Old and New London, A Narrative of its History, its People and its Places. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings from the Most Authentic Sources. vol 4
Thornbury, Walter
1872-78
Westminster.-A Survey of the City: Millbank, and its Neighbourhood.
Westminster.-A Survey of the City: Millbank, and its Neighbourhood.
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p.2 | So writes Mr. J. H. Jesse, in his pleasant and interesting work on Let us then endeavour to show our readers a few of the chief points of interest which lie around the Abbey. As lately as the reign of Elizabeth, the Middlesex shore opposite to was a mere low and marshy tract of land, almost wholly free from buildings, except the Abbey and Palace, and some few public edifices which adjoined them and had grown up under their shadow. The region now known as was so called from a mill on the bank of the river which occupied the site on which stood Peterborough House, delineated in Hollar's This house was pulled down and rebuilt about the year , by the then head of the Grosvenor family, shortly after his marriage with Miss Davis, the heiress of Ebury Manor, by which he acquired the property now known as Belgravia; the Grosvenors continued to occupy it as their town mansion till early in the present century, when they removed to their present house in . In , , between the Abbey and their former home, is proof of their connection with the parish, in the shape of a panel recording the fact of King George and Queen Charlotte, in , standing there as sponsors at the baptism of who succeeded whilst still young to the Earldom of Wilton. |
But the neighbourhood of which we write has still more ancient associations. Late in life, when he had quarrelled with Inigo Jones, with the Court, and the City, who had been his friends and patrons, we find Ben Jonson living almost under the shadow of , says Aubrey, At this time he, whose
and stooping back, are familiar to all readers of his works, was suffering from the double misfortune of the palsy and of poverty, from the latter of which he was rescued to some extent by the Earl of Newcastle. Here, probably, he died (his death occurred in ); and he was buried in the Abbey hard by, where it is a tradition that happening to pass by, gave a stonemason eighteen pence to carve on the pavement where he lay, the well-known words,
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Immediately to the south of the Abbey precincts is , which runs westward from to . It was formerly known simply as the from the wall built by Abbot Litlington round the Infirmary Garden, which once extended, in a semicircular form, from the place where it now ends in , to the Gate House. Gibbon's aunt, Mrs. Porter, lived in , where for some time she kept a boarding-house for the town boys of School. | |
Beyond is , which, in the reign of Queen Anne, rejoiced in the name of Piper's Ground, and consisted of Wealthy and well-born families, and even bishops, lived about its neighbourhood. From his house in College Court, in , Edward Jones, Bishop of St. Asaph, was borne to his grave in the chancel of . | |
and , both of which branch out of , are stated to have been built by Barton Booth, the actor, whom we have mentioned as a schoolboy under Dr. Busby. To the former street Booth gave his own Christian name, and to the latter that of his favourite poet, who also, as we have already seen, was an There is a large old house at the end of , having a fine double staircase; indeed, there are fine staircases, and other marks of aristocratic occupation, in many of the houses round about this spot. | |
, which forms the connecting link between and , was, at the commencement of the last century, known as Lindsay Lane, down the narrow length of which the lumbersome state carriage and heavilycaparisoned horses were driven into the court-yard of Lindsay House (at the south-west end of the thoroughfare), afterwards the residence of the Earl of Abingdon, and subsequently that of the Earl of Carnarvon, in order to be turned round to take up the King when he went to open Parliament. | |
At No. in this street, in , died, at an advanced age, [extra_illustrations.4.2.1] . He was buried in the Abbey. | |
, the thoroughfare extending from the south end of to , was described, in , as Here resided John Carter, Esq., F.S.A., the distinguished author of He became known to the public by his etchings engraved in the and other valuable antiquarian works. He died in . In , which leads from to , resided Mr. R. W. Elliston, the celebrated actor of his day, and some time manager of and the Olympic Theatres. | |
p.3 | |
is described by Strype as [extra_illustrations.4.3.1] | |
