Part 1
LONDON
AND ITS
ENVIRONS
DESCRIBED.
VOL. III.
LONDON
AND ITS
ENVIRONS
DESCRIBED.
CONTAINING
An Account of whatever is most remarkable for GRANDEUR, ELEGANCE, CURIOSITY or USE,
In the CITY and in the COUNTRY Twenty Miles round it.
COMPREHENDING ALSO Whatever is most material in the History and Antiquities of this great Metropolis.
Decorated and illustrated with a great Number of Views in Perspective, engraved from original Drawings, taken on purpose for this Work.
Together with a PLAN of LONDON, A Map of the ENVIRONS, and several other useful CUTS.
VOL. III.
LONDON: Printed for R. and J. DODSLEY in Pall Mall.
M DCC LXI.
LONDON
AND ITS
ENVIRONS
DESCRIBED, &c.
GAP
_St._ GABRIEL’S, a church which stood opposite to Cullum street, the middle of Fenchurch street, in Langbourn ward; but being destroyed by the fire of London and not rebuilt, the parish was annexed to the church of St. Margaret Pattens.
GAINSFORD _street_, Horselydown lane.†
GALLARD’S _Almshouse_, in Golden lane, was founded by Richard Gallard of Islington, Esq; for thirteen poor men and women, who were to receive only two pence a week each, and a load of charcoal yearly amongst them all. By this small allowance, it appears that this house must be of a very ancient foundation. _Maitland._
GAP _yard_, Stepney Causeway.
GARDENS _court_, 1. Baldwin’s gardens.☐ 2. St. Botolph Bishopsgate church yard.☐ 3. Clement’s Inn.☐ 4. Clifford’s Inn.☐ 5. Furnival’s Inn.☐ 6. Lincoln’s Inn.☐ 7. Middle Temple.☐ 8. Petticoat lane.☐ 9. Serjeants Inn.☐ 10. Sion College.☐ 11. Staple’s Inn.☐ 12. Star street, Wapping Wall.☐ 13. Thavie’s Inn.☐
GARDEN _row_, 1. Inner Temple.☐ 2. Lower street, Islington.☐ 3. Unicorn alley, Shoreditch.☐
GARDENERS, a company incorporated by letters patent granted by King James I. in the year 1616. They are governed by a Master, two Wardens, and eighteen Assistants; but have neither hall nor livery.
GARDINER’S _court_, Gardiner’s lane, King street, Westminster.†
GARDINER’S _ground_, Collingwood street.
GARDINER’S _lane_, 1. High Timber street. 2. King street, Westminster. 3. Maiden lane. 4. Neathouse lane. 5. Petty France, Westminster. 6. Willow street.
GARDINER’S _row_, Chelsea.
GARLAND _alley_, Bishopsgate street.
GARLAND _court_, 1. Ocean street, Stepney. 2. Trinity lane.
GARLIC _hill_, Thames street; so called from the garlick market formerly held thereabout. _Stow._
GARRAT _street_, Cock lane, Shoreditch.†
GARRET’S _Almshouse_, in Porter’s fields, and in the liberty of Norton Falgate, was founded in the year 1729, by Nicholas Garret, Esq; citizen and weaver, for the accommodation of six poor members of his company, each of whom has also an annual allowance of 8_l._, a chaldron of coals, and dozen and a half of candles. _Maitland._
GARRET’S _rents_, Coleman street.†
GARTER _court_, Barbican.*
GARTER _yard_, Ratcliff Highway.
GASSON, a village in the parish of Blechingley, in Surry, at the source of the river Medway.
GATEHOUSE, Tothill street, Westminster, is so called from two gates, erected there in the reign of Edward III. Here is a prison for debtors and criminals.
GATE _street_, Lincoln’s Inn fields.
GATTON, a very small borough in Surry, eighteen miles from London, under the side of a hill in the road to Ryegate. This is a very ancient town; and from the Roman coins and other antiquities found there, is supposed to have been well known to the Romans; but though it is a borough by prescription, and has sent members to parliament ever since the 29th of Henry VI. and though it was formerly a large and populous place, it now resembles a very mean village; it having only a small church, and neither a fair nor market. The members are returned by its constable, who is annually chosen at the Lord of the manor’s court. This parish is famous for a quarry of white stone, which, though very soft, will endure the fire admirably well; but neither the sun nor the air; on which account it is much used for glass houses, and by chemists and bakers.
