Chapter IV: Preface (4)

At the south-western corner of Sise Lane, in Budge Row, there is a rectangular railed-in space about a dozen feet by six, sheltered by the corner of the adjoining house. Against the wall, facing eastward, is a monument in stone of considerable size. Two columns with Corinthian capitals support an architrave, and enclose a view in slight relief of =St. Antholin’s= as it was. Beneath the view are the words:

Here stood the parish church of St. Antholin, destroyed in the Great
Fire, A.D. 1666, rebuilt 1677 by Sir Christopher Wren, architect.

On the bases of the columns are inscribed the names of the churchwardens of St. Antholin’s and St. John Baptist’s, Walbrook, respectively. While the following inscription is beneath:

The change of population in the City during two centuries rendering
the church no longer necessary, it was taken down A.D. 1875, under
the Act of Parliament for uniting City Benefices; the funds derived
from the sale of the site were devoted in part to the Restoration of
the neighbouring church of St. Mary Aldermary, where are also
erected the monumental tablets removed from St. Antholin, and the
erection at Nunhead of another church dedicated to St. Antholin
greatly needed in that thickly populated district.

And again, right across the bases of the pillars and the stone, run the words:

In a vault beneath are deposited the greater part of the human
remains removed from the Old church. The remainder are laid in a
vault in the City of London Cemetery at Ilford, where also a
monument marks the place of interment.

The Church of =St. Anthony= or =Antholin= stood on the north side of
Budge Row, at the corner of Shoe Lane, in Cordwainer Street Ward. It
derived its name from being dedicated to St. Anthony of Vienna, who
had a cell here founded by Henry II., but it is not known when the
church was first built. About 1399 it was rebuilt, and again in
1513, but the Great Fire of 1666 destroyed it. From Wren’s design it
was rebuilt, and completed in 1682; it was remarkable for its tower,
with a spire all of freestone. In 1874 the building (except the
steeple) was taken down, and in 1876 the steeple was also
demolished, the materials of which were sold for £5. The earliest
date of an incumbent is 1181.

The patronage of the church was always in the hands of the Dean and
Chapter of St. Paul’s, who granted one part to John, son of Wizo the
goldsmith, about 1141.

Houseling people in 1548 were 240.

In 1623 a very beautiful gallery was added to the church, every
division of which (52 in number) was filled with the arms of kings,
queens, and princes of the kingdom, from Edward the Confessor to
Frederick, Count Palatine of the Rhine.

Chantries were founded here by: Nicholas Bole, citizen and skinner,
at the Altar of St. Katherine, to which William Pykon was admitted
chaplain, 1390, on the resignation of Richard Hale—the endowment
fetched £6 : 13 : 4 in 1548, when Robert Smythe was chaplain; John
Grantham, whose endowment fetched £4 in 1548.

In this church Thomas Hind and Hugh Acton, benefactors to the
parish, were buried. There was also a monument to William Daunsey,
mercer and alderman of the City.

Some of the donors of gifts and charities were: the Mercers and
Drapers, of £6 respectively; Sir William Craven and William Parker,
£100, to which £118 were added by the parishioners, for establishing
a daily lecture. There were a considerable number of charities in
this parish.

Among the rectors of this church were William Colwyn, who made a
recantation at St. Paul’s Cross, Advent 1541, and Thomas Lamplugh
(1615-91), Archbishop of York.

On the opposite side of the street extends for some way a really old brick building, evidently built immediately after the Fire. Over a centre window is a curved pediment of brickwork. Beneath, an opening leads into a yard, and the building is used by Stationers. The west side of the lane is modern.

=St. Pancras Lane= was formerly Needlers’ Lane. The church, the parish, the chantries and endowments, and the parishioners are mentioned frequently in the _Calendar of Wills_. The earliest entry there is of A.D. 1273, where John Hervy bequeaths to Juliana his daughter his mansion in the parish of St. Pancras, and to his daughter Johanna his shop in the parish of Colechurch. The Lane, except that it contained two parish churches, was of little importance.

Pancras Lane is an open space, once the graveyard of St. Pancras, Soper Lane. The houses are dull brick and stucco. The graveyard bears a great similarity to all that is left of the others; it is covered with dingy gravel and decorated by blackened evergreens. The iron gate bears a little shield telling that it was erected in 1886. There are one or two tombs still left.

The Church of =St. Pancras, Soper Lane=, stood near a street called
Soper Lane, but since the Fire called Queen Street. It was repaired
1621, and in 1624 Thomas Chapman the younger built a porch to it.
The building was destroyed by the Great Fire, when its parish was
annexed to that of St. Mary-le-Bow. The earliest date of an
incumbent is 1312.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of the Prior and
Convent of Christ Church, Canterbury, who granted it, April 25,
1365, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, in whose successors it
continued up to 1666, when the church was destroyed in the Great
Fire and the parish annexed to St. Mary-le-Bow.

Houseling people in 1548 were 146.

Chantries were founded here by: John Causton at the Altar of St.
Anne, which was augmented by Simon Rice and Lettice his wife, before
1356, to which William de la Temple was presented by the King,
January 10, 1374-75—the endowment was valued at £13 in 1548, when
Adam Arnolde was priest; Margaret Reynolds, who bequeathed £233 :
6 : 8, which the Mercers had, and guaranteed a rent charge of £8 :
13 : 4 for the same to find a priest.

The church originally contained monuments to John Stockton, mercer
and mayor, 1470; Richard Gardener, mercer and mayor, 1478; and
Thomas Knowles, twice Lord Mayor.

Two charitable gifts are recorded by Stow, the donors of which were
Thomas Chapman, whose benefaction was lost by Stow’s time, and
Thomas Chapman his son, to the amount of £11 : 3 : 8.