Pennant speaks of not as a or a district, but as a single mansion. He says it is and describes it as He says that it was purchased from the Mordaunts, Earls of Peterborough, by the ancestor of Sir Robert Grosvenor, whose hospitality he had often experienced as a boy. In the plan of London by Hollar, the site is marked as Peterborough House, and was owned by that family till, at least, the middle of the eighteenth century, though occasionally let to wealthy merchants. The wall round the garden, with an outer footpath along the riverside, was not removed till about . The Earl of Wilton, brother of the late marquis, and uncle of the Duke of , was born here, and baptised, as we have said, in the adjoining church of [extra_illustrations.4.3.2] . | |
It was whilst living here, in , that Charles, Earl of Peterborough, married, as his wife, Mrs. Anastasia Robinson, the celebrated singer. His lordship died the same year, after which the house was rebuilt by the Grosvenor family. | |
The mansion-or its occupant--at this time became the subject of a joke in Joe Miller's under the head of which will bear re-telling :--
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As Congreve was being rowed in a wherry up the Thames, at , the boatman remarked that, owing to its bad foundation, Peterborough House had sunk a story. said he;
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, erected on the grounds of Peterborough House, was so called after an estate belonging to Lord Grosvenor, in Flintshire. | |
The Government contractor, Mr. Vidler, lived in a house which had been built in the middle of by a Sir John Crosse, and to it, as Mr, Mackenzie Walcott informs us, the mail-coaches, before the unromantic days of railroads, used to be driven in annual procession, upon the King's birthday, from . At noon the cavalcade set out--the horses belonging to the different mails being decked out with new harness, the guards and coachmen decorated with beautiful nosegays, and the postboys in scarlet jackets on horseback in advance. The king's birthday, in , was the occasion of the of these processions, when set out with plated harness and hammercloths of scarlet and gold. | |
In the Clause Rolls, Henry VIII., is a grant wherein is mentioned Some buildings which afterwards occupied the site were known as the Stowe mentions them as John, son of Richard, Duke of York, was born at the of Neyte, in and Edward VI., in his year, granted the to Sir Anthony Brown. Pepys mentions going to take his amusement in these and, if we may believe the of ,
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In , which lies between and , is a singular building, which a stranger would never be likely to take for a church, and yet it a church--that of St. John the Evangelist, and it is of the churches built in and about the metropolis in the reign of Queen Anne. The Act of Parliament under which this church was built is commemorated by Tickell in his thus :
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Its architect was not Vanbrugh, as is often stated, but a Mr. Archer, who certainly seems to have defied all the rules of architecture, loading the heavy structure with still heavier ornamentation, by building at each of the angles a stone tower and a pinnacle of ugliness that passes description. In front is a portico supported by | |
p.4 | Doric columns, and the same order is continued, after a fashion, in pilasters round the building. It has, also, on the north and south sides other porticos, supported by massive stone pillars. Over the communion-table is a painted window, representing the The author of &c., published in , speaks of as an ornament to the city, and deeply regrets that a vista was not opened from , so as to bring its fairly into view! Some idea of the writer's taste may be formed when our readers learn that he proposed, as a further improvement, to dwarf the said towers,
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Lord Grosvenor lived at till the beginning of the present century; his house stood near the river, and had a pretty garden attached to it. Pennant, the antiquary, used to visit his lordship there, as he tells us in his work on London. At that time the locality was a fashionable resort on Sundays, and the bank of the river was edged with pollard oaks, presenting a view almost as rural as that which we now see at Fulham or Putney. | |
, , and , in this immediate neighbourhood, were all named after the owner of the property, Charles Marsham, Earl of Romney. Of the same fanciful style of naming streets we have already given an instance in our account of
and Streets, close by . Nearly the whole of side of is occupied by the Brewery, and the other side by Messrs. Hadfield's marble works and gallery of sculpture, which were established here in . | |
Vine Street--the old name of Romney Streetwhich we pass on our right, recalls the time when, as was the case also at Smithfield, in , and in , there was here a flourishing vineyard. says Stow, Under date of , in the Overseers' Book, a rate is made for and next to Bowling Alley. In the year of Edward VI., as we learn from Brayley's payment was made to In that reign the place appears to have been inclosed with houses and other buildings.
