Fascination of London

Published in 1903 by Sir Walter Besant and G. E. Mitton

Prefaratory Notes A survey of London, a record of the greatest of all cities, that should preserve her history, her historical and literary associations, her mighty buildings, past and present, a book that should comprise all that Londoners love, all that they ought to know of their heritage from the past - this was the work on which Sir Walter Besant was engaged when he died.

Kingsway Kingsway, the new street from the Strand to Holborn, cuts through Holborn. It begins in a crescent, with one end near St. Clement's Church, and the other near Wellington Street.

Holborn The name of Holborn is probably derived from the bourne or brook in the "Hollow" - ie, the Fleet River, across which this great roadway ran. The way is marked in Aggas's map of the sixteenth century as a country road between fields, though, strangely enough, it is recorded that it was paved in 1417, a very ancient date.

Holborn Viaduct Pennant says also there was a hospital for the poor in Holborn, and a cell of the House of Clugny in France, but does not indicate their whereabouts. Before the building of the Viaduct in 1869, there was a steep and toilsome descent up and down the valley of the Fleet.

St Giles-in-the-Fields To St. Giles's may be attributed the distinction of having originated the Great Plague, which broke out in an alley at the north end of Drury Lane.

Tyburn The gallows were in this parish from about 1413 until they were removed to Tyburn, and then the terrible Tyburn procession passed through St. Giles's, and halted at the great gate of the hospital, and later at the public-house called The Bowl.

The Hospital of St Giles The Hospital of St. Giles was the earliest foundation of its kind in London, if we except St. James's Hospital. Stow sums it up thus: "St. Giles-in-the-Fields was an hospital for leprous people out of the City of London and shire of Middlesex, founded by Matilde the Queen, wife to Henry I, and suppressed by King Henry VIII."

Manor of St Giles After the hospital buildings fell into the hands of Lord Dudley they underwent many changes. The principal building he converted into a mansion for his own use; this was the manor-house. It stood between the present Denmark Street and Lloyd's Court, and its site is occupied by a manufactory.

Andrew Marvell The monument of Andrew Marvell, a plain black marble slab, is on the north wall. Marvell was buried in the church "under the pews in the south side," but the present monument was not erected until 1764, eighty-six years after his death, owing to the opposition of the incumbent of the church.

St Giles' Churchyard In St. Giles's Churchyard were buried Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Shirley, Roger L'Estrange, Andrew Marvell, and Richard Pendrell, who assisted in Charles II's escape; his altar-tomb is easily seen near the east end of the church.

Broad Street The procession from Newgate to Tyburn used to pass along Broad Street, and halt at the great gate of the hospital, in order that the condemned man might take his last draught of ale on earth.

Dyott Street There was in this street also a tavern called the Turk's Head, where Haggart Hoggarty planned the murder of Mr. Steele on Hounslow Heath in 1802.

Shaftesbury Avenue Shaftesbury Avenue, opened in 1885, has obliterated Monmouth Street, named after the Duke of Monmouth, whose house was in Soho Square.

Seven Dials Evelyn, in his diary, October 5, 1694, says: "I went to see the building beginning near St. Giles, where seven streets make a star from a Doric pillar placed in the middle of a circular area, said to be built by Mr. Neale."

Short's Gardens Short's Gardens was in 1623 really a garden, and a little later than that date was acquired by a man named Dudley Short.

Drury Lane Pit Place, on the west of Great Wild Street, derives its name from the cockpit or theatre, the original of the Drury Lane Theatre, which stood here.

Great Queen Street On the south side of the street are the Freemasons' Hall, built originally in 1775, and the Freemasons' Tavern, erected subsequently.

Benjamin Franklin In Great Wild Street Benjamin Franklin worked as a journeyman printer.

Knights Templar All the ground on which the present Lincoln's Inn Field's square is built formed part of Fickett's Field, which was anciently the jousting-place of the Knights Templars.

Exceutions Many other executions were held in Lincoln's Inn Fields, notably those of Babington and his accomplices in 1586, fourteen in all. They were hanged, bowelled, and quartered.

Inigo Jones The remainder of the houses have the same general character of stuccoed and pilastered uniformity, broken here and there by uncovered brick surfaces or frontages of stone. They are almost uninterruptedly occupied by solicitors. This is the oldest side of the square, being that built by Inigo Jones.