Only a few steps farther on is another melancholy little spot, with a stone slab on the wall near with inscription as follows: “Before the dreadful Fire, Anno 1666, stood the church of St. Benet Sherehog.” The railing and low wall were put up in 1842. Within the enclosure stands a tomb over the “Family Vault of Michael Davison, 1676.”

The church was called =St. Benet Sherehog=, from one Benedict
Shorne, or Shrog, or Shorehog, who was connected with it in the
reign of Edward II. It was repaired in 1628, but destroyed by the
Great Fire and not rebuilt, its parish being annexed to St. Stephen,
Walbrook, and its site made into a burying-ground. The earliest date
of an incumbent is 1285.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of the Prior and
Convent of St. Mary Overy, of Southwark, 1324; then the Crown, since
Henry VIII. seized it in 1542.

Houseling people in 1548 were 300.

Chantries were founded here: For Ralph le Fever and Lucy his
wife—the endowment fetched £3 : 11 : 8 in 1548, when Anthony Gyplyn,
lately deceased, had been priest; for Thomas Romayn and Julia his
wife, to which John de Loughebourgh was admitted, August 12, 1326.

Edward Hall, who wrote the large chronicle from Richard II. to Henry
VIII., was buried here. The church formerly contained a monument to
Sir Ralph Warren, twice Lord Mayor of London, who died in 1553. Mrs.
Katherine Philips of Cardigan, the poetess, who died in 1664, was
also buried here.

Only one charitable gift is recorded by Stow in this parish, that of
£5 per annum left by Mr. Davison for keeping his family vault in
repair. Some of this was used for charitable purposes.

John Wakering (d. 1425), Bishop of Norwich, was rector here.

=Queen Street= was constructed in part after the Fire, and covers the old Soper Lane, so called from the soap-makers who formerly lived here (though Stow wants to derive the name from an ancient resident). The south end, leading to the river, seems to have been the later part.

Soper Lane is mentioned in the _Calendar of Wills_ as early as 1259, when Nicholas Bat, a member of the old City family of that name, bequeathed to his wife rents in Sopers’ Lane.

Here, in 1297, there sprang up an evening market—“Eve Chepynge”—called the New Fair. It was established against the knowledge of the mayor by “strangers, foreigners, and beggars,” and was the cause of many deeds made possible by selling in the dark, and of much strife and violence. Therefore it was abolished.

In the reign of Edward II. Soper Lane was the market-place of the Pepperers; seventy years later of the Curriers and Cordwainers. In the reign of Queen Mary there were many shops here for the sale of pies.

In the year 1316 the “good folks in Soper Lane, of the trade of Pepperers,” agreed upon certain regulations for the observance of the trade and the prevention of dishonesty.

In 1375 we find cordwainers between Soper Lane and the Conduit.

The name of Size Lane is derived from St. Osyth.

For =Bucklersbury= we will first let Stow speak:

“Bucklersbury, so called of a manor and tenements pertaining to one Buckle, who there dwelt and kept his courts. This manor is supposed to be the great stone building, yet in part remaining on the south side of the street, which of late time hath been called the Old Barge, of such a sign hanged out near the gate thereof. This manor or great house hath of long time been divided and letten out into many tenements; and it hath been a common speech, that when Walbrooke did lie open, barges were rowed out of the Thames, or towed up so far, and therefore the place hath ever since been called the Old Barge.

“Also on the north side of this street, directly over against the said Bucklersbury, was one ancient and strong tower of stone, the which tower King Edward III., in the 18th of his reign, by the name of the king’s house, called Cornet stoure in London, did appoint to be his Exchange of money there to be kept. In the 29th he granted it to Frydus Guynysane and Landus Bardoile, merchants of Luke, for twenty pounds the year. And in the 32nd he gave the same tower to his college or free chapel of St. Stephen at Westminster, by the name of Cornet Stoure at Bucklersbury in London. This tower of late years was taken down by one Buckle, a grocer, meaning in place thereof to have set up and built a goodly frame of timber; but the said Buckle greedily labouring to pull down the old tower, a part thereof fell upon him, which so sore bruised him that his life was thereby shortened, and another that married his widow set up the new prepared frame of timber, and finished the work.

“This whole street called Bucklersbury on both the sides throughout is possessed of grocers and apothecaries towards the west end thereof: on the south side breaketh out one other short lane called in records Peneritch street; it reacheth but to St. Sythe’s Lane, and St. Sythe’s church is the farthest part thereof, for by the west end of the said church beginneth Needler’s Lane, which reacheth to Soper Lane, as is aforesaid” (Stow’s _Survey_, p. 276).

The origin of the name of Bucklersbury is Bukerel, and not Buckle; Bukerel was the name of an old City family. Andrew Bukerel was mayor from 1231 to 1236.

Many Roman antiquities, pavements, bronzes, Samian ware, spoons, etc., have been found in Bucklersbury. A bronze armlet also found there may belong to pre-Roman times. The street is mentioned in many ancient documents, beginning with the thirteenth century. In the fifteenth century there were tenements here known as “Sylvestre tour” assigned by the Dean of St. Stephen, Westminster, to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, druggists, furriers, herbalists, and tobacconists had shops in Bucklersbury.

In 1688 there was a Roman Catholic chapel in Bucklersbury, which was one of those destroyed or burned by the mob, chiefly consisting of London apprentices, during the riots pending the arrival of the Prince of Orange.

An argument between the Dean and Canons of St. Paul’s and a carpenter of Bucklersbury shows that the parish of St. Benet Sherehog was called in 1406 the parish of St. Osyth, in which part of Bucklersbury stood. In 1455 the former name is given to the parish.