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Churchill, the satirist, was born in this street in the year . He writes:-- The aunt, however, so far as we know, left him no memorial of her kindness, in recompense for the immortality which he has bestowed upon her. | |
It is enough to make the mouth of bred in the country to water when reads of a near , and another in the heart of , and remembers that these names were not given and written up in irony and mockery, but point to the fact that vineyards, most probably the property of the Abbot of , did once grow on the slopes which existed near the Abbey. As Mr. Matthew Browne remarks in -- It need, however, be no matter of surprise to find that even in there were vineyards, where wine was squeezed from the juice of grapes grown on the spot. At Beaulieu Abbey, near Southampton, there are fields still known as the Vineyards; and the late Lord Montagu, who died in , had in his cellar brandy made from the vines grown on that estate. In Barnaby Googe's published in , we find several remarks on the former growth of vineyards in England. The author quaintly adds, Stow also mentions an old MS. roll, in his time extant in the Gate House of Windsor Castle, in which was to be seen the yearly account of the charges of the planting of vines that, in the time of Richard II., If this was certainly the case at Windsor, there is no reason to doubt that the vine may have grown and flourished in vineyards on the southern slopes that looked down what was ; indeed, a plot of ground in that park in the last century was called
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p.5 [extra_illustrations.4.5.1] | |
, which we may be supposed to have reached, leads to that part of the river between and , where was the only horse-ferry allowed on the Thames in London. The ferry was granted by patent to the Archbishop of Canterbury; and the ferry-boat station on the side was near the palace-gate. On the opening of the ferry practically ceased, and compensation, amounting to upwards of , was granted to the see of Canterbury; but, as we learn from a work styled published in , the ferry was still in use in the early part of the present century, though its traffic was sadly diminished. Indeed, it may be said to have continued more or less as a ferry, down to the building of [extra_illustrations.4.5.2] , in . This bridge, which is constructed of iron, on the suspension principle, has spans of feet. As our readers may perhaps feel interested in learning what were the rates charged at the horse-ferry, we here give them:--For a man and horse, ; horse and chaise, is.; coach and horses, ; coach and horses, ; coach and horses, ; a laden cart, as. ; cart or wagon, Mr. AMackenzie Walcott tells us that close to the ferry a wooden house was built for a small guard, which was posted here at the time of the Commonwealth. | |
Here, on the shore of the dark wintry waters, on the , Mary of Modena, the ill-starred consort of James II., having quitted for the last time, stepped into the boat that was to convey her across the river to . Passing through the into the street, the Queen with her infant son, his nurses, and male attendants, got into a coach, and threading her way through the narrow lanes which surrounded the east and south of the old Abbey precincts, drove to the horse-ferry, where a boat awaited her. writes St. Victor, in his
Thus, literally did the Queen cross the swollen waters, her tender infant of months old in her arms, with no better attendants than his nurses, and having no other escort than the Count de Lauzun and the writer (St. Victor), who confessed that he felt an extreme terror at the peril to which he saw personages of their importance exposed, and that his only reliance was in the mercy of God, he says, he adds, Thither St. Victor ran to hasten it, leaving Lauzun to protect the Queen. Her Majesty meantime withdrew herself and her little company under the walls of Old Church, without any other shelter from the wind and bitter cold. The child fortunately slept through it all; the coach was soon found, and the party arrived safely at Gravesend, where a yacht was ready to convey them to the coast of France. History tells us that they reached Calais without further disaster, and that they never set eyes on the shores of England again. | |
A curious print of the time represents the boat in which the Queen effected her escape as in no little danger, and the gentlemen as assisting the rowers, who are labouring against wind and tide. The Queen herself is seated by the steersman, enveloped in a large cloak, with a hood drawn over her head: her attitude is expressive of melancholy; and she appears most anxious to conceal the little prince, who is asleep on her bosom, partially shrouded among the ample folds of her drapery. The other females betray alarm. The engraving is rudely executed, and printed on coarse paper; but the design is not without merit, being bold and original in its conception and full of expression. It was probably intended as an appeal to the sympathies of the humbler classes on behalf of the royal fugitives. | |
