a walk through history

Anyway as it's Friday - it's another history lesson - as you may have guessed by now history was my favourite subject at school!

Today's walk was entitled - Very Old Holborn - Buildings from Before the Fire (1666).

As usual our Guide was Aly. We walked down to Gate Street to start our walk - and stopped outside No.4. This is currently a modern looking gift shop but behind it's modern facade lies a very old building. Originally called Newton Buildings it was built between 1642 and 1666. The Rate Book shows the first tenant was a Richard Sherborne who lived there in 1667. However one of the neighbouring houses' Rate Book shows it's first tenant living in the property in 1659. So we can safely assume that Newton Buildings was built circa 1658. The building has been greatly altered over time and has been used as a workshop, Millers Restaurant and a gift shop. During the second world war, Miller's Restaurant survived two massive bombs which destroyed the famous Holborn Empire Theatre which was just a short distance away. A bookshop and a card shop now stand on the site of the theatre. Click HERE for more information on the Holborn Empire.

We then walked through Lincoln's Inn Fields (past my office building Built 1640) to Portsmouth Street, and stopped in front of The Old Curiosity Shop. This wonderful building dates from 1567 and actually has three floors although you can only see the ground floor and the first floor from the front. It is the oldest surviving shop in England, as it has never been anything else since it was built. It was originally a dairy and then an antique shop but now sells shoes - both modern and antique.

Of course the Old Curiosity Shop was immortalised by Charles Dickens in his novel of the same name. However, the original Old Curiosity Shop on which the book is based was actually nearer to Leicester Square. This shop only took on the name about 30 years after the book was published. It is also the only surviving building from the old Clare Market area. All the remaining buildings were demolished about 1900 as it had become a slum area. This was about the same time that they built Kingsway.

Next we move onto Carey Street to The Seven Stars Pub. This is a very popular hostelry with the Legal profession as it is right across the road from The Royal Courts of Justice. Built in 1602 it was originally called the Leg and Seven Stars Leg is a shortform of League. It was named for the seven provinces of the Netherlands, after the many Dutch sailors who lived in the area at that time.

We then walked along Chancery Lane up on to High Holborn and then to Staple Inn. Staple Inn was one of the nine Inns of Chancery. The Inns of Chancery were established to support the four Inns of Court. They are Inner Temple, Middle Temple, Lincoln's Inn and Gray's Inn. Each Inn of Chancery provided approximately 100 students with accommodation and training in the law. Staple Inn was linked to Gray's Inn.

The original meaning of Staple means 'a pile of goods for sale' or in this case a pile of wool for sale. Inn was in fact a dwelling place rather than a pub or hostelry so

Staple Inn = a house of wool and in fact it was the Wool Customs House.

There is an inscription in the alleyway to the side of the Inn which says: "Original building erected between 1545 - 1589 by Vincent Engane & another. Rear Elevation cases in brick 1821. Front restored 1886. Reconstructed in 1937 keeping the original front."

Staple Inn in 1886

When it mentioned "front restored 1886" what it actually refers to is the removal of the unsightly plasterboards that had been put on the frontage to cover the beautiful black and white half timbered structure. The Victorians were ashamed of having medieval buildings still in use in London - this was during the expansion of the Empire and they wanted to project London as a new modern city.

Beneath the overhanging frontage, the shops at street level have the feel of the 19th century. Through an arched entrance is a courtyard, with some 18th century buildings. Staple Inn's courtyard has long been known as a secluded haven away from the noise and congestion of the capital. The 19th century American writer Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote, 'there was not a quieter spot in England that this', and Charles Dickens included its tranquility in 'The Mystery of Edwin Drood'.

Staple Inns buildings were used as an illustration on tins and pouches of 'Old Holborn'
tobacco. It now holds the offices of The Institute of Actuaries.

Well that was the end of this weeks walk. I hope you have enjoyed reading it!

It's Friday, so it's history lesson day! Today's walk was "What's in a Name - Part II" - for streets south of High Holborn.

Click here for a map of the area. We started at usual from Holborn tube station, with our friendly guide Aly leading us again.

