lukenore's being rector thereof before the year . | |
St. Alban's, , in the time of Paul, the Abbot of St. Alban's, belonged to the Verulam monastery, but in the abbot exchanged the right of presentation to this church for the patronage of belonging to the Abbot of | |
366 | . Matthew Paris says that this Church was the chapel of King Offa, the founder of St. Alban's Abbey, who had a palace near it. Stow says it was of great antiquity, and that Roman bricks were visible here and there among the stones. Maitland thinks it probable that it was of the churches built by Alfred in London after he had driven out the Danes. The right of presentation to the church was originally possessed by the master, brethren, and sisters of St. James's Leper Hospital (site of ), and after the death of Henry VI. it was vested in the Provost and Fellows of Eton College. In the reign of Charles II. the parish was united to that of St. Olave, , and the right of presentation is now exercised alternately by Eton College and the Dean and Chapter of . The style of the interior of the church is late pointed. The windows appear older than the rest of the building. The ceiling in the nave exhibits bold groining, and the general effect is not unpleasing. |
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says Seymour,
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About the commencement of the century St. Alban's, being in a state of great decay, was surveyed by Sir Henry Spiller and Inigo | |
367 | Jones, and in accordance with their advice, apparently, in it was pulled down, and rebuilt
; but, perishing in the flames of , it was re-erected as it now appears, and finished in the year , from Wren's design. In the old church were the following epitaphs:
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Over the grave of Anne, the wife of Laurence Gibson, gentleman, were the following verses, which are worth mentioning here.:--
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The pulpit (says Seymour) is finely carved with an enrichment, in imitation of fruit and leaves; and the sound-board is a hexagon, having round it a fine cornice, adorned with cherubims and other embellishments, and the inside is neatly finniered. The altar-piece is very ornamental, consisting of columns, fluted with their bases, pedestals, entablature, and open pediment of the Corinthian order; and over each column, upon acroters, is a lamp with a gilded taper. Between the inner columns are the Commandments, done in gold letters upon black. Between the , northward, is the Lord's Prayer, and the southward the Creed, done in gold upon blue. Over the commandments is a Glory between cherubims, and above the cornice the king's arms with the supporters, helmet, and crest, richly carved, under a triangular pediment; and on the north and south side of the above described ornaments are large cartouches, all of which parts are carved in fine wainscot. The church is well paved with oak, and here are twolarge brass branches and a marble font, having enrichments of cherubims, & c. | |
In a curious brass frame, attached to a tall stem, opposite the pulpit is an hour-glass, by which the preacher could measure his sermon and test his listeners' patience. The hour-glass at St. Dunstan's, , was taken down in , and heads for the parish staves made out of the silver. | |
Compter (says Cunningham) was established in , when, on the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel in that year, the prisoners were removed from the Old Compter in to the New Compter in , . This compter was burnt down in the Great Fire, but was rebuilt in . It stood on the east side of the street, and was removed to in . There were compters in London--the compter in , under the control of of the sheriffs, and the compter in the Poultry, under the superintendence of the other. Under each sheriff was a secondary, a clerk of the papers, clerk sitters, eighteen serjeants-at-mace (each serjeant having his yeomen), a master keeper, and turnkeys. The serjeants wore blue and coloured cloth gowns, and the words of arrest were, There were sides--the master's side, the dearest of all; the knights' ward, a little cheaper; and the Hole, the cheapest of all. The register of entries was called the Black Book. Garnish was demanded at every step, and the Compter was hung with the story of the prodigal son. | |
When the counter gate was opened, the prisoner's name was enrolled in the black book, and he was asked if he was for the master's side, the Knight's ward, or the Hole. At every fresh door a fee was demanded, the stranger's hat or cloak being detained if he refused to pay the extortion, which, in prison language, was called The question to a new prisoner was, whether he was in by arrest or command; and there was generally some knavish attorney in a threadbare black suit, who, for would offer to move for a habeas corpus, and have him out presently, much to the amusement of the villanouslooking men who filled the room, some smoking and some drinking. At dinner a vintner's boy, who was in waiting, filled a bowl full of claret, and compelled the new prisoner to drink to all the society; and the turnkeys, who were dining in another room, then demanded another tester for a quart of wine to quaff to the new comer's health. | |
At the end of a week, when the prisoner's purse grew thin, he was generally compelled to pass over to the knight's side, and live in a humbler and more restricted manner. Here a fresh garnish of eighteen pence was demanded, and if this was refused, he was compelled to sleep over the drain; or, if he chose, to sit up, to drink and smoke in the cellar with vile companions till the keepers ordered every man to his bed. | |
