The Survey of London

Stow’s _Survey of London_, from its first publication in 1598, has taken rank as the first authority on the history of London, but this very fame has been the cause of some inju...

Since the first publishing of the perambulation of Kent by that learned gentleman, William Lambert, Esq., I have heard of sundry other able persons to have (according to the des...

By the north side, he meaneth from the river of Thames in the east to the river of Thames in the west, for so stretched the wall in his time, and the city being far more in leng...

In the year of Christ 1354, the 28th of Edward III., the ditch of this city flowing over the bank into the Tower ditch, the king commanded the said ditch of the city to be clean...

In the year 1471,[45] the 11th of Edward IV., Thomas, the bastard Fawconbridge, having assembled a riotous company of shipmen and other in Essex and Kent, came to London with a...

This was sometimes a large water-gate, frequented of ships and other vessels, like as the Queene hithe, and was a part thereof, as doth appear by an inquisition made in the 28th...

In the year 1344, King Edward III., in the 18th of his reign, commanded florences of gold to be made and coined in the Tower; that is to say, a penny piece of the value of five...

The year 1216, the 1st of Henry III., the castle of Hartford being delivered to Lewis the French prince, and the barons of England, Robert Fitzwater requiring to have the same,...

The three principal churches which had these famous schools by privileges, must needs be the cathedral church of St. Paul for one; seeing that by a general council, holden in th...

It followeth in Fitzstephen, that the plagues of London in that time were immoderate quaffing among fools, and often casualties by fire. For the first--to wit, of quaffing--it c...

“When the great fen, or moor, which watereth the walls of the city on the north side, is frozen, many young men play upon the ice; some, striding as wide as they may, do slide s...

This midsummer watch was thus accustomed yearly, time out of mind, until the year 1539, the 31st of Henry VIII., in which year, on the 8th of May, a great muster was made by the...

Sir Thomas Roo, merchant-taylor, mayor 1568, gave to the merchant-taylors lands or tenements, out of them to be given to ten poor men, cloth-workers, carpenters, tilers, plaster...

In the year 1348, the 23rd of Edward III., the first great pestilence in his time began, and increased so sore, that for want of room in churchyards to bury the dead of the city...

Now for the two Church lanes, they meeting on the south side of this church and church yard, do join in one, and running down to the Thames street, the same is called St. Dunsta...

Soon after was there a commotion of the commons in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, and other shires; by means whereof, straight orders being taken for the suppression of rumours, diver...

The next is Leaden hall, of which I read, that in the year 1309 it belonged to Sir Hugh Nevill, knight, and that the Lady Alice his widow made a feoffment thereof, by the name o...

One note more of this ward, and so an end. I find of record, that in the year 1371, the 45th of Edward III., a great subsidy of one hundred thousand pounds was granted towards t...

Now for the other side of this ward, namely, the right hand, hard by within the gate, is one fair water conduit, which Thomas Knesworth, mayor, in the year 1505, founded: he gav...

The proctors of this house were to collect the benevolence of charitable persons towards the building and supporting thereof. And amongst other things observed in my youth, I re...

This library hath been of late time, to wit, within these fifty years, well furnished of books; John Leyland viewed and commended them; but now those books be gone, and the plac...

Then is there in the high street a proper parish church of St. Mary Woolnoth, of the Nativity, the reason of which name I have not yet learnt. This church is lately new built. S...

After this, many of the nobles assembled at Reading to suppress the seditious stirs of the said John Northampton, or Combarton, late mayor, that had attempted great and heinous...

Down west from this parish church, and from London stone, have ye Walbrooke corner; from whence runneth up a street, north to the Stocks, called Walbrook, because it standeth on...

At the east end of this church goeth down a lane called Hay wharf lane, now lately a great brewhouse, built there by one Pot; Henry Campion, esquire, a beer-brewer, used it, and...

In this street is the parish church of St. Thomas Apostle, by Wringwren lane, a proper church, but monuments of antiquity be there none, except some arms in the windows, as also...

Robert Harding, goldsmith, one of the sheriffs 1478, gave to the new work of that steeple forty pounds; John Haw, mercer, ten pounds; Doctor Allen, four pounds; Thomas Baldry, f...

This cross in West Cheape being like to those other which remain to this day, and being by length of time decayed, John Hatherly, mayor of London, procured, in the year 1441, li...

