Part 9

PECKHAM RYE, a village in Surry, on the south side of Peckham.

PEDLARS _street_, New Bond street.

PEEL _court_, Glasshouse yard, Goswell street.

PEEL _yard_, near Peel court, Glasshouse yard.

PEERLESS POOL, near Old street road, was formerly a spring that overflowing its banks, caused a very dangerous pond, which from the number of persons who lost their lives there, obtained the name of Perilous Pool. To prevent these accidents it was in a manner filled up, till in the year 1743, Mr. Kemp converted it into what may perhaps be esteemed one of the compleatest swimming baths in the world; and as it is the only one of the kind in Christendom, it may deserve a particular notice.

You enter from a bowling-green on the south side, by a neat arcade thirty-feet long, furnished with a small collection of modern books for the entertainment of those subscribers who delight in reading. Contiguous are many dressing apartments; some of which are open, and others rendered private, all paved with purbeck stone; and on each side of the bath is a bower divided into apartments for dressing. At the other end is placed a circular bench, capable of accommodating forty gentlemen at a sitting, under the shelter of a wall. One side is inclosed by a mount 150 feet long, planted with a great variety of shrubs, and on the top is an agreeable terrace walk planted with limes. The pleasure bath is 170 feet long, and above 100 broad; it is five feet deep at the bottom in the middle, and under four feet at the sides, and the descent into it is by four pair of marble steps to a fine gravel bottom. Here is also a cold bath, generally allowed to be the largest in England, it being forty feet long, and twenty feet broad, with two flights of marble steps, and a dressing room at each end; at four feet deep is a bottom of lettice work, under which the water is five feet deep. To these the ingenious projector has added a well stocked fish pond 320 feet long, for the diversion of those subscribers who are fond of angling, and adorned on each side with arbours, and with a terrace, the slopes of which are planted with many thousand shrubs, and the walks one of gravel, and the other of grass, are bordered with stately limes. The east end the garden extends to a genteel public house, and the westward is terminated by another garden, and a well-built private house inhabited by Mr. Kemp, the son of the ingenious projector, who after having made these improvements, changed the name from _Perilous_ to _Peerless Pool_.

PEGHT’S _yard_, Castle lane.†

PELHAM _street_, Brick lane, Spitalfields.†

PELICAN _court_, Little Britain.*

PELICAN _stairs_, Wapping.*

PELICAN _yard_, Butcher row, East Smithfield.*

PEMBERTON’S _rents_, 1. Hand alley.† 2. New street.†

PEMBERTON _row_, Fetter lane.†

PEMELL’S _Almshouse_, at Mile-end, was founded by Mr. John Pemell, citizen and draper, in the year 1698, for four poor drapers widows, and the same number of seamen’s widows, to be presented by the Churchwardens of Old Stepney parish. Each of these almswomen have an allowance of 1_s._ 8_d._ per week, half a chaldron of coals every year, and a gown every other year. _Maitland._

PEMLICO, near Buckingham House, St. James’s Park.

PENNINGTON _street_, Old Gravel lane.†

PENNYBARBER’S _alley_, Stony lane.‖

PENNYFIELD _street_, Poplar.

PENNY POST OFFICE, an office unknown in other countries, was projected by Mr. David Murray, an upholder in Pater noster row in the year 1683, who by this admirable and useful project, deserves to be considered as a benefactor to the city, and to have his name transmitted down to posterity. He communicated the scheme to Mr. William Dockwra, who carried it on for some time with great success, till the government laid claim to it as a royal prerogative; Dockwra was obliged to submit, and in return had a pension of 200_l._ _per annum_ allowed him by the King during life.

It was erected for carrying letters not only of one sheet but of several, to any part of this great metropolis, or the adjacent villages, on paying only one penny on delivering the letter to be thus carried: but at some of the more distant villages, an additional penny is demanded of the person to whom the letter is delivered.

