Transcriber’s Note:

New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.

LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL
SURVEY OF LONDON
ISSUED BY THE JOINT PUBLISHING COMMITTEE REPRESENTING THE LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL AND THE COMMITTEE FOR THE SURVEY OF THE MEMORIALS OF GREATER LONDON
UNDER THE GENERAL EDITORSHIP OF
SIR LAURENCE GOMME (for the Council)
PHILIP NORMAN (for the Survey Committee)
VOLUME V.
THE PARISH OF ST. GILES-IN-THE-FIELDS
(Part II.)

PUBLISHED BY THE LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL, SPRING GARDENS, LONDON

1914

THE PARISH OF ST. GILES-IN-THE-FIELDS (PART II.), BEING THE FIFTH VOLUME OF THE SURVEY OF LONDON, WITH DRAWINGS, ILLUSTRATIONS AND ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTIONS, BY W. EDWARD RILEY, ARCHITECT TO THE COUNCIL. EDITED, WITH HISTORICAL NOTES, BY SIR LAURENCE GOMME, CLERK OF THE COUNCIL.

JOINT PUBLISHING COMMITTEE REPRESENTING THE LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL AND THE COMMITTEE FOR THE SURVEY OF THE MEMORIALS OF GREATER LONDON.

Chairman.

E. L. MEINERTZHAGEN.

Members appointed by the Council.

GRANVILLE-SMITH, R. W.

JOHNSON, W. C.

MEINERTZHAGEN, E. L.

TAYLOR, ANDREW T.

Members appointed by the Survey Committee.

GODFREY, WALTER H.

LOVELL, PERCY.

NORMAN, PHILIP.

MEMBERS OF THE SURVEY COMMITTEE DURING THE PERIOD OF THE WORK.

The former Presidents of the Committee were—

The late LORD LEIGHTON, P.R.A.

The late Rt. Hon. and Rt. Rev. Dr. CREIGHTON, LORD BISHOP OF LONDON.

President.

The Rt. Hon. EARL CURZON OF KEDLESTON, G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., F.R.S.

Honorary Members and Subscribers.

The Rt. Hon. Lord Aberdare.

The Board of Agriculture.

C. E. Allen.

Mrs. J. W. Allen.

Sir Robert Allison.

The Society of Antiquaries.

William Sumner Appleton.

The Architectural Association.

The Society of Architects.

The Royal Institute of British Architects.

The Athenæum.

John Avery.

Samuel P. Avery.

E. Burrell Baggallay.

E. J. Barron.

B. T. Batsford.

Boylston A. Beal.

Henry Forbes Bigelow.

Mrs. Percy Bigland.

Arthur L. Bilham.

Harry W. Birks.

The Birmingham Central Library.

The Bishopsgate Institute.

John Briggs.

E. W. Brooks.

A. Herve Browning.

Alfred Burr.

Mrs. Cadic.

The Worshipful Company of Carpenters.

Miss A. G. E. Carthew.

W. J. Checkley.

Cyril S. Cobb.

E. C. Colquhoun.

The Columbia University Library.

The Constitutional Club.

William W. Cordingley.

The Rt. Hon. Lord Courtney of Penwith, P.C.

Walter Crane.

The Rt. Hon. the Earl Of Crawford, F.S.A.

The Croydon Public Library.

G. J. Crosbie Dawson.

George H. Duckworth.

The Board of Education.

The Rt. Hon. the Earl Ferrers.

Mrs. Charles Fewster.

Owen Fleming.

Mrs. Wickham Flower.

Miss Forbes.

Sir George Frampton, R.A., F.S.A.

Miss Agnes Garrett.

Sir Rickman Godlee.

Goldsmiths’ Library, University of London.

A. Gray, K.C.

Miss I. I. Greaves.

Maj.-Gen. Sir Coleridge Grove, K.C.B.

The Guildhall Library.

Richard Waldon Hale.

Edwin T. Hall, F.R.I.B.A.

Mrs. Henry Hankey.

Ambrose Heal.

David Hills.

S. J. G. Hoare.

R. R. Hodgson.

V. T. Hodgson.

J. J. Holdsworth.

Charles H. Hopwood, F.S.A.

E. J. Horniman.

Miss Huth.

Mrs. Alfred Huth.

Edward Huth.

Douglas Illingworth.

Mrs. Illingworth Illingworth.

Miss Edith F. Inderwick.

The Rt. Hon. the Viscount Iveagh, K.P., G.C.V.O., F.R.S.

Edward Tyrrell Jaques.

Gilbert Jenkins.

Philip M. Johnston, F.R.I.B.A., F.S.A.

Miss Caroline A. Jones.

C. H. F. Kindermann.

C. L. Kingsford.

Sir Hugh Lane.

Miss E. M. Lang.

G. C. Lawson.

Sir W. H. Lever, Bt., M.P.

H. W. Lewer.

Owen C. Little.

The London Library.

Dr. G. B. Longstaff.

Mary, Countess of Lovelace.

W. L. Lucas.

Justin Huntly Mccarthy.

William McGregor.

The Manchester Central Library.

C. O. Masters.

Miss B. A. Meinertzhagen.