GAUNT’S _key_. Thames street.†
GENEVA _row_, Tyburn road.†
GENTEE’S _passage_, Nibb’s Pound.†
GEORGE _alley_, 1. Aldgate street, within.* 2. Bishopsgate street.* 3. In the Borough.* 4. Coleman street.* 5. Field lane, at the bottom of Holborn hill.* 6. George street, York buildings.* 7. Holles street, Clare market.* 8. King Tudor’s street.* 9. Lombard street, Gracechurch street.* 10. Lower Shadwell. 11. St. Margaret’s hill.* 12. New George street, Spitalfields.* 13. Rotherhith.* 14. Saffron hill.* 15. Shoe lane, Fleet street.* 16. Stony street.* 17. In the Strand.* 18. Thames street.* 19. Turnmill street.* 20. York buildings.*
GEORGE AND VULTURE _alley_, Cornhill.*
GEORGE _court_, 1. Bennet’s hill.* 2. Coleman street.* 3. East Smithfield.* 4. George street, Conduit street.* 5. George street in the Mint.* 6. Gravel lane.* 7. Hatton Wall.* 8. St. John’s lane.* 9. Little St. Thomas Apostles.* 10. Near Newington Turnpike.* 11. Prince’s street, Spitalfields.* 12. Seacole lane, Snow hill.*
GEORGE INN _yard_, in the Borough.*
GEORGE _lane_, St. Botolph lane.*
GEORGE’S _buildings_, 1. Catharine Wheel alley, Whitechapel.† 2. Near Rosemary lane.† 3. Jermain street.†
_St._ GEORGE’S _Bloomsbury_, is one of the fifty new churches appointed to be built by act of parliament within the bills of mortality. The name of St. George was given to it in honour of his present Majesty; and it received the additional epithet of Bloomsbury, from its situation, to distinguish it from others of the same name.
The portico through which you enter the church stands on the south side, as is represented in the print. It is of the Corinthian order, and makes a very good figure in the street, but has no affinity to the church, which is very heavy, and would be better suited with a Tuscan portico. The tower and steeple at the west, is a very extraordinary structure. On the top standing on a round pedestal or altar, is a colossal statue of the late King, supported by a pyramid. At the corners near the base are alternately placed the lion and unicorn the British supporters, with festoons between: these animals being very large, are injudiciously placed over columns very small, which makes them appear monsters. The under part is heavy enough, but not connected with the church. The introduction of figures and other pieces of sculpture into steeples, which are so much the work of fancy, and where the artist is not so much confined as in the other parts of the building, if managed with taste and propriety might be made elegant ornaments, and would make a fine variety with the architectonic ones with which the city already abounds.
This church was erected at the public expence, and consecrated in January 1731. A district for its parish was by authority of parliament taken out of that of St. Giles’s, and the sum of 3000_l._ was given towards the support of its Rector, to which being added 1250_l._ by the inhabitants of St. Giles’s parish, both sums were ordered to be laid out in the purchase of lands, tenements, &c. in fee simple, as a perpetual fund for the maintenance of the Rector and his successors; but the poor of this parish and that of St. Giles’s in the Fields, are to be maintained by the joint assessment of both parishes, in the same manner as before their being divided.
_St._ GEORGE’S _Botolph lane_, is like all the other churches of this name, dedicated to St. George of Cappadocia, the martyr and tutelar saint of the English nation, and is situated on the west side of Botolph lane, Thames street. The old church was destroyed by the fire of London in 1666, and the present edifice built in its stead. It is enlightened with a single series of tall windows, and the steeple consists of a plain tower ornamented with vases at the four corners.
This is a rectory in the gift of the Crown; and to this parish that of St. Botolph’s Billingsgate is united by act of parliament.
