Lost London

by Richard Guard

  During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the infamous Tyburn tree was erected. This awful device was triangular in construction, each of its three oak beams capable of hanging eight miscreants – that is to say, twenty-four at once should the need arise. It was popularly known as the ‘Triple Tree’, ‘the Deadly Never-green’ and ‘the Three-Legged Mare’.

  Hanging days were virtually public holidays and such occasions became known as the Tyburn Fair. Thousands would line the streets from Newgate Prison to Tyburn to watch as the condemned were transported to their place of execution. At the hanging on 14 November 1724 of the notorious escapee, Jack Sheppard, it is thought that 200,000 people watched – equivalent to one-third of the capital’s entire population at the time.

  The phrase ‘getting back on the wagon’ – meaning never to drink again – arises from the journey made by the condemned along this route. At St Giles they were traditionally offered a bowl of wine – their last ever drink – before getting back on ‘the wagon’, a cart that was taking them to their death. The rope that was to hang them was already hung around their necks and their coffins lay at their feet.

  At the place of execution, grandstands were built to accommodate paying spectators, while ballad-singers played hurriedly penned songs about that day’s criminals in the hope of earning a few pennies. Meanwhile, there was a thriving trade in ‘penny bloods’, one-page news sheets detailing the life histories, crimes and sometimes even the last words of the doomed. Hogarth depicted such a scene in plate 11 of Industry and Idleness.

  The right of the condemned to speak their last free from the threat of any further punishment may well have been the tradition that led to the creation of Speakers’ Corner. The last public hanging at Tyburn took place on 7 November 1783, when one John Austin was executed for highway robbery. A month later, public hanging resumed, but this time outside Newgate Prison.

  Vauxhall Gardens

  Lambeth

  LET ME SIT AND SADLY PONDER

  on the glories of Vauxhall;

  Sink this mouldy mildewed present;

  from its grave the past recall.

  Is’t the punch that stirs my fancy—

  or the gooseberry champagne,

  Sets phantasmal shapes careering

  through the chambers of my brain?

  PUNCH 1859

  Early records show that in 1621 a manor house was owned by the Vaux family, who were successful vitners. By the 1660’s the gardens surrounding ‘Vaux Hall’ were a popular resort for city dwellers. The season lasted from May until August, and guests would wander the site listening to the birds, sharing picnics and enjoying music, often also provided by the guests themselves.

  Samuel Pepys visited numerous times during the period he kept his diary – between 1660 and 1669. He first visited in 1662, but under his entry for 28 May, 1667 he writes ‘Went by water to Fox (sic) Hall, and there walked in Spring Gardens. A great deal of company; the weather and gardens pleasant, and cheap going thither: for a man may go to spend what he will, or nothing at all: all is one. But to hear the nightingale and other birds, and here fiddles and there a harp, and here a Jew’s harp, and there laughing, and there [to see] fine people walking, is very diverting.’

  One of the main attractions of the gardens was their appeal for those wishing to meet members of the opposite sex – the long arbours and walk-ways were perfect for hiding from anxious parents. It soon however became a resort of prostitutes. in 1712, Sir Roger de Coverley, was interrupted by one such, during a leisurely stroll in the moonlight. She invited him to buy her a bottle of ale, and his reply was that ‘She was a wanton Baggage, and bid her go about her Business.’ He complained on leaving that he would rather ‘if there were more Nightingales, and fewer Strumpets’.

  Running for nearly 200 years, and through the reigns of ten monarchs, its greatest period was during the management of Jonathan Tyers, from 1727 until his death in 1767. His best-known events were a series of ‘Ridotto al Fresco’, which were masked balls.

  Vauxhall remained a fashionable venue, hosting the latest musicians and contemporary theatre, redesigning its gardens as taste and style demanded until the end of the 18th century when its popularity faltered.

  The opening of Nine Elms railway terminus in 1838 effectively ended the gardens rural seclusion. The very last night of opening was 25 July 1859, the land being sold off for building development that was to devour rural south London over the next fifty years.

  Walbrook

  THE RIVER WAS THE SOURCE OF FRESH WATER FOR the Romans when they founded the city. It rose in Finsbury, ran along the route of Curtain Road and Apollo Street, through Bank and into the Thames at the site of today’s Cannon Street Station.