Lincoln's Inn The old brick gateway in Chancery Lane is familiar to most Londoners. It ranks with the stone gateway of the Hospitallers in Clerkenwell, with the tower of St. James's Palace, and with the gate of Lambeth Palace, as one of the three or four relics of the Gothic style left in London.

Lincoln's Inn Chapel There is no direct evidence that the Lincoln's Inn Chapel was designed by Inigo Jones; on the other hand, there is a record in existence which testifies that the Society intended to employ him.

Stone Buildings North of the Old Buildings and the chapel is Stone Buildings, in a handsome classical style, with a wing which looks into Chancery Lane near its Holborn end, and is half concealed by low shop-fronts.

Sir Thomas More Of actual members of eminence, Lincoln's Inn numbers almost as many as the Inner Temple. Sir Thomas More among these comes first.

Chancery Lane Strype says Chancery Lane "received the name of Chancellor's Lane in the time of Edward I. The way was so foul and miry that John le Breton, Custos of London, and the Bishop of Chichester, kept bars with staples across it to prevent carts from passing. The roadway was repaired in the reign of Edward III, and acquired its present name under his successor, Richard II."

Staple Inn Passing on into Holborn and turning eastward, we soon perceive a row of quaint Elizabethan gabled houses, with overhanging upper stories and timber framework.

Inns of Chancery The whole of this district abounds in these one-time Inns of Chancery, formerly attached to the Inns of Court; but those that remain are all now diverted to other uses, and some have vanished, leaving only a name.

Furnival's Inn Furnival Street lies within the City. The street takes its name from Furnival's Inn, rebuilt in the early part of the nineteenth century. This stood on the north side of Holborn, and was without the City.

Barnard's Inn Before being bought by the Mercers' Company, the Inn had been let as residential chambers. It was also an Inn of Chancery, and belonged to Gray's Inn. It was formerly called Mackworth's Inn, being the property of Dr. John Mackworth, Dean of Lincoln. It was next occupied by a man named Barnard, when it was converted into an Inn of Chancery.

White Horse Inn The further court is bounded on the east side by one of the few very old buildings left in London. This was formerly the White Horse Inn, but is now also part of the Mercers' School buildings.

John Dryden Here lived John Dryden, Ye Poet. Born 1631 — Died 1700. Glorious John!

Thavie's Inn Here was originally the house of an armourer called John Thavie, who, by will dated 1348, devised it with three shops for the repair and maintenance of St. Andrew's Church.

St Andrew's Church The parish of St. Andrew was formerly of much greater extent than at present, embracing not only Hatton Garden, Saffron Hill, but also St. George the Martyr, these are now separate parishes.

St Andrew's Churchyard In the twenty-fifth year of Elizabeth I's reign there was a great heap of skulls and bones that lay "unseemly and offensive" at the east end of the church.

Shoe Lane Gunpowder Alley, which ran out of Shoe Lane, was the residence of Lovelace, the poet, and of Lilly, the astrologer. The former died here of absolute want in 1658.

Hatton Garden Hatton Garden derives its name from the family of Hatton, who for many years held possession of house and grounds in the vicinity of Ely Place, having settled upon the Bishops of Ely like parasites, and grown rich by extortion from their unwilling hosts.

Ely Place Ely Place was built in 1773 on the site of the Palace of the Bishops of Ely. The earliest notice of the See in connection with this spot is in the thirteenth century, when Kirkby, who died in office in 1290, bequeathed to his official successors a messuage and nine cottages in Holborn.

Ely House At Ely House were held magnificent feasts by the Serjeants-at-Law, one of which continued for five days, and was honoured on the first day by the presence of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon.

St Etheldreda's Church It was this saint who gave rise to our word "tawdry." She was popularly known as St. Awdrey, and strings of beads sold in her name at fairs, etc, came to be made of any worthless glass or rubbish, and were called tawdry.

Diamond Merchants Hatton Garden is a wide thoroughfare with some modern offices and many older houses, with bracketed doorways and carved woodwork. It has long been associated with the diamond merchant's trade, and now diamond merchants occupy quite half of the offices. It is also the centre of the gold and silver trade.

Saffron Hill All this district is strongly associated with the stories of Dickens, who mentions Saffron Hill in Oliver Twist, not much to its credit.