Bucklersbury was cut in two when Queen Victoria Street was made. The upper portion consists chiefly of large modern many-windowed business houses. Near the north-east corner there is an old brick house containing part of Pimm’s restaurant. In the southern half Barge Yard is modern. The Bourse Buildings, occupied by a great number of engineers, accountants, and business men of all sorts, take up a large part of the street.

Passing westward we come to =Bow Lane=, which was formerly called in the lower part Hosier Lane, from the trade of those who occupied it, and in the upper part, for a similar reason, Cordwainers’ Street.

The street spoken of in the _Calendar of Wills_ by the name of Hosier Lane belonged to the parish of St. Sepulchre without the wall. The same street is mentioned in Riley’s _Memorials_.

For the Church of St. Mary-le-Bow see p. 10.

In its modern aspect Bow Lane is not uninteresting.

A covered entry, inappropriately named New Court, leads into a fascinating corner. There is a gateway really and ruinously old; it is said to have survived the Fire. The ironwork pattern is lost now in meaningless and broken twists, though there is a semblance of what might have been a monogram over the centre gate. The houses all round the court evidently date from the period directly after the Fire. That facing the street is of red brick toned by age, and is said to have been the residence of a Lord Mayor. The others are of dark brick, picked out in red. No. 5 contains the offices of the _Financial World_.

Beyond it a narrow passage leads at an angle round to the churchyard. A more spacious way runs beside the church itself. At the corner of this is a polished granite drinking fountain, erected in 1859, supporting green painted dolphins.

In the churchyard a scene of confusion and turmoil daily takes place on the pavement which lies over the bones of the “ancient dead.” Great wooden crates and packing-cases are littered about. They are from that large modern building on the west, facing the church, belonging to warehousemen and manufacturers. But one old seventeenth-century house, of a date immediately succeeding the Fire, remains, on the south side of the churchyard, facing Cheapside. Its quiet blackened bricks and flat windows have beheld many a change of scene on the stage before it. The ground-floor windows and doorway are connected by an ornamental cornice. The red bricks of the church in Bow Lane contrast with a long narrow building of the eighteenth century which is squeezed against them. These contrast with the gaping cellars and basements of the more modern buildings.

Of =Bread Street= there is very early mention. In 1204 the leprous women of St. James’s received a charter respecting a certain tenement in Chepe, at the head of Bread Street; in 1290 this tenement again becomes the subject of a charter. In 1263 there was a fire which consumed a part of Bread Street.

“So called of bread in old time there sold: for it appeareth by records, that in the year 1302, which was the 30th of Edward I., the bakers of London were bound to sell no bread in their shops or houses, but in the market: and that they should have four hall-motes in the year, at four several terms, to determine of enormities belonging to the said Company.

“Bread Street is now wholly inhabited by rich traders; and divers fair inns be there, for good receipt of carriers and other travellers to the city. It appears in the will of Edward Stafford, Earl of Wyltshire, dated the 22nd of March, 1498, and 14 Hen. VII., that he lived in a house in Bread-street in London, which belonged to the family of Stafford, Duke of Bucks afterwards; he bequeathing all the stuff in that house to the Lord of Buckingham, for he died without issue” (Strype, vol. i. pp. 686-687).

The bakers gave continual trouble to the City by their light-weight loaves and their bad bread. When they were “wanted” by the alderman they gat themselves out of the City and to their hills beyond the jurisdiction of the mayor. It was ordained, in order to meet this difficulty, that the servants who sell the bread thus complained of should be punished as if they were masters. It was also discovered that “hostelers and habergeons” bought bread in the market and sold it to their guests at a profit. This was not allowed in mediæval times. It was ordered that every loaf was to be bought of a baker, with his special stamp, and sold at the price regulated by the assize of bread.

But there were others besides bakers who used the market of Bread Street, Cheapside; it became a place for cooks. In 1351, one Henry Pecche bought a caper pasty of Henry de Passelowe, cook at the Stocks, and found on opening it that the fowl was putrid. The case coming before the mayor, experts were called in, among them six cooks of Bread Street and three of Ironmonger Lane. The story shows how the exclusive character of a market had to be broken up for the conveniences of the people. Here we have cooks carrying on their trade in three different parts of the great market of Chepe. A few years later, one of the Bread Street cooks, John Welburgh Man by name, was convicted by the evidence of his neighbours of selling a pie of conger, knowing the fish to be bad.

In 1595 a singular discovery was made at the north-east end of this street. In the construction of a vault was found, 15 feet deep, a “fair” pavement, and at the farther end a tree sawed into five steps—Stow says: “which was to step over some brook running out of the west towards Walbrooke; and upon the edge of the said brook, as it seemeth, there were found lying along the bodies of two great trees, the ends whereof were then sawed off, and firm timber as at the first when they fell, part of the said trees remain yet in the ground undigged. It was all forced ground until they went past the trees aforesaid, which was about seventeen feet deep or better; thus much hath the ground of this city in that place been raised from the main.”

The first turning to the east going down Bread Street was, until recently, called the Spread Eagle Court. One of the corner houses of this court is supposed to have been the work-place of John Milton, whose father traded under the sign of the “Spread Eagle.” He was baptized in the church of Allhallows. House and church were destroyed in the Fire, but the register remains.

On the corner house between Watling and Bread Streets is a stone slab fixed to the wall; this bears a bust of the poet in _alto relievo_. The rest of the building, which runs along Watling Street as far as Red Lion Court, is in new red brick, dated 1878. It has ornamental brickwork and festoons here and there, and the roof terminates in curiously shaped gables, some of which follow the old shell pattern. The doorways and windows are carried out in stone. The penthouse pediment over Milton’s bust is also in brick. Beneath, two little red cherubs hold a laurel wreath. Below the head is the one word—Milton; and lower follows the inscription:

Born in Bread Street, 1608.
Baptized in the Church of Allhallows, which stood here ante 1678.

