Ancient London

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 241, 31 December 1927, Page 10

Ancient London

f ~ ~ THE CITY’S GROWTH. ] PLAGUES, FIRES AND HIS- i TORIC INSTITUTIONS j 1

i 1 INTERESTING OLD DIARY There has recently come into my possession, says an English writer, a copy of an old Guide to London, which reads to-day like a fairy tale. It is undated, but it was published about 1800 from the indications given in the text. The complete title is “Kearsley's Strangers Guide, or Companion through London and Westminster and the country around w'ithin the circuit of fourteen miles,” and it purports to contain “a description of the situation, antiquity and curiosities of every place” within this area, with map and plan.

The map shows places such as Chelsea, Newington Butts, Paddington, Stepney, etc., as being right outside the town, while Uxbridge is almost oil the map. Extracts are interesting and amusing. “In the year 1670 there was a gate erected called Temple Bar, which terminates the bounds of the city westward." This city has undergone great calamities of various hinds, but the two last were most remarkable; that is the plague in 1665 which swept away 68,596 persons, and the fire in 1666 which burnt down 13,200 dwelling-houses; in memory of this there is a pillar erected, called the Monument, near the place where it began, which Is one of the most remarkable structures in the city.” “This ancient and orpulent city has now ingulphed one other city, one borough and forty-two villages.” Some of the villages such as Finsbury, Whitechapel, etc., are recognisable as present day parishes, but who has heard of Mora, Wenlaxbarn, Norton Falgate, or Grainge. It gives the breadth of the city ‘from the stones end at IXewington Butts in Surrey to Jeffreys almshouses in Kingland Hoad, Middlesex three miles and 170 yards,” though in other places it is “only two miles and a-half.” There were “26 wards, governed by as many aldermen, 263 common council men, a recorder, two sheriffs, a chamberlain, a town clerk and many other officers.” EARLY STATISTICS

There were then “the asylum for female orphans, the Magdalen Mouse for seduced women, the hospital for old and disabled sailors, the hospital fo.r old and disabled soldiers.” This turns one’s thoughts to Chelsea, and looking it up, one finds that “the first projector of this magnificent structure was Sir Stephen Fox. “Me could not bear,” he said, “to see the common soldiers who had spent their strength in our service, reduced to beg at our doors,” and himself contributed upwards of £13,000. The number of Sedan chairs in use is given as 400 and Hackey coaches, 1,000. Population, 1,250,000 and “an eminent percentage of the Corporation,” made a computation of the amounts expended weekly in the city on provisions. These included:

2,000 pigs at 2s 6d apiece. 500 dozen chickens at' 9s per dozen. 30 tons of wine of all sorts at id a day (per person). . . In bread of all sorts, white and brow*n, at Id a day for one million of people for one week, £19,166.

In milk, butter, cheese, etc., at Id a day for one million of people for a week, £29,166 13s 4d.

It is an interesting speculation as to how this “eminent personage” made 3* difference of £IO,OOO 13s 4d on the cost of the two latter items, in spite of the announcement that “ . . . you are also to understand that in these computations everything is reckoned rather lower than higher in each.” Turning to the alphabetical index, one wonders what purpose the Air Bank Office in Craven Street, Strand, served, though there is less ambiguity about Bagnigge Wells, which was “a public tea garden, near the Foundling Hospital, where the ground, which was lately a useless swamp, is now laid out in the most agreeable manner.!

It has a mineral spring, where the company resort in the morning to drink for their healths, and in the evening, for other amusements.” Picking at random we, find, Barber’s Hall is in Monkwell Street, near Wood Street, not far from Crippiegate Church and is esteemed one of the best productions of Ingib Jones. The upper part is formed out of one of the Towers of London. Wall. The theatre, for the operations, is elliptical, and finely contrived. Since the separation of the company of the surgeons from that of the barber's, the building is in a manner deserted. A fine picture by Holbein preserved in this hall, commemorates the event. Henry, in all his bluffness of majesty, is represented giving them their new charter; among them is Dr. Butts, immortalised by Shakespeare, in his play of Henry VIII. There are several natural curiosities preserved here, but greatly neglected since the surgeons wore separated from them.”

Battersea, a village in Surrey, on the River Thames, 4 miles from London. The gardens about this place are noted for producing the finest asparagus.

Details of Blackfriars Bridge are given. The gross produce of the toll on this bridge, from 1775 to 1779, was £26,367 13s 6*d and the loss upon bad gold, silver and copper was £2,058 12s 3d. Across this bridge was “the most superb entrance to the metropolis, through Chatham Square, which, within memory, was a muddy and genuine ditch, called Fleet Ditch, at the mouth of which this bridge now stands, which s an honour to the nation:”