During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the infamous Tyburn tree was erected. This awful device was triangular in construction, each of its three oak beams capable of hanging eight miscreants – that is to say, twenty-four at once should the need arise. It was popularly known as the ‘Triple Tree’, ‘the Deadly Never-green’ and ‘the Three-Legged Mare’.
Hanging days were virtually public holidays and such occasions became known as the Tyburn Fair. Thousands would line the streets from Newgate Prison to Tyburn to watch as the condemned were transported to their place of execution. At the hanging on 14 November 1724 of the notorious escapee, Jack Sheppard, it is thought that 200,000 people watched – equivalent to one-third of the capital’s entire population at the time.
The phrase ‘getting back on the wagon’ – meaning never to drink again – arises from the journey made by the condemned along this route. At St Giles they were traditionally offered a bowl of wine – their last ever drink – before getting back on ‘the wagon’, a cart that was taking them to their death. The rope that was to hang them was already hung around their necks and their coffins lay at their feet.
At the place of execution, grandstands were built to accommodate paying spectators, while ballad-singers played hurriedly penned songs about that day’s criminals in the hope of earning a few pennies. Meanwhile, there was a thriving trade in ‘penny bloods’, one-page news sheets detailing the life histories, crimes and sometimes even the last words of the doomed. Hogarth depicted such a scene in plate 11 of Industry and Idleness.
The right of the condemned to speak their last free from the threat of any further punishment may well have been the tradition that led to the creation of Speakers’ Corner. The last public hanging at Tyburn took place on 7 November 1783, when one John Austin was executed for highway robbery. A month later, public hanging resumed, but this time outside Newgate Prison.
Vauxhall Gardens
Lambeth
LET ME SIT AND SADLY PONDER
on the glories of Vauxhall;
Sink this mouldy mildewed present;
from its grave the past recall.
Is’t the punch that stirs my fancy—
or the gooseberry champagne,
Sets phantasmal shapes careering
through the chambers of my brain?
PUNCH 1859
Early records show that in 1621 a manor house was owned by the Vaux family, who were successful vitners. By the 1660’s the gardens surrounding ‘Vaux Hall’ were a popular resort for city dwellers. The season lasted from May until August, and guests would wander the site listening to the birds, sharing picnics and enjoying music, often also provided by the guests themselves.
Samuel Pepys visited numerous times during the period he kept his diary – between 1660 and 1669. He first visited in 1662, but under his entry for 28 May, 1667 he writes ‘Went by water to Fox (sic) Hall, and there walked in Spring Gardens. A great deal of company; the weather and gardens pleasant, and cheap going thither: for a man may go to spend what he will, or nothing at all: all is one. But to hear the nightingale and other birds, and here fiddles and there a harp, and here a Jew’s harp, and there laughing, and there [to see] fine people walking, is very diverting.’
One of the main attractions of the gardens was their appeal for those wishing to meet members of the opposite sex – the long arbours and walk-ways were perfect for hiding from anxious parents. It soon however became a resort of prostitutes. in 1712, Sir Roger de Coverley, was interrupted by one such, during a leisurely stroll in the moonlight. She invited him to buy her a bottle of ale, and his reply was that ‘She was a wanton Baggage, and bid her go about her Business.’ He complained on leaving that he would rather ‘if there were more Nightingales, and fewer Strumpets’.
Running for nearly 200 years, and through the reigns of ten monarchs, its greatest period was during the management of Jonathan Tyers, from 1727 until his death in 1767. His best-known events were a series of ‘Ridotto al Fresco’, which were masked balls.
Vauxhall remained a fashionable venue, hosting the latest musicians and contemporary theatre, redesigning its gardens as taste and style demanded until the end of the 18th century when its popularity faltered.
The opening of Nine Elms railway terminus in 1838 effectively ended the gardens rural seclusion. The very last night of opening was 25 July 1859, the land being sold off for building development that was to devour rural south London over the next fifty years.
