Part 1
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VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM CATALOGUES
DRAWINGS OF OLD LONDON
BY PHILIP NORMAN, LL.D., F.S.A.
ILLUSTRATED
LONDON PUBLISHED BY HIS MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE 1913 Crown Copyright Reserved
Price Sixpence
FIRST PRINTED MAY 1900.
REVISED AND REPRINTED JULY 1913.
NOTE.
The Drawings of Old London, which form the subject of this Catalogue, were made by Mr. Philip Norman, LL.D., F.S.A., in almost every case from the actual buildings, many of which have since been demolished or essentially altered in appearance. They form, consequently, an important record of characteristic examples of Old London architecture, chiefly domestic; and, from this point of view, may be recommended to the attention of students. The collection was purchased for the Museum, in January 1896, on the recommendation of Professor W. Middleton and William Morris.
The thanks of the Board are due to Mr. Norman for his courtesy in providing the whole of the descriptions of the drawings; and also for revising the proofs of the present edition and lending the block of No. 6, "The Old Houses, White Hart Inn."
The drawings can be seen by visitors, in the Students' Room of the Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design (Room 71), at any time when the Museum is open, except on Sundays. The Department also contains other drawings and prints of a similar nature; and a Topographical Index referring thereto.
CECIL SMITH.
Victoria and Albert Museum, July 1913.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page
QUEEN'S HEAD INN, SOUTHWARK frontispiece
OLD HOUSES, WHITE HART INN, SOUTHWARK facing 2
NAG'S HEAD INN YARD, SOUTHWARK " 4
KING'S HEAD INN, SOUTHWARK " 6
ENTRANCE TO GREAT ST. HELEN'S " 12
VIEW FROM PAUL'S PIER " 22
COCK AND PIE, DRURY LANE " 30
EMANUEL HOSPITAL, WESTMINSTER " 32
CATALOGUE OF DRAWINGS OF OLD LONDON. BY PHILIP NORMAN, LL.D., F.S.A.
_The dimensions are in inches, the height being given first._
1. Old Elephant and Castle, Newington Butts (Sepia).
The famous tavern so named is situated about a mile south of London Bridge, at a place where several important roads meet. In the coaching days it was passed by every traveller going south-east from London, and it is now a well-known halting station for omnibuses and tramcars. A writer in a famous publication has asserted that this was the house referred to by Shakespeare, as follows:—
"In the South Suburbs, at the Elephant, Is best to lodge."—Twelfth Night; Act iii., Sc. 3.
In fact, the Elephant and Castle at Newington Butts did not come into existence until long after Shakespeare's time. The ground on which it stands was not yet built upon in 1658, being then granted as a charitable donation to the poor of Newington parish. The grant was renewed and confirmed in 1673, when the structure here represented may already have come into existence, for we are told that building operations had then lately taken place. The sign may be derived from the crest of the Cutlers' Company. Close to the Elephant and Castle, during the construction of a new sewer in 1823, some piles, posts, and rings for barges were found imbedded in the soil. Hard by, in the early part of this century, that strange fanatic, Joanna Southcott, set up a meeting-house for her followers. Newington Butts was so named from the exercise of archery at the butts, which was practised here by the parishioners in Tudor times. The inn was rebuilt in 1824. Of late there has been another rebuilding on the same site. The view is founded on an old drawing in the Gardner collection.
A house called the "Oliphant," previously the "Red Hart," is mentioned in the vestry proceedings of St. Saviour's parish, Southwark, in 1598, and an "Elephant Alley" near the Globe theatre comes to light in the St. Saviour's sacramental token book for 1600. Shakespeare may have had in his mind the building thus indicated, when he made the allusion quoted above.
(6-5/8 × 10-1/8) D. 82-1896.
2. White Hart Inn Yard, Southwark, 1884 (Water-colour).
(13-1/4 × 17-3/8) D. 7-1896.