The Mermaid, like many other London inns, stood in a court with an entrance from Friday Street and from Bread Street.

On the west side of Bread Street, on a site which, when Stow wrote, was occupied by “large houses for merchants and fair inns for passengers,” stood the Bread Street Compter, one of the two sheriffs’ prisons. As we have seen, it was later removed to Wood Street.

Behind St. Mildred’s Church stood =Gerard’s Hall=, the entrance from Basing Lane. Of this place Stow speaks at length:

“On the south side of this lane is one great house, of old time built upon arched vaults, and with arched gates of stone, brought from Caen in Normandy. The same is now a common hostrey for receipt of travellers, commonly and corruptly called Gerards hall, of a giant said to have dwelt there. In the high-roofed hall of this house sometime stood a large fir pole, which reached to the roof thereof, and was said to be one of the staves that Gerard the giant used in the wars to run withal. There stood also a ladder of the same length, which (as they say) served to ascend to the top of the staff. Of later years this hall is altered in building, and divers rooms are made in it. Notwithstanding, the pole is removed to one corner of the hall, and the ladder hanged broken upon a wall in the yard. The hosteler of that house said to me, ‘the pole lacketh half a foot of forty in length’: I measured the compass thereof, and found it fifteen inches.

“I read that John Gisors, mayor of London in the year 1245, was owner thereof, and that Sir John Gisors, knight, mayor of London, and constable of the Tower 1311, and divers others of that name and family, since that time owned it. William Gisors was one of the sheriffs 1329. More, John Gisors had issue, Henry and John; which John had issue, Thomas; which Thomas deceasing in the year 1350, left unto his son Thomas his messuage called Gisor’s Hall, in the parish of St. Mildred in Bread Street: John Gisors made a feoffment thereof, 1386, etc. So it appeareth that this Gisor’s Hall, of late time by corruption hath been called Gerard’s Hall for Gisor’s Hall; as Bosom’s inn for Blossom’s inn, Bevis Marks for Buries Marks, Marke Lane, for Marte Lane, Belliter Lane for Belsetter’s Lane, Gutter Lane for Guthuruns Lane, Cry Church for Christ’s Church, St. Michel in the Querne for St. Michel at corne, and sundry such others. Out of this Gisor’s Hall, at the first building thereof, were made divers arched doors, yet to be seen, which seem not sufficient for any great monster, or other man of common stature to pass through, the pole in the hall might be used of old time (as then the custom was in every parish), to be set up in the summer as May-pole, before the principal house in the parish or street, and to stand in the hall before the screen, decked with holme and ivy, at the feast of Christmas. The ladder served for the decking of the may-pole and roof of the hall. Thus much for Gisor’s hall, and for that side of Bread street, may suffice” (Stow’s _Survey_, 393-394).

GERARD’S HALL CRYPT IN 1795
]

The crypt of this house escaped the Fire. On its site was erected an inn called Gerard’s Hall, which contained seventy-eight bedrooms, and was one of the principal hotels of the City. The whole was removed for the construction of Cannon Street; Basing Lane, which ran from Bread Street to Bow Lane, disappeared at the same time.

ST. MILDRED, BREAD STREET

The Church of St. Mildred, Bread Street, still stands. It is on the
east side of the street, a little to the south of Cannon Street, and
is supposed to have been rebuilt in 1300 by Lord Trenchaunt, of St.
Alban’s, knight, whose monument was in the church. It was destroyed
by the Great Fire and rebuilt by Wren in 1683, when the parish of
St. Margaret Moses was annexed. The earliest date of an incumbent is
1170.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Prior and
Convent of St. Mary Overy, Southwark, who had it in 1300, and
granted it to John Incent and John Oliver, 1333; the above Prior and
Convent.

Houseling people in 1548 were 216.

The present church measures 62 feet in length, and 36 feet in
breadth, while the total height, to the summit of the cupola, is 52
feet. The interior remains practically in its original state. The
carvings about the altar-piece and pulpit are attributed to Grinling
Gibbons. The steeple, which rises at the south-east, consists of a
plain brick tower, lantern, and slender spire culminating in a ball
and vane. The total height is 140 feet, but only the upper portion
is visible, owing to the buildings surrounding it.

A chantry was founded here by Stephen Bull, citizen, of which Thomas
Chapman was chaplain, April 26, 1453.

The church originally contained monuments to: Lord Trenchaunt, a
great benefactor, who was buried here about 1300; also Sir John
Shadworth, mayor, 1401, who gave a parsonage house and other gifts
to the church. Here too John Ireland and Ellis Crispe were buried in
1614 and 1625, the grandfather and father of Sir Nicholas Crispe,
the devoted adherent of Charles I., who is greatly eulogised for his
loyalty by Dr. Johnson; he died in 1666.

Few details of the charities belonging to the parish are recorded by
Stow; Thomas Langham and Mr. Coppinger being the only names
mentioned besides those commemorated by monuments.

Thomas Mangey (1688-1755), D.D., Prebendary of Durham, was a rector
here; also Hugh Oldham (d. 1519) of Exeter.

=The Church of Allhallows, Bread Street=, stood on the east side of
the street. In 1625 the building was repaired, but ruined by the
Great Fire shortly after. It was subsequently rebuilt. In 1878 it
was taken down. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1284.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of the Prior and
Chapter of Christ Church, Canterbury; Archbishop of Canterbury,
April 24, 1365, by gift (1284-85) from the above, in whose
successors it continued up to 1666, when St. John’s, Watling Street,
was annexed to it, these being annexed to St. Mary-le-Bow by Order
in Council dated July 21, 1876.

Houseling people in 1548 were 300.

