The Strand: Savoy Palace: John of Gaunt

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Sir Walter Besant, in The Fascination of London, published in 1903, continues his survey of Savoy Palace with an account of John of Gaunt:

John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, had made savoy Palace into a most magnificent building, and here he lived in great state.

Chaucer, Froissart and Wycliff are mentioned as having been his frequent guests.

In the sack of the town by Wat Tyler this house particularly attracted the attention of the unruly mob, who did their utmost to wreck it, and were assisted by the explosion of several barrels of gunpowder, which, ignorant of their contents, they had thrown upon the flames.

The costly plate and rich furniture were flung into the Thames by the rioters. After this it lay in ruins until King Henry VII, himself a descendant of John of Gaunt, founded here a hospital for 100 poor people, but he hardly lived to see his project carried out.

Amid the general spoliation of the religious houses that followed, Henry VIII seems to have respected his father's wish and left the hospital alone.

It is described as a goodly building in the form of a cross. However, it was suppressed under Edward VI, and restored by Mary, whose maids of honour "did with exemplary piety furnish it with all necessaries."

Elizabeth laid hands on it, and later it seems to have been reserved for such nobles as had the favour of the Crown and the right of free quarters, something in the same way as Hampton Court is reserved at present (1903).

There is an illustration by Hollar showing the palace-hospital as it was in 1650.

It is right on the water's edge, presenting a very solid line of wall to the river, pierced by two rows of small windows.

In the upper stories the parapet is battlemented, and a square tower built over arches projects from the frontage.

We have also a plan of about a hundred years later (1754), showing the congeries of buildings that then covered the precincts.

The part near the river is marked "Dwellings"; the ancient hospital has become "barracks."

There is a military prison at the west side, and churches of the German Calvinist, German Lutheran and French persuasions are all within the walls.

The present church in this plan is at the north-west end, and all the above-mentioned buildings are to the south and east of it, covering ground now devoted to offices and mansions. A good deal of the buildings was standing even at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when it was demolished to make way for the approaches to Waterloo Bridge.

At the east corner of what is now Wellington Street stood Wimbledon House, built by Sir Edward Cecil, son to the first Earl of Exeter. It was burned down in 1628.

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