  It was too narrow and shallow to be used for navigation, although excavation has revealed a Roman wooden dock where it entered the Thames. Its route to the river after passing Bank is remembered in a nearby eponymous street name.

  It was long suspected that the Romans built a temple here on its banks, and in 1889 a relief of the god Mithras was discovered – he is shown slaying a bull. At the same time a statue of a reclining river god was also found, 20 feet deep. The area was devastated by Second World War bombing and further discoveries were made in 1954.

  Records show that by the late 13th century the river was so filthy that city officials decreed it must be ‘made free from dung and other nuisances’. One hundred years later it was again reported to be totally blocked by rubbish thrown in by residents who lived along its banks. When St Margarets Lothbury was rebuilt in 1440 much of the river was covered over on orders of the Lord Mayor, Robert Lange, who paid for much of the work. By the time John Stow published his seminal Survey of London in 1598, the river had gone and Stow says ‘the course of Walbrook is now hidden underground, and thereby hardly known’.

  Watermen

  THE THAMES WAS THE MAIN THOROUGHFARE of London until the modern period of bridge building that started after the construction of Westminster Bridge in 1750.

  Unregulated and often chaotic, the state first attempted to control river traffic with an act of Parliament in 1514 aimed at fixing fares. A further act in 1555 drew up the ‘Rulers of all Watermen and Wherrymen working between Gravesend and Windsor’. This led to the formation of the Company of Watermen and Lightermen. Their livery hall, built in 1780, is still open at St Mary’s Hill, EC4.

  By 1600 it is estimated that there were 40,000 people earning a living transporting people and goods across the river. The Company ran a seven-year apprenticeship, something like the Knowledge for today’s black cab drivers. Watermen were prone to disease, due to the river pollution, especially after the invention of the flush toilet, which turned the Thames effectively into an open sewer. Boatmen faced two other great risks – violent crime, normally committed at night, and attempting to ‘shoot the bridge’.

  The ancient London Bridge so restricted the flow of the river, due to the numerous waterwheels constructed between its nineteen piers, that the water rushed with awesome force between the central navigable arch. The difference in height was over 5ft at high tide, and it is estimated that 30 people lost their lives in the furious waters every year.

  Whitehall Palace

  Westminster

  WITH OVER 1500 ROOMS STRETCHING ACROSS 23 acres from Northumberland Avenue to the current Houses of Parliament, this was once one of the largest royal palaces in Europe.

  The home of the British monarchy from as early as 1049, its heyday was during the reign of Henry VIII. His annexing of Cardinal Wolsey’s property – along with his expansion of the palace (adding tennis courts, a bowling alley, a tilting yard used for jousting and a cockpit) – cemented its place at the heart of government, a position the area has retained to this day. It was here that Henry VIII married both Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour.

  In 1622 James I had the Banqueting Hall built. It was designed by Inigo Jones, with a ceiling painted by Sir Paul Reubens. Ironically, it was outside this last major Whitehall
expansion that James I’s ill-starred son, Charles, was beheaded on 30 January 1649.

  The Banqueting Hall was one of the few buildings to survive a fire in 1691 that destroyed much of the Palace’s magnificent medieval structure, as well as many fine works of art, including Michelangelo’s sculpture of Cupid and Holbein’s portrait of Henry VIII. The great London diarist, John Evelyn, recorded the following day: ‘Whitehall burnt! Nothing but walls and ruins left.’

  Wren’s Lost Churches

  IT IS INCREDIBLE THAT SO MANY OF SIR Christopher Wren’s churches were destroyed, many lost to Victorian developments:

  CHURCHES DEMOLISHED:

  All Hallows, Bread Street; All Hallows the Great, Lombard Street; All Hallows, Lombard Street; St Antholin, Watling Street;

  St Bartholomew, Exchange; St Benet Fink, Threadneedle Street;

  St Benet, Gracechurch Street; St Christopher-le-Stocks, Threadneedle Street; St Dionis Backchurch, Fenchurch Street;

  St Matthew, Friday Street; St Michael, Bassishaw;

  St Michael, Crooked Lane; St Michael, Queenhithe;

  St Michael, Wood Street; St Mildred, Poultry

  CHURCHES LOST FOR OTHER REASONS:

  St Mary Magdalene, Fish Street (gutted by fire 1886).