The Metropolitan Public Gardens Association.

G. Vaughan Morgan.

John Murray, F.R.I.B.A.

The New York Public Library.

Allan Nickinson.

F. H. Norman.

R. C. Norman.

Mrs. Robert Norman.

The Rev. J. P. Noyes.

Vere L. Oliver.

The Oxford and Cambridge Club.

F. W. Peters.

Mrs. W. Wilton Phipps.

F. W. Platt.

D’Arcy Power, F.R.C.S.

Sir E. J. Poynter, P.R.A., F.S.A.

F. W. Procter.

The Public Record Office.

Mrs. F. L. W. Richardson.

Colin E. Reader.

The Reform Club.

Sir Joseph Savory.

Sion College.

Mrs. Vernon Smith.

A. G. Snelgrove.

W. J. Songhurst.

H. C. Sotheran.

Walter L. Spiers.

F. B. Spooner.

The Rt. Hon. Lord Alexander Thynne.

A. G. Warren.

The Library of Congress, Washington.

Mrs. Westlake.

Mrs. Wharrie.

J. Barrington White.

Miss M. J. Wilde.

Dr. George C. Williamson.

Walter Withall.

John E. Yerbury.

Keith D. Young, F.R.I.B.A.

Active Members.

C. R. Ashbee.

Oswald Barron, F.S.A.

A. H. Blake.

W. W. Braines.

A. E. Bullock, A.R.I.B.A.

G. H. Chettle.

A. W. Clapham, F.S.A.

George Clinch, F.G.S., F.S.A., Scot.

A. O. Collard, F.R.I.B.A.

F. T. Dear.

William Doddington.

H. W. Fincham.

Matt. Garbutt.

Walter H. Godfrey.

Mrs. Ernest Godman.

T. Frank Green, A.R.I.B.A.

Edwin Gunn, A.R.I.B.A.

Osborn C. Hills, F.R.I.B.A.

E. W. Hudson.

T. Gordon Jackson, Licentiate R.I.B.A.

Max Judge.

P. K. Kipps, A.R.I.B.A.

Gilbert H. Lovegrove.

Ernest A. Mann, Licentiate R.I.B.A.

E. T. Marriott, M.A.

Cecil G. McDowell.

W. Monk, R.E.

Sydney Newcombe.

E. C. Nisbet.

Robert Pearsall.

A. Wyatt Papworth, A.R.I.B.A.

Francis W. Reader.

Ernest Railton.

John Ravenshaw.

Francis R. Taylor, Licentiate R.I.B.A.

George Trotman.

Miss E. M. B. Warren.

W. A. Webb, A.R.I.B.A.

A. P. Wire.

W. Wonnacott, A.R.I.B.A.

E. L. Wratten, A.R.I.B.A.

Edward Yates.

W. P. Young.

Philip Norman, F.S.A., LL.D., Editor of the Committee.

E. L. Meinertzhagen, J.P., Treasurer of the Committee.

Percy Lovell, B.A., A.R.I.B.A.,

Secretary of the Committee, 27, Abingdon Street, Westminster, S.W.

CONTENTS.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.

ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT.

HERALDIC ILLUSTRATIONS.

PREFACE.

The present volume—the fifth in the Survey of London—completes the record of the Parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields. As in the case of the other volumes issued, the important part of the book, from the survey point of view, is to be found in the photographs and drawings, to which the letterpress is strictly subservient, but which form only a portion of the actual collection in the hands of the Council. Nevertheless, considerable attention has been devoted to history, the more particularly because existing books on the parish, notably, Parton’s Hospital and Parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields and Blott’s Blemundsbury, are incomplete, and in many cases actually misleading. An attempt has been made to retrace the history of each plot of land to the time before the erection of buildings, that is, practically to the reign of Elizabeth. No doubt, had time permitted, it would have been possible to do this adequately in many instances where the investigation has had to remain incomplete, though it is doubtful whether in all cases the necessary records are in existence.

The materials for the history have been gathered from diverse sources, and the lists of occupiers of the various houses dealt with have been obtained principally from the parish and sewer ratebooks, supplemented by the Hearth Tax Rolls and information given in deeds. The four Hearth Tax Rolls used were described in the previous volume[^[1]] dealing with St. Giles. The sewer ratebooks have not proved of so great assistance in supplementing the parish books (which begin only in 1730) as was the case in the previous volume, since, with the important exception of those containing Lincoln’s Inn Fields and Great Queen Street, there are very few relating to this parish which date from the 17th century.

It is desired to take this opportunity of thanking those owners and occupiers of houses who have kindly granted permission to the Council to make surveys of the interior of their premises, and take photographs for reproduction in this volume. The thanks of the Council are especially due to His Grace the Duke of Bedford, K.G., for information most willingly imparted with reference to those premises which are in the Manor of Bloomsbury, and to the Holborn Metropolitan Borough Council for the facilities given to the Council’s officers for the examination of the parish ratebooks and other records.

I gladly repeat the acknowledgment, made in Vol. III. of this series, of the great assistance rendered in connection with the preparation of this volume by Mr. W. W. Braines, B.A. (Lond.), the officer in charge of the Records, Publications and Museums Branch of my department.