Brooke Street Brooke Street takes its name from Brooke Market, established here by Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, but demolished a hundred years ago.

Gray's Inn Road Gray's Inn Road is familiar to all readers of Dickens and Fielding, from frequent references in their novels.

Fulwood's Rents The opening into Holborn was made on the purchase by the society, in 1594, of the Hart on the Hoop, which then belonged to Fulwood, whose name is commemorated by Fulwood's Rents, now nearly wiped out by a station of the Central London Railway.

Gray's Inn Chapel Passing through an arch at the western end of the hall, we enter Gray's Inn Square, formerly Chapel Court. The chapel is close to the library on the north side, and opens into Gray's Inn Square.

Gray's Inn Eminent Members Shakespeare was said to have played in the hall. Bradshaw, who presided at the trial of Charles I, was a bencher; and so was Holt, the Chief Justice of William III.

Bedford Row Bedford Row is a very quiet, broad thoroughfare lined by eighteenth-century houses of considerable height and size, which for the most part still retain their noble staircases and well-proportioned rooms.

Red Lion Square To the ancient inn the bodies of the regicides were brought the night before they were dragged on hurdles to be exposed at Tyburn. This gave rise to a tradition, which still haunts the spot, that some of these men, including Cromwell, were buried in the Square, and that dummy bodies were substituted to undergo the ignominy at Tyburn.

William Morris For about three years previously to 1859 Sir E. Burne-Jones and William Morris lived in rooms at No. 17 Red Lion Square, before either was married.

Theobald's Road Part of Theobald's Road was once King's Way; it was the direct route to King James I's hunting-lodge, Theobald's, in Hertfordshire.

Queen Square Queen Square was built in Queen Anne's reign, and named in her honour, but it is a statue of Queen Charlotte that stands beneath the plane-trees in the centre.

St George the Martyr The Church of St. George the Martyr was founded in 1706 by private subscription as a chapel of ease to St. Andrew, and was named in honour of one of the founders, who had been Governor of Fort George, on the coast of Coromandel.

Great Ormond Street The Hospital for Sick Children is a red-brick building designed by Sir C. Barry. Within, the wards are lined by glazed tiles, and the floors are of parquet.

St George's Bloomsbury The parish of St. George, Bloomsbury, which lies westward of St. George the Martyr, is considerably larger than its neighbour.

Sir Hans Sloane In 1753 Sir Hans Sloane, whose name is associated so strongly with Chelsea, died, and left a splendid collection comprising "books, drawings, manuscripts, prints, medals, seals, cameos, precious stones, rare vessels, mathematical instruments, and pictures," which had cost him something like £50,000.

Southampton Fields It was known during the period of Monmouth's Rebellion as the Field of the Forty Footsteps, owing to the tradition that two brothers killed each other here in a duel, while the lady who was the cause of the conflict looked on.

Russell Square Russell Square is very little inferior to Lincoln's Inn Fields in size, and at the time of its building had a magnificent situation, with an uninterrupted prospect right up to the hills of Hampstead and Highgate.

Bloomsbury Square The houses suffered greatly during the Gordon Riots, especially Lord Mansfield's house, in the north-east corner, which was completely ruined internally.

St George's Church This is an irregular and oddly constructed church; the portico stands on the south side, of the Corinthian order, and makes a good figure in the street, but has no affinity to the church, which is very heavy, and would be better suited with a Tuscan portico.

Great Russell Street Sir Christopher Wren built a house for himself in Great Russell Street. Among the inhabitants and lodgers have been Shelley and Hazlitt, J. P. Kemble, and Speaker Onslow.

Bedford Square Dobie says that "Bedford Square arose from a cow-yard to its present magnificent form...with its avenues and neighbouring streets...chiefly erected since 1778," while it appears in a map of 1799 as "St. Giles's Runs."

Woburn Square Woburn Square is a quiet place, with fine trees growing in its pleasant garden. In it is Christ Church, the work of Vulliamy, date 1833.

Holborn and Bloomsbury Parish Boundaries St Giles-in-the-Fields parish is bounded on the south by Castle Street; east by part of Drury Lane, Broad Street, and Dyott Street.

Next: Fascination of London: the Strand District

Art Prints of London