On the south side of the chancel there was a small part of the
church, called “The Salters’ Chapel,” containing a window with the
figure of the donor, Thomas Beaumont, wrought upon it. The church
originally had a steeple, but in 1559 it was destroyed by lightning
and not restored. The King granted a licence to Roger Paryt and
Roger Stagenhow to found a guild in honour of our Lord, April 12,
1394 (Pat. 17 Rd. II. p. 2 m. 15). Some of the most notable
monuments were those of Thomas Beaumont of the Company of Salters,
John Dunster, a benefactor of the church, and Arthur Baron.

The following were among the numerous benefactors: David Cocke,
£100; William Parker, £100; John Dunster, £200, to be laid out in
lands and tenements; Edward Rudge, £200, to be laid out in lands and
tenements; Lady Middleton, £100.

The most notable rectors of the church were: William Lyndwood (d.
1446), Chancellor to the Archbishop of Canterbury; Thomas Langton
(d. 1501), Bishop of St. David’s. John Milton was baptized in this
church.

A tablet formerly affixed to the exterior of the church in
commemoration of the event was put up outside St. Mary-le-Bow after
the destruction of Allhallows.

=Friday Street.=—“So called,” says Stow, “of fishmongers dwelling there, and serving Friday’s market.” In the roll of the Scrope and Grosvenor controversy, the poet Chaucer is recorded as giving evidence connected with this street, for when he was once in Friday Street he observed a sign with the arms of Scrope hanging out; and on his asking what they did there, was told they were put there by Sir Robert Grosvenor.

Cunningham also notes as follows: “The Nag’s Head Tavern, at the Cheapside corner of Friday Street, was the pretended scene of the consecration of Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The real consecration took place in the adjoining church of St. Mary-le-Bow; but the Roman Catholics chose to lay the scene in a tavern. ‘The White Horse,’ another tavern in Friday Street, makes a conspicuous figure in the _Merry Conceited Jests of George Peele_. In this street, in 1695, at the ‘Wednesdays Clubs,’ as they were called, certain well-known conferences took place, under the direction of William Paterson, which ultimately led to the establishment of the Bank of England.”

In the year 1247, certain lands in Friday Street are held by the nuns of “Halliwelle.” In 1258, one William Eswy, mercer, bequeathed to the Earl of Gloucester all his tenements in Friday Street for 100 marks, wherein he was bound to the Earl, and for robes, capes, and other goods received from him. In 1278, Walter de Vaus left to Thomas, his uncle, shops in Friday Street. Therefore in the thirteenth century the street was already a lane of shops. The date shows that the former character of Chepe market as a broad open space set with booths and stalls had already undergone great modifications. Other early references to the street show that it was one of shops. Chaucer’s evidence shows that a hundred years later there were “hostelers” or “herbergeours” living there.

In 1363, certain citizens subscribed money as a present to the King. Among them is one Thomas, a scrivener of Friday Street, and in 1370 we find one Adam Lovekyn in possession of a seld which has been used for time out of mind by foreign tanners. He complains that they no longer come to him, but keep their wares in hostels and go about the streets selling them in secret.

In Friday Street at the corner in Watling Street is a railed-in space, all that remains of an old churchyard, the churchyard of St. John the Evangelist. This is a piece of ground containing very few square yards, separated from the street by high iron railings, and filled with stunted laurel bushes and other evergreens. A hard gravel walk runs round a circular bed of bushes, and on one side stands a raised tomb-like erection. On the wall are one or two slabs indicating the names of those who are buried in the vault below.

=The Church of St. John the Evangelist= was burnt down in the Great
Fire and not rebuilt, its parish being annexed to Allhallows, Bread
Street, and both of these to St. Mary-le-Bow, by Order in Council,
1876. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1354.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Prior and
Convent of Christ Church, Canterbury, before 1354; Henry VIII.
seized it in 1540; the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church,
Canterbury, 1546 up to 1666, when it was annexed to Allhallows,
Bread Street.

Houseling people in 1548 were 100.

A chantry was founded here by William de Angre, before 1361, whose
endowment fetched £8 : 13 : 4 in 1548, when John Taylor was
chaplain. No monuments of any note are recorded by Stow.

In the north part of Friday Street is Blue Boar Court on the east side. This court was rebuilt in 1896, but previous to this was surrounded by old houses. One of these, No. 56, was interesting as having been the City home of Richard Cobden until 1845. It is said that this house was built on the site of a garden attached to Sir Hugh Myddelton’s house in Cheapside. The cellars beneath the building once covered the bullion belonging to the Bank of England. This was at the time when the Bank was in a room of the old Grocers’ Hall.

=The Church of St. Matthew, Friday Street=, was situated on the west
side of the street near Cheapside. It was burnt down in the Great
Fire, and rebuilt from the designs of Sir Christopher Wren in 1685;
it was then made the parish church for this and St. Peter’s,
Westcheap, which was annexed to it. About 1887 the building was
pulled down. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1322.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Abbot and
Convent of St. Peter, Westminster, 1322, then Henry VIII., who
seized it and gave it to the Bishop of Westminster, January 20,
1540-41; the Bishop of London, March 3, 1553-54; it continued in his
successors up to 1666, when St. Peter’s, Cheapside, was annexed, and
the patronage was shared alternately with the patron of that parish.

Houseling people in 1548 were 200.

The church was plain, without aisles, measuring 64 feet by 33 feet
and having a tower 74 feet high.

Chantries were founded here: By Adam de Bentley, goldsmith, for
himself and Matilda his wife, to which Adam Ipolite de Pontefracto
was admitted chaplain, June 14, 1334; by Thomas Wyrlyngworth, at the
Altar of St. Katherine, to which John Donyngton was admitted
chaplain, November 13, 1391: the King granted his licence, June 16,
1404; by John Martyn, whose endowment fetched £10 in 1548, when
Henry Coldewell was priest, “70 years of age, meanly learned”; for
Nicholas Twyford, _miles_, about 1400.

