The City of London in 1900: The Royal Exchange

Antiques from London on eBay

PAIR FRUITS SERVING SPOONS MADE IN STERLING SILVER IN LONDON 1827-GEORGE IV
9 Nov 2011 at 7:15am
US $250.00
End Date: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 5:20:29 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $250.00
Buy it now | Add to watch list
1861 London Guide to Silversmiths Goldsmiths Jewelers Watchmakers Opticians
8 Jan 2012 at 10:06am
US $131.25
End Date: Tuesday Feb-07-2012 8:06:00 PST
Buy It Now for only: US $131.25
Buy it now | Add to watch list

Arthur H. Beavan's survey of the City of London in Imperial London, first published in 1901, continued with this look at the Royal Exchange:

But here is London's Royal Exchange, headquarters of that gigantic system of commerce, whose prototype in miniature was to be found in ancient Tyre, the mart of nations.

The first Exchange, as every one knows, owed its existence to Sir Thomas Gresham, who, at a Court of Aldermen, held on January 4, 1564, made a friendly offer to build at his own cost "a comely Burse for merchants to assemble upon, so that the City, at their charges, will provide and appoint a meet and apt place for the same."

It was decided that the "Burse" should be built on a site between Lombard Street and Cornhill.

The first stone was laid in June 1566 by Sir Thomas Gresham; accompanied by some Aldermen, every one of whom laid down a gold piece, which the workmen very quickly took up.

The timber used in its construction came from Gresham Place in Suffolk.

The style was Flemish, modified to a certain extent to suit the English taste.

It was a long building with high-pitched roof, dormer windows, and a tall tower in the centre, and was remarkable for its beautiful wrought-iron work, which, on the summit of the tower, the peak of every dormer, and the corner of every wall and turret, took the gracefully fantastic form of a grasshopper, said to have been the crest of Sir Thomas Gresham.

In niches within the quadrangle stood statues of all the Kings and Queens, from Edward the Confessor down to Queen Elizabeth I - those of King James I, Charles I, and Charles II, being afterwards added.

This Exchange existed for nigh upon a century, and then succumbed, one of the stateliest victims, to the Great Fire, when the Kings "fell all down upon their faces and the greater part of the stone building after them with such a noise as was dreadful and astonishing."

The foundation-stone of a new "Burse" was soon afterwards laid; and when Charles II came into the City to fix the first pillar on the west side of the north entrance, he was entertained by the Mayor and Corporation with "a chine of beef, grand dish of fowl, gammon of bacon, dried tongue, anchovies, caviare," most of these being suspiciously provocative of thirst, so that very appropriately the bill of fare concludes with the item, "plenty of several sorts of wine!"

This structure was Palladian in style, and boasted a set of chiming bells that played four times daily, having separate tunes for each day of the week, commencing with Psalm civ. on Sunday, and ending with The Foot-Guards March on Saturday.

In 1838, another big fire utterly consumed this (the second) Exchange, and, like the swans supposed by the ancients to sing melodiously on the near approach of death, its bells pealed out, There's nae luck about the house, while the flames roared inside the belfry, and then fell with a terrific crash.

The present Exchange, opened by Queen Victoria on October 28, 1844, has had its chimes re-modelled, and new carillon machinery provided.

It plays with much sweetness and correctness selections from English, Scotch, and Irish airs, in alternate weeks.

In the ambulatory, or arcade, surrounding the arc of the Royal Exchange, are twenty-four mural panels, which are gradually being adorned with fresco pictures, illustrative of the history of our noble City municipality.

Nine of these have already been filled in with the following subjects by well-known artists.

1. Phoenicians trading with the early Britons on the coast of Cornwall. By Sir Frederick Leighton, Bart., P.R.A.

2. William the Conqueror granting a charter to the citizens of London. By J. Seymour Lucas, R.A.

3. King John sealing Magna Charta. By Ernest Normand.

4. Sir Richard Whittington dispensing his charities. By Henrietta Rae.

5. The crown offered to Richard III at Baynard's Castle. By Sigismund Goetze.

6. The opening of the first Royal Exchange by Queen Elizabeth I. By Ernest Crofts, R.A.

7. Charles I demanding the five members at the Guildhall, 1641-2. By S. J. Solomon, A.R.A.

8. The Great Fire of London, 1666. By Stanhope A. Forbes, A.R.A.

9. Opening of the Royal Exchange by Her Majesty Queen Victoria, October 28, 1844. By Robert Macbeth, A.R.A.

A tenth panel, the gift of the two present sheriffs of the City of London, is about to be filled in; the subject, it is said, being the Proclamation of King Edward VII at the Royal Exchange, January 29, 1901.

Next: The City of London in 1900: City Guilds