3. Back of White Hart Inn, Evening, 1884 (Black and white).
(9-3/8 × 13-9/16) D. 8-1896.
4. In the Gallery of the White Hart, 1884 (Water-colour).
(11-5/8 × 8-13/16) D. 9A-1896.
5. In the Gallery of the White Hart, 1884 (Black and white).
(11-1/4 × 8-5/8) D. 9B-1896.
6. Old Houses in Inner Yard of the White Hart, 1884 (Water-colour).
Southwark being on the high road to the coast and to Canterbury, which contained the famous shrine of St. Thomas à Becket, was for centuries occupied by inns in number out of all proportion to ordinary shops and dwellings.
The Borough, according to a State Paper of 1619, "consists chiefly of inn-keepers." John Stow, in his Survey (1598), says, "from thence (the Marshalsea) towards London Bridge on the same side, be many fair inns for the receipt of travellers; by these signs: the Spurre, Christopher, Bull, Queen's Head, Tabard, George, Hart, King's Head," etc. Of older date (about 1542) is a map of Southwark, to be found among the Duchy of Lancaster Records in the Record Office, which shows almost all the more important Southwark inns. They were grouped together chiefly on the east side of what is now called the Borough High Street, the most distant not being more than a quarter of a mile apart. These inns had a gateway from the street, which was closed at night. Passing through this gateway one entered a yard, round which ran the galleries where the guests were housed. Beyond this again there was a larger yard, which contained the stabling, and where there were often various tenements. This was approached by a passage from the outer yard, and generally there was also access to it from behind.
The White Hart was perhaps the largest Southwark inn, and appears to have dated from the latter part of the 14th century, the sign being the badge of Richard II., derived from his mother, Joan of Kent. In the summer of 1450 it was Jack Cade's headquarters whilst he was striving to gain possession of London. Hall, in his Chronicle, thus speaks of him:—"The capitayn being advertized of the kynge's absence came first into Southwarke, and there lodged at the White Hart, prohibiting to all men Murder, Rape, or Robbery; by which colour he allured to him the hartes of the common people." It must have been by his orders, if not in his presence, that "at the Whyt harte in Southwarke, one Hawaydyne of sent Martyns was beheaded," as we are told in the Chronicle of the Grey Friars. Here, too, Sir John Fastolfe's servant, Payne, was despoiled and threatened with death. Cade's success was of short duration: his followers wavered; he said, or might have said, in the words of Shakespeare (2 Henry VI., act iv., sc. 8), "Hath my sword therefore broke through London gates that you should leave me at the White Hart in Southwark?" The outbreak collapsed, and our inn is not heard of again for many years. In 1529 a message was sent to Thomas Cromwell, the notorious minister of Henry VIII., by some one asking for an interview at the White Hart. In 1669 the back of the inn was burnt down; and on May 26, 1676, a most destructive fire occurred in Southwark, when according to the best authorities, no fewer than 500 houses were either burnt or blown up. The White Hart was quite destroyed, but was rebuilt shortly afterwards on the old foundations, at a cost of £2,400. In 1720 Strype describes it as "very large and of a considerable trade, being esteemed one of the best inns in Southwark," and it so continued until the early years of the 19th century. Charles Dickens, in the tenth chapter of Pickwick, has given us the following graphic description of the house when something of its old prosperity still clung to it:—
"In the Borough especially, there still remain some half dozen old inns, which have preserved their external features unchanged and which have escaped alike the rage for public improvement and the encroachment of private speculation. Great, rambling, queer old places they are, with galleries, and passages, and staircases, wide enough and antiquated enough to furnish material for a hundred ghost stories. It was in the yard of one of these inns—of no less celebrated a one than the White Hart—that a man was busily employed in brushing the dirt off a pair of boots, early on the morning succeeding the events narrated in the last chapter. The yard presented none of that bustle and activity which are the usual characteristics of a large coach inn. Three or four lumbering wagons, each with a pile of goods beneath its ample canopy, about the height of the second floor window of an ordinary house, were stowed away beneath a lofty roof, which extended over one end of the yard; and another, which was probably to commence its journey that morning, was drawn out into the open space. A double tier of bedroom galleries, with old clumsy balustrades, ran round two sides of the straggling area, and a double row of bells to correspond, sheltered from the weather by a little sloping roof, hung over the door leading to the bar and coffee-room. Two or three gigs and chaise-carts were wheeled up under different little sheds and penthouses; and the occasional heavy tread of a cart-horse, or rattling of a chain at the further end of the yard, announced to anybody who cared about the matter, that the stable lay in that direction. When we add that a few boys in smock frocks were lying asleep on heavy packages, woolpacks, and other articles that were scattered about on heaps of straw, we have described as fully as need be, the general appearance of the yard of the White Hart Inn, High Street, Borough, on the particular morning in question."