This office is under the direction of the Postmaster-general; who appoints, as managers, a Comptroller, an Accomptant, a Receiver and Comptroller’s clerk; who have under their management six sorters, and eight subsorters of letters, seventy-four messengers, or letter-carriers, and 334 houses within the bills of mortality, for receiving or taking in letters, which are divided among the six offices following; the general office in St. Christopher’s Church yard, and the five offices called the sorting houses, one at Westminster, one at Lincoln’s Inn, St. Paul’s office, in Pater noster row, St. Mary Overy’s in Southwark, and the Tower hill office: besides these there are 500 shops and coffee-houses, from whence the messengers collect and carry the letters to their proper offices every hour, where being sorted, they are sent out again to be delivered. But as each of the six offices has a number of villages under its peculiar direction, those letters that require great speed should be sent to that office, whose peculiar province it is to forward them to the village to which you would have them sent. This renders it necessary to give a list of these villages and places, peculiarly under the care of each office: but we shall not attempt to follow the other writers, who have prefixed to the names of these villages the number of times to which letters are carried to, and returned from each; because that is entirely uncertain, and it is sufficient that letters are carried and returned from each at least once a day; since this is all that can be depended upon.

In the map we have given of the environs round London, the extent and limits of the Penny Post are shewn by a circular coloured line drawn round the city.

The chief office in St. Christopher’s alley, Threadneedle street, to which belong, one sorter, two subsorters, twenty messengers, and seventy-three receiving houses. This office collects, receives, conveys, and delivers letters to and from the following places, besides what it delivers in its own proper district in London.

Aldersbrook Avery-hatch Barking Bednal green Bishops-hall Bow Bromley in Middlesex Bush-hall Cambridge heath Chigwel Chigwel row Dalston Edmonton Green-man Green-street Hackney Hagerstone Ham East and West Hoxton Jenkins Ilford Kingsland Layton-stone Loughton-hall Low-layton Locksford Mile-end Newington green Newington stoke Oldford Palmer’s green Plaistow in Essex Rippleside Ruckfolds Southgate Stepney Stratford Tottenham Tottenham High cross Valentines Upton Walthamstow Wansted Winchmore hill Woodford Woodford row, and bridge

St. Paul’s office is kept in Queen’s head alley, in Pater noster row, which collects, receives, conveys and delivers letters to and from the following and adjacent places, besides what it delivers within its proper district in London.

Black-mary’s hole Boarded river Cambray house Cold bath Copenhagen Frog lane Holloway, Upper and Lower Islington Mountmill Sir John Oldcastle’s Torrington lane Wood’s close

The Temple office is kept in Chichester’s rents in Chancery lane, which collects, receives, conveys and delivers letters and parcels to and from the following and adjacent places, besides what it delivers within its own proper district in town.

Battle bridge Bone gate Brill Cole harbour Coney hatch East Barnet Finchley Frog lane Hampstead Highgate Hornsey Kentish town Mussel hill Pancras Pinder of Wakefield South green Totteridge Whetstone Wood green

Westminster office is kept in Pump court near Charing cross, which collects, receives, conveys and delivers letters and parcels to and from the following and adjacent places, besides what it delivers within its own proper district in town.

Abery farm Acton, East and West Acton wells Barry’s walk Base watering Black lands Bloody bridge Bluncoat lane Bollow lane Boston house Brentford Old & New Brentford end Brent’s cow house Bride lane house Brook green Broom houses Brompton park Burrows Castle-bear Chelsea, Great and Little Chelsea college —— common —— fields Child’s hill Chiswick Corney house Counters bridge Cow house farm Crab tree house Dowel street Daws lane Dollars hill Ealing, Great & Little Ealing lane Earl’s court Foordhook Frog lane Fryars place Fulham Fulham fields Gaggle goose green Great and Little Holland house Gibb’s green Grain house Green man, in Uxbridge road Gunnersbury Gutters hedge Hammersmith Hanger end Hanger lane Haven Hendon Hide Hog lane Holsdon green Hoywood hill Hudicon fields Kensington Kensington gravel pits Kilborn Knightsbridge Laurence street Leasing green Lime kilns London stile Lord Mayor’s Banqueting house Maddox lane Mary bone, and Park Masha Mapes, and Masha Brands Mill hill Neathouses Neesdon Noman’s lands North end North highway Notting hills Paddington Paddington green Paddingwick green Page’s street Parson’s green Pimlico Purser’s cross Sandy end Shepherd’s bush Shevrick green Shoot-up hill Sion hill Sion house Sion lane St. John’s wood Stanford brook Starch green Strand on the green Sutton court, and Little Sutton Tottenham court Turnham green Tyburn road, and house Waltham green Wemley Wemley green Westburn green Westfield West end Wilsdon green Windmill lane

