Tag Archives: london

21Mar/15

Temple Bar

London Stories, , , , , ,

I’ve been wondering for a while why there is a Fleet Street sign on the Old Bank of England building, but a there’s a Strand sign on the end of the Royal Courts of Justice, just 20m apart. Somewhere between the two, on a straight piece of road, Fleet St changes its name. I found the reason yesterday; did you notice the Victorian needle monument in the middle of the road, with Queen Victoria and Albert on the base and a griffin on the top? Underneath the griffin, if you walk around the monument, you can read “Temple Bar formerly stood here.”

It was one of the gates to London City – along with Ludgate, Moorgate, Newgate, Aldgate, Cripplegate, Aldersgate, and a couple of others I can’t remember now. The Victorians pulled it down because it was causing traffic jams, but they put a monument in its place because Temple Bar has royal significance. It was reassembled as a grand entrance for the beer baron Sir Henry Meux in Cheshunt, Herts. His wife was a banjo-playing woman often accused of being posh above her humble origins. I often wonder if she was the original Lady Muck. The City of London rediscovered the gate, brought it home, set it up and reopened it in 2004. This is the view you would have seen from the Strand as you were about to enter the City.

Walk down Newgate Street from Holborn Viaduct and near the end turn right into Rose alley, which empties into Paternoster Square. Walk past the London Stock Exchange, through the archway to St Pauls and then look behind you. That is Temple Bar. I think the room at the top was the gate house.

Walk down Newgate Street from Holborn Viaduct and near the end turn right into Rose alley, which empties into Paternoster Square. Walk past the London Stock Exchange, through the archway to St Pauls and then look behind you. That is Temple Bar. I think the room at the top was the gate house.

Word has it that it was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and it is the only surviving gate to the City. The City fathers used to stick the heads of executed prisoners from Newgate prison on spikes over its top, but the custom died out in the 1750s.

Here are the two statues on Temple Bar that you can see as you walk into Paternoster Square from St Pauls Cathedral of Charles I and Charles II. These are the restored originals by John Bushnell.

Charles I

Charles I

Charles II

Charles II

Below is the monument the Victorians left behind in Fleet St to mark where Temple Bar used to stand. You can see Queen Victoria looking out on this side of the monument, and beneath her is the ironwork below; an incredibly detailed relief showing the queen processing to the Opening of Parliament and all the excitement it caused.

Monument to Temple Bar in Fleet St.

Monument to Temple Bar in Fleet St.

On the side of the Fleet St monument that faces the Royal Courts of Justice is a statue of Prince Albert and beneath him is the bas relief below, showing Queen Victoria and Prince Albert on their way to St Pauls. The Royals would have processed from Buckingham Palace down the Strand, so they would have passed through Temple Bar then along Fleet St and up Ludgate Hill to ascend the front steps of St Pauls.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert going to St Pauls

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert going to St Pauls

The bar may originally have been no more that a chain across the road and got its name from being immediately outside The Temple, and Temple Church. It was never sited on the line of the Roman wall, so it did not accurately mark the boundary, but you had to pass through it to enter the City

Queen Victoria on her way to open Parliament

Queen Victoria on her way to open Parliament

If you go to the Lord Mayor’s Show and stand somewhere near St Paul’s you will see an ancient ritual where the mayor presents his sword to the Queen, or her representative, and she formally hands it back. This practice used to happen at Temple Bar, in which the mayor, on the City side of the bar, would hand over his sword as a sign of loyalty.

While we are talking about the Old Bank of England building in Fleet St, as I did in the first paragraph above, did you know that Sweeney Todd “The demon barber of Fleet St” had his barber and surgeon shop on one side, murdered and butchered his victims in the vaults underneath; and gave the meat to be used in pies sold by his mistress, on the other side?

21Mar/15

Smithfield Garden

London Stories, , , , , ,

London is one of the most beautiful, and powerful cities on Earth with a mixed and fascinating 2000-year history. I work in one small corner of the City, on Holborn Circus, and within a 20min walk I can visit some charming, historical and interesting places. I am going to show you a few of them. I shall measure all distances from Holborn Circus.