In 1865-66 the south side of the building was replaced by a modern tavern, which appears to the right of drawing No. 2. Some years previously the yard had been disfigured by a penthouse or lean-to (also shown in this drawing), which was used for the business of a bacon dryer. The old galleries on the north and east sides were let out in tenements. In the inner yard were some quaint old houses crowded with lodgers (_vide_ No. 6). From here, looking back, one often saw the smoke of the bacon curer's furnaces curling out of the windows of the main building (as shown in drawing No. 3). The remains of the old White Hart were pulled down in July 1889, and hop factors' rooms built on the site, the yard being very much curtailed. The modern tavern on the south side was closed some time ago. It is now used for the storage of goods. The only trace of its former associations (October 1912) is a painted board, still to be seen through one of the windows, with the following words painted on it:—THE SAM WELLER (Social) CLUB.
(14-1/8 × 10-1/8) D. 10-1896.
7. The Tabard Inn, Southwark, 1810 (Water-colour).
The Tabard is perhaps the most famous of all Southwark inns, owing to the fact that Chaucer has selected it as the starting point for his Canterbury Pilgrims:—
"Byfel that in that sesoun on a day, In Southwark at the Tabard as I lay."
He even mentions the name of the jovial landlord, Henry Bailly, a real personage, who represented Southwark in the Parliament held at Westminster, A.D. 1376.
It is recorded that in 1304 the Abbot and Convent of Hyde purchased here from William de Lategareshall two houses, held of the Archbishop of Canterbury. On this site the abbot built himself a town dwelling, and at the same time probably a hostelry for the convenience of travellers. In 1307 he obtained licence from the Bishop of Winchester to build a chapel at or by the inn. In a later deed occur the following words: "The Abbott's lodgeinge was wyninge to the backside of the inn called the Tabarde and had a garden attached." Stow, in his Survey, puts the matter clearly when he says, "Within this inn was also the lodging of the Abbot of Hide (by the City of Winchester) a fair house for him and his train, when he came to that city to parliament." A lease of the Tabard dated 1st April, 31 Henry VIII., has been found by Mr. G. Rutter Fletcher, F.S.A., and was printed, with notes by the present writer, in the "Collections" of the Surrey Archæological Society, 1896, Vol. XIII. Its chief interest lies in the enumeration of the rooms and their fixtures, given in the schedule, which may not unlikely represent the house much as it was in Chaucer's time. At the dissolution this inn, with other possessions of Abbot Salcote or Capon, was surrendered, and granted by the king to Thomas and John Master. The sign of the Tabard (or sleeveless coat, like that worn by heralds), sometimes the Syrcote, was used till about the end of the sixteenth century, when it was little by little changed to Talbot, perhaps through fancy or carelessness. Aubrey says, "the ignorant landlord or tenant, instead of the ancient sign of 'The Tabard,' put up 'The Talbot,' a species of dog." Be this as it may, in certain Chancery proceedings of 27th June 1599, both names are used. About this time there were large additions to the building. We are told by Speght in his second edition of Chaucer (1602) that:—"Whereas through time it has been much decaied, it is now by Master J. Preston, with the Abbot's house thereto adjoined, newly repaired, and with convenient rooms much increased for the receipt of many guests." In 1676 occurred the great Southwark fire, when "the Talbot, with its backhouses and stables, &c., was burnt to the ground." It was, however, rebuilt on the old plan, as depicted in drawing No. 7, and continued to be a picturesque and interesting example of seventeenth century architecture until 1875-76, when the whole was swept away. Hop merchants' offices and a modern "Old Tabard" occupy the site. Here Roman objects were found in 1912. This drawing was copied from one by George Shepherd (1810) which is in private hands. It formerly belonged to the late Mr. R. P. Evans, hop merchant, who occupied rooms in the George Inn Yard.
