Areas of London

Where’s London’s oldest…shop?

by exploringlondon

We’re celebrating the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens this year so it’s only fitting that we look at a building which has been, rightly or wrongly, associated with one of his books.

Located at 13-14 Portsmouth Street in Westminster, The Old Curiosity Shop now operates as a shop selling handmade fashions and footwear but the building apparently dates back 1567, making it a strong contender for the title of London’s oldest shop.

The name – The Old Curiosity Shop – was apparently applied to the building some years after Dickens first published his story, The Old Curiosity Shop, in the weekly serial, Master Humphrey’s Clock, in 1840 and 1841. The belief subsequently arose that it was this building the author had in mind when writing the book which tells the tale of Little Nell and her grandfather, a shopkeeper, and their interactions with the evil moneylender Daniel Quilp.

The claim is disputed by some, author Ed Glinert among them. In his book Literary London: A Street by Street Exploration of the Capital’s Literary Heritage he says the model for Dickens’ building was located at either 24 Fetter Lane or 10 Orange Street near Leicester Square and notes that at the end of the novel, Dickens said the building had long since been pulled down.

The Grade II* listed building, which survived the Great Fire of 1666 and the Blitz of World War II, is said to have been made from wood taken from old ships. Apparently at one stage it was a dairy which belonged to an estate awarded by King Charles II to one of his mistresses.

For more, see www.curiosityuk.com.

Lost London: Gates Special – Moorgate

by exploringlondon

Originally a postern (small or secondary) gate built by the Romans, Moorgate came into its own as a larger gate in the 15th century and survived for more than 300 years before it was demolished in 1761.

The name comes from the area in which it stands – Moorfields, one of the last open pieces of space within the City of London – stood just to the north of the gate. It was originally a sparsely populated marshy expanse – so much so that when the gate was first built, the area around it was often flooded and some local residents used boats as a means of transport – but was later drained. Many people were evacuated here during the Great Fire of London in 1666 and some apparently then settled in the area which later also gained a reputation as a hiding place for highwaymen like Jack Sheppard – we’ll take a closer look at Moorfields in a later post.

The gate known as Moorgate, meanwhile, was first rebuilt as a full sized gate with towers in 1415 on the orders of then Mayor Thomas Falconer to provide access to the fields without. It was enlarged several times in medieval years before being damaged in the Great Fire. It was replaced with a ceremonial stone gate in 1672 to provide access to the now well-drained fields before being demolished in 1761 (some of the stone was apparently later used to support the newly widened central arch of London Bridge).

The gate’s name now lives on in the street known as Moorgate (originally formally known as Moorgate Street after it was first constructed in 1846) – worth noting is that the Romantic poet John Keats was born in the street. The area around the street also is also known by the name Moorgate and is home to some of the City’s key financial institutions.

There’s a plaque near where the site of Moorgate once stood at the corner of Moorgate and London Wall.

PICTURE: Moorgate in its final, ornate form. Taken from a London Wall Walk plaque.

10 London sites to celebrate Charles Dickens – 4. Dickens at home…

by exploringlondon

We’ve already mentioned Charles Dicken’s Doughty Street house (now the Charles Dickens Museum) and his many childhood homes, but where else in London did Dickens reside during his adult life?

Following his marriage to Catherine Hogarth on 2nd April, 1836, at St Luke’s Church in Chelsea, Dickens and his new bride settled into chambers the writer had taken the now non-existent Furnival’s Inn (the author had been living there prior to his marriage), the site of which  is now occupied by the Holborn Bars Building).

In January the following year the couple had their first child – Charles Culliford Boz Dickens – and shortly afterwards made the move to the property at 48 Doughty Street. As we mentioned, the house was where two of his children were born and where Catherine’s 17-year-old sister Mary died (her death is believed to be the inspiration for that of the character Little Nell in the novel The Old Curiosity Shop) as well as being where Dickens wrote some of his most famous novels, including Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, and The Pickwick Papers.

In 1839, however, the family upsized into a much grander property at 1 Devonshire Terrace in Marylebone near Regent’s Park. This property at what is now 15-17 Marylebone Road was demolished in the late Fifties but there is a sculptural frieze on the wall marking where the property once stood.

Among the works Dickens wrote while living here were The Old Curiosity Shop, A Christmas Carol, Martin Chuzzlewit and David Copperfield. Six of Dickens’ children were born while he lived in this property. During this time, Dickens also made his first visit to North America and also travelled with his family in Europe for considerable periods.

In November 1851, Dickens moved the family again – this time to Tavistock House, located Tavistock Square in Bloomsbury. The property was demolished in 1901 and the site is now occupied by the headquarters of the British Medical Association (there’s a blue plaque commemorating Dickens’ time here).

Among the works Dickens wrote while living here were Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit and A Tale of Two Cities. The last of Dickens’ 10 children were born here – Edward Bulwer Lytton Dickens, later an Australian MP – and it was while living here, that in 1858 he separated from his wife Catherine. Dickens also put on amateur theatricals in the property.