The German _Söller_ is used by Luther in his magnificent translation of the Bible in both senses:--“Peter went up upon the house-top to pray”--“_Stieg Petrus hinauf auf den SÖLL...

On the west side, almost at the south end thereof, is Bakewell hall, corruptly called Blackewall hall: concerning the original whereof I have heard divers opinions, which I over...

Then is Adle street, the reason of which name I know not, for at this present it is replenished with fair buildings on both sides; amongst the which there was sometime the Pinne...

Then in St. Martin’s lane was of old time a fair and large college of a dean and secular canons or priests, and was called St. Martin’s le Grand, founded by Ingelricus and Edwar...

Margaret, queen, second wife to Edward I., began the choir of their new church in the year 1306; to the building whereof, in her lifetime, she gave two thousand marks, and one h...

In the year 1549, on the 10th of April, the said chapel, by commandment of the Duke of Somerset, was begun to be pulled down, with the whole cloister, the Dance of Death, the to...

Betwixt the south end of Ave Mary lane, and the north end of Creed lane, is the coming out of Paule’s church yard on the east, and the high street on the west, towards Ludgate,...

On the south side of this lane is one great house, of old time built upon arched vaults, and with arched gates of stone, brought from Caen in Normandy. The same is now a common...

King Henry III. in the 9th of his reign, commanded the constables of the Tower of London to arrest the ships of the Cinque Ports on the river of Thames, and to compel them to br...

In Lambart hill lane on the west side thereof, is the Blacksmiths’ hall, and adjoining to the north side thereof have ye one plot of ground, inclosed with a brick wall for a chu...

This church having in the bell-tower six bells in a tune, those bells were sold to the parish of St. Sepulchre’s; and then the church being pulled down to the choir, the choir w...

On the other side, at the very corner, standeth the parish church of St. Andrew, in the which church, or near thereunto, was sometime kept a grammar school, as appeareth in anot...

Many parliaments and great councils have been there kept, as may appear by our histories. In the year 1308, all the Templars in England, as also in other parts of Christendom, w...

Then is the Marshalsey, another gaol or prison, so called, as pertaining to the marshals of England. Of what continuance kept in Southwark I have not learned; but like it is, th...

Having said this much for building at Wapping, East Smithfield, Bramley, and Shadwell, all on the south side of the highway to Radcliffe, now one note on the north side, also co...

In consideration of the number of Christian people here buried, the said Sir Walter Manny caused first a chapel to be built, where for the space of twenty-three years offerings...

But first amongst other buildings memorable for greatness, on the river of Thames, Excester house, so called for that the same belonged to the bishops of Excester, and was their...

In the 25th of his reign, he appointed the staple of wool to be kept only at Canterbury, for the honour of St. Thomas; but in the 27th of the same King Edward, the staple of woo...

In the year 1238, the same King Henry kept his feast of Christmas at Westminster in the great hall; so did he in the year 1241, where he placed the legate in the most honourable...

[299] The corruption alluded to by Stow exists to the present day--the Almonry being styled by the lower classes in Westminster, the Ambry. The house said to have been Caxton’s...

1550. Nicholas Ridley, bishop of Rochester, elected bishop of London, was installed in Paul’s church on the 12th of April. This man by his deed, dated the twelfth day after Chri...

“This city (saith he), even as Rome, is divided into wards; it hath yearly sheriffs instead of consuls; it hath the dignity of senators and aldermen; it hath under officers, and...

The Londoners meant to have slain John duke of Lancaster: Adam Staple, mayor, put down, and Nicholas Brembar elected. Also the aldermen were deposed, and others set in their pla...

1535. The 27th, Humfrey Munmoth, John Cootes; mayor, Sir John Allen, mercer. By the king’s appointment he was of his council. A man of great wisdom, and also of great charity.

Thus much for liveries of citizens in ancient times, both in triumphs and otherwise, may suffice, whereby may be observed, that the coverture of men’s heads was then hoods, for...

Now I doubt not (whatsoever London was in the time of Cæsar), but that under the heptarchy and monarchy it hath been a subject, and no free city, though happily endowed with som...

In the second room I place a couple of tumultuous affrays that chanced in the days of King Richard I.; the one upon the day of his coronation against the Jews, which, contrary t...