In Smithfield Garden, close to the church of St Bartholmew the Great, is a particularly gruesome reminder of what we used to do to protect the State, in this case against Protestantism. In the reign of Queen Mary, Elizabeth’s elder sister, it was the practice to try, and then execute, citizens for their religious beliefs. The method of execution was to tie a group of them to stakes, surround them with bunches of dried sticks, and then set fire to the whole thing. These were referred to as “The fires of Smithfield” and they drew a cheery, noisy crowd. Go down to Smithfield Garden and see the monument to “The martyrs of Smithfield.”

Smithfield martyr's memorial

Smithfield martyr’s memorial

Protestant Alliance memorial

You can see a more extensive list of these unfortunate citizens in the church of St James, Clerkenwell. As you enter the church look for a large black board leaning against a wall on your right. The names in gold on the board are some of the 200 or so people whom Queen Mary executed by burning during the 1550s. The illustration, below, is on a board in the Smithfield meat market.

Exceuting the heretics, Smithfield

Exceuting the heretics, Smithfield

Just 10m away you’ll see the monument to Sir William Wallace who was also executed in Smithfield Garden, this time by being hanged, drawn and quartered. For some time his head was displayed on a pike on London Bridge. Don’t believe the ending of the movie “Braveheart”; this was a horrible torture lasting at least four hours, during which an expert executioner would keep the prisoner alive until the very last.

Sir William Wallace memorial

Sir William Wallace memorial

Henry VIII, below, gave a warrant to St Bartholomew the Less to allow it to be the only church in London to have a hospital as its exclusive parish – and still does. He is standing, using his favoured Holbein pose, in the gate to the church of St Bartholomew the Less, and you wouldn’t know there was a nice little church unless you first of all wondered why Henry is there, and go exploring the short lane behind the gate. In the church are memorials to nurses and surgeons.

Henry VIII outside St Bartholomew the Less

Henry VIII outside St Bartholomew the Less

Nearby is Cloth Fair. Sir John Bettjemen used to live here, and numbers 41 and 42 are said to be the oldest lived-in houses in London, being built close to 1600. In Medieval times, on St Bartholomew’s Day there was a cloth fair associated with healing and miracles in the church of St Bartholomew the Great. All kinds of cloth were traded, but eventually, the stalls of other traders and a large amount of entertainment on offer led to a 2-week party called St Bartholomew Fair. This became so rowdy and even violent, it was finally legislated against in the 1850s and closed down.

Cloth Fair

Smithfield is now just a quiet little backwater with St Bart’s Hospital, a beautiful old church and the silent, Victorian buildings of Smithfield Market. And, of course, a lovely little park and garden called Smithfield Garden with the essential Victorian statue exhorting you to lead the Good Life, and on sunny days, a small crowd of local workers enjoying their lunch.

Lunchtime in Smithfield Garden

Lunchtime in Smithfield Garden

Here is a quirky little place in Smithfield. On the door is written Last Passage, above the door is the street sign East Passage, and the address for the Old Red Cow is Back Passage. The sign on the window says it was one of the earliest Ancient Taverns in Smithfield. Bernard Miles and Peter Ustinov frequented the pub and the landlord’s hot toddy was a secret substance in a ginger wine base. I’ll bet you can’t find it!

Ye Old Red Crow

20Mar/15

Lincoln’s Inn

London Stories, , , , ,

Lincoln’s Inn is another of the four great Inns of Court that have dominated London for nearly 1000 years. It covers a large area – if you walk into the gate below right in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, you can leave the Inn on Chancery Lane. I couldn’t fit the entire building into one photo. This picture below shows the library part of the main building and just to my right there is the great Hall, which is the dining room and members area. In the grounds is a beautiful, large Regency building containing lots of legal chambers and behind a central lawn, dominated by a fountain and “Keep off the Grass” signs, there is a long five-storey black brick construction called Old Buildings that dates from the 1600s.