The church originally contained monuments to Sir Nicholas Twyford,
goldsmith and mayor, who died 1583, also Sir Edward Clark, Lord
Mayor in 1696. Sir Hugh Myddelton, the designer of the New River,
was a parishioner, and was buried here in 1631.

A legacy of £5 a year was left to the poor of the parish by Mrs.
Cole.

James Smith, Edward Clark, and others contributed to the furnishing
of the necessities of the church. The parish was to receive £240 out
of the “cole-money” for the use of the parish or poor (Stow).

John Thomas (1691-1766), Bishop of Lincoln, 1744, of Sarum 1761-66,
was rector here; also Edward Vaughan (d. 1522), Bishop of St.
David’s; John Rogers, who was burnt at Smithfield, 1555; Lewis
Bayley (d. 1631), Bishop of Bangor, and Michael Lort (1725-90),
Vice-President of Society of Antiquaries; Henry Burton, the ardent
Puritan, who was put in the pillory and imprisoned for his religious
opinions and attacks.

=The Church of St. Margaret Moses= was situated on the east side of
Friday Street, opposite Distaff Lane, now merged in Cannon Street,
and derived its name from one Moses, who founded it. It was burnt
down in the Great Fire and its parish annexed to that of St.
Mildred, Bread Street. The earliest date of an incumbent is 1300.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of: Robert Fitzwalter,
the founder, who gave it in 1105 to the Priors and Canons of St.
Faith, Horsham, Norfolk, being confirmed to that house by Pope
Alexander III. in his Bill dated at Turin, May 26, 1163; Edward
III., who seized it from St. Faith, as an alien priory, and so it
continued in the Crown till the parish was annexed to St. Mildred,
Bread Street, in 1666.

Houseling people in 1548 were 240.

Chantries were founded here by: Nicholas Bray, whose endowment
fetched £8 : 16 : 8 in 1548, when John Griffyn was “priest of the
age of 46 years, of virtuous living and of small learning”; John
Fenne, whose endowment yielded £9 : 10s. in 1548, when John
Brightwyse was “priest of the age of 46 years, of honest behaviour
and indifferently learned”; Gerard Dannyell, whose endowment fetched
£8 in 1548, when Nicholas Prideoux was priest.

The church originally contained monuments to Sir Richard Dobbes,
mayor, 1551; Sir John Allot, mayor, 1591.

Only two legacies are recorded by Stow: 18s. per annum, the gift of
John Bush; 16s. per annum, the gift of John Spot.

John Rogers, who was burnt at Smithfield in 1555, was rector here.

=Distaff Lane.=—“On the west side of Friday Street, is Mayden lane, so named of such a sign, or Distaffe lane, for Distar lane, as I read in the record of a brew-house called the Lamb, in Distar Lane, the 16th of Henry VI. In this Distar Lane, on the north side thereof, is the Cordwainers, or Shoemakers’ hall, which company were made a brotherhood or fraternity, in the 11th of Henry IV. Of these cordwainers I read, that since the fifth of Richard II. (when he took to wife Anne, daughter to Wenceslaus, King of Bohemia), by her example, the English people had used piked shoes, tied to their knees with silken laces, or chains of silver or gilt, wherefore in the 4th of Edward IV. it was ordained and proclaimed, that beaks of shoone and boots, should not pass the length of two inches, upon pain of cursing by the clergy, and by parliament to pay twenty shillings for every pair. And every cordwainer that shod any man or woman on the Sunday, to pay thirty shillings.

“On the south side of this Distar Lane, is also one other lane, called Distar Lane, which runneth down to Knightrider Street, or Old Fish Street, and this is the end of Bread Street Ward” (Stow’s _Survey_, p. 393).

The other lane was afterwards called Little Distaff Lane. Another name for this street was Maiden Lane. There was another Maiden Lane in Thames Street, and a third in Lad Lane, and a fourth on Bank side.

Distaff Lane is absorbed by Cannon Street, and the “Little Distaff Lane” has been promoted by the omission of the adjective.

=Old Change.=—Of this street Stow tells us everything that is of interest:

“A street so called of the King’s exchange there kept, which was for the receipt of bullion to be coined. For Henry III., in the 6th year of his reign, wrote to the Scabines and men of Ipre, that he and his council had given prohibition, that none, Englishmen or other, should make change of plate or other mass of silver, but only in his Exchange at London, or at Canterbury. Andrew Bukerell then had to farm the Exchange, and was mayor of London, in the reign of Henry III. In the 8th of Edward I., Gregory Rockesly was keeper of the said Exchange for the king. In the 5th of Edward II., William Hausted was keeper thereof; and in the 18th, Roger de Frowicke.

“These received the old stamps, or coining-irons, from time to time, as the same were worn, and delivered new to all the mints in England, as more at large in another place I have noted.

“This street beginneth by West Chepe in the north, and runneth down south to Knightrider Street; that part thereof which is called Old Fish Street, but the very housing and office of the Exchange and coinage was about the midst thereof, south from the east gate that entereth Pauls churchyard, and on the west side in Baynard’s castle ward.

“On the east side of this lane, betwixt West Cheape and the church of St. Augustine, Henry Walles, mayor (by license of Edward I.), built one row of houses, the profits rising of them to be employed on London Bridge” (Stow’s _Survey_, p. 35).

Lord Herbert of Cherbury lived in a “house among gardens near the Old Exchange.”