Dickens’ time at Tavistock house ended around 1860 when Gad’s Hill in Kent became the main family home.

PICTURE: A section of the sculptural frieze depicting Dickens and some of his characters on the building that now stands at what was 1 Devonshire Terrace now in Marylebone Road. PICTURE: grahamc99 

What’s in a name?…Shoreditch

by exploringlondon

The origins of the name Shoreditch – now a slowly gentrifying area to the north of the City of London within the Borough of Hackney – are lost to time but there are a few interesting theories around.

While the name probably comes to us as a derivation of Soersditch or Sewer Ditch – perhaps in reference to a drain that was once here – a more tragic version has it named after Jane Shore.

A mistress of King Edward IV in the mid to late fifteenth century, she, so the story goes, was buried in a ditch in the area after dying in a state of penury following a dramatic fall from favour during the subsequent reign of King Richard III (the king apparently had Jane arrested and made her perform a public penance for being a harlot).

There was an important priory here – the Augustinian Priory of Holywell – in medieval times and by Elizabethan times, some substantial houses. In 1576, James Burbage built England’s first theatre – known as The Theatre – on its site located near Curtain Road. Some of William Shakespeare’s plays were performed here and at the nearby rival, the Curtain Theatre, before a dispute with the landlord in the late 16th century saw the theatre relocated to Southwark in the dead of night (although the foundations must have remained – these were excavated a few years ago). Both Shakespeare and follow playwright Christopher Marlowe had associations with the area.

The area, which centred on St Leonard’s Church (while the current building dates from around 1740, there is believed to have been a church here  – at the intersection of Shoreditch High Street and Hackney Road – since Saxon times), become known for its textiles in the 17th century and later for its furniture industries.

It was still known as one of London’s premier entertainment districts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with well known music halls and theatres but by then was also just as well known for its poverty.

Shoreditch suffered heavily during the Blitz and while the area continues to suffer from urban decay there is now some new life being breathed into it with the arrival of projects as the Boxpark Shoreditch which, made from shipping containers, is billed as “the world’s first pop-up mall”. There’s also an annual festival, the Shoreditch Festival, held in summer along Regent’s Canal.

PICTURE: View down Shoreditch High Street to the City – © David Adams.

Around London – Chiswick House’s Camellia Festival; Picasso at the Tate; and, Mondrian at the Courtauld…

by exploringlondon

• The second annual Camellia Festival kicks off in  gardens surrounding the neo-Palladian property, Chiswick House,  in west London this weekend. The month long festival, run by the Chiswick House & Gardens Trust, was kicked off in 2011 with the aim of showcasing Chiswick’s world renowned Camellia Collection, believed to be the largest in the Western world. Following the success of last year’s festival following a £12.1 million garden restoration project, the flowers will once again be on display in the Conservatory (designed by Samuel Ware in 1813). Complementing the display of camellias will be a showcase of early spring flowers planted in the newly restored Italian Garden (originally created for the 6th Duke of Devonshire in 1814, it was, at the time, at the forefront of horticultural fashion). The Camellia Collection, meanwhile, includes rare and historically significant plants featuring pink, red, white and striped blooms, many of which are descended from the original planting in 1828. Among them is the Middlemist’s Red which was originally brought to Britain from China in 1804 by John Middlemist, a nurseryman from Shepherds Bush. It is one of only two in the world known to exist (the other is in Waitangi in New Zealand). The festival runs from the 18th February to the 18th March.  Admission charge applies. For more information, see www.chgt.org.uk. PICTURE:  The Middlemist’s Red Camellia at Chiswick House © Clare Kendall.

• On Now: Picasso and Modern British Art. This exhibition at Tate Britain explores the influence of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso on British art and the role this played in the acceptance of modern art in Britain as well as celebrating the connections Picasso made with Britain following his first London visit in 1919. It features more than 150 works including 60 by Picasso, among them Weeping Woman and The Three Dancers, as well as works by the likes of Duncan Grant, Wyndham Lewis, Ben Nicholson, Henry Moore, Francis Bacon, Graham Sutherland and David Hockney. Runs until 15th July. Admission charge applies. For more information, see www.tate.org.uk

• On Now: Mondrian || Nicholson in Parallel. This show at the Courtauld Gallery tells the story of the extraordinary relationship between celebrated 20th century painter Piet Mondrian and Ben Nicholson, one of the UK’s greatest modern artists. The exhibition will follow the parallel artistic paths taken by the two artists in the 1930s and their subsequent creative relationship. Each of the works selected for the exhibition have a particular historical significance and the presentation also includes archival material such as photographs and letters. Admission charge applies. For more information, see www.courtauld.ac.uk.

10 London sites to celebrate Charles Dickens – 2. A London childhood…

by exploringlondon

Born the second child of a naval clerk then stationed in Portsmouth, Charles Dickens had what one would imagine was a fairly typical childhood for the son of a naval clerk, his family following his father John Dickens from one place to another – Sheerness, Chatham and briefly, in 1815, in London – as he took up different posts.