  CHURCHES WHERE ONLY THE TOWER REMAINS:

  St Alban, Wood Street (destroyed by bombing in 1940);

  St Anne’s Church, Soho (demolished in 1953 after war damage)

  St Dunstan in the East (destroyed by bombing in 1941)

  St Mary Somerset, Thames Street (demolished in 1871)

  St Olave, Old Jewry (demolished 1888–9)

  CHURCHES DESTROYED BY WORLD WAR II BOMBING:

  Christ Church, Newgate Street (only ruins remain);

  The Cloisters, Pump Court, Middle Temple (1940–1);

  St Augustine, Watling Street (1945); St Mildred, Bread Street (1941);

  St Stephen, Coleman Street (1940);

  St Swithin, Cannon Street, (1941)

  Index

  Ackerman’s ref1

  Adam and Eve Tea Gardens ref1

  Adam, Robert ref1, ref2

  Agar Town, Kings Cross ref1

  Agar, William ref1

  Albert, Prince ref1, ref2

  Aldwych ref1

  Alhambra Theatre ref1

  Alleyn, Edward ref1

  Alsatia ref1

  Apollo Club ref1

  Archer, John ref1

  archery ref1, ref2

  Aris, Thomas ref1

  Astley’s Circus ref1, ref2

  Atmospheric Railway ref1

  Bach, J S ref1

  Bambridge, Thomas ref1

  Bank ref1

  Bankside ref1, ref2

  Barbican ref1

  Barham, John ref1

  Bartholomew Fair ref1

  Baum, John ref1

  Baynard’s Castle ref1

  Bazelgette, Sir Joseph ref1

  bear and bull baiting ref1, ref2, ref3

  Bear Gardens, Clerkenwell ref1

  Bedlam Hospital ref1, ref2, ref3

  Belair Park ref1

  Belasyse, Thomas, 1st Earl of Fauconberg ref1

  Bell Tavern, Kilburn ref1

  Berkeley Square ref1, ref2

  Bermondsey ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4

  Betterton, Thomas ref1

  Bishopsgate ref1, ref2

  Blackfriars ref1, ref2

  Blackheath ref1

  Blake, William ref1, ref2

  Blessington, Countess of ref1

  Blitz, the ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4

  Blondin, Charles ref1, ref2

  Boleyn, Anne ref1, ref2

  Bon Marché ref1

  Bonaparte, Napoleon ref1

  Booth, Charles ref1

  Borough ref1, ref2

  Boswell, James ref1

  Boyle, Robert ref1

  Brandon, Richard ref1

  Bridewell Palace ref1

  British Museum ref1, ref2

  Brixton ref1, ref2

  Brummel, Beau ref1

  Brunner Mond chemical factory ref1

  Bullock, William ref1

  Bunhill Fields ref1

  Burford’s Panorama ref1

  Burton, Decimus ref1

  Byron, Lord ref1

  Camden ref1

  Cannon Street ref1, ref2, ref3

  Carlisle House ref1

  Carlyle, Jane ref1

  Casanova ref1

  Castaing, John ref1

  Catherine the Great ref1

  Cato Street conspirators ref1

  Cave, Edward ref1

  Cecil, William ref1

  Charing Cross ref1

  Charles I, King ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5

  Charles II, King ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5

  Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor ref1

  Charlton ref1

  Chaucer, Geoffrey ref1

  Chelsea ref1, ref2, ref3

  Chelsea Bun House, Pimlico ref1

  Chesterton, George ref1

  Chippendale’s Workshop ref1

  Christie, John Reginald ref1

  churches, Sir Christopher Wren’s ref1

  Cibber, Caius ref1

  City of London ref1, ref2, ref3

  Civil War, British ref1, ref2

  Clagett, Chrispus ref1

  Clap, Margaret ref1

  Clare, Lord ref1

  Clare Market, Aldwych ref1

  Clegg, Samuel ref1

  Clerkenwell ref1, ref2, ref3

  Coldbath Fields Prison ref1

  Coleman, George ref1

  Coleridge, Samuel Taylor ref1

  Colosseum, Regent’s Park ref1

  Coral, Joe ref1

  Cornelys, Mrs ref1, ref2

  Cornhill fire (1748) ref1