_St._ GEORGE’S _fields_, a large space between Lambeth and Southwark, where have been found many Roman coins, chequered pavements, and bricks, it being the center of three Roman ways. Since the building of Westminster bridge, a new road has been made across these fields, which leading into the Borough forms a communication between the two bridges.
_St._ GEORGE’S _Hanover square_, is situated on the east side of George street, near the square, whence it had its additional epithet. This is one of the churches that were found necessary, upon the great increase of public buildings in this part of the town; for the church of St Martin’s in the Fields being at too great a distance from the new streets, and too small for the inhabitants, the Commissioners for the fifty new churches gave orders for erecting one in the skirts of the parish, on which this august pile arose, and was consecrated in 1724.
This church, considering the extent of the parish, is too small. It has a plain body with an elegant portico: the columns, which are Corinthian, are of a large diameter, and the pediment has its acroteria, but without farther ornament. It has a tower, which, above the clock, is elegantly adorned at the corners with coupled Corinthian columns that are very lofty. These are crowned with their entablature, which at each corner supports two vases, and over these the tower still rises till it is terminated by a dome crowned with a turret which supports a ball, over which rises the weather-cock.
This church is a rectory; the parish at first consisted of the two out wards of that of St. Martin’s in the Fields; but it has now four wards, named Conduit street, Grosvenor street, Dover street, and the out ward. The advowson is settled upon the Bishop of London and his successors. The profits arising to the Rector, are said to amount to about 600_l._ _per annum_. Lieutenant General Stewart gave the ground on which this church was erected, and some time after bequeathed to this parish the sum of 4000_l._ towards erecting and endowing a charity school in it.
_St._ GEORGE’S _Middlesex_, situated on the north side of Ratcliff Highway, is another of the churches occasioned by the increase of buildings in a part of the town opposite to the former. The Commissioners for erecting fifty new churches caused the foundation to be laid in the year 1715, and the structure was finished in 1729.
This is a massy structure, erected in a very singular taste. The floor is raised a considerable height above the level of the ground; and to the principal door, which is in the west front of the tower, is an ascent by a double flight of steps, cut with a sweep, and defended by a low wall of the same form; but what is most singular in this structure, is, there are two turrets over the body of the church, and one on the tower, which last is in the manner of a fortification, with a staff on the top for an occasional flag. The author of _The Review of the Public Buildings_ calls this edifice a mere Gothic heap of stone, without form or order.
The parish is taken out of that of Stepney; and by act of parliament the hamlet of Wapping Stepney is appropriated to that purpose, and in all respects rendered independent of Stepney parish. Towards the maintenance of the Rector and his successors, the parliament gave the sum of 3000_l._ to be laid out in the purchase of lands, tenements, &c. in fee simple; and as a farther provision, the churchwardens are annually to pay him the sum of 100_l._ to be raised by burial fees. The advowson of this rectory, like that of Stepney, is in the Principal and Scholars of King’s hall, and Brazen nose college, Oxford.
_St._ GEORGE’S _Queen square_, also arose from the increase of buildings. Several gentlemen at the extremity of the parish of St. Andrew’s Holborn, having proposed the erecting of a chapel for religious worship, Sir Streynsham Master, and fourteen of the other neighbouring gentlemen, were appointed trustees for the management of this affair. These gentlemen in the year 1705, agreed with Mr. Tooley to give him 3500_l._ for erecting a chapel and two houses, intending to reimburse themselves by the sale of pews; and this edifice being finished the next year, they settled annual stipends for the maintenance of a chaplain, an afternoon preacher who was also reader, and a clerk, giving to the first and second a salary of 100_l._ each, and to the last 50_l._ But the Commissioners for erecting fifty new churches resolving to make this one of them, purchased it, caused a certain district to be appointed for its parish, and had it consecrated in the year 1723, when it was dedicated to St. George in compliment to Sir Streynsham Master, who had been Governor of Fort St. George in the East Indies. _Maitland._
This church is a plain common building void of all elegance; it is however convenient and well enlightened. The rectory, like that of St. Andrew’s, is in the Duke of Montague’s gift.