evenings after the departure of his Queen and Consort, King James quitted , and took at the horse-ferry a little boat with a single pair of oars, with which he crossed over to , where horses awaited him. He took with him the Great Seal of England, doubtless with the idea that he might have to use it when safe in France; but, induced by some motive or other, he threw it into the river while crossing. He effected his escape as far as Feversham, where he was recognised, and whence he was brought back to . A few days later, however, the Prince of Orange ordered his Dutch guards from to enter , and the King was compelled to depart. He dropped down the river in his barge as far as Gravesend, whence, as history tells us, he effected his escape to the shores of France. On the last night that he slept at , when he was about to retire to bed, His subsequent sojourn and his death at St. Germain-en-Lage, near Paris, are matters known to every reader of English history. | |
The Great Seal, we may add, was afterwards recovered, in a net cast at random by some poor fishermen, who delivered it into the hands of the Lords of the Council. | |
Mr. Mackenzie Walcott, in his amusing manner, tells us how that,
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Probably the last person of consequence who crossed the river here was the Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, on Tuesday, , on her way to be married to the Prince of Wales, the father of George III. | |
It sounds strange to hear that there was a and Regatta as recently as , but it is nevertheless true. In Colburn's we read that
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The works belonging to the Gas Light and Coke Company, which occupy a considerable space of ground between and , stand partly on the site of what was, at the beginning of the present century, the residence of a market-gardener, known as the ale-house and tea-gardens--a name still perpetuated in that of the adjacent public-house-
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p.7 p.8 | in . These gasworks ( of the earliest stations established by the gas company in the metropolis, which received its charter of incorporation in ) owe their origin to the enterprise of a Mr. Winsor, the same who, on the evening of the King's birthday, in , made a brilliant display of gas along the wall between and . It may be worth while to note here that the general lighting of the metropolis with gas began on Christmas Day, . A branch establishment in connection with these gas-works has since been erected further westward, close by Prison, and more recently a larger establishment has been opened at North Woolwich, where the works henceforth will mainly be concentrated, so that latterly very little business has been actually carried on here. |
The only other buildings in which we need mention are the small Roman of St. Mary, served by the Jesuit Fathers; a Wesleyan Chapel; the Training College for Schoolmasters and Practising Schools; and and National Schools. The latter--schools are handsome, substantial buildings, of modern construction, but erected in the late Tudor-Gothic style of architecture. | |
, a; clean and broad thoroughfare running, parallel with , presents a striking: contrast to most of the streets and lanes which surround it. The graveyard belonging to occupies the greater part of side; it is railed in from the street, and with its surrounding trees, and level surface of turf, appears like an oasis in the wilderness. It is, perhaps, a pity that it cannot be made available as a recreation-ground for the children of this crowded neighbourhood. | |
A short distance from , with its frowning gateway overlooking the river, is [extra_illustrations.4.8.1] . In a plan was frimied of penitentiary confinement calculated to reform offenders, and an Act of Parliament was drawn up under the direction of Sir William Blackstone, according to the suggestions of Mr. Howard, the prison philanthropist. years after another Act was passed for carrying out the design, and a contract was entered into with Mr. Jeremy Bentham, the economist and philanthropist. It was intended as a realisation of a plan which Bentham had put forward on paper, and which he called in recommendation of which scheme he published a work under that title, addressed to Mr. Pitt. The latter, though a strong Tory, entered keenly into the views of the great social reformer, but the obstinacy of George III. prevented any experiment being made in the direction of the in London for more than years. Charles Knight tells us that the cost of the site was , and that of the building has exceeded half a million, or about for each cell. So it seems that felons are rather expensive luxuries for the country. | |