But in 1822, amid increasing financial difficulties, John Dickens was recalled to London and he and the family moved into a house at 16 Bayham Street in Camden Town in the city’s north, Charles joining them after completing schooling in Chatham (the house at number 16 Bayham Street is now commemorated by a plaque – it was demolished in 1910).

The family subsequently moved to another, recently built, premises at 4 Gower Street North (later renumbered 147 Gower Street) but soon after this, on 20th February, 1824, John Dickens was arrested over debt and taken to Marshalsea Prison where he subsequently resided with his family with the exception of Charles (the prison, in use since the 14th century, was closed in 1842 and finally mostly demolished in the 1870s – a single wall of the second prison on the site is all that remains).

Twelve-year-old Charles, meanwhile, was put to work in the Warren’s Blacking Factory (pictured) near Hungerford Stairs, which stood just off the Strand (it’s said to have stood roughly where Charing Cross Railway Station now stands). While doing so, he roomed firstly at a house in Little College Street, Camden Town, and then in rooms at Lant Street in Borough (which was much closer to the prison).

John Dickens was out of prison in May but Charles continued working at the factory for almost another year until his father’s fortunes improved and Charles, now living with the family once again – at 29 Johnson Street and then, after being evicted, at The Polygon in Somers Town (an area in St Pancras) – returned to school, becoming enrolled at the Wellington House Classical and Commercial Academy in Hampstead Road.

In 1827, his father’s finances once more having taken a turn for the worse, he began work as a solicitor’s clerk (but more of that later)…

PICTURE: A nineteenth century etching of Dickens at Warren’s Blacking Factory – Source: Wikipedia.

LondonLife – Celebrate Valentine’s Day with Victoria and Albert

by exploringlondon

The countdown to the March re-opening of Kensington Palace and accompanying launch of the major new exhibition, Victoria Revealed, has begun and to celebrate Historic Royal Palaces is releasing a new animated film about the “era defining” romance between Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Released in five short daily episodes starting today, the film, Victoria 4 Albert, portrays the story of the couple from their same day births to their wedding ceremony and draws on excerpts from Queen Victoria’s personal diaries and Albert’s letters. The film, which also includes key moments from Victoria’s life at Kensington Palace, have been created and directed by acclaimed filmmaker and animator Chiara Ambrosio and features a voiceover by Julia Rayner (of The Pianist, Extras). The palace reopens on 26th March following a £12 million refurbishment project. In the meantime, head here to see the first of the clips…

Lost London: Gates Special – Cripplegate

by exploringlondon

Originally the northern gate of the Roman fort constructed in about 120 AD, Cripplegate was rebuilt several times during the medieval period before finally being demolished in 1760 as part of road widening measures.

The origins of the gate’s name are shrouded by the mists of time but it has been suggested that it was named for the beggars or cripples that once begged there or that it could come from an Anglo-Saxon word crepel which means a covered walkway.

The name may even be associated with an event which took place there in 1100 when, fearful of marauding Danes, Bishop Alwyn ordered the body of Edmund the Martyr, a sainted former Anglo-Saxon king, to be tranferred from its usual home in Bury St Edmunds to St Gregory’s Church near St Paul’s in London so that it could be kept safe. It was said that when the body passed through the gate, many of the cripples there were miraculously healed.

The gate (pictured here in an 18th century etching as it would have looked in 1663 in an image taken from a London Wall Walk plaque), which gave access in medieval times to what was then the village of Islington, was associated with the Brewer’s Company and was used for some time as a prison.

It was defensive works, known as a barbican, built on the northern side of the gate in the Middle Ages which are apparently responsible for the post World War II adoption of the name Barbican for that area of London which once stood outside the gate’s northern facade (the gates stood at what is now the intersection of Wood Street and St Alphage Garden).

The gate’s name now adorns the street known as Cripplegate as well as the name of the church St Giles Cripplegate, which originally stood outside the city walls. It is also the name of one of the 25 wards of the City of London. The original site of the gate is marked with a blue plaque.

10 London sites to celebrate Charles Dickens – 1. The Charles Dickens Museum

by exploringlondon

In the first of a new special series written in honor of the bicentenary of the birth of author Charles Dickens (he was born on 7th February, 1812), we take a look at the Charles Dickens Museum.

Housed in one of Dickens’ former London residences at 48 Doughty Street in Bloomsbury, this property is now the focal point for people wanting to find out more about the writer and his life as evidenced by the visit of Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, on Tuesday to officially mark Dickens’ birth.

Dickens lived in the property from 1837 to 1839 and it was here that significant family events, such as the birth of two of his children – Mary and Kate – and the death of his wife Catherine’s 17-year-old sister Mary took place (Mary’s tragic death is believed to be the inspiration for that of the character Little Nell in the novel The Old Curiosity Shop). It was also at the property that he wrote some of his most famous novels, including Oliver Twist, Nicholas Nickleby, and The Pickwick Papers.

A growing demand for space, however, led Dickens to move his household to 1 Devonshire Terrace in 1839. The Doughty Street house meanwhile, the only one of Dickens’ London homes to have survived, remained a residential property but in 1923 it was threatened with demolition and subsequently acquired by the Dickens Fellowship. The museum opened there two years later.