LAURENCE GOMME.

County Hall,

Spring Gardens, S.W.

13th March, 1914.

THE PARISH OF ST. GILES-IN-THE-FIELDS

PART II.

BOUNDARY OF THE PARISH OF ST. GILES-IN-THE-FIELDS.

The earliest mention of the parish boundary of St. Giles-in-the-Fields occurs in a decree of 1222, terminating the dispute between the Abbey of Westminster and the See of London respecting the ecclesiastical franchise of the conventual church of St. Peter. According to this the boundary of the Parish of St. Margaret, Westminster, began at the watercourse of Tyburn and stretched towards London as far as the garden of the Hospital of St. Giles, “thence as the way beyond the same garden extends as far as the boundaries dividing Marshland and the parish of St. Giles.”[^[2]] This is pretty clear evidence that in those early days the southern portion of the western boundary of St. Giles passed along the thoroughfare bounding the Precinct and Marshland on the west, thus agreeing precisely with the limits at the present day.

Although, however, there does not seem to have been any change in that comparatively small part of the parish boundary, in many other respects the limits of the parish have undergone serious modification. The first considerable alteration took place in 1731, when the Parish of St. George, Bloomsbury, was formed out of the old parish, and made to include all that part which lay to the north of High Holborn and east of Dyot Street and of a line drawn northwards from the latter’s termination in Great Russell Street (see Plate 6). This northward line was afterwards slightly modified. Again, quite recently, the parish was further curtailed as a result of Orders made under the London Government Act, 1899. The south side of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, and the area lying between Wild Street and Drury Lane, were thereby taken from St. Giles, a give-and-take line was adopted between the west side of Lincoln’s Inn Fields and the junction of Kemble Street and Wild Street, and certain small additions to the parish were made at Francis Street on the north and Broker’s Alley on the south.

The stone tablet, illustrated on the next page, is a relic of the old boundary line of the parish. It was built into the wall of No. 2, Sheffield Street, which premises were demolished in 1903 in connection with the formation of Kingsway. The stone was preserved by the London County Council and has been lent to the London Museum.

The boundary between the parishes of St. Giles-in-the-Fields and St. George, Bloomsbury, cuts through Bedford Square in such a way that although the greater part of the square is in the former, all the houses on the east side and a few on the south side are in the parish of St. George. As it was felt that there were advantages in dealing with the square as a whole, it was decided that, as had been done in the case of Lincoln’s Inn Fields,[^[3]] the entire square should be treated in one volume.

XXII.—HIGH HOLBORN FROM THE PARISH BOUNDARY TO LITTLE TURNSTILE.

The whole of the space between the parish boundary and Great Turnstile was occupied by houses at least as early as, and probably long before, the reign of Henry VIII. In 1545, Edward Stockwood sold to Thomas Dyxson, 5 messuages and 5 gardens in the parishes of St. Andrew, Holborn, and St. Giles-in-the-Fields,[^[4]] and when, in the following year, Dyxson transferred the property to Richard Clyff, the western and eastern boundaries are described[^[5]] as the tenement of John Coke and the inn called The Antelope, respectively. In the course of the next century, the five houses seem to have been divided or rebuilt as seven houses, four of which were in St. Giles, the remaining three being in St. Andrew’s.[^[6]]

Between the westernmost of these and Great Turnstile there were, in 1545, three houses in the possession of John Coke.[^[7]] These had belonged to the Priory of St. John of Jerusalem before the dissolution of that monastery.[^[8]]

Great Turnstile is mentioned as early as 1522, under the name “Turngatlane”[^[9]]; it was also known as “Turnpiklane.”[^[10]] It is quite certain that in 1545 no houses had been built along the sides of Great Turnstile, and none probably were erected there until many years later. The earliest records so far obtained of such houses on the eastern and western sides of the lane are dated respectively 1632 and 1630[^[11]], and probably these dates are not far removed from the actual time of building.

Reference was made in a previous volume[^[12]] to the ten houses belonging to the Priory of St. John of Jerusalem, which, in the reign of Henry VIII., occupied the frontage of High Holborn, between Great Turnstile and certain property belonging to the Hospital of St. Giles, and it was then suggested that their western limit practically corresponded with the boundary between Cup Field and Purse Field. Definite proof of this has not been obtained, but it will be shown that the St. John’s property must have extended to within a little of this, thus occupying the site of about thirty numbers. Obviously, the houses must have been very scattered. It is also possible that certain buildings were in existence further to the west, towards Little Turnstile, as early as the reign of Edward II.,[^[13]] and certainly the whole of this part of the frontage to High Holborn was covered in the early part of Elizabeth’s reign.

Agas’s map (Plate 1) shows a single line of buildings extending between the two turnstiles, but this is not an adequate representation of the state of affairs in the closing years of the sixteenth century. In order to describe this, so far as the records which have come to light in the course of the investigation for this volume will allow, it will be necessary to go into some detail, but as the point has never before been dealt with, it has been thought desirable to do so. Although the results in some cases fall short of certainty, it is hoped that thereby an idea may be gained of the somewhat complex system of houses, gardens and orchards that existed between High Holborn and the site of Whetstone Park. The accompanying plan will render the description of the properties more easy to follow. It should be understood that the plan is quite a rough one, and intended merely to give a general idea of the situation about the year 1590. The discovery of further records would, no doubt, modify it in certain details.