In the published in the reign of George III., we read that this prison was established
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The building stands on ground purchased of the Marquis of Salisbury; and although the Parliamentary grant for its erection was made as far back as , it was not completed till . It is a mass of brickwork, which, in its ground-plan, resembles a wheel, the governor's house occupying a circle in the centre, from which radiate piles of buildings, terminating externally in circular towers with conical roofs, which give to the prison the aspect of a fortress. The ground on which it stands is raised but little above the river, and was at time considered unhealthy. It is the largest prison in London, and contains accommodation for about prisoners. Every convict sentenced to penal servitude in Great Britain is sent to for a term previous to the sentence being carried into effect. The external walls form an irregular octagon, and enclose an area of eighteen acres of ground, and within that space the various ranges of buildings are so constructed that the governor, from a room in the centre, is able to view every of the rows of cells. The circular towers [extra_illustrations.4.8.2] [extra_illustrations.4.8.3] [extra_illustrations.4.8.4] [extra_illustrations.4.8.5] [extra_illustrations.4.8.6] [extra_illustrations.4.8.7] [extra_illustrations.4.8.8] | |
p.9 | are connected by what may be termed curtains, which has the effect of giving the appearance of a multiplicity of sides to the building. It was named or but in the name was altered, by Act of Parliament, to Here Arthur Orton, the of the Tichborne title and estates--the in the eyes of certain --spent the months of his years of penal servitude.[extra_illustrations.4.9.1] |
A broad esplanade or embankment extends the whole length of the river front of Prison, and, with a broad and open thoroughfare called Ponsonby Street, leads to the foot of . | |
[extra_illustrations.4.9.2] was at called Bridge, probably from the circumstance that the stone on the Middlesex side was laid by Lord Dundas, as proxy for the Prince Regent (George IV.). The works were commenced in . The stone of the abutment on the Surrey side was laid in , by Prince Charles of Brunswick, eldest son of the Duke of Brunswick, the same who fell soon afterwards on the field of Waterloo. The bridge was finished in . It was built from the designs of Mr. James Walker, and cost about . The iron superstructure, consisting of equal arches, each seventyeight feet in span, is supported on rusticated stone piers, built on a foundation of wooden framing cased with stone. The length of the bridge is about feet. The proximity of the bridge to the once famous gardens of , and the facility it was likely to afford to visitors, led to the original name being soon changed to . As we have now lost the gardens for ever, it is pleasant --to quote the words of Mr. Charles Knight-
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In , at the foot of , is the beautiful church of the Holy Trinity, which was built at the expense of the Rev. W. H. E. Bentinck, Archdeacon and Prebendary of , the stone of which was laid by Mrs. Bentinck, in . The ground on which the church is built was given by Mr. Thomas Cubitt, M.P.; and the building--which is in the style of architecture of the time of Edward I. and II. was erected from the designs of Mr. John L. Pearson, at a cost of about . The church will accommodate about worshippers. It consists of a lofty nave, transepts, chancel, and a vestibule at the north-east corner of the chancel. The tower has a doublelighted belfry, windows and pinnacles at the corner, crocketed at the angle; and on the top of the tower is a spire rising to the height of about feet. | |
, which extends from the Bridge and to the western end of , may be regarded as forming the termination of in this direction. A large house on the eastern side of it, formerly built as a club and library for the Guards, was bought about the year , by the Roman Catholic body, in order to form a residence for the for the time being, and shortly afterwards [extra_illustrations.4.9.3] took up his abode in it. The rooms are large and lofty, and in spite of some fine pictures of Roman Catholic prelates which grace its walls, the house has anything but a palatial appearance. Not far off, and between and , it is ultimately intended to erect the Cathedral of the future; but many centuries must elapse before it equals in historic interest the venerable Abbey hard by. Its plan is that of a lofty Gothic structure of the Decorated or Edwardian style, with nave, chancel, transepts, side chapels, tower, and lofty spire. | |