Fennor, an actor in (James. I.), wrote a curious pamphlet on the abuses of this compter. says the angry writer,
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At , , , is the hall of of the smaller City companies--the Parish Clerks of London, , Borough of , and out parishes, with their master wardens and fellows. This company was incorporated as early as Henry III. (), by the name of the Fraternity of St. Nicholas, an ominous name, for was a jocose for highwaymen. The hall of the fraternity stood in , the in , in Vintry Ward. The fraternity was re-incorporated by James I. in , and confirmed by Charles I. in . The hall contains a few portraits, and in a painted glass window, David playing on the harp, St. Cecilia at the organ, & c. The parish clerks were the actors in the old miracle plays, the parish clerks of our churches dating only from the commencement of the Reformation. The were commenced by the Parish Clerks' Company in , who about were licensed by the Star Chamber to keep a printing-press in their hall for printing the bills, valuable for their warning of the existence or progress of the plague. The of the Parish Clerks has, however, been superseded by the issued weekly from the Registrar- General's Office, at , since . The Parish Clerks' Company neither confer the freedom of the City, nor the hereditary freedom. | |
There is a large gold refinery in , through whose doors tons of gold a day have been known to pass. Australian gold is here cast into ingots, value each. This gold is carat and quarters above the standard, and when the bars of Australian gold were sent to the they were sent back, as their wonderful purity excited suspicion. For refining, the gold is boiled minutes, poured off into hand moulds troy weight, strewn with ivory black, and then left to cool. You see here the stalwart men wedging apart great bars of silver for the melting pots. The silver is purified in a blast-furnace, and mixed with nitric acid in platinum crucibles, that cost from to a piece. The bars of gold are stamped with a trade-mark and pieces are cut off each ingot to be sent to the assayer for his report. | |
says Stow,
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The in , was a sponginghouse, well known to the rakehells and spendthrifts of Charles II.'s time. says Tom Brown,
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The an old tavern in , was kept in Charles II.'s time by William Proctor, who died insolvent in . Pepys says, And again,
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In early life Thomas Ripley, afterwards a celebrated architect, kept a carpenter's shop and coffee house in . Marrying a servant of Sir Robert Walpole, the Prime Minister of George I., this lucky pushing man soon obtained work from the Crown and a seat at the Board of Works, and supplanted that great genius who built , to the infinite disgrace of the age. Ripley built the Admiralty, and Houghton all, Norfolk, for his early patron, Walpole, and died rich in . | |
is associated with that last extraordinary outburst of the Civil War fanaticism-the Anabaptist rising in . | |
On Sunday, , we read in
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The upshot of this insane revolt of a handful of men was that kings men were killed, and of the fanatics, proving the fighting to have been hard. were taken, and or hung, drawn, and quartered. Venner, the leader, who was wounded severely, and some others, were drawn on sledges, their quarters were set on the gates, and their heads stuck on poles on . more were hung at the west end of , at the , at the Bull and Mouth, in , at Bishopsgate, and another, captured later, was hung at Tyburn, and his head set on a pole in Whitechapel. | |
The texts these Monarchy men chiefly relied on were these:-- A few Scriptures (and but a few as to this, Isa. xli. verse; but more especially the and verses. The prophet, speaking of Jacob, saith:
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says Stow,
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The old Goldsmiths' Church of St. John Zachary, , destroyed in the Great Fire, and not rebuilt, stood at the north-west corner of , in the Ward of Aldersgate; the parish is annexed to that of St. Anne. Among other epitaphs in this church, Stow gives the following:--
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This church was rated to pay a certain annual sum to the canons of , about the year , at which time it was denominated St. John Baptist's, as appears from a grant thereof from the Dean and Chapter of to Zachary, whose name it probably received to distinguish it from of the same name in . | |
St. Anne in the Willows was a church destroyed by the Great Fire, rebuilt by Wren, and united to the parish of St. John Zachary. says Stow,
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says Strype,
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St. Anne can be traced back as far as . The patronage was anciently in the Dean and Canons of St. , in whose gift it continued till Henry VII annexed that Collegiate Church, with its appendages, to the Abbey of . In Queen Mary gave it to the Bishop of London and his successors. of the monuments here bears the following inscription:--
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The site of Haberdashers' Hall, in , opposite Goldsmiths' Hall, was bequeathed to the Company by William Baker, a London haberdasher, in (Edward IV.). In the old hall, destroyed by the Great Fire, the Parliament | |