Our first stop is Gate Street - which is named simply from the guarded gates that were erected at the entrance to Lincoln's Inn Fields, to protect the residents of the new houses built in 1638. We walk past Little Turnstile of which more later.

We then turn into Whetstone Park. This road which runs parallel to High Holborn and Lincoln's Inn Fields is now not much more than a service road behind the Chancery Court Hotel. However, it is in fact a very old road, with an extremely dubious history. Ali would not expand on this - all is revealed on the "Horrible Holborn" walk! Having checked up a little, I have discovered it was "a place of very bad reputation, attacked by the London Apprentices in 1602. The loose character of Whetstone Park and its inhabitants is a frequent subject of allusion in the plays of Dryden and Shadwell, and occasionally in Butler's "Hudibras" and Ned Ward's London Spy." See here to learn more on Lincoln's Inn Fields

Onwards then into Great Turnstile. This together with Little Turnstile are narrow foot entrances leading into Holborn, these names date from the days when turnstiles were put up to let pedestrians pass through, whilst they stopped the cattle that grazed on Lincoln's Inn Fields from straying.

We then walked down High Holborn until we reached Chancery Lane. Turning right we walk down Chancery Lane towards Lincoln's Inn. There are three theories as to how Chancery Lane got it's name.

(1) The Keeper of the Rolls of Chancery was based in a building built in 1377. This became the Public Record Office which is now situated in a huge new building out at Kew.

(2) The Courts of Chancery were near by

(3) Bishop Ralph Neville of Chichester who became Henry III's Chancellor in 1226, built a house in Chancery Lane in 1228. Some people believe Chancery could be a corruption of Chancellor - Chancellor's Lane became Chancery Lane. See here for an Introduction to the Inns of Chancery.

Also with a connection to the Bishop of Chichester is a little lane called Chichester Rents.

We then proceeded to Carey Street. Built in the late 17th century this was originally a lane leading to the home of Sir George Carey (1547-1603). Carey's grandmother was Mary Boleyn, sister of Anne Boleyn. Carey served the Queen (Elizabeth I) helping to crush the Scottish Rebellion in 1569 and the Irish Rebellion in 1599. He was in Ireland with Deveraux (the Earl of Essex) and while there embezzled a fortune from the army. However at that time this sort of thing was not particularly frowned on as long as it was not done blatantly!

There is another theory that it was named for Nicholas Carey a wealthy nobleman but this is unlikely.

Carey street once held the Court of Chancery which dealt with all the bankruptcies. This led to the saying "Going to Carey Street" which meant you were headed for bankruptcy! :o

From The Phrase Finder: Carey Street

Meaning

Euphemism for being bankrupt or in debt.

This phrase originates from the London street where the UK bankruptcy court used to be located. The court moved to Carey Street in the 1840s but the phrase didn't emerge as a synonym for bankrupt until much later. The first reference I can find is a piece by James Agate, in The Saturday Review from 1922:

"The melancholy gentleman in direful Carey Street."

We then walked into Portugal Street. This was so named in honour of Catherine of Branganza, from Portugal who married Charles II. It is a little known fact that Catherine introduced the habit of drinking tea to the English! :tea:

(The Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, Portugal Street from The Illustrated London News)

We passed Portsmouth Street which Aly has a pet theory was named as Charles and Catherine were married iin Portsmouth, but there is no proof of that! :lol:

We walked past Dicken's Old Curiosity Shop and into Lincoln's Inn Fields. To our left is Sardinia Street, so named as the Sardinian Embassy was once in the building on the corner of Sardinia Street and Lincoln's Inn Fields. In the 18th Century Sardinia was an independent country - now it is part of Italy. It was at that time one of the few places in London where Roman Catholics could go to worship and attend mass, as in London it was still very dangerous to be a practising catholic at that time.

In fact, a Roman artesian well was discovered under this building when renovations began last year to the building. It has been bought by the London School of Economics who will use the water from the well to supply the building and will be entirely powered by solar power.

And so to Lincoln's Inn Fields. Again there are another couple of theories as to where the name comes from.