Walbrook
THE RIVER WAS THE SOURCE OF FRESH WATER FOR the Romans when they founded the city. It rose in Finsbury, ran along the route of Curtain Road and Apollo Street, through Bank and into the Thames at the site of today’s Cannon Street Station.
It was too narrow and shallow to be used for navigation, although excavation has revealed a Roman wooden dock where it entered the Thames. Its route to the river after passing Bank is remembered in a nearby eponymous street name.
It was long suspected that the Romans built a temple here on its banks, and in 1889 a relief of the god Mithras was discovered – he is shown slaying a bull. At the same time a statue of a reclining river god was also found, 20 feet deep. The area was devastated by Second World War bombing and further discoveries were made in 1954.
Records show that by the late 13th century the river was so filthy that city officials decreed it must be ‘made free from dung and other nuisances’. One hundred years later it was again reported to be totally blocked by rubbish thrown in by residents who lived along its banks. When St Margarets Lothbury was rebuilt in 1440 much of the river was covered over on orders of the Lord Mayor, Robert Lange, who paid for much of the work. By the time John Stow published his seminal Survey of London in 1598, the river had gone and Stow says ‘the course of Walbrook is now hidden underground, and thereby hardly known’.
Watermen
THE THAMES WAS THE MAIN THOROUGHFARE of London until the modern period of bridge building that started after the construction of Westminster Bridge in 1750.
Unregulated and often chaotic, the state first attempted to control river traffic with an act of Parliament in 1514 aimed at fixing fares. A further act in 1555 drew up the ‘Rulers of all Watermen and Wherrymen working between Gravesend and Windsor’. This led to the formation of the Company of Watermen and Lightermen. Their livery hall, built in 1780, is still open at St Mary’s Hill, EC4.
By 1600 it is estimated that there were 40,000 people earning a living transporting people and goods across the river. The Company ran a seven-year apprenticeship, something like the Knowledge for today’s black cab drivers. Watermen were prone to disease, due to the river pollution, especially after the invention of the flush toilet, which turned the Thames effectively into an open sewer. Boatmen faced two other great risks – violent crime, normally committed at night, and attempting to ‘shoot the bridge’.
The ancient London Bridge so restricted the flow of the river, due to the numerous waterwheels constructed between its nineteen piers, that the water rushed with awesome force between the central navigable arch. The difference in height was over 5ft at high tide, and it is estimated that 30 people lost their lives in the furious waters every year.
Whitehall Palace
Westminster
WITH OVER 1500 ROOMS STRETCHING ACROSS 23 acres from Northumberland Avenue to the current Houses of Parliament, this was once one of the largest royal palaces in Europe.
The home of the British monarchy from as early as 1049, its heyday was during the reign of Henry VIII. His annexing of Cardinal Wolsey’s property – along with his expansion of the palace (adding tennis courts, a bowling alley, a tilting yard used for jousting and a cockpit) – cemented its place at the heart of government, a position the area has retained to this day. It was here that Henry VIII married both Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour.
In 1622 James I had the Banqueting Hall built. It was designed by Inigo Jones, with a ceiling painted by Sir Paul Reubens. Ironically, it was outside this last major Whitehall
expansion that James I’s ill-starred son, Charles, was beheaded on 30 January 1649.
The Banqueting Hall was one of the few buildings to survive a fire in 1691 that destroyed much of the Palace’s magnificent medieval structure, as well as many fine works of art, including Michelangelo’s sculpture of Cupid and Holbein’s portrait of Henry VIII. The great London diarist, John Evelyn, recorded the following day: ‘Whitehall burnt! Nothing but walls and ruins left.’