St. Paul’s School was founded by Dean Colet in 1509, and the schoolhouse stood at the east end of the Churchyard, facing the Cathedral. It was destroyed by the Great Fire and rebuilt by Wren, and then again taken down and rebuilt in 1824, and subsequently removed to Hammersmith to the new building designed by Alfred Waterhouse, R.A., in 1884. For further, see “Hammersmith” in succeeding volume. The old site in St. Paul’s Churchyard is now covered by business houses.

ST. AUGUSTINE

At the corner of Old Change and Watling Street stands St.
Augustine’s Church.

It was burnt down by the Great Fire and rebuilt by Wren in 1682, and
the parish of St. Faith’s annexed to it. The steeple, however, was
not completed till 1695. As it possessed no proper burying-ground of
its own, a portion of the crypt of St. Paul’s was used for the
interment of parishioners. The earliest date of an incumbent was
1148.

The patronage of the church was always in the hands of the Dean and
Chapter of St. Paul’s, who granted it to Edward, the priest, in
1148.

Houseling people in 1548 were 360.

The present church measures about 51 feet in length, 30 feet in
height, and 45 feet in breadth; it is divided into a nave and side
aisles by six Ionic columns and four pilasters. The steeple rises at
the south-west, consisting of a tower, lantern, and spire. It is 20
feet square at the base, and has three stories. The lantern is very
slender. The total altitude is 140 feet. No chantries are recorded
to have been founded here. The ancient church contained few
monuments of note. The present building has a tablet to the memory
of Judith (died 1705), the first wife of the eminent lawyer William
Cowper.

Some of the benefactors were: Thomas Holbech, rector of the parish,
1662, who gave £100 towards finishing the church; Dame Margaret
Ayloff, £100. After the parish of St. Faith’s was annexed, gifts to
the amount of £700 were received from various sources.

William Fleetwood (1656-1723), Bishop of St. Asaph, was rector here;
also John Douglas (1721-1807), Bishop of Carlisle and of Sarum, and
Richard H. Barham (1788-1845), author of _The Ingoldsby Legends_.

With this we end the first section of the City.

GROUP II

The second group of streets will be those lying north of Gresham Street, with Noble Street and Monkwell Street on the west, and Moorgate Street on the east. This part of the City is perhaps less rich in antiquities and associations than any other. The north part was, to begin with, occupied and built over with houses much later than the south. For a long time the whole area north of Gresham (then Cateaton) Street and within the Wall presented the appearance of gardens and orchards with industrial villages as colonies dotted here and there, each with its parish church and its narrow lane of communication with the great market of Chepe. Some of the names, as Oat Lane, Lilypot Lane, Love Lane, preserve the memory of the gardens and their walks.

In this district grew up by degrees a great many of the industries of the City, especially the noisy trades and those which caused annoyance to the neighbours, as that of the foundry, the tanyard, the tallow chandlers.

An examination of the _Calendar of Wills_ down to the fifteenth century is in one sense disappointing, because it affords no insight into the nature of the trades carried on in the area before us. On the other hand, it curiously corroborates the theory that this part of the City was in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries purely industrial, because among the many entries referring to this quarter there is but one reference, down to the seventeenth century, of any shops. There are rents, tenements—“all my Rents and Tenements” several times repeated; land and rents—“all my Land and Rents”; there are almshouses, Halls of Companies, gardens; but there are no shops, and that at a time when the streets and lanes about Cheapside are filled with shops!

The Companies’ Halls offer some index to the trades of the quarter. There are still Broderers’ Hall, Curriers’ Hall, Armourers’ Hall, Coopers’ Hall, Parish Clerk’s Hall, Brewers’ Hall, Girdlers’ Hall; and there were Haberdashers’ Hall, Mercers’ Hall, Wax Chandlers’ Hall, Masons’ Hall, Plaisterers’ Hall, Pinners’ Hall, Barber Surgeons’ Hall, Founders’ Hall, Weavers’ Hall, and Scriveners’ Hall, which have now been removed elsewhere or destroyed. These trades, we may note, are for the most part of the humbler kind.

=Coleman Street= is described by Stow as “a fair and large Street on both sides built with divers fair houses, besides alleys with small tenements in great numbers.”

Cunningham enumerates the chief events connected with the street:

“The five members accused of treason by Charles I. concealed themselves in this street. ‘The Star,’ in Coleman Street, was a tavern where Oliver Cromwell and several of his party occasionally met.... In a conventicle in ‘Swan Alley,’ on the east side of this street, Venner, a wine-cooper and Millenarian, preached the opinions of his sect to ‘the soldiers of King Jesus’” (see _London in the Time of the Stuarts_, p. 68 _et seq._). “John Goodwin, minister in Coleman Street, waited on Charles I. the day before the King’s execution, tendered his services, and offered to pray for him. The King thanked him, but said he had chosen Dr. Juxon, whom he knew. Vicars wrote an attack on Goodwin, called ‘The Coleman-street Conclave Visited!’ Justice Clement, in Ben Jonson’s _Every Man in his Humour_, lived in Coleman Street; and Cowley wrote a play called _Cutter of Coleman-street_. Bloomfield, author of ‘The Farmer’s Boy,’ followed his original calling of a shoemaker at No. 14 Great Bell-yard in this street.”

ST. STEPHEN, COLEMAN STREET

The Church of St. Stephen, Coleman Street, was “at first a Jews’
synagogue, then a parish church, then a chapel to St. Olave’s in the
Jewry, now (7 Edward IV.) incorporated as a parish church” (Stow).
It is situated on the west side of Coleman Street, near to the south
end. It was consumed by the Great Fire and rebuilt by Wren. The
earliest date of an incumbent is 1311.

The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Dean and
Chapter of St. Paul’s, who granted it to the Prior and Convent of
Butley; Henry VIII. seized it, and in the Crown it continued till
Queen Elizabeth granted it, about 1597, to the parishioners, in
whose successors it continued.