The museum now claims to hold more than 100,000 Dickens-related artifacts. The house is displayed as it might have been when Dickens lived there – artifacts on display over four floors include his personal possessions and furnishings as well as manuscripts, letters, first edition copies of some of his books and portraits, including R.W. Buss’ spectacular (and unfinished) Dickens’ Dream, showing the author at his country home of Gads Hill Place in Kent surrounded by many of the characters that he had created.

It’s important to note that from 9th April, the museum will be closed as it undergoes a £3.2 million project, called Great Expectations, which will involve the restoration and expansion of the museum. It is expected to reopen in December this year in time to celebrate a Dickensian Christmas.

For more on events celebrating Charles Dickens and his works this year, see www.dickensfellowship.org or www.dickens2012.org.

WHERE: 48 Doughty Street, Bloomsbury (nearest Tube stations are Russell Square, Chancery Lane or Holborn). WHEN: 10am to 5pm Monday to Sunday (last admission 4.30pm) ; COST: £7 adults/£5 concessions/£3 children (under 10 free); WEBSITE: www.dickensmuseum.com.

Treasures of London – Painted Hall, Greenwich

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Often described as the “finest dining hall in Europe”, the Painted Hall in Greenwich was originally designed to be the Royal Hospital for Seamen’s communal dining hall. 

But the domed hall, which forms part of King William Court – the image, right, is taken from the west end, wasn’t used as such following its completion in the mid 1720s – designed by Sir Christopher Wren and his assistant Nicholas Hawksmoor with spectacular interior paintings by Sir James Thornhill, it was deemed too grand for such a mundane purpose and instead the veteran seamen, who had moved their dining hall to the undercroft, acted as tour guides for those who would pay to see its splendour.

The paintings, for which Thornhill received his knighthood, took almost 20 years to complete. They were designed to show Britain’s naval power as well as a variety of royal subjects in their splendour. The Stuart dynasty are featured on the ceiling of the Lower Hall while the West Wall depicts the Hanoverians – King George I surrounded by his children and grandchildren including the future King George II. Thornhill himself is also present on the lower right hand section of the West Wall painting while in the background is the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral – a reference to Sir Christopher Wren.

The hall has since served a variety of purposes but among the most significant events to take place there was the lying in state of the body of Admiral Lord Nelson following his death in the Battle of Trafalgar in October, 1805. A plaque at the top of the hall marks the spot where the coffin stood.

Between 1834 and 1936, the Painted Hall served as the National Gallery of Naval Art during which more than 300 paintings around naval themes were displayed there (today these form part of the basis of the National Maritime Museum’s art collection).

After an extensive restoration, in 1939 it was again used as a dining room for officers attending the Royal Naval College and for other grand dinners, including one celebrating the formation of the United Nations in 1946.

It’s now available for hire and has also served as a film location – including for films such as The Madness of King George, Quills and the more recent film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

An appeal has been launched to restore the hall with the expected nine month, £450,000 restoration of the West Wall paintings slated to begin after the Olympic Games. To donate, head here.

WHERE: King William Court, Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich (nearest Docklands Light Rail station is Cutty Sark for Maritime Greenwich). WHEN: 10am to 5pm daily ; COST: Free; WEBSITE: www.ornc.org/visit/attractions/painted-hall.

Around London – ‘Cathedral of Middlesex’ to be opened in west London; Roman brothel token on display; wifi in Westminster and Kensington; and, looking at the Hajj at the British Museum…

by exploringlondon

• A medieval barn in west London, said to be the “Cathedral of Middlesex”, will open to the public in April. The Grade I listed Harmondsworth Barn was built in 1426 by Winchester College, who owned a manor farm at Harmondsworth, and was used to store grain. Nearly 60 metres long, the roof is held up by 13 massive oak trusses. In 2006, the barn was bought by an off-shore company who subsequently agreed to sell it to English Heritage following the issuing of a notice for emergency repairs. English Heritage say the barn, called the “Cathedral of Middlesex” by the late poet-laureate Sir John Betjeman, will now be “run by and for the local community”. “Harmondsworth Barn is one of the greatest medieval buildings in Britain, built by the same skilled carpenters who worked on our magnificent medieval cathedrals,” says Simon Thurley, chief executive of English Heritage. “Its rescue is at the heart of what English Heritage does – protecting this nation’s architectural treasures and helping people discover our national story through them. We will complete the repair of this masterpiece and working with local people, will open it to the public to enjoy.” For more, see www.english-heritage.org.uk. (Image: Copyright English Heritage; Photographer Boris Baggs).

• The oldest Roman brothel token to have been discovered in London has gone on temporary display at the Museum of London. The token, which may be the oldest of its kind to have been found in Britain (or, indeed, even the only one of its kind ever found in Britain), was known as a spintria and depicts two reclining human figures on one side and the Roman numeral 14 on the other. It was found on the Thames foreshore near Putney Bridge by a mudlarker using a metal detector. Only the size of a 10 cent piece, its use remains something of a mystery – it may have been exchanged for sexual services or used as gaming piece. The token is on display at the museum until April. For more, see www.museumoflondon.org.uk.