Wren’s Lost Churches
IT IS INCREDIBLE THAT SO MANY OF SIR Christopher Wren’s churches were destroyed, many lost to Victorian developments:
CHURCHES DEMOLISHED:
All Hallows, Bread Street; All Hallows the Great, Lombard Street; All Hallows, Lombard Street; St Antholin, Watling Street;
St Bartholomew, Exchange; St Benet Fink, Threadneedle Street;
St Benet, Gracechurch Street; St Christopher-le-Stocks, Threadneedle Street; St Dionis Backchurch, Fenchurch Street;
St Matthew, Friday Street; St Michael, Bassishaw;
St Michael, Crooked Lane; St Michael, Queenhithe;
St Michael, Wood Street; St Mildred, Poultry
CHURCHES LOST FOR OTHER REASONS:
St Mary Magdalene, Fish Street (gutted by fire 1886).
CHURCHES WHERE ONLY THE TOWER REMAINS:
St Alban, Wood Street (destroyed by bombing in 1940);
St Anne’s Church, Soho (demolished in 1953 after war damage)
St Dunstan in the East (destroyed by bombing in 1941)
St Mary Somerset, Thames Street (demolished in 1871)
St Olave, Old Jewry (demolished 1888–9)
CHURCHES DESTROYED BY WORLD WAR II BOMBING:
Christ Church, Newgate Street (only ruins remain);
The Cloisters, Pump Court, Middle Temple (1940–1);
St Augustine, Watling Street (1945); St Mildred, Bread Street (1941);
St Stephen, Coleman Street (1940);
St Swithin, Cannon Street, (1941)
Index
Ackerman’s ref1
Adam and Eve Tea Gardens ref1
Adam, Robert ref1, ref2
Agar Town, Kings Cross ref1
Agar, William ref1
Albert, Prince ref1, ref2
Aldwych ref1
Alhambra Theatre ref1
Alleyn, Edward ref1
Alsatia ref1
Apollo Club ref1
Archer, John ref1
archery ref1, ref2
Aris, Thomas ref1
Astley’s Circus ref1, ref2
Atmospheric Railway ref1
Bach, J S ref1
Bambridge, Thomas ref1
Bank ref1
Bankside ref1, ref2
Barbican ref1
Barham, John ref1
Bartholomew Fair ref1
Baum, John ref1
Baynard’s Castle ref1
Bazelgette, Sir Joseph ref1
bear and bull baiting ref1, ref2, ref3
Bear Gardens, Clerkenwell ref1
Bedlam Hospital ref1, ref2, ref3
Belair Park ref1
Belasyse, Thomas, 1st Earl of Fauconberg ref1
Bell Tavern, Kilburn ref1
Berkeley Square ref1, ref2
Bermondsey ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Betterton, Thomas ref1
Bishopsgate ref1, ref2
Blackfriars ref1, ref2
Blackheath ref1
Blake, William ref1, ref2
Blessington, Countess of ref1
Blitz, the ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Blondin, Charles ref1, ref2
Boleyn, Anne ref1, ref2
Bon Marché ref1
Bonaparte, Napoleon ref1
Booth, Charles ref1
Borough ref1, ref2
Boswell, James ref1
Boyle, Robert ref1
Brandon, Richard ref1
Bridewell Palace ref1
British Museum ref1, ref2
Brixton ref1, ref2
Brummel, Beau ref1
Brunner Mond chemical factory ref1
Bullock, William ref1
Bunhill Fields ref1
Burford’s Panorama ref1
Burton, Decimus ref1
Byron, Lord ref1
Camden ref1
Cannon Street ref1, ref2, ref3
Carlisle House ref1
Carlyle, Jane ref1
Casanova ref1
Castaing, John ref1
Catherine the Great ref1
Cato Street conspirators ref1
Cave, Edward ref1
Cecil, William ref1
Charing Cross ref1
Charles I, King ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Charles II, King ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor ref1
Charlton ref1
Chaucer, Geoffrey ref1
Chelsea ref1, ref2, ref3
Chelsea Bun House, Pimlico ref1
Chesterton, George ref1
Chippendale’s Workshop ref1
Christie, John Reginald ref1
churches, Sir Christopher Wren’s ref1
Cibber, Caius ref1
City of London ref1, ref2, ref3
Civil War, British ref1, ref2