To get there from Holborn, turn left up to High Holborn and walk to Pendrells Oak pub. Turn left into a grubby, smelly (guess why) little lane called Gt Turnstile and follow it into a large square with a park in the middle. The park is called Lincoln’s Inn Gardens, and every street around the park is called Lincoln’s Inn Fields…

The Library, Lincoln’s Inn

The Library, Lincoln’s Inn

There is a nice little kiosk in Lincoln’s Inn Gardens where you can eat lunch, or you can walk through this gate, below, into an altogether much more beautiful and luxurious semi-private garden in Lincoln’s Inn itself, where you can eat your lunch from a brown paper bag and imagine you are a wealthy lawyer.

Lincoln’s Inn main gate

Lincoln’s Inn main gate

Lincoln’s Inn has a very nice chapel with an odd feature. This is the first time I have seen a ground-level crypt. The flagstones in the picture below are actually headstones and you can wander about in the crypt and read the stories of mostly Victorian lawyers. During the Blitz a bomb fell in the courtyard and blew out all the windows. Inside the chapel there are memorials and coats-of-arms of the leaders of Lincoln’s Inn. These men were also powerful members of England’s elite.

The crypt, Lincoln’s Inn Chapel

The crypt, Lincoln’s Inn Chapel

I first read John Donne in high school and then studied him at university. I didn’t realise he was a London poet and the chaplain of Lincoln’s Inn, but I did know he was a clergyman, with the same language of passion for his girlfriend as for his religion. A most interesting chap. This tiny piece of stained glass window, below, which would fit into a saucer, is part of his record in the chapel. There is also an evocative portrait and a coat of arms.

John Donne memorial window in the Chapel of Lincolns Inn

John Donne memorial window in the Chapel of Lincolns Inn.

20Mar/15

Justice in London

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There are two world-famous landmark buildings in London which represent justice in its two major forms – criminal and civil.

This magnificent building, below, the dome of which you can see from our south-facing windows, is the Central Criminal Court in Old Bailey. People usually call it The Old Bailey. Many, many high profile criminal cases have been tried here from all over Britain, not just London cases. It actually sits on the ground previously occupied by Newgate Prison, which was infamous for hangings and terrible conditions for prisoners. The motto over the main doorway says, “Defend the children of the poor & punish the wrongdoer.” It’s accompanied by a relief of Justice reading a (legal?) tome with two maidens, one with a sword, the other with a mirror. The purpose of the sword is obvious enough but the mirror is for reflection – ie thinking about what we are doing.

Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey

Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey

For major civil cases, such as a celebrity suing a newspaper, a divorce or for appeals, you go to the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand and this beautiful Victorian Gothic building on the left (the last great Gothic building in London) is where you’ll end up. There are 1000 rooms and 3 ½ miles of corridors. Admission is free and you can wander in and out of the 88 courtrooms very much as you see fit. Since most hearings and trials are public, you can pop in on any one of them, providing there is actually room for you to enter. Look up the list in the central courtyard to see where the most interesting-looking trial is. A half-hour there can be either most entertaining or incredibly boring.

Royal Courts of Justice, Strand

Royal Courts of Justice, Strand

To get to the Old Bailey from Holborn, walk south down Newgate St. To get to the RCJ, go down New Fetter Lane to the end, turn right and walk about 200m. You’ll pass St Dunstan’s and the Old Bank of England on the way. It’s a fascinating walk.

20Mar/15

Dickens

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I’ve mentioned Dickens a couple of times so far – his “club for tom cats” jibe at Barnard’s Inn, as well as his use of what is now Nancy’s Steps on the Bankside end of London Bridge, and soon you’ll see what he had to say about Staple’s Inn. Near Union St in Bankside there is Copperfield St, the Dickens primary school and the Charles Dickens pub. He came from Chatham and lived in Rochester, where he set some of his novels, but he also lived and worked in Holborn. There is a Dickens House and Museum in 48 Doughty St WC1, just off Grays Inn Rd , where he lived for two years. While there he finished the Pickwick Papers and wrote Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby. To remind himself of his roots, he installed a grille from the Marshalsea Prison where his father was imprisoned for a year for debt. There’s also a Dickens House at 15 Took’s Court, behind Furnival St, but I can’t find out why.

The Old Curiosity Shop

The Old Curiosity Shop

Just behind Holborn Tube station is the Old Curiosity Shop. It’s a Tudor building and if it was thought old in Dickens’ time, then it’s 100yrs older now. Why someone would want to sell antique shoes is beyond me, but that’s what the owner does. A very quiet little street in the middle of the London School of Economics (LSE).