• Free wifi is being rolled out across Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea as part of deal between Westminster City Council, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and network operator, O2. The network, installation of which began last month, is initially being rolled out in a limited number of areas but will eventually cover all of the boroughs and create the largest free wireless hub in Europe.

• Now On: Hajj: journey to the heart of Islam. This exhibition at the British Museum is the first to focus on the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia – a central tenet of the Islamic faith. Organised in partnership with the King Abdulaziz Public Library in Riyadh, it’s based around three central themes: the pilgrim’s journey to Mecca with an emphasis on the major routes taken; the Hajj today and its associated rituals; and the origins and importance of the Hajj to Mecca. Objects featured in the exhibition include a seetanah which covers the door of the Ka’ba as well as gifts offered to the sanctuary and souvenirs taken back home. It’s the first of three exhibitions at the British Museum focused on spiritual journeys. Runs until 15th April. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.britishmuseum.org.

10 curiously named churches of London – 10. St Olave Hart Street

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One of a few London churches to have escaped the Great Fire of 1666 (the flames are said to have come within 100 metres before the wind changed direction), St Olave Hart Street is named after the patron saint of Norway, St Olaf – a figure more known for his ability as a warrior than as a saint.

King Olaf II was King of Norway in the early 11th century and an ally of the Saxon King, Ethelred the Unready. The Norwegian king won the thanks of the English after he fought alongside Ethelred against the Danes in 1014 in what some refer to as the Battle of London Bridge.

According to some, the church was built on the site of where the battle was fought – many also believe the battle was also the inspiration for the nursery rhyme, London Bridge Is Falling Down, for it was during that battle that Olaf, who was helping Ethelred retake London, is credited with using his longships to pull down London Bridge in a effort to thwart the Danish occupiers.

The church, meanwhile, was rebuilt a couple of times in the Middle Ages, when it was said to have been known as St Olave-towards-the-Tower. The church which now stands on the site was built in 1450 with the distinctive red brick on the tower added in the early 18th century.

Having survived the Great Fire in 1666, the church was not so fortunate during the Blitz when it was struck by German bombs. It was subsequently restored with King Haakon VII of Norway attending the re-opening in the mid-1950s (there is a stone laid in front of the sanctuary which he brought from Trondheim Cathedral).

Other features inside include a recently returned 17th century bust of a prominent physician Dr Peter Turner – part of a monument which went missing after World War II, it resurfaced at an auction in 2010.

The church’s most famous parishioner was the 17th century diarist Samuel Pepys who lived and worked in the nearby Naval Office (for more on Pepys see our earlier entry here). The door through which he would have entered the church is marked with a 19th century memorial.

Pepys and his wife Elizabeth are both buried in the church (the memorial Pepys commissioned for her is still there) as is his brother John. Samuel Pepys’ life is commemorated at a service held close to the day he died – 26th May – each year.

Others associated with the church include Sir William Penn, an admiral and father of the William Penn who founded Pennsylvania in what is now the United States, and Charles Dickens, who gave it the name “Ghastly Grim” thanks to the skulls above its Seething Lane entrance.

St Olave’s is also the chapel of the The Clothworker’s Company, The Worshipful Company of Environmental Cleaners and Trinity House, a charitable organisation dedicated to the safety, welfare and training of mariners established by Royal Charter from King Henry VIII in 1514.

WHERE: Corner of Hart Street and Seething Lane in the City (nearest Tube stations are Tower Hill and Monument). WHEN: See website for details; COST: Free; WEBSITE: www.sanctuaryinthecity.net/St-Olaves.html

10 curiously named churches of London – 9. St Michael Paternoster Royal

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This triple-monikered church was first recorded in the 1200s. Far from unique in its dedication to the Archangel St Michael (there were apparently seven churches which were dedicated to him before the Great Fire), it was distinguished from the others by the name Paternoster Royal.

Surprisingly, the name has nothing to do with royalty or the clergy, at least not directly. The name Paternoster comes from the church’s location on what was Paternoster Lane (it’s now College Hill) – it was named for the number of paternoster or rosary seller that were based there.

The name Royal, meanwhile, is a little bit more obscure. First applied in the 1300s, it apparently comes from the close proximity of another street called Le Ryole which was itself a corruption of the French town of La Reole in the wine districts near Bordeaux. The street is believed to have been given the name thanks to the number of wine merchants who traded there.

Like other London churches, this one has been rebuilt several times – notably after the Great Fire of London (to the designs of Sir Christopher Wren) and again after World War II during which the church was all but destroyed by a V1 flying bomb. Since its reopening in 1968 it has served as the international headquarters of the Christian organisation, the Mission to Seafarers, which supports chaplains working in ports around the world.

The walls date from Wren’s time and the stone steeple, which wasn’t completed until 1717, is the work of Nicholas Hawksmoor. The interior features carved figures of Moses and Aaron which stand before the reredos – these apparently came from All-Hallows-the-Great (demolished in 1894) as did the chandelier which bears the words ‘Birmingham 1644’).

