The sinks ran grease, and hair of meazled hogs, The heads, houghs, entrails, and the hides of dogs: To put the skins and offals in a pasty? Cats there lay divers. "The encroachments upon the banks and the casting of the soil into the stream went on until it became little better than an open sewer, and, as Strype observes, "it was only known by the names of Bridewell Ditch and Fleet Ditch, . . . and so it continued until all the small tenements, sheds, and lay-stalls on the banks of it were burnt down in the general Fire of London." 1 But the mischief being made matter of complaint to the commissioners of sewers in the time of Cromwell, an order was issued in 1652 for the cleansing of the sewer and the removal of "the houses of office" which overhung its waters, and made it what the commissioners call "very stinking and noisome." The ditch is described as quite impassable with boats, "by reason of the many encroachments thereupon made by keeping of hogs and swine therein and elsewhere near to it, the throwing in of offals and other garbage by butchers, soucemen, and others, and by reason of the many houses of office standing over and upon it." In consequence of this order (of which there is a printed copy of the time in the British Museum) the ditch was cleansed, and "the houses of office" removed from about it. But the nuisance continued, though in a lesser degree, till the period of the Great Fire, when the citizens turned their attention to the state of the ditch, and having obtained parliamentary powers (22 Charles II., 1670), had it deepened between Holborn and the Thames, so that barges might ascend with the tide as far as Holborn as before. At the same time the sides were built of stone and brick, wooden railings placed about the ditch and wharfs and landing-places made. This "New Canal," as it was now called, was 40 feet in breadth, with a depth of water at the upper end, "at middling tides," of 5 feet, and a width on each side for wharfs of 35 feet. Four stone bridges were built across the canal, at Bridewell, Fleet Street, Fleet Lane, and Holborn. The canal cost the sum of £27,777, besides what was paid to the proprietors whose grounds were taken for wharfs and quays. In digging the channel and forming the quays between Fleet Bridge and Holborn-the line in its length and breadth still shown by Farringdon Street—a large number of Roman remains-coins, pottery, and a few bronze penates were discovered. The work proved an unprofitable speculation. The toll was heavy, the traffic inconsiderable, and in spite of its new name and the money that had been spent upon it, the ditch was doomed to continue a common sewer, and, as a new canal, is now chiefly remembered by a smart reply. When the polite Lord Chesterfield was asked by some enthusiastic Parisian whether, in London, we could show a river like the Seine, "Yes," he replied, "and we call it Fleet Ditch." Gay has introduced "the black canal of mud" into his Trivia: 1 Strype, B. iii. p. 280. If where Fleet Ditch with muddy current flows, The damsel's knife the gaping shell commands, While the salt liquor streams between her hands.-Gay, Trivia. Nor has Swift overlooked it in his City Shower, but it is hardly worth while to cite the unsavoury passage in which he has done so. Pope, it will be remembered, has laid the famous diving-scene in The Dunciad in the ditch by Bridewell : This labour past, by Bridewell all descend (As morning prayer and flagellation end) To where Fleet Ditch with disemboguing streams Pope, The Dunciad, B. ii. p. 270.1 The nuisance, however, was too great to continue longer, and the mayor and corporation, when the present Mansion House was about to be built and it became necessary to remove Stocks Market to a new site, wisely determined to arch over the ditch between Holborn Bridge and Fleet Street, and remove the market, 1737, to the site thus obtained. [See Fleet Market.] A portion of the ditch between Fleet Street and the Thames still remained open; an opportunity, however, was found, when Blackfriars Bridge was built, to arch it over, and from 1765 famous Fleet Ditch carried its dead dogs and discharging streams to the Thames underground. By the construction of the main drainage system of the Metropolitan Board of Works the Thames is now happily relieved from that hideous mass of filth. The outlet of the Fleet is, in fact, a somewhat complex but very ingenious piece of underground engineering. There is still a direct channel of communication with the Thames, but it is held in reserve for extraordinary occasions; ordinarily the contents of the Fleet pass