HIGH HOLBORN, BETWEEN THE TURNSTILES, CIRC. 1590.

Where now is the entrance to Little Turnstile, there then existed an open ditch or sewer. In the Survey of Crown Lands[^[14]] taken in 1650, reference is made to a certain property “scituate and adjoyninge to Lincolnes Inn Fields alias Pursefeild,” being 214 feet long from Purse Field south, to Mr. Lane’s houses on the north, and 22 feet wide, which ground was “heertofore a ditch or comon sewer and filled upp to bee part of the Pursefeild.” Lane’s houses were on the projecting north side of Little Turnstile, and the sewer lay 21 feet to the east of the present line of Gate Street.[^[15]]

In 1560, Lord and Lady Mountjoy sold[^[16]] to Thomas Doughty and Henry Heron “syxtene meses, mesuages or tenementes adioyninge nere together ... scytuate and being in Holborne,” called by the name of Purse Rents, together with six additional gardens. From the inquisition[^[17]] held on the death of Doughty in 1568 it appears that he held eight of the houses and three of the gardens.

Eight years later (1576) Thomas Doughty, junior, sold[^[18]] that part of the property to “Buckharte Cranighe,[^[19]] doctor of physyke.” In the same year Queen Elizabeth granted[^[20]] to John Farnham, one of her gentlemen pensioners, the whole of the combined Doughty and Heron property, increased on the Heron side by two houses, five cottages, three stables and an orchard, none of which are mentioned in the previous deeds. Farnham immediately sold the property afresh to Doughty[^[21]] and Heron.[^[22]] The latter in 1589 sold to [^[23]]Rowland Watson and Thomas Owen, nine houses, which, by the names of the occupiers, can be identified as nine of the ten sold by Farnham, and which are stated to contain in length together on the street side 35½ yards. In 1669 the same property, then consisting of seven houses, was sold[^[24]] by William Watson to Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and is obviously to be identified with the six houses in High Holborn leased by the college in 1800,[^[25]] and described as Nos. 246 to 251, High Holborn. The length of the Holborn frontage of Nos. 246 to 251 accords well with the dimension required (35½ yards), and the identification of these houses with the property sold by Heron to Watson (B on accompanying plan) may be regarded as fairly certain.

In 1592 Heron sold a further portion of his property[^[26]], the purchaser this time being Anne Carew.[^[27]] This consisted of (i.) six messuages (C on plan) abutting north upon the lands and tenements of Master Watson (i.e. B), and south upon Heron’s garden; (ii.) a messuage in the occupation of Sir Thomas Gerrard,[^[28]] abutting north on Heron’s garden and south on “the White Hart feilde”, (i.e., Purse Field, which was held with The White Hart); (iii.) the said garden and an orchard[^[29]] lying together and containing three roods, the garden adjoining west on “the lands late Burcharde Crainck,” and the orchard towards the east, abutting on the messuage and garden of William Cook; and (iv.) the messuage and garden of Cook (H on plan) abutting south on Cup Field, on the north on a tenement of Mistress Buck, widow, and east on a garden late of Thomas Raynesford. In the light of (iii.) it is now possible to assign the Doughty property (afterwards Burrard Cranigh) to position A.

Plots A to F are thus roughly settled, but before leaving them it is necessary to trace further the history of F until its development by building. On the death of Anne Carew the property seems to have passed[^[30]] to her son George, afterwards Baron Carew of Clopton and Earl of Totnes, and by him to have been bequeathed to Peter Apsley, grandson of his brother Peter. In 1640, John Apsley sold[^[31]] to Daniel Thelwall and William Byerly, together with other adjacent property, a messuage with an orchard containing half an acre, “scituate over against the said messuage and extending from the way or path there to the feild side,” all formerly in the occupation of John Waldron. Of this William Whetstone held a lease, which he had obtained certainly before 1646[^[32]], and in 1653 reference is made[^[33]] to “all the newe buildings thereon erected.” It is most probable, therefore, that this was the scene of the building operations described in the Earl of Dorset’s report to the Privy Council on 11th December, 1636, when he complained that “one William Whetstone,” having lately erected five brick houses in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, without proper permission, had “for the better countenanceing of himselfe therein, and for the finishinge and mayntayneing the said buildings, counterfeited his Lo^pps hand, as also the hand of his Se^cre, frameing a false lycence,” etc. It having been decided that this was “a presumption of a high nature, and a fraud and offence not fitt to be passed by w^thout exemplary punishment,” instructions were given for the demolition of the houses,[^[34]] but it is not known whether this was actually done.

At any rate, Whetstone succeeded in stamping his name on the new thoroughfare which parted the property in High Holborn from that in the adjoining fields, though the western part was at first known as Phillips Rents. The Phillips in question was perhaps the John Phillips mentioned in a document[^[35]] of 1672, as having lately been in occupation of a piece of land in the rear of Purse Rents, “being southward upon a way [i.e., Whetstone Park] leading from Partridge Alley towarde Great Queene Street.”