Southwark office is kept in Green dragon court, near St. Mary Overy’s church, which collects, receives, conveys and delivers letters and parcels to and from the following and adjacent places, besides what it delivers within its own proper district in Southwark and London.

Balam Barn-elms Barnstown Battersea Battersea reys Blackheath Bristow causeway Brockly, Upper and Lower Burntash Camberwell Charlton Clapham, and Common Coleharbour Deptford, Upper and Lower Dulwich, and common East and West Sheen Eltham Gammon hill Garret’s green Greenwich Grove street Ireland green Kennington Kew Kew green Knights hill Lambeth Lambeth marsh Lee Lewisham Limekilns Longbarn Longhedge Loughberry house Martin abbey and mills March gate Mitcham Mortlack Morder Mottingham New cross Newington butts Nine elms Norwood Peckham town, and Rye Pigs march Plumstead Putney green Putney heath Red-house Rickle-marsh Roehampton Rotherhithe Sidnam South Lambeth Stockwell Stretham Tooting, Upper and Lower Vauxhall Walworth Wandsworth, and Common Wimbleton Woolwich

Hermitage office is kept in Queen street on Little Tower hill, which collects, receives, conveys and delivers letters and parcels to and from the following and adjacent places, besides what it delivers within its own proper district in town.

Blackwall Isle of Dogs King David’s fort Lime hole Limehouse Poplar Ratcliff Stepney causeway

Several of the country messengers, and others for remote places, going on their walks by six o’clock in the morning, letters and parcels ought to be put in at the receiving houses before six o’clock over-night; otherwise a whole day may be lost in the delivery: but letters for places that are nearer, are generally collected and delivered two or three times a day.

All general post letters, both foreign and domestic, directed to the places above mentioned, not being post towns, are conveyed from the aforesaid offices every day at twelve o’clock; and answers being put into the receiving houses in the country towns, will next night be safely carried to the General Post office, by the officers appointed for that purpose.

PENSIONERS _alley_, King street, Westminster.

PEPPER _alley_, 1. by the Bridge Foot, in the Borough. 2. Down’s street, Hyde Park road. 3. Goswell street.

PEPPER _alley stairs_, the next stairs above the bridge, in Southwark.

PEPPER _street_, Duke street, in the Mint.

PERKIN’S _rents_, Peter street, Soho.†

PERKIN’S _yard_, Blackman street.†

PERRIWINKLE _street_, Ratcliff cross.

PERSTON’S _yard_, in the Minories.†

PESTHOUSE _fields_, by Pesthouse row, Old street.

PESTHOUSE _row_, adjoining to the French hospital in Old street. Here stood, till the year 1737, the city Pesthouse, which consisted of several tenements, and was erected as a Lazaretto for the reception of distressed and miserable objects, infected by the dreadful plague in the year 1665. _Maitland._

PETER AND KEYS _court_, Peter lane, Cow cross, Smithfield.*

PETERBOROUGH _court_, Fleet street.

_St._ PETER AD VINCULA, situated to the north west corner of Northumberland walk, at the end of the new armoury, in the Tower; was founded by King Edward III. and dedicated by the name of _St. Peter in Chains_, or St. Peter ad Vincula. This is a plain Gothic building void of all ornament, sixty-six feet in length, fifty-four in breadth, and twenty-four feet high from the floor to the roof. The walls, which have Gothic windows, are strengthened at the corners with rustic, and crowned with a plain blocking course. The tower is plain, and is crowned with a turret.

The living is a rectory in the gift of the King, valued at about 60_l._ a year. The Rector, as Minister of the Tower garrison, is paid by his Majesty; and the living is exempt from archiepiscopal jurisdiction.

