Holborn and Bloomsbury Part 3

Returning to Holborn, from whence we have deviated, we come across Bartlett's Buildings, described by Strype as a very handsome, s.p.a.cious place very well inhabited.

Thavie's Inn bears the name of the vanished Inn of Chancery. 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. It was bought for an Inn of Chancery by Lincoln's Inn in the reign of Edward III. It is curious how persistently the old names have adhered to these places. It was sold by Lincoln's Inn in 1771, and afterwards burnt down. The houses here are chiefly inhabited by jewellers, opticians, and earthenware merchants. There are a couple of private hotels.

In St. Andrew's Street are the Rectory and Court-house, rebuilt from the designs of S. S. Teulon in yellow brick. The buildings form a quadrangle, with a wall and one side of the church enclosing a small garden. In the Court-house is a handsome oak overmantle, black with age, which was brought here from the old Court-house in St. Andrew's Court, pulled down in the construction of St. Andrew's Street and Holborn Viaduct in 1869.

Holborn Circus was formed in connection with the approaches to the Viaduct. In the centre there is an equestrian statue of the Prince Consort in bronze, by C. Bacon. This was presented by an anonymous donor, and the Corporation voted 2,000 for erecting a suitable pedestal for it. The whole was put up in 1874, two years after the completion of the Circus. On the north and south sides are bas-reliefs, and on the east and west statues of draped female figures seated.

Holborn Viaduct was finished in 1869. It is 1,400 feet in length, and is carried by a series of arches over the streets in the valleys below. The main arch is over Farringdon Road, the bed of the Fleet or Holbourne Stream, and is supported by polished granite columns of immense solidity. At the four corners of this there are four buildings enclosing staircases communicating with the lower level, and in niches are respectively statues of Sir William Walworth, Sir Hugh Myddleton, Sir Thomas Gresham, and Sir Henry Fitz-Alwyn, with dates of birth and death.

On the parapets of the Viaduct are four erect draped female figures, representative of Fine Art, Science, Agriculture, and Commerce. Holborn Viaduct is a favourite locality for bicycle shops.

The City Temple (Congregational) and St. Andrew's Church are near neighbours, and conspicuous objects on the Viaduct just above Shoe Lane.

The City Temple is a very solid ma.s.s of masonry with a cupola and a frontage of two stories in two orders of columns.

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.

The original Church of St. Andrew was of great antiquity. Malcolm, who gives a very full account of it in "Londinium Redivivum," says that it was given "very many centuries past" to the Dean and Chapter of St.

Paul's, and the Abbot and Convent of St. Saviour, Bermondsey, by Gladerinus, a priest, on condition that the Abbot and Convent paid the Dean and the Chapter 12s. per annum. We also hear that there was a grammar-school attached to it, one of Henry VI.'s foundations, and that there had been previously an alien priory, a cell to the House of Cluny, suppressed by Henry V. The church continued in a flouris.h.i.+ng condition.

Various chantries were bestowed upon it from time to time, and in the will of the Rector, date 1447, it is stated that there were four altars within the church. In Henry VIII.'s time the princ.i.p.als of the four inns or houses in the parish paid a mark apiece to the church, apparently for the maintenance of a chantry priest. In Elizabeth's reign the tombs were despoiled: the churchwardens sold the bra.s.ses that had so far escaped destruction, and proceeded to demolish the monuments, until an order from the Queen put a stop to this vandalism.

In 1665 Stillingfleet (Bishop of Worcester) was made Rector. The church was rebuilt by Wren in 1686 "in a neat, plain manner." The ancient tower remained, and was recased in 1704. The building is large, light, and airy, and is in the florid, handsome style we are accustomed to a.s.sociate with Wren. At the west end is a fine late-pointed arch, communicating with the tower, in which there is a similar window. This arch was blocked up and hidden by Wren, but was re-opened by the late Rector, the Rev. Henry Blunt, who also thoroughly restored and renovated the building some thirty years ago.

The most interesting of the interior fittings is a porphyry altar, placed by Sacheverell, who was Rector from 1713 to 1724, and who is buried beneath it. A marble font, at which Disraeli was baptized at the age of twelve, is also interesting, and the pulpit of richly-carved wood, attributed to Grinling Gibbons, is very handsome. On the west wall is a marble slab, in memory of William Marsden, M.D., founder of the Royal Free and Cancer Hospitals. It was put up by the Cordwainers'

Company in 1901.