Notice must now be taken of another property of Heron, “parcell of the lands of the late dissolved Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem.” In 1586 he sold to John Buck[^[36]] eight houses (seven with gardens attached) and one garden plot, the first house being described as “all that messuage or tenement with a garden and backsyde, now in the tenure, farme or occupacion of one Thomas Raynesford or his assignes.” The position of Raynesford’s messuage and garden is obviously J (see above) and as H is distinctly stated to be bounded on the north by a tenement of Mistress Buck,[^[37]] the Buck property may be assigned to position G.

In October 1583, Heron had sold[^[38]] to Anne Carew five houses with gardens, a garden with a little house, and three other gardens. The only information given as to the position of the property is that it was situated in St. Giles-in-the-Fields. It is, however, possible to locate it approximately. In 1634, Peter Apsley sold[^[39]] to Sir John Banks, the attorney general, “all that messuage or tenement with appurtenances, scituate in High Holborne, in St. Giles, together with the court or yard lying on the south part of the said messuage, and the garden beyond the said court, extending to the feildes lying on the south of the said messuage, as the same is enclosed with a brick wall, and as the said premises were lately heretofore in the occupation of Sir John Cowper, Knt. and Bart. deceased, and formerly in the occupation of Sir Anthony Asheley, Knt. and Bart. deceased.” In 1661 Sir Ralph Banks sold[^[40]] the house to William Goldsborough, and in 1716 Edward Goldsborough assigned[^[41]] the remainder of a lease of 500 years granted in January, 1692, by Grace and Robert Goldsborough in respect of premises described as “all that messuage, tenement or inn, with appurtenances, scituate in High Holborne in St. Giles-in-the-Fields, known by the name of The George, together with a courtyard or backside lying on the south part thereof, and the peice of vacant ground or garden beyond the said court and belonging to the said messuage and extending to a certain street or place there called Whetstones Park, lying on the south side of the said messuage or inn.” There can be little doubt that the premises are identical with those described in the deed of 1634, and it may therefore be assumed that the Carew property included the site of The George, which a reference to Horwood’s Map of 1819 will show is now occupied by the eastern portion (No. 270) of the Inns of Court Hotel.

This identification is confirmed by the following. Sir Ralph Banks owned two other houses, one behind the other, adjoining Goldsborough’s house on the east, and these Goldsborough bought at the same time as he purchased his own house. In 1663, he sold them to Edmond Newcombe, and in the indenture[^[42]] embodying the transaction they are described as being 40 feet broad and 160 feet long, and bounded on the east by “the house in which Firman now dwelleth.” In June, 1716, a mortgage was effected by Prescott Pennyston and Thomasin, his wife, of two messuages in High Holborn, adjoining the inn called The Unicorn. Thomasin was the daughter and heir of Elizabeth Hollinghurst, formerly Tompson, cousin and devisee of William Firmin. Now Unicorn Yard occupied a position corresponding approximately to the western half of the present No. 274 (the position is well shown on Horwood’s Map, though the numbering does not quite accord with that of the present day), and distant about 58 feet from No. 270. Assuming the two houses to be one behind the other, as was the case in Newcombe’s property, this leaves the 40 feet required for Newcombe’s house, and 18 feet for Firmin’s house, corresponding almost exactly with the old No. 274 shown by Horwood. The Carew property may therefore be assigned definitely to position K with a fixed eastern limit at No. 270. It has not proved possible to determine its frontage towards the west, and perhaps it did not extend as far as Raynesford’s house (J). It is, however, known that it included a tavern called The Three Feathers.[^[43]] It seems a reasonable assumption that this was in the neighbourhood of Feathers Court, shown in Horwood’s Map as occupying much the same position as the present Holborn Place, but entering High Holborn somewhat further east. The Three Feathers would therefore correspond approximately to the present No. 263.

The adjoining properties (L and M) have already been referred to. The house (M) next to The Unicorn was in Elizabeth’s reign in the possession of John Miller, and in 1607 was described as “all that messuage, cottage, tenement or house with a forge,” in High Holborn, “reaching to a certeyne pasture adjoyninge to Lincolnes Inne on the south syde,” and bounded on the west by the house and land of John Thornton.[^[44]] Beatrice Thornton, widow, is shown in the Subsidy Rolls as far back as 1588 as resident at or near this spot, and this circumstance is undoubtedly to be connected with the name of Thornton’s Alley, which was hereabouts.[^[45]]

The premises (N), which in the early part of the seventeenth century comprised a single inn, The Unicorn, had in 1574 been purchased by Francis Johnson from John and Margaret Cowper, as three messuages and three gardens,[^[46]] and are described in 1626[^[47]] as having been “now longe since converted into one messuage or inn commonly called The Unicorne.” Apparently its use as an inn was of recent date, for in the description of (M), dated 1607, the eastern boundary of that property is said to be “a tenement in the occupation of John Larchin, baker,” and in 1629, when the premises had been re-divided into two, one is said to be[^[48]] “now in the tenure of Mary Larchin, widdowe, and is now used by her as a common inne, and is called by the name or signe of The Unycorne.” The dimensions of the premises are given as 45 feet wide on the north, 40 feet on the south on Lincoln’s Inn Fields, and 156 feet long.