_St._ GEORGE’S _Southwark_, is situated at the south east corner of St. Margaret’s hill. There was a church in this place before the year 1122, which in 1629, was repaired and beautified within. This edifice was preserved by its situation, from the dreadful conflagration in 1666; but the decays of age rendered it necessary to take it down in 1734, when the present church was begun, and finished in 1736.
To this church there is an ascent by a flight of steps, defended by plain iron rails. The door case, which is Ionic, has a circular pediment, ornamented with the heads of Cherubims in clouds; and on each side of this pediment, which reaches to the height of the roof, the front is adorned with a ballustrade and vases. From this part the tower rises plain, strengthened with rustic quoins, as is the body of the building, and on the corners of the tower are again placed vases. From this part the diminution is too great; and from hence are raised a series of Ionic columns supporting the base of the spire, which has ribs on the angles, and openings in all the faces. The top is crowned with a ball from which rises the vane.
This church is a rectory in the gift of the Crown; the profits of which to the Incumbent amount to about 220_l._ a year. _English Architect._ _Maitland._
_St._ GEORGE’S HOSPITAL, near Hyde Park Corner. This undertaking was set on foot soon after Michaelmas 1733, by some gentlemen who were before concerned in a charity of the like kind in the lower part of Westminster. This house they judged convenient for their purpose, on account of its air, situation, and nearness to town; they therefore procured a lease of it, and opened a subscription for carrying on the charity here, which increased so fast, that on the 19th of October they were formed into a regular society, and actually began to receive patients on the first of January following.
Here are admitted the poor, sick, and lame, who are supplied with advice, medicine, diet, washing, lodging, and some of the miserable with cloaths also. The Physicians visit their patients on Mondays and Fridays, and on all intermediate days whenever occasion requires; but the Surgeon attends every day; and on every Friday morning there is a general consultation of all the Physicians and Surgeons. No security for the burial of the patients is required, nor any money, gift, or reward taken of them or their friends, on any account whatsoever. Those who die, if their friends are unable to bury them, are interred at the charge of the society. And the money collected in the poor box at the door, is kept as a separate fund for furnishing those with some little sum of money, whose distance from their habitations, or other particular necessities, require it.
The apothecaries, who are Governors, are appointed to attend by rotation as visitors, to see that the apothecary of the house takes due care of the medicines and patients. Two visitors are chosen weekly out of the subscribers, to attend daily, and take care, by examining the provision and patients, that the orders of the society are punctually observed, that the patients are treated in every respect with order and tenderness, and to make a report in writing of their observations.
Prayers are read daily to the patients; a sermon is preached every Sunday, the communion is administered every month, and the chaplain attends at other times to catechize and perform other religious offices, as often as their cases require; and when the patients are discharged, religious tracts are given to each of them, for their farther edification.
A board of Governors meet every Wednesday morning, to do the current business of the hospital, to receive and examine the reports of the visitors, to discharge and admit patients, to receive the complaints and proposals of all persons, and to prepare such matters as are proper for the consideration of general boards. A general board of the Governors meet regularly five times a year.
The Governors are in number upwards of three hundred. No person receiving salary, fee, or reward from the hospital, is capable of being a Governor; but every other gentleman subscribing 5_l._ a year, or upwards, or giving one benefaction of 50_l._ although he be not an annual subscriber, is thereupon put in nomination to be a Governor, and at the first general court, which is held one month afterwards, is accordingly ballotted for by the Governors. The subscriptions are received by the Treasurers, at the weekly board, held every Wednesday morning in the hospital.
The other rules and regulations of this excellent hospital, are as follow:
I. No person is to be admitted a patient, except in cases of accidents, without a note from a Governor or contributor, specifying the name and place of abode of such patient, and that he or she is a proper object of this charity.
II. All recommendations are to be delivered every Wednesday morning, by nine of the clock.
III. In case any out-patients neglect coming two weeks successively on the day and hour they are ordered to attend, such out-patients shall be discharged for irregularity, except they have had leave from their Physician.
IV. No person discharged for irregularity is to be ever again admitted into the hospital, upon any recommendation whatsoever.
V. No patient is to be suffered to go out of the hospital without leave in writing; and to avoid giving offence, no leave is to be given to any patient to go into St. James’s Park, or the Green Park, called Constitution hill, upon any pretence whatsoever.