It may, perhaps, appear strange to think of finding a in the purlieus of ; nevertheless there is , and in passing through it, may, of course, look in vain for such fashionable establishments as those which meet the eye in the street which most persons know by that name. Crossing at right angles is , and by this latter turning we enter , a large space of ground covering about acres, which once formed part of , of which we shall have more to say in our next chapter. In , this plot of land was marked out as a playground for the scholars, the sum of being paid for a plough and a team of horses to drive deep furrows round the site, and more for the digging of a trench at the north-east end, to prevent carts from passing over it, as it was then open and unfenced. Further sums were paid for levelling the surface for cricket, and for railing the acres in, and fixing gates. It was named after the learned Dean Vincent, who then presided over the Abbey Church. | |
The church of St. Mary the Virgin, in this square, was built from the designs of Mr. Edward Blore, and was consecrated in . The Dean and Chapter gave the ground, and also granted a site for schools which have since been erected, for the accommodation of children. | |
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, running parallel with on its north side, is so called after the bishopric of that name, which was held conjointly with the deanery of by Dolben, Sprat, Atterbury, Bradford, Wilcocks, Pearce, Thomas, and Horsley. George III., it is said, condoled with Dr. Vincent on the separation of the see and the deanery. Many others of the neighbouring streets are named from clergymen connected with , as Carey and Page Streets, from the head-masters of College; , from Dr. Fynes-Clinton, of ; and , from the Rev. Prebendary Douglas. [extra_illustrations.4.10.1] [extra_illustrations.4.10.2] [extra_illustrations.4.10.3] | |
On the north side of is a range of neat brick-built cottages, known as Emery Hill's Almshouses. There is a grammar-school attached to them. They were founded in , to provide a home for poor men and their wives, and for widows, and also a school for boys. | |
Opposite this row of almshouses is , which was erected and endowed about the year , by Miss (now Baroness) Burdett-Coutts. It is from the designs of Mr. Benjamin Ferrey. It is built in the Decorated Gothic style of the century, with a tower and spire on the northern side, nearly feet high. The church, which is most richly decorated and picturesque, will hold about worshippers. On the south side of the west front is a group of schools attached to the church, which afford accommodation for about children; together with a parsonage, or presbytery, a portion of which forms a tower surmounted by a quaint, foreign-looking louvre. | |
In , an out-of-the-way thoroughfare on the north side of , and only a few yards from the new and noble thoroughfare of , is a building of more interest, perhaps, to the criminal classes than to Londoners in general, called [extra_illustrations.4.10.4] , or , as it used to be termed. It stands out of sight, being screened from view on almost every side by new mansions taller than itself, justifying the saying of Jeremy Bentham, to the effect that
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The old occupied the plot of ground adjoining the north side of the Green-Coat School site, on the west side of , and leading into ; so that, as this same school, or as it was formerly called, was dedicated as far back as the year , to the relief of the poor fatherless children of parish, it is probable that the hospital, or for the poor, and its next-door neighbour, the , or for the compulsory employment of able-bodied but indolent paupers, were originally joint parish institutions--the for granting relief to the industrious poor, and the other for punishing the idle. Hence these twin establishments--the erected under James I., and the other under Charles I.- were probably among the institutions raised for carrying out the provisions of the Poor Law, enacted in . | |
The itself, which Sir Richard Steele mentions as existing in at the beginning of the eighteenth century, was erected nearly a years earlier, namely, in , as may be seen from an inscription let into the wall of the . says the London chronicles, and writes the author of
This cromlech-like relic is covered with ivy, and looks at more like some piece of imitation ruin-work than the remains of a prison portal, for the doorway is so primitive in character (being not more than feet inches high and feet wide) that it seems hardly bigger than the entrance to a cottage; nevertheless, an inscription painted on the lintel assures us that it was Colonel Despard was imprisoned in the former in . | |