into the great Low Level Sewer. As the river channel has to be carried under the Metropolitan District Railway and over the Low Level Sewer, it was found necessary greatly to diminish its depth. It was therefore divided into four separate passages, each widening gradually to its mouth, and furnished with a penstock and tidal flap. North of these passages a broader channel was formed, with penstock arrangement at its mouth, communicating directly with the main Low Level Sewer. The effect of this is that, in the usual course of things, the contents of the Fleet pass into the main sewer, but they can at any time be diverted into the Thames should any great storm, failure in the main-drainage pumping apparatus, or other accident occur, which would try too severely the capacity of the great sewer; while at any time storm waters and accidental overflows can be diverted to the Thames. Fleet Bridge, one of the four bridges over the Fleet in its passage 1 The only contemporary engraved view of Fleet Ditch is an illustration to The Dunciad, in the first edition of Warburton's Pope, 8vo, 1751. At Hampton Court is an interesting picture by W. James, representing Fleet Ditch as seen from the river, circ. 1756. The bridge in the picture appears to be Bridewell Bridge. There is also a picture by Scott in the Guildhall Library. through the City. It connected Ludgate Hill with Fleet Street; "a bridge of stone," says Stow, "fair coped on either side with iron pikes; on which, towards the south, be also certain lanthorns of stone for lights to be placed in the winter evenings for commodity of travellers. . . . It seemeth this last bridge to be made or repaired at the charges of John Wels, mayor, in the year 1431, for on the coping is engraven Wels embraced by angels like as on the standard in Cheape, which he also built."1 Fleet Bridge was one of the places fixed for the receipt of toll from carriers and dealers bringing corn and other commodities into the City for sale.2 The bridge described by Stow was destroyed in the Great Fire, and the new one erected in its stead was of the breadth of the street, and ornamented with pine-apples and the City arms. It was taken down October 14, 1765. After the Fleet was arched over along what is now Farringdon Street, this, says Dodsley (1761), could 'scarcely be termed a bridge; but as one of the walls of the bridge is still left, for the security of passengers, by preventing their falling into the ditch on that [the Bridewell] side, it still retains its ancient name." Bright (a Templar). I thought all wit had ended at Fleet Bridge, 3 But wit that goes o' th' score, that may extend, Plotwell. Your mercer lives there, does he? Jasper Mayne, The City Match, fol. 1639. Gad, there's not a year but some surprising monster lands: I wonder they don't first show her at Fleet Bridge, with an old drum and a crackt trumpet-walk in and take your places-just going to show.-Gildon's Comparison between the Two Stages, 12m0, 1702, p. 67. Not far from hence, just by the Bridge of Fleet Dr. King's Furmetary, c. I. The first London daily paper, The Daily Courant, was printed in 1702 for "E. Mallet against the Ditch at Fleet Bridge." At "the Golden Head between Bridewell Bridge and Fleet Bridge in Blackfriars," lived Bernard Lens, the famous miniature painter. The obelisk to John Wilkes was erected in 1775; that to Alderman Waithman (whose shawl shop was the large house at the corner of Fleet Street and Bridge Street) in 1833. Fleet Conduit and Standard stood in Fleet Street, a little west of the Shoe Lane end, "near to the Inn of the Bishop of Salisbury." William Eastfield, mercer, 1438, appointed his executors of his goods to convey sweet water from Tyborne, and to build a fair conduit by Aldermanberie church, which they performed, as also made a Standard in Fleet Street, by Shew Lane end.— Stow, p. 42. This must have been a renewal or reparation of the water pipes and conduit, as they were in existence long before; and in 1388 leave was 1 Stow, p. 11. 2 Liber Albus, p. 204, etc. 3 Strype, B. iii. p. 276. 4 Hatton describes it at some length, p. 786. given by the Mayor, Aldermen, and Chamberlain to the inhabitants of Fleet Street to erect a protection over the pipes of the conduit "opposite to the house and tavern of John Walworth, vintner," in order to avert the losses and damage occasioned by inundations from the conduit, "which frequently, through the breaking of the pipes thereof, rotted and damaged their houses and cellars, and the party walls thereof, as also their goods and wares, by the overflow therefrom." 