In the tower are many monuments of antiquity, but none to recall the memory of anyone notable. The church stood in a very commanding situation until the building of the Viaduct, which pa.s.ses on a higher level, giving the paved yard in front the appearance of having been sunk.

On this side of the church there is a large bas-relief of the Last Judgment, without date. This was a favourite subject in the seventeenth century, and similar specimens, though not so fine, and differing in treatment, still exist elsewhere (see p. 17).

Malcolm mentions a house next the White Hart, with land behind it, worth 5s. per annum, called "Church Acre," and in the reign of Henry VII. the priest was fined 4d. for driving across the churchyard to the Rectory.

In the twenty-fifth year of Elizabeth's reign there was a great heap of skulls and bones that lay "unseemly and offensive" at the east end of the church. The register records the burial here, on August 28, 1770, of "William Chatterton," presumably Thomas Chatterton, as the date accords.

A later hand has added the words "the poet."

Wriothesley, Henry VIII.'s Chancellor, was buried in St. Andrew's churchyard. Timbs says that this church has been called the "Poets'

Church," for, besides the above, John Webster, dramatic poet, is said to have been parish clerk here, though the register does not confirm it.

Robert Savage was christened here January 18, 1696.

There is also a monument to Emery, the comedian, and Neale, another poet, was buried in the churchyard. But these records combined make but poor claim to such a proud t.i.tle. The ground on which Chatterton was buried has now utterly vanished, having been covered first by the Farringdon Market, and later by great warehouses.

When the Holborn Viaduct was built, a large piece of the churchyard was cut off, and the human remains thus disinterred were reburied in the City cemetery at Ilford, Ess.e.x.

The earliest mention of Shoe Lane is in a writ of Edward II., when it is denominated "Scolane in the ward without Ludgate." In the seventeenth century we read of a noted c.o.c.kpit which was established here.

Gunpowder Alley, which ran out of this Lane, was the residence of Lovelace, the poet, and of Lilly, the astrologer. The former died here of absolute want in 1658. His well-known lines,

"I could not love thee, dear, so much, Loved I not honour more,"

have made his fame more enduring than that of many men of greater poetical merit. In Shoe Lane lived also Florio, the compiler of our first Italian Dictionary. Coger's Hall in Shoe Lane attained some celebrity in the latter half of the eighteenth century. It was established for the purpose of debate, and, among others, O'Connell, Wilkes, and Curran, met here to discuss the political questions of the day. On the west side of Shoe Lane was Bangor Court, reminiscent of the Palace or Inn of the Bishops of Bangor. This was a very picturesque old house, if the prints still existing are to be trusted, and parts of it survived even so late as 1828. It was mentioned in the Patent Rolls so early as Edward III.'s reign. Another old gabled house, called Oldbourne Hall, was on the east side of the street, but this, even in Stow's time, had fallen from its high estate and descended to the degradation of division into tenements.

Opposite St. Andrew's Church was formerly Scrope's Inn. According to Stow,

"This house was sometime letten out to sergeants-at-the-law, as appeareth, and was found by inquisition taken in the Guildhall of London, before William Purchase, mayor, and escheator for the king, Henry VII., in the 14th of his reign, after the death of John Lord Scrope, that he died deceased in his demesne of fee, by the feoffment of Guy Fairfax, knight, one of the king's justices, made in the 9th of the same king, unto the said John Scrope, knight, Lord Scrope of Bolton, and Robert Wingfield, esquire, of one house or tenement late called Sergeants' Inn, situate against the Church of St. Andrew in Oldbourne, in the city of London, with two gardens and two messuages to the same tenement belonging to the said city, to hold in burgage, valued by the year in all reprises ten s.h.i.+llings" (Thomas's edit. Stow, p. 144).

This, as may be judged from the above, was not a regular Inn of Chancery, but appertained to Serjeants' Inn.

Crossing Holborn Circus to the north side, we come into the Liberty of Saffron Hill, Hatton Garden, and Ely Rents. This Liberty, is coterminous with the parish of St. Peter, Saffron Hill. 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. The district was separated from St. Andrew's in 1832, and became an independent ecclesiastical parish seven years later. As the Liberty of Saffron Hill, Hatton Garden, and Ely Rents, it has a very ancient history. It was cut in two by a recent Boundary Commission, and put half in Holborn and half in Finsbury Borough Councils.