(1) It was named for Henry de Lacey, the third Earl Lincoln in 1311. The lion in the family crest is the same as that which appears in the coat of arms of Lincoln's Inn. He was also the Inn's Patron and lived in a house in Shoe Lane.

(2) Thomas de Lincoln, who was a Law Officer who took in trainee lawyers in the mid 14th century.

The central fields were, as mentioned earlier, used for grazing. The great architect Inigo Jones decided to build a square of houses, and in 1638 he built 32 houses around three sides of the square. The fourth end holds Lincoln's Inn itself. Click HERE for information on Lincoln's Inn. There are only two of the original houses left - number 59 and 60 which just happen to be part of the building where I work! We actually have numbers 57-60, four houses knocked into one building, but which maintain the individual fascias. The Cromwell Society have a very interesting history of Nos. 59 & 60 with photos here and click here for a link to pictures of some of our interiors including the two amazing staircases we have in our buildings.

Also in the square is the wonderful Sir John Soane's Museum, which is fascinating and holds many interesting treasures. See HERE for Wikipedia on Lincoln's Inn Fields

Finally, we returned to Kingsway, which was only built in 1905, and named for King Edward VII who opened this new road.

An interesting "Walk Around Holborn" in black and white photos can be found HERE

So there we are - the end of this week's history lesson. I hope you enjoyed it!

Until next week....(Very Old Holborn - Buildings from before the Great Fire of London)

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It's been a while since I posted in my journal - so I thought I would give you all another history lesson! :lol:

Today I went on another of the Holborn walks. Today's walk was "What's In A Name - Part I" the origins of street names north of High Holborn. See here for a streetmap

It was a glorious sunny and warm day today, unlike the cold and wet of earlier this week, just right for a nice stroll around Holborn. As usual we met at the Ranger's Hut outside Holborn Tube Station and our guide was Aly.

Our first stop was Southampton Row - this is named for the Earl of Southampton, who at the time of Charles I was a Parliamentarian but during the Civil War changed sides and eventually became a Royalist - so once the monarchy was restored, he was given the honour of having a main thoroughfare named after him.

We then proceeded to Sicilian Avenue - this is a short but very beautiful little avenue joining two main roads. It is so named because it was built in 1905 of Sicilian marble. Click here for a 360 degree panorama.

Thence to Bloomsbury Square. This was the first proper square in London, built in 1660. Although technically Covent Garden and Lincoln's Inn Fields are older, Covent Garden had a church at the centre and Lincoln's Inn Fields was only built around 3 sides. The origins of the name Bloomsbury are not known for certain but there are two main theories. The first is that it was named for Lonesbury, which was the name of the village originally on that site or it was named for William De Blemund who was the landowner. Perhaps it is really a mixture of the two. Bloomsbury Square became the prototype of all London Squares.

We then continued on to Theobalds Road - this road used to connect King James I two hunting grounds in Soho and Theobalds Park. In fact the origin of Soho has a hunting connection. After some research they have discovered that in old French, Soho was the English equivalent of 'Tally-ho", so eventually the name stuck! I suppose there is still hunting of a rather different sort going on in Soho!

On the site of Drake Street and Proctor Street, was an area called King's Gate. The diarist Samuel Pepys tells of how the King's coach was overturned at this place as the coachman was travelling too fast. The King was thrown from the coach into the gutter. No record remains as to what happened to the coachman

We then stopped briefly at Boswell Street. This street is named after James Boswell, a 18th century writer whose biography of Dr. Samuel Johnson is considered to be the finest biography ever written. This street was originally called Devonshire Street, but when this area was severely damaged during the Blitz, when it was re-built it was re-named Boswell Street.

We then walked past Harpur Street, named for Sir William Harpur, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1561, and who owned land here.