(7-3/4 × 10-3/4) D. 11-1896.
8. The George Inn, Southwark, 1884; also seventeenth century Trade Token issued from here (Black and white).
(13 × 9-3/4) D. 12-1896.
9. Interior of Taproom, George Inn, 1886 (Black and white).
The George Inn, or what is left of it, stands between the sites of the Tabard and the White Hart. It seems to have come into existence in the early part of the sixteenth century, and is mentioned by the name of "St. George" in 1554;
"St. George that swinged the Dragon, And sits on horseback at mine hostess' door."
The owner in 1558 was Humfrey Colet or Collet, who had been member of Parliament for Southwark. In 1634 a return was made that the inn had been built of brick and timber (no doubt rebuilt) in 1622. Soon after the middle of that century, in a book called Musarum Deliciæ or the Muses' Recreation, compiled by Sir John Mennes (admiral and chief comptroller of the navy), and Dr. James Smith, appeared some lines "upon a surfeit caught by drinking bad sack at the George Tavern in Southwark." Perhaps the landlord mended his ways; in any case the rent was shortly afterwards £150 a year, a large sum for those days. Two seventeenth-century trade tokens of the house exist; an illustration of one is given, which reads thus:—
O.—ANTHONY BLAKE. TAPSTER. YE. GEORGE. INN. SOUTHWARKE R.—(No legend.) Three tobacco-pipes and four pots.
In 1670, Mark Wayland and Mary his wife, held the George at a rent of £150 a year. It was then partly burnt down, and Wayland rebuilt it. In consequence, his rent was reduced to £80, and a sugar-loaf. In the Great Southwark Fire of 1676, the house was totally destroyed, and was again rebuilt by the tenant, a further reduction of the rent and an extension of the lease being granted. The present structure dates from this rebuilding. It was a great coaching and carriers' inn; only a fragment, but a picturesque one, now exists, the rest having been pulled down in 1889-90. The yard is used for the purposes of the Great Northern, the Great Central, and the Great Eastern Railway Companies.
(7 × 10-1/2) D. 13-1896.
10. The Nag's Head Inn Yard, Southwark (Black and white).
In the map of Southwark dating from about 1542, this inn is called the Horse Hede. In 1720 Strype says that "the buildings are old and sorry with inhabitants answerable." The inn standing in 1886, of which only a small part is shown to the right of the drawing, looks as if it were built not much more than a hundred years ago, but it will be seen that the tenements on the same side next the High Street were much older. Here Andrew Ducrow, the great equestrian performer, is said to have been born, May 12, 1796. His parents had just arrived from Germany. George Colman, the younger, in his "Poor Gentleman," a comedy produced at Covent Garden in 1801, makes a farmer say:—"I be come from Lunnon you see. I warrant I smell of smoke, like the Nag's Head chimney in the Borough." The inn was well spoken of in a little book called the Epicure's Almanac, published in 1815; there were balls here sometimes in the earlier half of the last century. The tavern business is no longer carried on, the yard and premises being in the hands of the Great Western Railway Company. The building over the entrance to this yard remains, but all those on the north side, that is to spectator's right, including the inn, disappeared some years ago.