High profile parishioners over the years have included the four time Lord Mayor of London, Dick Whittington (see our earlier post on him) – he paid for a substantial extension of the church and founded a college of priests there (it’s from this college, which was dissolved in the mid-1500s and then re-established soon after, that College Hill is believed to have derived its name) as well as an almshouse next door.

Whittington and his wife were both buried inside but he was apparently exumed since several times and the location of his body is now unknown. There’s a stained glass window depicting Whittington and his famous cat inside and the gardens just outside also bear his name.

London Pub Signs – The Mayflower

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Located on the Thames waterfront in Rotherhithe, The Mayflower’s history is intertwined with that of the more famous ship of the same name.

For it was from a quay near the pub (then named The Shippe) that in July, 1620, Captain Christopher Jones embarked upon the vessel, The Mayflower, and set sail for Southampton to load supplies before boarding the Pilgrim Fathers and making the journey to what is now the United States of America, landing in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on 21st December of that year.

Captain Jones was to return to Rotherhithe the following year and died shortly after. He and the ship’s co-owners are buried in an unmarked grave in the nearby churchyard of St Mary’s where a modern monument to Jones has been erected.

The pub, meanwhile, was rebuilt the following century – in 1780 – and renamed the Spread Eagle and Crown. It took on the name of Mayflower following a restoration in 1957, thanks to its associations with the historic voyage of The Mayflower.

Now part of the Greene King family of pubs, inside the building features oak beams and wooden panelling and boasts fine views of the Thames from an outside deck.

Lost London: Gates Special – Bishopsgate

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Another of London’s gates which had its origins in Roman times, it was built as the city exit for Ermine Street which ran all the way to York.

The gate is believed by many to have taken its name from Bishop Erkenwald, a seventh century Anglo-Saxon Bishop of London who is said to have ordered the gate’s reconstruction on the gate’s Roman foundations.

Bishopsgate – the site of which is marked by a bishop’s mitre attached to the facade of a building near the junction of Wormwood Street (pictured) – was rebuilt several times over the centuries (its first known mention was in the 12th century). This included in the 1470s when it is said to have been rebuilt by Hansa merchants who did so apparently in return for exemptions from tolls (or, according to some, other trade privileges).

The gate – which was known for having the heads of traitors displayed on spikes upon its top – took its final form in 1735 before it was finally demolished along with several other London gates in 1760 as part of road widening measures.

The name Bishopsgate is remembered in the street of the same name as well as one of the City of London wards. Among the notable people associated with Bishopsgate are William Kemp, an Elizabethan comic actor who, in a remarkable feat, is said to have performed a Morris dance starting at the gate and finishing in Norwich.

10 curiously named churches of London – 8. St Lawrence Jewry

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The reason for the name of this church, founded in 1136, may seem obvious – it was associated with London’s Jewish community, thanks to its location on the edge of the area in which they lived (this area was centred on the street just to the south still known as Old Jewry).

What is perhaps more amazing may be the fact that the name stuck despite the expulsion of all Jews from London in 1291, the name was still used to distinguish it from other churches.

The church – named in honor of St Lawrence, a Roman era martyr who was slow grilled over a fire – was among those consumed in the Great Fire of London and rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren afterwards. This new church had the honor of being reopened by King Charles II in 1677 – it was badly damaged in the Blitz before being rebuilt by Cecil Brown to Wren’s original design.

Located just off Guildhall Yard – home of the City’s authorities – St Lawrence Jewry is the official church of the Corporation of London and as such hosts a number of special services for the Lord Mayor and Aldermen during the year. Some 11 livery companies have links with the church – among them are those of tallow chandlers, loriners, girders, haberdashers and actuaries.

Worth noting on the inside is the painting of the martyrdom of St Lawrence – this survived the Blitz along with the tower and outer walls – and the many beautiful stained glass windows, painstakingly restored after World War II. There’s also a pond, complete with fish, outside the main entrance.

WHERE: Guildhall Yard (nearest Tube stations are St Paul’s, Bank and, a little further off, Moorgate and Mansion House). WHEN: 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday; COST: Free; WEBSITE: www.stlawrencejewry.org.uk.

Where’s London’s oldest…music hall?

by exploringlondon

Wilton’s Music Hall  seems to be regularly making news these days so the revelation that it’s London’s oldest (in fact, according to the venue’s website, it’s the oldest surviving grand music hall in the world) probably comes as no surprise.

The hall, located in Graces Alley, Whitechapel, started out life as a pub which stood in the middle of a row of terrace houses. Named the Prince of Denmark, it is said to have had the first mahogany counters in London (hence the ‘Mahogany Bar’ at the front of the music hall today) and incorporated a concert room built at the rear of the ground floor.

The building was taken over by John Wilton in the 1850s. He also bought up the neighbouring terrace homes and subsequently built the grand music hall which still stands today – one of what were then a new generation of large music halls which appeared in London in the mid to latter part of the 19th century but had all but disappeared by 1900.