No records of the time of Elizabeth relating to property between The Unicorn and the house at the corner of Great Turnstile have, so far, been discovered. The latter (O), having a frontage to High Holborn of 39 feet, was certainly at the time in the possession of the same John Miller[^[49]] who held the property (M).

XXIII-XXIV.—Nos. 3 and 4, GATE STREET.

Ground landlord.

The ground landlord of No. 3 is the London County Council.

General description and date of structure.

The area lying between Great Queen Street, Little Queen Street and Gate Street (the east to west portion of which street was formerly known as Princes Street) was originally a portion of Purse Field, the early history of which has already been detailed.[^[50]]

On 27th May, 1639, William Newton sold to John Fortescue[^[51]] “all that peece or parcell of ground, being part of Pursefeild and the pightells, designed for two messuages to be built thereon by the said John Fortescue, the foundations whereof be now laid.” The ground is described as measuring 50 feet 3 inches from north to south, and 127 feet from east to west. Between the ground and Princes Street (“a way leading upon a backgate of an Inn lately called The Falcon and Greyhound”) lay the houses (or their sites) of Lewis Richard and John Giffard, and a slip of ground afterwards bought by Arthur Newman, having widths of 25 feet, 25 feet and 8½ feet respectively[^[52]]. From these measurements it can be shown that the ground sold to Fortescue was the site of what afterwards became Nos. 3 and 4, Gate Street. The indenture contained, in common with those relating to Richard’s and Giffard’s houses, a provision “that there doth and soe perpetually shall lye open from the front of the said messuage eastward, three score foote of assize, wherein there shall be noe building erected or builded by the said William Newton, his heirs ... or any other person or persons whatsoever, it being the principall motive of the said John Fortescue to purchase the estate and interest aforesaid, to have the said 60 foote in front to lye open for an open place from the front of the building, except 11 foote to be inclosed in before the house, and that there shal be noe buildinges erected at the south-east end of the said open place by the space of 30 foote, to take away the prospect of the greate fielde, otherwise than a fence wall, whether he, the said William Newton or his assignes, keepe the same in his or their owne hands, or doth or doe depart with it to any other.” It was also agreed “that there shall not at any tyme or tymes hereafter be erected or built any manner of building whatsoever” in the gardens of any of the four messuages[^[53]] in question. These conditions, as will be seen, have been more than observed.

From the above it is clear that the foundations of the two houses had already been laid by 27th May, 1639, and the premises were accordingly probably completed by the end of the year. No exact date can be assigned to the rebuilding of the houses, but it seems probable that this took place about the middle of the 18th century. The carved mouldings of the joinery on the first floor of No. 3 are interesting, and details are given in Plate 7.

Condition of repair.

No. 4 was demolished about 1905. No. 3 has been much cut about, and is now used as a workshop.

Biographical notes.

The occupants of these two houses[^[54]], up to the year 1800, so far as it has been possible to ascertain them, were as follows:—

Sir Thomas Twisden, second son of Sir William Twisden, was born at East Peckham in 1602. In 1617 he was admitted to the Inner Temple, and called to the Bar in 1626. Although a staunch royalist, he prospered during the Commonwealth, and in 1653 was made serjeant at law. At the Restoration he was confirmed in this dignity, advanced to a puisne judgeship in the King’s Bench, and knighted. In 1664 he was created a baronet. He died in 1683.

Thomas Povey was the son of Justinian Povey, auditor of the exchequer and accountant general to Anne of Denmark. At the outbreak of the civil war he at first joined neither party, and published a treatise called The Moderator: expecting sudden Peace or certaine Ruine. In 1647, however, he entered the Long Parliament, and was subsequently appointed a member of the council for the colonies. At the Restoration he was taken into favour, and many lucrative appointments were bestowed on him. The dates of his birth and death are unknown. His residence in Gate Street, then known as Lincoln’s Inn Fields, seems to date from the latter part of 1658 or the very commencement of 1659. A letter from him is extant written from Lincoln’s Inn Fields, dated 9th February, 1658–9, while one dated 20th July, 1658 is written from “Graies Inn.”[^[56]] Apparently he took the house on the occasion of his marriage, as in an undated letter, after mentioning certain family bereavements, he proceeds: “I was [thus] driven to meditat on a settlement of myself; and did therefore accept of such an oportunitie, as it pleased God about that time to offer mee, of adventuringe upon marriage, w^ch I have donn upon such grounds as you have all waies heretofore proposed to myself, my wife being a widdowe, about my own yeares, never having had a child; of a fortune capable of giving a reasonable assistance to mine, and of a humour privat and retired. Soe that I am now become a settled person in a house of my own in Lincolnes Inn Fields.”[^[57]] His house was famous, and both Evelyn and Pepys have, in their diaries, left a description of it. The former thus records a visit paid by him on 1st July, 1664. “Went to see Mr. Povey’s elegant house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where the perspective in his court, painted by Streeter, is indeed excellent, with the vases in imitation of porphyry, and fountains; the inlaying of his closet; above all, his pretty cellar and ranging of his wine-bottles.” Pepys had been there a few weeks before, and under date of 29–30th May, 1664, writes: “Thence with Mr. Povy home to dinner; where extraordinary cheer. And after dinner up and down to see his house. And in a word, methinks, for his perspective upon his wall in his garden, and the springs rising up with the perspective in the little closet; his room floored above with woods of several colours, like but above the best cabinetwork I ever saw; his grotto and vault, with his bottles of wine, and a well therein to keep them cool; his furniture of all sorts; his bath at the top of his house, good pictures, and his manner of eating and drinking; do surpass all that ever I did see of one man in all my life.”