Houseling people in 1548 were 880.

The church is plain, long and narrow, without any aisles, measuring
75 feet in length and 35 feet in breadth. The steeple, which rises
at the north-west, consists of a stone tower, a lantern, and small
spire, the total height being about 65 feet.

Chantries were founded here by: William Grapefig, for which the King
granted a licence, August 6, 1321, and to which John de Maderfield
was admitted chaplain, June 23, 1324; Rodger le Bourser, for which
the King granted his licence, August 1, 1321; Stephen Fraunford and
John Essex, both citizens of London, of which John de Bulklegh was
chaplain, who died in 1391: founded July 1361; Edward IV., who
endowed it with lands, etc., which fetched £50 : 5 : 4 in 1548.

Anthony Munday, the dramatist, arranger of the City pageants and the
continuation of Stow’s _Survey_, who died in 1633, was buried here.

A very large number of legacies and charitable gifts are recorded by
Stow, amongst which are: £640, the gift of Christopher Eyre, for the
building and maintenance of six almshouses; £100, the gift of Sir
Richard Smith, for coals for the poor; £100, the gift of Hugh Capp,
for lands for the poor; £400, the gift of Barnard Hyde, to purchase
land for six poor people for ever.

In White Alley there were six almshouses built by Christopher Eyre
for six poor couples, each of whom were allowed £4 per annum.

Richard Lucas (1648-1715), author of several theological works, was
a rector here; also John Davenport (1597-1670), he was one of the
leaders of a party who went over to America in 1637, and founded
Newhaven in Connecticut. He had a design of founding a university
(Yale), but this was not carried into effect until sixty years
later.

Over the stuccoed gateway of the churchyard is a skull and
cross-bones, with an elaborate panel in relief below, representing
the Last Judgment; this is a replica in oak of the original panel,
which was removed, for its better preservation, to the Vestry.

As for the present street the most notable building is the Armourers’ Hall.

THE ARMOURERS AND BRASIERS COMPANY

The trade of armourer was of great importance in the ages when men
went out to war clad in iron. There were many kinds of armour. Some
were taught to make helmets and some corslets. There was armour of
quilted leather worn under the armour or acting as armour.

_T. H. Shepherd._

THE ARMOURERS’ AND BRASIERS’ ALMSHOUSES, BISHOPSGATE WITHOUT (1857)
]

A great number of people lived by the making of armour. The custom
of wearing armour decayed gradually, not rapidly. It is still kept
up for purposes of show but no longer for any use in defence.

The origin of the Company of Armourers and Brasiers is lost in
antiquity. The Company was, however, founded previously to the
beginning of the fourteenth century, for records are in existence
showing that at that time (1307-27) the Company had vested in it the
right of search of armour and weapons. It would appear from
documents in the possession of the Company that as early as the year
1428 the Company was in the possession of a hall. In the year 1453
the Company was incorporated by a charter from King Henry VI. by the
title of “The Fraternity or Guild of St. George of the Men of
Mistery of Armorers of our City of London,” and had licence granted
to it to appoint a chaplain to its chapel in St. Paul’s Cathedral.

It is believed that the Company of Brasiers was incorporated about
the year 1479 by Edward IV., and that the craft of bladesmiths was
incorporated with the Company of Armourers about the year 1515, but
the Company has no authentic evidence in its possession as to these
facts.

In the year 1559, Queen Elizabeth granted a charter of Inspeximus,
confirming the Letters Patent of King Henry VI.

In the year 1618, King James I., in consideration of the sum of
£100, granted Letters Patent confirming the title of the Fraternity
or Guild of St. George of the Men of Mystery of Armourers in the
City of London, to the messuages and lands then held by it. The
greater part of these messuages and lands is still in the possession
of the Company.

In the year 1685, King James II. granted Letters Patent to the
Company which (_inter alia_) directed that all edge tools and
armour, and all copper and brass work wrought with the hammer within
the City of London, or a radius of five miles therefrom, should be
searched and approved by expert artificers of the Company.

In the year 1708 the Company of Armourers was, by Letters Patent
granted by Queen Anne, incorporated with the Brasiers under the
corporate title of “The Company of Armourers and Brasiers in the
City of London.” In this charter it is recited that of late years
many of the members of the Company of Armourers had employed
themselves in working and making vessels, and wares of copper and
brass wrought with the hammer, and that for want of powers to search
and make byelaws to bind the workers of such wares in the City of
London, frauds and deceits in the working of such goods and vessels
had increased, and power was thereby granted to the Company of
Armourers and Brasiers to make byelaws for the government of the
Company; and also of all persons making any work or vessel of
wrought or hammered brass or copper, in the Cities of London and
Westminster, or within a radius of five miles thereof, and with
authority to inflict fines and penalties against persons offending
against such byelaws. And the Company was invested with power to
inspect and search for all goods worked or wrought with the hammer
and exposed to sale within such limits as aforesaid. No person was
allowed to sell or make armour or vessels, or wares of copper or
brass wrought with the hammer, unless he was a member or had been
apprenticed to a member of the Company.

It would appear that the master and wardens exercised a very
extensive jurisdiction in ancient days, fining and punishing members
of the Company for social offences as well as for infringements of
the byelaws of the Company, and hearing and adjudicating upon all
questions arising between members of the Company and their
apprentices, and also inflicting fines on persons making or selling
goods of an improper quality.

This Company is still in the habit of binding apprentices to masters
engaged in the trades of workers of brass and copper, and of
pensioning infirm members of those trades. Their workshops were
situated close to London Wall, below Bishopsgate, probably in order
to remove their hammering as far as possible from the trading part
of the City.