Although originally designed as a for , was converted, we are told, in the reign of Queen Anne, into a gaol for the confinement of criminals also; and Howard, writing towards the end of the last century (), describes it as being at that period, holding up its enlightened and careful keeper, George Smith, as In , however, the erection of a new prison was decided upon, and an Act for that purpose obtained. Then a different site was chosen, and acres of land on the western side of the Green-Coat School, and near the , were purchased for . The designs were furnished by Mr. Robert Abraham, and the building, which cost , was completed and opened for the reception of prisoners in the year ; soon after which the old prison was pulled down, and the relics already described [extra_illustrations.4.10.6] | |
p.11 | transferred to the new , as we have said, in .[extra_illustrations.4.11.1] |
The new prison, which will accommodate about prisoners in all, is situate on the southern side of . It is a solid and even handsome structure, and of great extent as well as strength. says London topographer-though, by the bye, it is in no way visible in that direction- The main entrance is on the side of the building in , and the doorway here is formed of massive granite blocks, and immense iron gates, ornamented above with portcullis work. the author of describes the exterior (though there is nothing but a huge dead wall and the prison gateway to be seen) as being
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The building is said to be of the finest specimens of brickwork in the metropolis, and consists of distinct prisons, each constructed alike, on Bentham's plan, in the form of a half-wheel, ., with a series of detached wings, radiating, spoke-fashion, from a central lodge, or as such places were formerly styled. of such lodges is situate, midway, in each of the sides of the spacious turfed and planted court-yard; so that the outline of the ground-plan of these distinct, half-wheel-like prisons resembles the ace of clubs, with the court-yard forming an open square in the centre. | |
The building is good in its sanitary conditions, and the death-rate is said to be lower than that of most prisons in the kingdom. | |
On the face of the building is a memorial stone, with the inscription recording the original purpose of its erection :-- From this it will be seen that it was originally intended as a or , and a place of of such vagrants and and as objected to work for their living. In fact, it was meant to be a sort of penal establishment in connection with the Poor House, and, like it, maintained at the expense of the City. | |
Mr. Hepworth Dixon finds fault with this building as ill planned, and a and possibly such may be the case. Down to it had been appropriated to the reception of all classes of convicted prisoners, but from and after that date it has been set apart for convicted female prisoners, and for males below years old. | |
Speaking of Prison, the witty author of the published in , quaintly remarks:
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The names of the various courts and alleys to the south of this prison still serve to keep in remembrance the once rural character of the locality: here is ; close by are Pool Place, and , and so on. Here, also, are lofty brick buildings, which will at once attract attention: is the hospital for the Grenadier Guards, which was erected about the year , on a vacant plot of ground between and ; the other rejoices in the name of the Guards' Industrial Home. Close by the latter is the large and spacious building already mentioned as the residence of the
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At the east end of , facing , is the [extra_illustrations.4.11.2] , so named from the colour of the clothing worn by its inmates. It was founded in the year , for the education of poor boys and poor girls. The hospital presents a considerable frontage towards Grey-Coat Place, from which it is separated by a large court-yard. It is composed of a central building, ornamented with a clock, turret, and bell, above the royal arms of Queen Anne, with the motto flanked by a figure on either side, dressed in the former costume of the children. The south side, which looks out upon an open garden and spacious detached play-grounds (the whole surrounded by an extensive wall), contains the school-rooms. Above is a wainscoted dining-hall, used also for the private prayers of the inmates of the hospital. The dormitories occupy the whole attic storey. In the board-room-a noble panelled apartment--are portraits of the royal foundress, Queen Anne; Dr. Compton, Bishop of London; Dr. Smalridge, Bishop of Bristol; and those of other former governors. In , the distribution of prizes to the children was made by the Duke of Buccleuch, who congratulated the children and visitors upon the successful working of the school under the new scheme. The number of children had increased from twentyeight to upwards of . | |
In , not far from Grey-Coat | |
p.12 | Place, was formerly a house named where, in , tickets were to be purchased for a lottery of plate, as we learn from the . observes Mr. Larwood in his