Charles Catton, the elder, was born in Norwich in 1728. He was apprenticed to a London coach painter, and attained eminence, not only in this branch of the profession, but as a painter of landscapes, cattle and subject pictures. He was appointed the king’s coach painter, and was one of the foundation members of the Royal Academy. He died in Judd Place, in 1798.

For a number of years (1776–1781) his son, Charles Catton, the younger, is shown in the Royal Academy Catalogues as residing at his father’s house in Gate Street. He was born in London in 1756, and acquired a certain reputation as a scene-painter and topographical draughtsman. He died in the United States in 1819.

In the Council’s collection are:—

Exterior of No. 3 and cross to the memory of Mr. Booker, 1837 (photograph).

[^[58]]Joinery details on first floor of No. 3 (measured drawing).

The Ship Tavern, Gate Street—exterior, showing Little Turnstile (photograph).

Twyford Buildings—View of court in 1906 (photograph).

XXV.—HIGH HOLBORN, BETWEEN LITTLE TURNSTILE AND KINGSWAY.

In 1592 a Commission on Incroached Lands reported[^[59]] the existence of certain property in St. Giles, held without any grant, state, or demise from the sovereign. On 29th August, 1609, James I. granted the whole of this to Robert Angell and John Walker. As the point is of importance, the description of the premises included in the grant is here given in some detail.[^[60]]

“All that one messuage of ours with appurtenances in the tenure of Thomas Greene, and one cottage with appurtenances, with garden, in the tenure of Thomas Roberts, situated in the parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields ... and all those four cottages with appurtenances lying and being on the south side of the public way leading from the said town called St. Giles-in-the-Fields towards Holborne ... and all those small cottages built within the small pightell called Pale Pingle, lying and being within the parish of St. Giles opposite the aforesaid cottages, namely, on the north side of the royal way between the town of St. Giles aforesaid ... and Holborne.”

In 1650 a survey[^[61]] was made of certain property “late belonginge to Charles Stuart, late king of England,” and included therein were a number of premises, which extended along the south side of High Holborn for a distance of 234½ feet eastwards from Little Queen Street, and the easternmost house of which was The Falcon.

To the reversion in fee farm of this property a Mr. Gibbert laid claim, basing his pretensions on the identification of the property with certain of that included in the grant of James I. above referred to, and the surveyors reviewed at length his title, annexing a “plott of y^e ground” (Plate 2). The conclusion to which they came was, that it was “clere and aparent” that Green’s messuage and Roberts’ cottage and garden, together with the four cottages opposite the Pale Pingle, were the tenements granted to Gibbert, and that these were “at the least 40^tie pole” distant from the houses which he claimed. “Soe y^t his clayme in those aforesaid houses is very unreasonable, false, imperfect and untrue. And wee, whose names are heerunto subscribed, shall (if Gibbert should bee so uncivell or shameles heereafter to lay clayme to them before yo^r hono^rs) make it clerely appeare to the contrary if at any tyme required.”

In spite of this emphatic condemnation of the unfortunate Mr. Gibbert, there can be no doubt that the surveyors were wrong. They seem entirely to have overlooked the possibility that the houses of Green and Roberts were not adjacent to the four cottages opposite the Pale Pingle; in fact, a perusal of the royal grant is sufficient to make it reasonably certain that they were quite distinct. The matter is, however, capable of definite proof.

A fortnight after the grant by James I., Angell and Walker conveyed the whole of the property to Richard Reade and Henry Huddleston,[^[62]] and they in turn, on 23rd November, 1610, sold it to John Lee.[^[63]] In the indenture accompanying this sale the two first mentioned houses are described as “all that messuage or tenement with appurtenances, late in the tenure of one Thomas Greene ... now called the signe of The Falcon, also one messuage or tenement or cottage there late in the tenure of one Thomas Roberts.”

It is quite clear therefore that Gibbert was right in his contention, and that the premises extending from Little Queen Street up to and including The Falcon had had their origin in the house of Green and the cottage of Roberts, which had first been officially noticed in 1592. There is also evidence (see below) that the land included in the grant reached as far east as Little Turnstile.