Wilton’s Music Hall opened on 27th March, 1859, and continued to operate under Wilton’s management for the next couple of decades. In 1877 it was badly damaged in a fire an rebuilt the following year.

Ten years later, however, the Wesleyan Mission took over the building and used it as a hall – dockers were served meals here during their first ever strike in 1889, it was used as a safe house during the so-called Battle of Cable Street of 1936 in which police clashed with protestors opposing a march by the British Union of Facists, and during World War II it was used as shelter for people bombed out of their homes.

The Methodists left in the 1950s and in 1964, the building was scheduled for demolition. Thanks to the intervention of poet John Betjeman, however (he led a campaign to prevent its destruction), the hall was saved. While it’s been undergoing restoration work ever since, more work is still required and the hall is still looking for donations to help fund it.

As well as operating once again as a music venue, it has since appeared in numerous films including Chaplin, The Krays, and the latest Sherlock Holmes film – Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.

There is a more detailed history of Wilton’s Music Hall at www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Wiltons.htm, a music hall and theatre site. Wilton’s website can be found here.

Treasures of London – Big Ben…

by exploringlondon

Often used to describe the clock on the Houses of Parliament (or the tower in which it is located), the name Big Ben was actually first given to the bell that resides within.

Officially known as the Great Bell, it is believed the popular nickname of Big Ben came from Sir Benjamin Hall,  First Commissioner for Works (there is an alternative theory that it was named after Ben Caunt, a popular heavyweight boxer in the 1850s but the parliamentary website describes this as “unlikely”).

The initial bell intended for the clocktower of the Houses of Parliament was cast by Warners of Norton, near Stockton-on-Tees, in August, 1856. Transported to London, it was tested in Palace Yard (where a clock tower had stood in medieval times) but a crack appeared during testing and so the bell had to be recast.

With Warners apparently asking too much for the recasting, George Mears at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry was appointed instead. The new bell was cast on 10th April, 1858.

With a diameter of 2.7 metres, the bell was too big to fit up the clocktower’s shaft vertically so it was turned on its side and the 13.7 tonne bell was winched up to the belfry in October that year. Four quarter bells, which chime on the quarter hour and varying in weight from 1.1 to 4 tonnes, were already in place (interestingly, all of the bells are fixed in position and struck on the outside rather than being allowed to swing and have a hammer strike the inside).

Big Ben debuted on 11th July, 1859 (the clock had been started on 31st May), but in September that year the second bell also cracked. It took four years to find a solution (during that time, the bell was struck on the fourth quarter bell) and it was the Astronomer Royal, Sir George Airy, who found it.

The solution involved turning the bell a quarter turn so the hammer didn’t restrike the crack site and replacing the hammer with a lighter one (the current hammer still weighs 200 kilograms!). A small square was also cut into the bell’s crack to prevent it spreading.

Apart from occasional stoppages, the bell has struck ever since.

For more on Big Ben, visit www.parliament.uk/bigben. Tours are only available to UK residents and can be arranged via local MPs (see here for more) or there are virtual tours for those who either don’t live in the UK or can’t get there (see here for more).

IMAGE: Big Ben with a quarter bell in the fourground. PICTURE: Courtesy of UK Parliament.

10 curiously named churches of London – 7. St Margaret Pattens

by exploringlondon

It’s not often you’d come across a church named after a type of shoe, but that’s the case with the church of St Margaret Pattens.

Located in Eastcheap, a church dedicated to St Margaret – a saint who was martyred in Antioch in the Middle East – has stood on the current site for at least 900 years. The earliest reference dates from 1067 and the church was rebuilt at least once in the medieval period, with the costs of construction apparently partly funded out of gifts presented to a crucifix or rood which stood in Rood Lane close to the church.

It’s only since the 17th century, however, when the church was rebuilt to the design of Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London, that it took on the name ‘Pattens’ to distinguish itself from other churches dedicated to St Margaret.

Pattens were wooden undershoes which were trapped beneath normal footwear and raised the wearer above the street, allowing them to walk across muddy roads and still arrive at their destination cleanshod. This footwear was apparently made and sold near which the church was located.

The trade of pattenmaking, incidentially, died out as streets became paved – according to the church’s website, the last pattenmaker died in the 19th century. There’s still a sign in the church asking women to remove their pattens before entering.

It’s worth noting before we move on that there is an alternative theory as to the origins of the name – this is that it commemorates a benefactor, possibly a canon at St Paul’s named Ranulf Patin – but it’s the former interpretation which is more widely accepted.

St Margaret Pattens, which was united with that of St Gabriel Fen after the latter was destroyed in the Great Fire, was damaged by bombing in World War II but was restored in the mid 1950s.

While the church lost many of its valuables during the Reformation (with the exception of a silver gilt communion cup dating from 1545 – on loan to the Victoria & Albert Museum), notable features inside include a memorial to King Charles I (since 1890, the king has been remembered in a special service each year held on the nearest Thursday to the date of his execution – 30th January) and a Royal Stuart Coat-of-Arms believed to be those of King James II.