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Strutton (or, as it ought more properly to be called, Stourton) Ground perpetuates the name of the Lords Stourton, whose town-house, surrounded by fair garden-grounds, once stood here. The mansion became afterwards the residence of the Lords Dacre. Opposite to Stourton House, in the days of the Stuarts, stood the residence of Lord Grey de Wilton. Both these houses are shown in Norden's Map of London in . | |
A little to the north of the district which we have been describing is, or rather was, , for it is now all but swept away. According to honest John Stow, it from the west gate of the old Palace at , which gate, as we know, formerly stood at the entrance to . as Stow informs us, the old historian adds, This institution is now known as Dacre's Almshouses, or [extra_illustrations.4.12.1] , and stands in Hopkins' Row, at the back of . The house of the Lords Dacre is, or was in the year , still standing in , leading out of the , and its gardens occupied the site of what is now termed Strutton Ground--not a very elegant variation of the name Stourton. | |
In an old map of , bearing date , the City of seems limited within its south-western boundary to that ancient causeway, . Beyond this, toward and , spread the open fields, with but here and there scattered buildings. Ponds and marshy ground appear at the western end of , and patches of garden-ground distinguish the cultivated from the generally waste character of the soil. On the site of the present | |
p.13 | gas-works was Eldrick's Nursery, which supplied the district with fruit and flowering shrubs, as the Abbey vineyard had supplied the monks in the olden time with many a vintage, and the site of which, as we have shown above, might be traced in the thoroughfare till a recent date known as . |
It will be seen from these remarks that it has been often said the proper--that triangular slip of the metropolis which lies between the Thames, , and the Road-can boast at once of some of the noblest and the meanest structures to be found throughout London; the grand old Abbey contrasting with the filthy and squalid almost as strongly as do the new Houses of Parliament and the Palace of which they form a part with the slums about the , which well nigh equal the dingy tenements which till lately stood about the Almonry, now almost absorbed into the Palace Hotel. But such is really the case. In we have the contrast between rich and poor as marked as in and St. James's; for almost within a stone's throw of the seat of the great Legislature of England there are, or were till | |
| recently, more almshouses, more charity schools, and more prisons, more ancient mansions, and more costermongers' hovels, more thieves' dens and low public houses, than in any other part of the metropolis of equal extent. | |
It has been sarcastically, but perhaps not undeservedly, remarked, that the City of is, and has long been, the centre of dissipation of the whole empire; and such perhaps it may be, for the region to the north of has been, ever since the institution of the headquarters of luxury; while a visit to the purlieus of proper--to the south of the Abbey and Victoria Street-would serve to convince the most incredulous that dissipation does not belong to the upper classes exclusively. Here, however, as in other parts of the great metropolis, recent years have witnessed vast improvements. The building of , and the demolition of old buildings for the construction of the Metropolitan District Railway, necessitated the removal of some of the worst neighbourhoods of . Still, in the district bordering on the river, the general aspect of the dwellings is to a great extent unchanged. | |
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Footnotes: [extra_illustrations.4.2.1] Thomas Telford, the engineer [extra_illustrations.4.3.1] Church Street, Millbank [extra_illustrations.4.3.2] St. John the Evangelist [extra_illustrations.4.5.1] Prince and Princess of Wales at Lambeth, 1879 [extra_illustrations.4.5.2] Lambeth Bridge [extra_illustrations.4.8.1] Millbank Prison, formerly called the Penitentiary [extra_illustrations.4.8.2] Chain Room [extra_illustrations.4.8.3] Refractory Cell [extra_illustrations.4.8.4] Convicts in Garden [extra_illustrations.4.8.5] Prisoner at Work [extra_illustrations.4.8.6] Female Convict [extra_illustrations.4.8.7] Burial Ground [extra_illustrations.4.8.8] Workshop under Silent System [extra_illustrations.4.9.1] Eugene Rimmel-Regent Street [extra_illustrations.4.9.2] Vauxhall Bridge [extra_illustrations.4.9.3] Cardinal Manning [extra_illustrations.4.10.1] Ground Plan of Prison [extra_illustrations.4.10.2] Serving Dinner at Bay's Prison--Tothill Fields [extra_illustrations.4.10.3] Planted Courtyard and Governor's House [extra_illustrations.4.10.4] Tothill Fields Prison [extra_illustrations.4.10.6] Skits from Tothill Fields Prisons [extra_illustrations.4.11.1] Medal worn by Capt. of Grey Coat Boys [extra_illustrations.4.11.2] Grey Coat School, or Hospital [extra_illustrations.4.12.1] Emmanuel Hospital |