  Costermonger’s Language ref1

  Cosway, Richard ref1

  Cottington, John ‘Mull Sack’ ref1

  Cotton Library of Manuscripts ref1

  Covent Garden ref1, ref2

  Crapper and Company Ltd ref1

  Cremorne Gardens ref1

  Cromwell, Oliver ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5

  Cross, Edward ref1

  Crosse & Blackwell ref1

  Crossing Sweepers ref1

  Crystal Palace ref1

  Cuckold’s Point ref1

  Daguerre, Jacques ref1

  Dance ‘the Younger,’ George ref1

  Darwin, Charles ref1

  d’Avenant, Sir William ref1

  d’Orsay, Count ref1

  de Berenger, Charles Random ref1

  de Coverley, Sir Roger ref1

  de Montfort, Simon ref1

  De Paris, Robert ref1

  Death Hunters ref1

  Defoe, Daniel ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4

  Devereux, Robert ref1

  Devil Public House ref1

  Dickens, Charles ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8

  Dioramas ref1

  Dog and Duck Public House ref1

  Dog Finders ref1

  Don Saltero’s Coffee House ref1

  Duke’s Company ref1

  Dulwich ref1

  Durham House, The Strand ref1

  Earl’s Court ref1

  Edward I, King ref1

  Edward III, King ref1

  Edward IV, King ref1

  Edward the Confessor ref1

  Edward VI, King ref1, ref2, ref3

  Edwards, George ref1

  Eel Pie House ref1

  Effra River ref1

  Egyptian Hall ref1

  Eleanor of Castille ref1

  Elizabeth I, Queen ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11

  Enon Chapel ref1

  Essex House ref1

  Euston Arch ref1

  Euston Station ref1, ref2

  Evans, Timothy ref1, ref2

  Evelyn, John ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4

  Execution Dock ref1

  Exeter House ref1

  fairs ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7

  Farr, J
ames ref1

  Farringdon Market ref1

  Fauconberg House ref1

  Field of the Forty Footsteps ref1

  Fitzwalter, Matilda ref1

  Fleet Debtors’ Prison ref1, ref2

  Fleet Marriages ref1

  Fleet River ref1, ref2

  Fleet Street ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4

  Frost Fairs ref1, ref2

  Gaiety Theatre ref1

  Gamages ref1

  Gandhi ref1

  Garrick, David ref1, ref2, ref3

  Gentleman’s Magazine ref1, ref2

  George, Chelsea ref1

  George I, King ref1

  George II, King ref1

  George III, King ref1, ref2, ref3

  German traders ref1

  Giffard, Henry ref1

  Giovanelli, Edward ref1

  Globe Theatre ref1, ref2

  Goldsmith, Oliver ref1, ref2

  Goodman’s Fields Theatre ref1

  Gordon, Frederick ref1

  Gordon, Lord George ref1

  Gordon Riots ref1, ref2

  Gore House ref1

  Grand Union Public House ref1

  Great Exhibition (1851) ref1, ref2

  Great Fire (1666) ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10

  Great Globe ref1

  Grey, Lady Jane ref1, ref2, ref3

  Guildhall ref1, ref2

  Gunter’s Tea Shop ref1

  Hand, Richard ref1

  Hanover Square Rooms ref1

  Hardwicke, Lord ref1

  Harringay Stadium ref1

  Haydon, Benjamin ref1

  Henry III, King ref1, ref2

  Henry VI, King ref1

  Henry VIII, King ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9

  Highbury Barn ref1

  Highbury Tavern ref1

  Hillocks, James Inches ref1

  Hippodrome Racecourse ref1

  Hitchin, Christopher ref1

  Hockley-in-the-Hole ref1

  Hogarth, William ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5

  Holbein, Hans ref1, ref2

  Holborn ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4