With the above information it is possible to date the interesting plan (Plate 2) appended by the surveyors to their report. It will be apparent that this has almost exclusive reference to the property granted to Angell and Walker in 1609. Thus, there are shown the four cottages by the White Hart, opposite the Pale Pingle, the Pale Pingle itself, and the land extending from Little Turnstile to Little Queen Street, including Green’s premises, the only building which in the royal grant is dignified with the name of “house.” It is therefore suggested with confidence that the plan in question is a copy of the one appended to the grant of 1609. With this assumption the title “Queene streete,” given to the still unformed thoroughfare entering Purse Field is in entire accord.[^[64]]

Immediately after or shortly before Lee’s purchase, additional buildings were erected, for on 11th December, 1610, he and Nicholas Hawley sold The Falcon to William Woodward,[^[65]] “with all yards, wayes, waste groundes, stables and appurtenances,” excepting, however, from the sale “four little houses, cottages or tenements latelie builded on the west side of the Falcon yarde.” Moreover, in 1612–13, the same vendors sold to William Lane, junior, one messuage, two cottages, two gardens, and a rood of land with appurtenances in the parish of St. Giles.[^[66]] As in 1661 the property immediately to the west of Little Turnstile is described as “now or late” in the possession of Mistress Lane,[^[67]] it is practically certain that the land sold in 1612 was identical therewith, and Hollar’s plan of 1658 (Plate 3), which shows the area fully built on, indicates the development which had taken place in the course of the half century.

Building on the remaining portion of the land had also greatly increased.[^[68]] The survey of 1650 contains a detailed description of the property, giving much interesting information as to the building materials, arrangement of the rooms, outhouses, etc. The following is a list of the premises. In most cases there were garrets in addition to the storeys mentioned.

The Falcon (2 storeys), and a house (3 storeys) in the rear. Frontage 15 feet. (Present No. 233.)

A house of three storeys. Frontage 33 feet. (Present No. 232 and site of New Turnstile.)

The King’s Head Inn (3 storeys), with an addition (2 storeys), a gateway, a smith’s shop with room, stables, sadler’s house, tenement of 2 storeys, shed and coachhouses, houses of office. Frontage 54 feet. (Present Nos. 229–231.)

Two small tenements lying in front of The King’s Head (3 storeys), a house (3 storeys), with small back addition. Frontage 19 feet.

A house (3 storeys), a garden with coach house and stable. Frontage 26 feet. (The site of these last two houses is now occupied by the Holborn Station of the Piccadilly tube railway.)

The Gate Tavern (3 storeys.) Special mention is made of the “very faire and spacious dyneinge room, 38 feet in length,” on the first floor. A bowling alley and gardens were in the rear. Frontage 38 feet. The site is occupied partly by the Holborn station and partly by Kingsway.

A house of 3 storeys, with a garden containing a small tenement of 2 storeys. Frontage 16 feet.

A similar house, with a garden containing a “small decayed tenement.” Frontage 16 feet.

A tenement of 2 storeys, with a shop on the ground floor, a back addition of 2 storeys. In the garden behind were two small tenements of 2 storeys. Frontage 17½ feet. The site of the three last mentioned houses is now covered by Kingsway.

It will be seen from the above that New Turnstile was not included in the original scheme for building. It is not shown in Morden and Lea’s Map of 1682, nor in the map accompanying Hatton’s New Guide to London of 1708, but appears in the sewer rate book for 1723.

XXVI.—No. 211, HIGH HOLBORN (Demolished).

General description and date of structure.

It is very difficult to say when the south side of High Holborn, between the sites of Kingsway and the Holborn Public Library, was first built upon. Perhaps, even in Elizabeth’s reign, there were some scattered buildings here, but certainly nothing like a continuous line of houses. There seem to have been no building operations on a large scale, until after the acquisition of the lease of Purse Field by Sir Charles Cornwallis, in 1613.[^[69]] Cornwallis sub-leased certain portions of the Holborn frontage, extending south to the site of Parker Street, and on these portions houses had been erected before 1650. No records of the sub-leases have been found, but a part at least of the frontage to Holborn had been sub-leased before 1634. Two years previously Charles I. had confirmed a grant, made by his father to Trinity College, of six markets and twelve fairs for the building of their hall. The college sold to Henry Darell two markets and three fairs, and in August, 1634, the latter petitioned to be allowed to set these up in St. Giles on His Majesty’s inheritance.[^[70]] This was granted on 15th December, 1634, a writ of Ad Quod Damnum issued, and on 10th March, 1634–5, an inquisition by a jury was held, from which it appears that the proposal was to hold the markets and fairs “in locis vocatis le pightells et Pursfeild.”[^[71]] The project aroused keen opposition on the part of the Corporation of the City of London,[^[72]] and in spite of its revival in 1637,[^[73]] was eventually abandoned.

It is possible to identify the site of the proposed market, inasmuch as in 1650 the frontage to Holborn between Little Queen Street and Newton Street consisted of two “ranges” of buildings known as Shenton’s tenements and Dayrell’s buildings, and it is clear that the latter represent Henry Darell’s proposed market. Darell no doubt had already obtained his lease before applying for a grant for a market, but no houses would have been erected until after the failure of his scheme. It is known[^[74]] that one of his plots were let on a building lease on 23rd November, 1639. The erection of buildings on this part of the Holborn frontage may therefore be assigned provisionally to the year 1640.

Shenton’s tenements consisted of six houses in High Holborn and five in Little Queen Street, extending 100 feet along the former and 115½ feet along the latter thoroughfare. Their site is therefore wholly covered by the Holborn Restaurant.