His first job on leaving school was as a legal clerk in Grays Inn and he chose that office as the set for Mr Phunky in one of the Pickwick tales. When he married he and his new wife lived in Furnivals Inn, which was demolished and replaced by the Prudential building on Holborn at the end of the 19th Century. This bust, left, and a plaque on the wall of the Pru, record Dickens’ stay in the former building.

Dickens Statue

Dickens Statue

The picture below is of Wine Office Court, off Fleet St. Dickens uses it in A Tale of Two Cities, but it was a well-known lane on the route to see Dr Johnson, the poet, literary critic and lexicographer, whose house even now is signposted from here, as well as from New Fetter Lane. Dickens also visited the Old Cheshire Cheese pub in this lane.

Entrance to Wine Office Court, off Fleet St

Entrance to Wine Office Court.

This picture below is of Inner Temple Fountain off Fleet St. Dickens mentions it fondly in Barnaby Rudge where “a vagrant ray of sunlight patches the shade of tall houses” and it’s a meeting place for Ruth and Tom in Martin Chuzzlewit.

Inner Temple fountain, off Fleet St

Inner Temple fountain, off Fleet St

 

20Mar/15

Barnard’s Inn

London Stories, , , , ,

This is the entrance to the Hall of Barnard’s Inn. A beautiful, fascinating little courtyard with old date stones, a story on the wall, the coat of arms of the Baden Powell family – and this glorious, small Hall. The Hall itself dates from the late 1300s, but in a chamber beneath, the southern wall is chalk and tiling from the Roman period, 2000 years ago. In 1252 the estate was recorded in the property of the then mayor of London Sir Adam de Basyng, and in the mid 1400s became one of the Inns of Chancery. Law students would enrol here for some time, then move on to Grays Inn, to which Barnards Inn and Staples Inn were associated.

The Hall, Barnard’s Inn

The Hall, Barnard’s Inn

It’s a strange place; to get to; from Holborn Circus walk up Holborn, cross Fetter Lane and look for the Barnards Inn archway on your left, with a Gresham College sign. Go boldly down the short alley and it opens out into this courtyard. Young couples sit here eating their lunch and on a sunny day the courtyard is warm and cosy, with historic carved stones set into the walls and an interesting story about the Mercers’ School carved into a large slate. After you have explored the courtyard you can move onwards under another arch into an altogether more modern courtyard, left, then beyond that again, back onto New Fetter Lane. It’s hard to tell you have almost turned back on yourself.

The courtyard, Barnard’s Inn

The courtyard, Barnard’s Inn

This Flemish lady shows Sir Thomas Gresham’s status as Royal Agent of Antwerp.

Sir Thomas Gresham’s status as Royal Agent of Antwerp.

Sir Thomas Gresham’s status as Royal Agent of Antwerp.

In Dickens’ time, Barnards Inn had fallen badly into disrepair and in Great Expectations young Pip came to London and found “Barnard to be … a fiction, and his inn the dingiest collection of shabby buildings ever squeezed together in a rank corner as a club for tom cats.“ In the 1890s the Mercers’ Company renovated the building and moved their boys school here from College Hill for about 60 years, closing in 1959.

The whole site has been purchased by Gresham College and you can now attend free lectures here, in this lovely Hall, at lunchtimes or about 6pm, mostly on Tuesdays. The Gresham Professors were set up in the 1500s and studied and taught the following disciplines: Astronomy, Divinity, Geometry, Law, Music, Physic (medicine) and Rhetoric. Even today the lectures follow the same themes – great topics, though – “Mathematics in the modern age – The 18th Century; Crossing bridges” and “Handel and London” and “Should we take our leaders as seriously as they take themselves?.”

20Mar/15

Camden Lock

London Stories, , , , ,

Strictly speaking, Camden Lock isn’t in our neighbourhood at all, since you can’t walk there and back in your lunch hour. However, many of the street signs around here say that parts of Holborn are in the Camden Borough, and if you use the Tube, with a couple of changes, from Chancery Lane to Camden and back, you should do the round trip well inside an hour, with time to have a look at the sights.