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. A succeeding Bishop, probably William de Luda, built a chapel dedicated to St. Ethelreda, and Hotham, who died in 1336, added a garden, orchard, and vineyard. Thomas Arundel restored the chapel, and built a large gate-house facing Holborn. The episcopal dwelling steadily rose in magnificence and size. It boasted n.o.ble residents besides the Bishops, for John of Gaunt died here in 1399, having probably been hospitably taken in after the burning of his own palace at the Savoy.

The strawberries of Ely Garden were famous, and Shakespeare makes reference to them, thus following closely Holinshed. But in the reign of Queen Elizabeth a blight fell on the Bishops. It began with the envious desires of Sir Christopher Hatton, who, by reason of his dancing and courtly tricks, had won the susceptible Queen's fancy and been made Lord Chancellor. He settled down on Ely Place, taking the gate-house as his residence, excepting the two rooms reserved as cells and the lodge. He held also part of the garden on a lease of twenty-one years, and the nominal rent he had to pay was a red rose, ten loads of hay, and 10 per annum. The Bishop had the right of pa.s.sing through the gate-house, of walking in his own garden, and of gathering twenty bushels of roses yearly. Hatton spent much money (borrowed from the Queen) in improving and beautifying the estate, which pleased him so well that he farther pet.i.tioned the Queen to grant him the whole property. The poor, ill-used Bishop protested, but was sternly repressed, and the only concession he could obtain was the right to buy back the estate if he could at any time repay Hatton the sums which had been spent on it. But Hatton did not remain unpunished. The Queen, a hard creditor, demanded the immense sums which she had lent to him, and it is said he died of a broken heart, crushed at being unable to repay them. His nephew Newport, who took the name of Hatton, was, however, allowed to succeed him. The widow of this second Hatton married Sir Edward c.o.ke, the ceremony being performed in St. Andrew's Church. The Bishops' and the Hattons' rights of property seem to have been somewhat involved, for after the death of this widow the Bishops returned, and in the beginning of the eighteenth century the Hatton property was saddled with an annual rent-charge of 100 payable to the See; and, in 1772, when, on the death of the last Hatton heir, the property fell to the Crown, the See was paid 200 per annum, and given a house in Dover Street, Piccadilly, in lieu of Ely Place. Malcolm says: "When a more convenient Excise Office was lately wanted, the ground on which Ely House stood was thought of for it, but its situation was objected to. When an intention was formed of removing the Fleet Prison, Ely House was judged proper on account of the quant.i.ty of ground about it, but the neighbouring inhabitants in Hatton Garden pet.i.tioned against the prison being built there. A scheme is now (1773) said to be in agitation for converting it into a Stamp Office, that business being at present carried on in chambers in Lincoln's Inn." So much for the history and owners.h.i.+p of a place which played a considerable part in London history. The fabric itself must have been very magnificent. There was a venerable hall 74 feet long, with six Gothic windows. 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.

Stow's account of this festival is perhaps worth quoting:

"It were tedious to set down the preparation of fish, flesh, and other victuals spent in this feast, and would seem almost incredible, and, as to me it seemeth, wanted little of a feast at a coronation; nevertheless, a little I will touch, for declaration of the charge of prices. There were brought to the slaughter-house twenty-four great beefs at twenty-six s.h.i.+llings and eightpence the piece from the shambles, one carca.s.s of an ox at twenty-four s.h.i.+llings, one hundred fat muttons two s.h.i.+llings and tenpence the piece, fifty-two great veals at four s.h.i.+llings and eightpence the piece, thirty-four porks three s.h.i.+llings and eightpence the piece, ninety-one pigs sixpence the piece, capons of geese, of one poulterer (for they had three), ten dozens at twenty-pence the piece, capons of Kent nine dozens and six at twelvepence the piece, capons coa.r.s.e nineteen dozen at sixpence the piece, c.o.c.ks of grose seven dozen and nine at eightpence the piece, c.o.c.ks coa.r.s.e fourteen dozen and eight at threepence the piece, pullets, the best, twopence halfpenny, other pullets twopence, pigeons thirty-seven dozen at tenpence the dozen, swans fourteen dozen, larks three hundred and forty dozen at fivepence the dozen, &c. Edward Nevill was seneschal or steward, Thomas Ratcliffe, comptroller, Thomas Wildon, clerk of the Kitchen" (Thomas's edit. Stow, pp. 144, 145).