Among the several monuments in this church is a grave stone, under which lies buried Mr. James Whittaker, his wife and children; and upon that stone are the following lines.

See how the just, the virtuous, and the strong, The beautiful, the innocent, the young, Here in promiscuous dust, together lie. Reflect on this, depart, and learn to die.

In this church lie the ashes of many noble, and some royal personages, executed either in the Tower, or on the hill, and deposited here in obscurity; particularly,

George Bullen, Lord Rochford, who was beheaded on Tower hill on the 17th of May, 1536.

Anne Bullen, wife to King Henry VIII. beheaded two days after, on a scaffold erected on the green, within the Tower.

Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, who from a blacksmith’s son at Putney, became the favourite of Henry VIII. and one of the most zealous promoters of the reformation from popery; but was beheaded on Tower hill in the year 1540.

Catharine Howard, the fifth wife of King Henry VIII. beheaded on Tower hill on the 13th of February, 1541.

Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, beheaded on Tower hill, on the 24th of June, 1552.

John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, who lost his head at the same place, on the 22d of Aug. 1553.

Under the communion table, lies the body of James Duke of Monmouth, the natural son of King Charles II. beheaded for asserting his right to the crown, in opposition to James II. on the 15th of July, 1683.

_St._ PETER’S _alley_, by St. Peter’s church, Cornhill.

_St._ PETER’S _Cheap_, a church, which stood at the corner of Wood street Cheapside, in Faringdon ward within, but being destroyed by the fire of London in 1666, the parish was united to St. Matthew, Friday street.

_St._ PETER’S _Cornhill_, a plain neat church, near the south east corner of Cornhill, in the ward of that name. There has been many ages a church in the same place, under the patronage of the same apostle: but the last edifice was destroyed by the fire of London, and this substantial structure rose in its place. The body is eighty feet long, and forty-seven broad; it is forty feet high to the roof, and the height of the steeple is an hundred and forty feet. The body is plain, and enlightened by a single series of windows. The tower, which is also plain, has a small window in each stage, and the dome which supports the spire is of the lantern kind; this spire, which is well proportioned, is crowned by a ball, whence rises the fane, in the form of a key.

The patronage of this rectory is in the Lord Mayor and Commonalty of this city. The Rector receives, besides other profits, 120_l._ a year by glebe, and 110_l._ a year in lieu of tithes.

_St._ PETER LE POOR, on the west side of Broad street, in the ward of that name, is supposed by Maitland, to have received its additional epithet _le Poor_, from the mean condition of the parish in ancient times: tho’ it is now extremely wealthy, it being inhabited by a great number of merchants, and other persons of distinction.

Others imagine that it was called le Poor, from the neighbouring friary of St. Austin, where reigned an affected poverty. A church stood upon the same spot before the year 1181, and the present edifice which escaped the fire in 1666, is supposed to have been built about the year 1540.

This Gothic structure, instead of being an ornament to the street in which it is placed, as all public buildings ought to be, is a very great deformity; the building itself is mean, one of its corners being thrust as it were into the street, renders it narrow, obstructs the passage, and destroys the vista. This structure is of very considerable breadth in proportion to its length; it being fifty-four feet long, and fifty-one broad: the height to the roof is twenty-three feet, and that of the tower and turret seventy-five. The body is plain and unornamented; the windows are very large; and the dial is fixed to a beam that is joined on one end to a kind of turret, and extends like a country sign post, across the street; a very rude and aukward contrivance. The tower, which rises square, without diminution, is strengthened at the corners with rustic; upon this is placed a turret, which consists of strong piers at the corners arched over, and covered with an open dome, whence rises a ball and fane.

The advowson of this church appears to have been all along in the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s. The tithes at present amount to 130_l._ a year; and the other profits by annual donations settled upon the Rector, amount to about as much more.

PETER’S _court_, 1. Ironmonger row. 2. St. Martin’s lane, Charing cross. 3. Peter lane. 4. Rosemary lane.

PETER’S _hill_, 1. Knightrider street. 2. Saffron hill.