Here is one of those sights. He is a character, isn’t he, fully in line with other tattooed, bespangled, leather-clad lads in the Camden Lock Market. Nice chap, too, munching on his enchilada and talking to his Goth girlfriend who was as tattooed, pierced and silver-ringed as he was.

Camden Lock punk

Camden Lock punk

Below is the front of the PunkyFish on Chalk Farm Rd. Many of the shops and arcades in Camden are highly decorated like this. Lots of them have movement as well as this 3-D effect. The traffic in Camden High St is as dense and loud as anywhere in London.

There are about a dozen large street-style markets in Camden, and they say there are over 700 stall-holders. I believe them; Camden is a market paradise. There is even a shop on Camden High St selling leather and chains called Amsterdam in London, in the fond belief, I suppose, that Amsterdamers drape themselves in leather and chains, perhaps just like the Camdenners like to do.

The Punky Fish, Camden

The Punky Fish, Camden

Camden Lock itself, below, is on Regent’s Canal. You can follow the towpath 2 ½ miles all the way through London Zoo to Little Venice, but not in your lunch-hour of course.

On the opposite side of the lock in this picture is the Camden Lock market. We had a great time exploring here. Lots of noise, food, clothes and jewellery.

Camden Lock

Camden Lock

20Mar/15

Bloomsbury

London Stories, , , ,

There is a connection between these three pictures: the sign in New Zealand near Matamata, Bloomsbury Square Gardens in the sun at lunchtime, and the stables at Woburn Abbey. The connection is the Duke of Bedford.

You will remember from your high school history that the Duke of Bedford was a prime mover in ensuring that  Elizabeth I succeeded to the throne and he was there in the front row when she was crowned. This rather loose-knit family includes the Russells, Churchills and Spencers – as in Bertrand, Winston and Diana.

Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire is the family seat and a story is told about a walnut tree in Chenies, Bucks, which was planted from a nut that fell from the branch upon which Henry VIII hanged the last abbot of Woburn.

Bloomsbury Square Gardens

Bloomsbury Square Gardens

You will remember, too, the Bloomsbury Group of the early 20th Century, they used to meet in the Bloomsbury Square area – Virginia Woolf the author, Keynes the economist – the intellectual stimulus of the area drew them here. Just over the back of the gardens is the British Museum, a couple of streets away is the Gt Ormond Street hospital, nearby is the Shaftsbury Theatre. The University of London is here, as is the School for Oriental and African Studies. Look for Great Russell St, Woburn Place and Isaac D’Israeli.

Bloomsbury Stud, Matamata, New Zealand

Bloomsbury Stud, Matamata, New Zealand

Finding Bloomsbury is easy – walk up High Holborn, turn right into Southampton Place, cross at the pedestrian crossing and walk into the gardens. Stand in the gardens a moment and observe – a wonderfully eclectic crowd passes you by: tourists and intellectuals roam the museum while students from the university mingle with the strays of St Giles. Look for the group clustered on the steps of the English Language Institute, and stroll the lovely tree-lined vista of Bedford Row to admire its beautiful four storey brick apartments now turned legal chambers. Mind you, they do back on to Gray’s Inn, so it’s no wonder the lawyers took them over. Much of the area lies within the Borough of Holborn, so it’s nice to see street signs that make you feel at home – so much cosier than Camden and Westminster.

The horse studs in Woburn and in Matamata are the same – the family spends six months in the sun in NZ and then the same again in England.

The stables, Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire.

The stables, Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire.

20Mar/15

A children’s nursery rhyme

London Stories, , , , , , ,

Here is the text of the children’s poem “Oranges and Lemons”, as published in 1774. The Victorians added lots of lines and silly rhymes, but we’ll stick with the earliest printed version. If you listen to the cadence, it cleverly mimics the sounds of English change-bell ringing. We have already seen St Mary le Bow.

“Oranges and lemons” say the bells of St Clements
“You owe me five farthings” say the bells of St Martins
“When will you pay me?”  say the bells of Old Bailey
“When I grow rich” say the bells of Shoreditch
“When will that be?” say the bells of Stepney
“I do not know” says the great bell of Bow.