During the Civil War the house was used both as a hospital and a prison.

Great part of it was demolished during the imprisonment of Bishop Wren by the Commonwealth, and some of the surrounding streets were built on the site of the garden. Vine Street, Hatton Garden, Saffron Hill, of which the lower end was once Field Lane, carry their origin in their names. Evelyn, writing June 7, 1659, says that he came to see the "foundations now laying for a long streete and buildings on Hatton Garden, designed for a little towne, lately an ample garden." The chapel, dedicated to St. Ethelreda, now alone remains. It was for a time held by a Welsh Episcopalian congregation, but in 1874 was obtained by Roman Catholics, the Welsh congregation pa.s.sing on to St. Benet's, on St. Benet's Hill in Thames Street. The chapel stands back from the street, and is faced by a stone wall and arched porch surmounted by a cross. This stonework is all modern. An entrance immediately facing the porch leads into the crypt, which is picturesque with old stone walls and heavily-timbered roof. This is by far the older part of the building, the chapel above being a rebuilding on the same foundation.

The crypt probably dates back from the first foundation of De Luda, and the chapel from the restoration of Arundel. When the Roman Catholics came into possession, the late Sir Gilbert Scott was employed in a thorough restoration, during which a heavy stone bowl, about the size of a small font, was dug up. It is of granite, and is supposed to be of considerably more ancient date than the fabric itself, being pre-Saxon.

From the size, it is improbable it was used as a font, being more likely a holy-water stoup, for which purpose it is now employed. Having been placed on a fitting shaft, it stands outside the entrance to the church, on the south side, in the cloister, which is probably on the site of the ancient cloister. There is a simple Early English porch, beautifully proportioned with mouldings of the period. Within the church corresponds in shape with the crypt; two magnificent windows east and west are worthy of a much larger building. Those on each side are of recent date, having been reconstructed from a filled-in window on the south side of the chancel. The reliquary contains a great treasure--a portion of the hand of St. Ethelreda, which member, having been taken from the chapel, after many wanderings, fell into the possession of a convent of nuns, who refused to give it up. Finally judgment was given to the effect that the nuns should retain a portion, while the part of a finger was granted to the church, which was accordingly done. 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 gla.s.s or rubbish, and were called tawdry. The crypt is used as a regular church, and is filled with seats; service is held here as well as above.

The timber beams in the roof are now (1903) undergoing thorough restoration, and the outer walls of the chapel are being repointed.

From this quaint relic of past times, rich with the indefinable attraction which nothing but a history of centuries can give, we pa.s.s out into Ely Place. This is a quiet cul-de-sac composed almost wholly of the offices of business men, solicitors, etc. At the north end, beyond the chapel, the old houses are down, and new ones will be erected in their place. At the end a small watchman's lodge stands on the spot where stood the Bishops' Gateway, in which the parasite, Sir Christopher Hatton, first fastened on his host.

Hatton Garden is a wide thoroughfare with some modern offices and many older houses, with bracketed doorways and carved woodwork. It has long been a.s.sociated 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. The City Orthopaedic Hospital is on the east side.

In Charles Street is the Bleeding Heart public-house, which derives its name from an old religious sign, the Pierced Heart of the Virgin. This is close to Bleeding Heart Yard, referred to in "Little Dorrit," and easily recalled by any reader of d.i.c.kens.

In Cross Street there is an old charity school, with stuccoed figures of a charity boy and girl on the frontage. The Caledonian School was formerly in this street; it was removed to its present situation in 1828. Whiston, friend of Sir Isaac Newton, lived here, and here Edward Irving first displayed his powers of preaching.

Kirkby Street recalls what has already been said about the first Bishop of Ely, who purchased land whereon his successors should build a palace.

It is a broad street, and in times past was a place of residence for well-to-do people.

The lower part of Saffron Hill was known at first as Field Lane, and is described by Strype as "narrow and mean, full of Butchers and Tripe Dressers, because the Ditch runs at the back of their Slaughter houses, and carries away the filth." He also says that Saffron Hill is a place of small account, "both as to buildings and inhabitants, and pestered with small and ordinary alleys and courts taken up by the meaner sort of people, especially to the east side into the Town. The Ditch separates the parish from St. John, Clerkenwell, and over this Ditch most of the alleys have a small boarded bridge."