VI. No Governor, officer, or servant, must at any time presume, on pain of expulsion, to take of any tradesman, patient, or other person, any fee, reward, or gratification of any kind, directly, or indirectly, for any service done, or to be done, on account of this hospital.
VII. No person subscribing less than two guineas a year, can recommend more than two in-patients in the year.
VIII. When there is not room for all the patients recommended at one time to be received into the hospital, those are taken in whose admission the board are of opinion, will most effectually answer the end of the charity; and the rest, if proper objects, are admitted out-patients, till there is room for them in the hospital. Most consumptive and asthmatic cases are more capable of relief as out-patients, than as in-patients.
By this noble foundation, there have been discharged from the hospital, since its first receiving of patients on the first of January 1733, to the 27th of December 1752, 60,188. Those in the house on the 27th of December 1752, amounted to 273. The out-patients in the books at the same time were 645, which in all made 61,106. _From the account published by the General Board._
This hospital enjoys a fine situation, and has all the benefit of a clear and pure air: it has the advantage of being a very neat, though not an expensive building; and though it is extremely plain, it is not void of ornament. It has two small wings, and a large front, with only one door, which is in the middle, and to which there is an ascent by a few steps. On the top of this part of the building is a pediment raised above the rest of the edifice, and under this ornament is a stone with an inscription, expressing the noble use to which this structure is applied.
_St._ GEORGE’S _court_, Newington causeway.
GEORGE _stairs_, 1. Deptford.* 2. Shad Thames.*
GEORGE _street_, 1. Cambridge Heath.* 2. Foster lane, Cheapside.* 3. Hanover square. 4. Little Chapel street. 5. In the Mint.* 6. Near Tothill side. 7. Pall Mall. 8. Ratcliff highway. 9. Tyburn road. 10. White row, Spitalfields.* 11. Windsor street. 12. York buildings. See GREAT GEORGE _street_.
Some of the new streets of this name, were thus denominated in honour of King George I. and II.
A list of the pictures belonging to General Guise, at his house in George street, Hanover square.
On the left hand of the staircase.
A piece of architecture, rather large, adorned with many small figures very graceful. The architecture, by Viviani. The figures, in his best manner, by Sebastiano Ricci.
Two heads in one picture, a little smaller than life. They exhibit two caricaturas, by Spagnoletto.
A portrait of some Spanish nobleman, half length, after the life, nobly painted and well preserved, by Moriglio.
A head with part of the shoulders, and it seems to be the portrait of some great man. In his first manner, by Titiano.
A picture, with many figures two feet high, representing Solomon’s judgment. The invention, disposition, and colouring are equally wonderful, by Pasqualini Romano, disciple of Andrea Sacchi.
A representation of our Saviour on his doleful way to Calvary. The figures almost as big as the life, by Andrea Mantegna.
_Mantegna was Correggio’s master, and this picture was in the collection of King Charles the First._
The rape of the Sabines. A picture of great merit both for invention and colouring, the author unknown.
A figure as big as the life, of particular beauty, exhibiting St. Jerome fervently praying, by Domenichino.
A head with part of the shoulders, as big as the life. It is the portrait, painted by himself, of Francesco Mola.
A small sketch representing a sacrifice, with the temple of Diana. The figures are many and wonderfully well disposed, by Pietro da Cortona.
_It goes about in print._
A small sketch in light and shadow, with many figures representing a Saint, ready to suffer martyrdom, drawn with great liveliness and taste, by Ant. Vandyke.
A small octagonal picture on a black stone, representing our Saviour carried to the sepulchre, by Annibal Caracci.
A picture containing several figures about three feet high, exhibiting St. Laurence’s martyrdom, by Tintoretto.
A landscape with figures one foot high, representing the martyrdom of St. Peter Martir. The figures, by Agostino Caracci. The landscape, by Gobbo de Caracci.
A sketch representing a victorious Prince carried in triumph. The figures are many, a foot and a half high, and many of them allegorical, by Giordano d’Anversa.
A large piece of architecture with figures. In his first manner, by Nicol. Poussin.