372 | Commissioners held their meetings during the Commonwealth, and many a stern decree of confiscation was there grimly signed. In this hall there are some good portraits. The Haberdashers' Company have many livings and exhibitions in their gift; and almhouses at , Monmouth, Newland (Gloucestershire), and Newport (Shropshire; schools in , Monmouth, and Newport; and they lend sums of or to struggling young men of their own trade. |
The haberdashers were originally a branch of the mercers, dealing like them in merceries or small wares. Lydgate, in his ballad, describes the mercers' and haberdashers' stalls as side by side in the mercery in Chepe. In the reign of Henry VI., when incorporated, they divided into fraternities, St. Catherine and St. Nicholas. The | |
being hurrers, cappers, or haberdashers of hats; the other, haberdashers of ribands, laces, and small wares only. The latter were also called milliners, from their selling such merchandise as brooches, agglets, spurs, capes, glasses, and pins. says Herbert,
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In the reign of Henry VII. the societies united. Queen Elizabeth granted them their arms: Barry nebule of , argent and azure on a bend gules; a lion passant gardant; crest or a helmet and torse, arms supporting a laurel proper and issuing out of a cloud argent. Supporters, Indian goats argent, attired and hoofed or; motto, | |
373 | Maitland describes their annual expenditure in charity as . The number of the Company consists of master, wardens, assistants, livery, and a large company of freemen. This Company is the in order of the chief City Companies. |
In the reign of Edward VI. there were not more than a dozen milliner's shops in all London, but in the dealers in foreign luxuries had so increased as to alarm the frugal and the philosophic. These dealers sold French and Spanish gloves, French cloth and frieze, Flemish kersies, daggers, swords, knives, Spanish girdles, painted cruises, dials, tablets, cards, balls, glasses, fine earthen pots, saltcellars, spoons, tin dishes, puppets, pennons, ink- | |
horns; tooth-picks, fans, pomanders, silk, and silver buttons. | |
The Haberdashers were incorporated by a Charter of Queen Elizabeth in . The Court books extend to the time of Charles I. only. Their charters exist in good preservation. In their chronicles we have only a few points to notice. In they sent of their members to attend the coronation of Elizabeth, queen of Edward IV., and they also were represented at the coronation of the detestable Richard III. Like the other Companies, the Haberdashers were much oppressed during the time of Charles I. and the Commonwealth, during which they lost nearly . The Company's original bye-laws having been | |
374 | burnt in the Great Fire, a new code was drawn up, which in was sanctioned by Lord Chancellor Finch, Sir Matthew Hale, and Sir Francis North. |
The dining-hall is a lofty and spacious room. About years since it was much injured by fire, but has been since restored and handsomely decorated. Over the screen at the lower end is a music gallery, and the hall is lighted from above by sun-burners. Among the portraits in the edifice are whole lengths of William Adams, Esq., founder of the grammar school and almshouses at Newport, in Shropshire; Jerome Knapp, Esq., a former Master of the Company; and Micajah Perry, Esq., Lord Mayor in ; a half-length of George Whitmore, Esq., Lord Mayor in ; Sir Hugh Hammersley, Knight, Lord Mayor in ; Mr. Thomas Aldersey, merchant, of Banbury, in Cheshire, who, in , vested a considerable estate in this Company for charitable uses; Mr. William Jones, merchant adventurer, who bequeathed for benevolent purposes; and Robert Aske, the worthy founder of the Haberdashers' Hospital at . | |
[extra_illustrations.1.374.1] that intersects , was formerly called Lad or Ladle Lane, and part of it , from a shop sign of the Virgin. It is written in a chronicle of Edward IV.'s time, published by Sir Harris Nicolas, page . The [extra_illustrations.1.374.2] [extra_illustrations.1.374.4] in , was for a century and more, till railways ruined stage and mail coach travelling, the booking office and head-quarters of coaches to the North. | |
was so named from the wantons who once infested it. The Cross Keys Inn derived its name from the bygone Church of St. Peter before mentioned. As there are traditions of Saxon kings once dwelling in , so in we find traditions of some Danish celebrities. says Stow, that patriarch of London topography, In a manuscript chronicle of London, written in the reign of Edward IV., and edited by Sir N. H. Nicolas, it is called
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Brewers' Hall, No. , , , , is a modern edifice, and contains, among other pictures, a portrait of Dame Alice Owen, who narrowly escaped death from an archer's stray arrow while walking in fields, in gratitude for which she founded an hospital. In the hall window is some old painted glass. The Brewers were incorporated in . The quarterage in this Company is paid on the quantity of malt consumed by its members. In a handsome schoolhouse was built for the Company, in , . | |
In [extra_illustrations.1.374.3] laid an information before his successor in the mayoralty, Robert Childe, against the Brewers' Company, for selling when they were convicted in the penalty of ; and the masters were ordered to be kept in prison in the chamberlain's custody until they paid it. | |
Footnotes: [extra_illustrations.1.364.1] Wordsworth [extra_illustrations.1.374.1] Gresham Street [extra_illustrations.1.374.2] Swan with Two Necks, [extra_illustrations.1.374.4] Bill [extra_illustrations.1.374.3] Whittington |