(9-3/4 × 6-3/4) D. 18-1896.
11. Remains of the King's Head Inn, Southwark (Water colour).
(7-3/16 × 10-1/2) D. 14-1896.
12. The last of the Old King's Head (Water-colour).
This inn was originally the Pope's Head, and the name was changed at the time of the Reformation. In 1534 the Abbot of Waverley, whose town house was not far off, writes, apparently on business, that he will be "at the _Pope's Head_ in Southwark." This was the very year of the separation of the Church of England from Papal headship. Eight years afterwards the house is marked in the Record Office map as the "Kynge's Hed." That the two were one and the same is proved by a deed of 1559, that belonged to the late Mr. G. Eliot Hodgkin, F.S.A., whose family at one time possessed the property. This deed is between John Gresham, uncle of Sir Richard and Lord Mayor in 1547, and John White, Lord Mayor in 1563, on the one side, and Thomas Cure, a notable inhabitant of Southwark, on the other; and the inn is here described as having been "formerly known as the Pope's Hed and now as le kynge's hed abutting on the highway called Longe Southwarke." In 1588 the house came into the possession of the Humble family. John Taylor mentions it as frequented by carriers in 1637; ten years afterwards it belonged to Humble, Lord Ward. A seventeenth-century trade token which was issued from here, reads thus:—
O.—AT . THE . KINGS . HEAD . IN = Bust of Henry VIII. R.—SOUTHWARKE . GROCER = W. P.
The King's Head was one of the inns burnt down in the fire of 1676, but was rebuilt immediately afterwards. The last fragment of the structure then erected was pulled down in January, 1885. The back of it is shown on the right of drawing No. 3, as the building actually touched the White Hart Inn Yard. Mr. John Timbs, in his "Curiosities of London," remarks that within his recollection the sign was a well-painted half-length of Henry VIII.
(14-1/8 × 10-5/8) D. 15-1896.
13. The Queen's Head Inn, Southwark, 1883 (Water-colour).
(10-9/16 × 7-1/4) D. 16-1896.
14. Back of the Queen's Head from the Inner Yard, 1884 (Water-colour).
The Queen's Head is on the site of a house called the Crowned or Cross Keys, which belonged to the Poynings family. In 1529 it was used as an armoury, or store place for the King's "harness." In 1558 it still retained its old sign, for Richard Westray, ale brewer, bequeaths to his wife Joane his messuage on this site, "called the Cross Keyes with the brewhouse garden and stable as it is now newly builded by his son Thomas." In 1634 the house had become the Queen's Head, and the owner was John Harvard, of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, who afterwards migrated to America and gave his name to Harvard University, Massachusetts. About this time it was frequented by carriers, as we learn from John Taylor, "the water-poet." The Queen's Head seems to have escaped the fire of 1676, perhaps owing to the fact that, by way of precaution, a tenement was blown up at the gateway. The main building was pulled down towards the end of 1895. It was then found to be of half timbered construction, dating possibly from the time of Richard Westray. A carved oak mantelpiece in a room on the first floor appeared to be of the early seventeenth century. The galleried portion of the inn, also of considerable age, which had been partly let out in tenements, though much dilapidated, was still standing in June, 1900, but it was all cleared away before the end of the year. A goods yard for the Great Central Railway was then made, but at the time of writing this, though still in use, was to let. The inner yard was then being built over for the purposes of Guy's Hospital.
(14 × 10-1/8) D. 17-1896.
15. The Sieve Public-house, Church Street, Minories, 1865 (Black and white).
(5-3/8 × 6-5/8) D. 19-1896.
16. Back of Sieve Public-house, 1885 (Black and white).
(6 × 7-3/4) D. 20-1896.
17. Taproom of Sieve and Trade Tokens issued from here, 1885 (Black and white).
(7 × 10-9/16) D. 21-1896.
18. Chimney-piece in Taproom of Sieve, 1885 (Black and white).