We can easily picture it, the courts swarming with thieves and rogues who slipped from justice by this back-way, which made the place a kind of warren with endless ramifications and outlets. All this district is strongly a.s.sociated with the stories of d.i.c.kens, who mentions Saffron Hill in "Oliver Twist," not much to its credit. In later times Italian organ-grinders and ice-cream vendors had a special predilection for the place, and did not add to its reputation. Curiously enough, the resident population of the neighbourhood are now almost wholly British, with very few Italians, as the majority of the foreigners have gone to join the colony just outside the Liberty, in Eyre Street Hill, Skinner's Street, etc. Within quite recent times the clergyman of the parish dare only go to visit these paris.h.i.+oners accompanied by two policemen in plain clothes. Now the lower half is a hive of industry, and is lined by great business houses. Further north, on the east side, the dwellings are still poor and squalid, but on one side a great part of the street has been demolished to make way for a Board school, built in a way immeasurably superior to the usual Board school style. Opposite is the Church of St. Peter, which is an early work of Sir Charles Barry. This is in light stone, in the Perpendicular style, and has two western towers. It was built at the time of the separation of the district, about 1832.

In Hatton Wall an old yard bore the name of Hat in Tun, which was interesting as showing the derivation of the word. Strype mentions in this street a very old inn, called the Bull Inn. The part of Hatton Wall to the west of Hatton Garden was known as Vine Street, and here there was "a steep descent into the Ditch, where there is a bridge that leadeth to Clerkenwell Green" (Strype). In Hatton Yard Mr. Fogg, d.i.c.kens' magistrate, presided over a police-court.

Leather Lane is called by Strype "Lither" Lane. Even in his day he reviles it as of no reputation, and this character it retains. It is one of the open street markets of London, lined with barrows and coster stalls, and abounding in low public-houses. The White Hart, the King's Head, and the Nag's Head, are mentioned by Strype, and these names survive amid innumerable others. At the south end a house with overhanging stories remains; this curtails the already narrow s.p.a.ce across the Lane.

On the west of Leather Lane, Baldwin's Buildings and Portpool Lane open out. The former consists largely of workmen's model dwellings, comfortable and convenient within, but with the peculiarly depressing exteriors of the utilitarian style. Further north these give way to warehouses, breweries, and manufactories. East of its southern end in Holborn were two old inns, the Old Bell and Black Bull. The former was a coaching inn of great celebrity in its day, and picturesque wooden balconies surrounded its inner courtyard. It has now been transformed into a modern public-house. It was the last of the old galleried inns of London. The Black Bull was also of considerable age. Its courtyard has been converted into dwellings.

Brooke Street takes its name from Brooke Market, established here by Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, but demolished a hundred years ago. It was in Brooke Street, in a house on the west side, that poor Chatterton committed suicide. St. Alban's Church is an unpretentious building at the north end. An inscription over the north door tells us that it was erected to be free for ever to the poor by one of the humble stewards of G.o.d's mercies, with date 1860. Within we learn that this benefactor was the first Baron Addington. The church is well known for its ritualistic services.

Portpool Lane, marked in Strype's plan Perpoole, is the reminiscence of an ancient manor of that name. The part of Clerkenwell Road bounding this district to the north was formerly called by the appropriate name of Liquorpond Street. In it there is a Roman Catholic Church of St.

Peter, built in 1863. The interior is very ornate. Just here, where Back Hill and Ray Street meet, was Hockley Hole, a famous place of entertainment for bull and bear baiting, and other cruel sports that delighted the brutal taste of the eighteenth century. One of the proprietors, named Christopher Preston, fell into his own bear-pit, and was devoured, a form of sport that doubtless did not appeal to him.

Hockley Hole was noted for a particular breed of bull-dogs. The actual site of the sports is in the adjoining parish, but the name occurring here justifies some comment. Hockley in the Hole is referred to by Ben Jonson, Steele, Fielding, and others. It was abolished soon after 1728.

It was in a sponging-house in Eyre Street that Morland, the painter, died. In the part of Gray's Inn Road to the north of Clerkenwell Road formerly stood Stafford's Almshouses, founded in 1652.