Oranges and lemons

Oranges and lemons

This is St Clement, Eastcheap. It used to be close to the wharf where Spanish oranges and lemons were unloaded and it pealed a bell when the ship arrived.

St Clement, Eastcheap

St Martin Orgar was a tiny church. All you can see now is the blue plaque marking its site in Martin Lane near Monument. Not replaced after the Great Fire of 1666.

St Martin Orgar, Martin Lane

St Martin Orgar, Martin Lane

The bells of Old Bailey are actually those of St Sepulcre, Newgate. And the mention of Old Bailey is for Newgate Prison, most used for incarcerating those in debt. The tenor bell tolled on the morning of execution day and up to 100,000 people would turn up to celebrate and party. There is a bricked-up stone staircase in St Sepulcre which used to lead to a passage under the road to Newgate Prison, and prisoners would be brought to St Sepulcre for final prayers. The execution handbell, below, would be rung by a prison official as he walked to “The Tyburn Tree” in front of the procession. There’s a story that the prisoners were given alcohol to drink (a tot of rum? Small beer?) before they were loaded onto the dray that took them to Tyburn, which stood where Marble Arch is now. During the procession, sympathetic members of the public might approach the prisoners and offer them some drink. The gaoler would say,

“Oh, sorry, Ma’am ‘e can’t take drink now; he’s on the wagon…”

St Sepulchre, Holborn Viaduct

St Sepulchre, Holborn Viaduct

This is the bell that was rung at the head of processions taking the condemned from Newgate Prison to Tyburn.

The St Sepulcre execution handbell

The St Sepulcre execution handbell.

 I have not found “the bells of Shoreditch” nor “the bells of Stepney” so this story will need to end here, until I have.

St Clement Danes church, in The Strand near the Royal Courts of Justice, likes to advertise that it is the church of “Oranges and Lemons” but St Clement, Eastcheap, has a much better claim.

20Mar/15

St Mary le Bow

London Stories, , , , , , , ,

When I was a kid, St Mary le Bow WAS London. We would crowd around the radio (yes, really) in my home town of Rotorua, New Zealand, at dinnertime, 6pm, and we would hear a peal of bells that gave us goosebumps and a calm, carefully modulated male voice would say “From the BBC World Service, this is London calling.” Then would follow the news.

“That’s the sound of the Bow Bells,” said Dad. “My elder brother, Fred, was born in Islington, and he could hear those bells, so he is a true London cockney – born within the sound of the Bow Bells.” I met Uncle Fred several times and he was indeed a cockney. In past times, when there was no roar of London traffic, and the buildings weren’t so tall, you could hear the Bow Bells all the way out to the Hackney Marshes, but in the end it’s the accent that counts and Uncle Fred certainly had it.

The Whitechapel Bell Foundry in London, which made the bells for the Wren church, told me the church was set alight by nearby burning buildings on 11 May 1941. The tower was badly damaged and the bells crashed down, breaking all twelve of them. It took until 1961 for the bells to be restored to their original position and rung again, the new bells being cast from the metal of the old.

St Mary le Bow

St Mary le Bow

No doubt you are familiar with the strange little poem “Oranges and Lemons”; the line “I do not know, said the great bell of Bow,” refers to St Mary le Bow. In Medieval times the bell was rung for the nine o’clock curfew – which probably also meant closing the gate on London Bridge to prevent further traffic to and from the markets of Bankside.

There was a Saxon church on this site in Cheapside, but it was build over by the Normans and the crypt, which dates from 1080, is a sign of how anxious they were to assert their superiority over the Londoners of the time. The spire on the Norman church was a well-known landmark and when the church was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, Wren replaced it with this most distinctive spire, which you can see from here. The great bell (number 12) is still called Bow.

The spire of St Mary le Bow

The spire of St Mary le Bow

The body of the church was completely destroyed in the blitz but Wren’s beautiful masterpiece, the tower, had survived and the church as we see it now was rebuilt in new stone, whilst many of the old stones were recycled in the new building and some of the memorials were able to be restored to niches in the walls.

St Mary le Bow

St Mary le Bow, interior