There’s also a reredos containing a painting by Italian Carlo Maratta (1625-1713), two unusual canopied pews reserved for churchwardens, an hourglass dating from 1750 used to time the sermons, and a bell which dates from before the Great Fire. It’s also possible to view a set of pattens.

Among those who have been associated with the church is famed medieval Lord Mayor of London, Dick Whittington, apparently at one time the church’s patron (you can see our earlier post on him here), as well as livery companies including, as one would expect, the Worshipful Company of Pattenmakers, and the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers.

WHERE: Corner of Eastcheap and Rood Lane (nearest Tube stations are Monument, Bank and Tower Hill). WHEN: Weekdays from 10.30am (check website for services); COST: Free; WEBSITE: www.stmargaretpattens.org.

Famous Londoners – William Hogarth

by exploringlondon

An artist with a social conscience, William Hogarth’s sketches and paintings summed up much of what was rotten with 18th century England – the society in which he lived – much as Dickens’ writing did in the following century.

Hogarth was a native Londoner – he was the son of Richard Hogarth, a Latin teacher and publisher, in Smithfield in 1697. Despite the ups and downs of his father’s fortunes (during Hogarth’s childhood, Richard Hogarth was confined to the Fleet Prison for debt for five years following an unsuccessful venture running a coffee house), at the age of 16 William was apprenticed to an engraver named Ellis Gamble.

Following his apprenticeship, he set up his own shop in 1720 and it was at this time that he started producing political satires. Hogarth was also painting  and around this time met with artist Sir James Thornhill. He became a regular visitor to Thornhill’s art academy in Covent Garden and their friendship grew, so much so that Hogarth eventually married Thornhill’s daughter Jane in 1729.

In the early 1730s, having established himself as a painter – both of portrait groups and some early satirical painting – Hogarth turned to painting his ‘moral tales’, the first of which, A Harlot’s Progress, was published in 1732 and tells the story decline of a country girl after coming to London. It was followed by A Rake’s Progress in 1733-35 (now at the Sir John Soane’s Museum).

In 1735 Hogarth was also successful in lobbying to have an act passed to protect the copyright of artistic works – it was unofficially known as “Hogarth’s Act”. The same year he also established St Martin’s Lane Academy – a school for young artists and a guild for professionals.

In the late 1730s, Hogarth turned his hand to individual portraits of the rich and famous. Among his most famous works at this time is a magnificent portrait of Captain Thomas Coram (founder of the Foundling Hospital – it can still be seen at what is now the Foundling Museum), and another of actor David Garrick as Richard III for which he was paid the substantial sum of £200, an amount he apparently claimed was more than any other artist had received for a single portrait.

In 1743, Hogarth completed his landmark work Marriage a-la-mode, a series of six paintings which can now be seen at the National Gallery. He was also painting historical scenes – like Moses brought before Pharoah’s Daughter (for the council room of the Foundling Hospital) and Paul before Felix (for Lincoln’s Inn). In 1747, he published a series of 12 engravings, Industry and Idleness, which tells the parallel stories of two apprentices – one successful, the other not – and this was followed by a series of prints such as Beer Street, Gin Lane, and The Four Stages of Cruelty illustrating some of the less savory aspects of everyday life.

Other works completed around this time included The March of the Guards to Finchley – which looks back to the mid-1740s when the Scottish Pretender’s Army was believed to be about to threaten London, The Gate of Calais – which draws on Hogarth’s own experience of being arrested as a spy when he visited France in 1748, and the Election series – four painting which take for their subject the Oxfordshire election of 1754.

There were some clouds on his horizon at this time with unfavourable criticism of his works and beliefs about art but even as he was engaging in a robust debate with critics of his works (largely through a written work he produced called The Analysis of Beauty), Hogarth was appointed in 1757 to the post of Sergeant-Painter to King George II (he commemorated the event in a painting).

Hogarth ran into further trouble in his later years with works deliberately created to provoke – among the more famous was The Times, a work which led to a breach in his friendship with influential MP John Wilkes who then launched a personal and devastating attack on Hogarth in his newspaper The North Briton. Hogarth responded with a non-flattering engraving of Wilkes.

His last work – The Bathos, an apocalyptic piece – seems to capture his gloomy mood at the time, and having suffered a seizure in 1763, Hogarth died at his house in Leicester Fields on the 25th or 26th October, 1764, possibly of an aneurism. Buried in the churchyard of St Nicholas in Chiswick, he was survived by his wife Jane to whom he left his properties – these included his country home in Chiswick, now known as Hogarth’s House. She made her living reprinting his works until her own death five years later.

Hogarth’s legacy lies in the impact of his works which not only attacked some of the evils of his day but have since inspired countless artists and been adapted in all manner of artistic endeavours over the ensuring centuries. Hogarth’s works can still be seen at various galleries around town – including that of the Foundling Museum – and there is a fine statue of him and his pug dog, Trump, in Chiswick High Road (pictured) as well as a bust in Leicester Square.