_St._ PETER’S _hill_, Thames street, so called from the following church.

PETER’S KEY _alley_, Cow cross, Smithfield.

PETER’S _lane_, St. John street, Smithfield.

_St._ PETER’S _Paul’s wharf_, stood at the south east corner of St. Peter’s hill, in Thames street, in Queenhithe ward, and was anciently denominated St. _Peter’s Parva_, or _the Little_, from its small dimensions. This church being destroyed with most of the others, by the fire of London, and not rebuilt, its parish is annexed to the church of St. Bennet Paul’s wharf.

PETER’S _street_, 1. Bandy leg walk, Deadman’s place. 2. Bloomsbury. 3. Halfmoon alley, Bishopsgate street. 4. In the Mint. 5. Stratton’s ground, Westminster. 6. Turnmill street, Cow cross. 7. Vere street, Claremarket. 8. Soho. 9. Westminster.

_St._ PETER’S _Westminster_. See the article ABBEY _Church of Westminster_.

_St._ PETER’S _yard_, 1. Deadman’s place, Southwark. 2. In the Minories.

PETERSHAM, a small village in Surry, near the New Park, and a little to the south of Richmond hill. Here stood a delightful seat built by the late Earl of Rochester, Lord High Treasurer in the reign of King James II. This fine house was burnt down in the year 1720, so suddenly that the family, who were all at home, had scarcely time to save their lives. Nor was the house, tho’ exquisitely finished both within and without, the greatest loss sustained; the noble furniture, the curious collection of paintings, and the inestimable library of the first Earl of Clarendon, Lord High Chancellor of England, and author of the History of the Rebellion, were wholly consumed; and among other valuable pieces, several manuscripts relating to those times, and to the transactions in which the King his Master, and himself were engaged both at home and abroad; besides other curious collections made by that noble Author in foreign countries.

On the ground where his house stood, the Earl of Harrington erected another, after one of the Earl of Burlington’s designs. The front next the court is very plain, and the entrance to the house not very extraordinary: but the south front next the garden, is bold and regular, and the apartments on that side, chiefly designed for state, are extremely elegant.

The gardens were before crowded with plantations near the house; but they are now laid open in lawns of grass: the kitchen garden, before situated on the east side of the house, is removed out of sight, and the ground converted to an open slope of grass, leading up to a terrace of great length; from which is a prospect of the river Thames, the town of Twickenham, and of all the fine seats round that part of the country. On the other side of the terrace, is a plantation on a rising ground; and on the summit of the hill is a fine pleasure house, which on every side commands a prospect of the country for many miles.

PETTICOAT _lane_, extends from Whitechapel into Spitalfields. On both sides of this lane were anciently hedges, and rows of elm trees, and the pleasantness of the neighbouring fields induced several gentlemen to build their houses here, among whom was the Spanish ambassador, whom Strype supposes to be Gondomar: but at length many French refugees settling in that part of the lane near Spitalfields in order to follow their trades, which in general was weaving of silk, it soon became a row of contiguous buildings. This lane is very long and very disagreeable, both on account of its nastiness and offensive smells, it being the chief residence of the horners, who prepare horns for other petty manufacturers.

PETTICOAT _square_, Petticoat lane.

PETTY BAG OFFICE, next the Rolls chapel, Chancery lane. The clerks in this office, who are three in number, are under the Master of the Rolls, and make all patents for customers, comptrollers, and _congé d’elires_: they also summon the Nobility, Clergy, Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses to parliament, &c. This office takes its name from each record being there put into a little bag.

PETTY CANONS _of St. Paul’s_. See the article Canons.

PETTY CANONS _alley_, St. Paul’s Church yard.

PETTY FRANCE, Tothill street, Westminster; thus named from its being at first inhabited by the people of that nation.

PETTY FRANCE _alley_, Old Bethlem; so called from Petty France there, now called New Broad street, which was originally inhabited chiefly by the French.

PETTY WALES _yard_, Halfmoon alley.

PETTY’S _court_, Hanoway street, Tottenham court road.†

PEWTERERS, a company incorporated by letters patent, granted by King Edward IV. in 1474.