Now we come to a wonderful name - Lamb's Conduit Street. (Home of a favourite Italian restaurant of mine). (See Here for Lamb's Conduit Street Blog) At the top end of Lamb's Conduit Street lies an area now known as Coram's Fields (see here for their blog)- it's a pleasant park. This was originally Lamb's Conduit Fields but was named for the founder of Coram's Foundling Hospital. Now the wonderful Great Ormond Street Hospital is just across the road from the original Foundling Hospital. The name Lamb's Conduit Street is in fact named after a William Lambe who was a cloth worker. He renovated the medieval conduit (a water channel) that ran through the area, installing lead water pipe and bringing water all the way to Snow Hill. The new water pipe was opened in 1577 and cost £1500. This was a huge sum of money at that time. However, by 1613 it was already redundant as a new river was opened which stretched from Hertfordshire bringing fresh water to the entire area. (Stow says, “One William Lamb, citizen and clothworker, born at Sutton Valence, Kent, did found near unto Oldbourne a faire conduit and standard; from this conduit, water clear as crystal was conveyed in pipes to a conduit on Snow Hill” (26th March, 1577). The conduit was taken down in 1746.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894)

Down through Lamb's Conduit Passage (with a couple of very nice pubs, The Enterprise and The Dolphin plus cafes) into Red Lion Square. The usual thing is to name a pub after the road it is in - here however, the Square, plus a road are named after a pub, The Red Lion. Originally Red Lion Fields, in 1684 it became Red Lion Square. Built by Nicholas Barber a speculative builder, only Numbers 14 and 15 are still the original houses. A short distance away lies Gray's Inn, one of the Inns of Court. The lawyers based there took a very dim view of Mr Barber, and actually marched on the building site and attacked the builders with bricks - the houses would block their country views. However, as the houses were built, the lawyers protest obviously didn't work! :lol:

Finally then on to High Holborn. Holborn comes from (I) Hol - a derivation from the word 'Hollow' and from Born (Bourne) - meaning a stream or small brook. So literally the stream in the hollow. There was indeed a stream here, and in fact there still is, only it is now a subterranean one, running well below the street level where it runs down into the River Fleet, and thence into the Thames at Blackfriars.

High Holborn is in fact part of a Roman road, but is very unusual in that once past Kingsway, it veers sharply to the left. As most people will probably know, the Romans built lots of long straight roads, they did not usually deviate. However, the area which is now covered by New Oxford Street (built in 1875), was once a very swampy area and so the Romans deviated from their straight line on this occasion.

Next Friday is the second part of this tour - the roads south of High Holborn. If you are not too bored I will continue the history lesson then.

[i]Photo Credits: Edward; Highstone, Russell Davies and me[/i]

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I decided to take some air at lunch time today and go on one of the free guided walks that they do in Holborn every Friday lunchtime. Unfortunately I missed last weeks "Thespians" which would have been fun but todays was very interesting - The Great Plague.

The great plague of 1665 started in a house on Drury Lane close to the junction with Long Acre, in late November/early December 1664 when two Frenchman died. Soon more deaths happened, and an Apothecary operated from a public house The White Hart (still on the same site) looking after as many people as he could. He actually wrote a treatise on the plague in 1666 which was the first ever observation, medically speaking, on the plague. Victims of the illness were boarded up in their homes, and tough luck on anyone not yet infected in the building - they were boarded up too! A large red cross was painted on the door.

The plague is spread by black rats (Rattus Rattus) - their fleas carry the virus from the rats to humans but people had no idea of the connection until the 1890s. At the time the government believed that cats and dogs were to blame, so set about killing 200,000 cats and 40,000 dogs. As cats and dogs are the natural predators of rats this was not the wisest move and consequently the plague spread to the centre of the city. At it's peak in September 1665, 26,000 died in that one month, and yet by October there was only 1000 deaths.

It has long been taught that the Great Fire of London stopped the plague in it's tracks - this is wrong - the fire didn't happen until 1666 and in a totally different part of the City. There is no certainty about what exactly did bring the plague to a halt but as it was brought to this country via the sea, from Holland and France, tighter controls and quarantines at the Ports are believed to have made the difference.

At the time of the plague London had a population of 500,000 - a massive increase from 1600 when it had been only 140,000. About 20% of the population died, and another 10% left the City. In fact about 15% of plague victims actually survived.

A point to bear in mind - even today there are about 1000 cases of bubonic plague every year! Thankfully the last outbreak of any kind in Britain was in the early 20th century, in Liverpool.

OK here endeth your history lesson for the week!