Clagett, Chrispus ref1
Clap, Margaret ref1
Clare, Lord ref1
Clare Market, Aldwych ref1
Clegg, Samuel ref1
Clerkenwell ref1, ref2, ref3
Coldbath Fields Prison ref1
Coleman, George ref1
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor ref1
Colosseum, Regent’s Park ref1
Coral, Joe ref1
Cornelys, Mrs ref1, ref2
Cornhill fire (1748) ref1
Costermonger’s Language ref1
Cosway, Richard ref1
Cottington, John ‘Mull Sack’ ref1
Cotton Library of Manuscripts ref1
Covent Garden ref1, ref2
Crapper and Company Ltd ref1
Cremorne Gardens ref1
Cromwell, Oliver ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Cross, Edward ref1
Crosse & Blackwell ref1
Crossing Sweepers ref1
Crystal Palace ref1
Cuckold’s Point ref1
Daguerre, Jacques ref1
Dance ‘the Younger,’ George ref1
Darwin, Charles ref1
d’Avenant, Sir William ref1
d’Orsay, Count ref1
de Berenger, Charles Random ref1
de Coverley, Sir Roger ref1
de Montfort, Simon ref1
De Paris, Robert ref1
Death Hunters ref1
Defoe, Daniel ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Devereux, Robert ref1
Devil Public House ref1
Dickens, Charles ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8
Dioramas ref1
Dog and Duck Public House ref1
Dog Finders ref1
Don Saltero’s Coffee House ref1
Duke’s Company ref1
Dulwich ref1
Durham House, The Strand ref1
Earl’s Court ref1
Edward I, King ref1
Edward III, King ref1
Edward IV, King ref1
Edward the Confessor ref1
Edward VI, King ref1, ref2, ref3
Edwards, George ref1
Eel Pie House ref1
Effra River ref1
Egyptian Hall ref1
Eleanor of Castille ref1
Elizabeth I, Queen ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11
Enon Chapel ref1
Essex House ref1
Euston Arch ref1
Euston Station ref1, ref2
Evans, Timothy ref1, ref2
Evelyn, John ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Execution Dock ref1
Exeter House ref1
fairs ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7
Farr, J
ames ref1
Farringdon Market ref1
Fauconberg House ref1
Field of the Forty Footsteps ref1
Fitzwalter, Matilda ref1
Fleet Debtors’ Prison ref1, ref2
Fleet Marriages ref1
Fleet River ref1, ref2
Fleet Street ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Frost Fairs ref1, ref2
Gaiety Theatre ref1
Gamages ref1
Gandhi ref1
Garrick, David ref1, ref2, ref3
Gentleman’s Magazine ref1, ref2
George, Chelsea ref1
George I, King ref1
George II, King ref1
George III, King ref1, ref2, ref3
German traders ref1
Giffard, Henry ref1
Giovanelli, Edward ref1
Globe Theatre ref1, ref2
Goldsmith, Oliver ref1, ref2
Goodman’s Fields Theatre ref1
Gordon, Frederick ref1
Gordon, Lord George ref1
Gordon Riots ref1, ref2
Gore House ref1
Grand Union Public House ref1
Great Exhibition (1851) ref1, ref2
Great Fire (1666) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10
Great Globe ref1
Grey, Lady Jane ref1, ref2, ref3
Guildhall ref1, ref2
Gunter’s Tea Shop ref1
Hand, Richard ref1
Hanover Square Rooms ref1
Hardwicke, Lord ref1
Harringay Stadium ref1
Haydon, Benjamin ref1
Henry III, King ref1, ref2
Henry VI, King ref1
Henry VIII, King ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9
Highbury Barn ref1
Highbury Tavern ref1
Hillocks, James Inches ref1
Hippodrome Racecourse ref1
Hitchin, Christopher ref1
Hockley-in-the-Hole ref1
Hogarth, William ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5
Holbein, Hans ref1, ref2
Holborn ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4
Lost London Page 13