1 This yere [19 Edward IV., 1479-1480], a wex chaundler in Flete Street had bi crafte perced a pipe of the condit withynne the grounde, and so conveied the water into his selar; wherefore he was jugid to ride thurgh the citie with a condit upon his hedde.-A Chronicle of London, edited by Sir H. Nicolas, p. 146. Fleet Ditch. [See The Fleet.] Fleet Lane, "which cometh down from the Old Bailey, over against the Sessions House, and falleth into the [Fleet] Ditch side, over against the bridge; a place of no great account for buildings or inhabitants." 11 2 Lady Frugal. What cooks have you provided? Holdfast. The best of the city: they've wrought at my Lord Mayor's. Mary. And think the happiness of man's life consists in a mighty shoulder of mutton.-Massinger, The City Madam, Act. i. Sc. 1. Fleet Market, for meat and vegetables, occupied the centre of the whole length of what is now FARRINGDON STREET. On the removal of the Stocks Market in order that the present Mansion House might be erected on the site, the City authorities decided to arch over that portion of Fleet Ditch between Fleet Street and Holborn, which had become an almost insufferable nuisance, and build a new market there. An Act of Parliament was obtained, the ditch covered over, 1733, and the market constructed on it and opened, September 30, 1737. The builder was George Dean.3 It comprised two lines of shops of one storey high, with a covered walk between them lighted by skylights. The fruiterers had their stalls at the Fleet Street end. Fleet Market lasted till Michaelmas 1829, just ninety-two years, when it was closed and the site cleared in order to form Farringdon Street; but for some time before its removal the shops and sheds wore a very neglected and dilapidated aspect. [See Farringdon Market.] Fleet Prison, on the east side of Farringdon Street; burnt in the Great Fire of 1666; built anew, and again destroyed in the riots of 1780; rebuilt 1781-1782. The prison was purchased by the Corporation about April 1844 for £29,000. The outer walls were removed February 20, 1846, and the prison abolished, pursuant to 5 and 6 Vict., c. 22, by which the three prisons, the Fleet, the Queen's Bench, and Marshalsea were consolidated, and made one by the name of the Queen's Prison. The site was sold in 1864 to the London, Chatham, 1 Riley, Memorials, p. 503. 2 Strype, B. iii. p. 280. 3 A Plan and Elevation of Fleet Market was published in 1737. and Dover Railway Company for £60,000. The last Fleet Prison was a large plain brick building of five storeys, the long front being parallel with Fleet Market (or Farringdon Street). Behind was a spacious open yard, with racket court and skittle ground, bounded by a very high wall. The building comprised a master's side with separate rooms for debtors who could not afford to pay a weekly rental for them, and a common side for debtors of a less affluent class. Chief Justice. Go, carry Sir John Falstaff to the Fleet. Take all his company along with him. Falstaff. My lord! my lord!" Shakespeare, Second part of Henry IV., Act v. Sc. 5. The Prison of the Fleet dates from Norman times, though little is known of its early history. Originally regarded as especially the prison for the reception of persons committed by the Council or Court of the Star Chamber, it was also used for persons committed under decrees of the Court of Chancery and other offenders. The Damned in Hell do never cease repining at the justice of God, nor the prisoners in the Fleet at the Decrees in Chancery.-The Lord Keeper to the Duke, December 16, 1621; Cabala, p. 65. Star Chamber prisoners were conducted by water from Whitehall, up the River Fleet to a gate like the Traitor's Gate at the Tower, which led to what was afterwards called the common side. On the abolition of the Star Chamber (16th of Charles I.) the Fleet was made a prison for debtors, bankrupts, and for persons charged with contempt of the Courts of Chancery, Exchequer, and Common Pleas, and by an Act of 22 and 23 Charles II. the government was vested in the Lord Chier Justice, the Judges of the several circuits, and the several Justices of the Peace in London, Middlesex, and Surrey. The chief person was called "The Warden," whose fee in James I.'s reign was £19:4:3.1 In 1807 the allowance to the warden was £200 a year.2 The orders and regulations of the Fleet in 1561 may be found in Harleian MS., 6839. The rents and profits of the shops in Westminster Hall belonged to the Warden of the Fleet, and as late as 1822 (perhaps later) the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer received annually two loaves of sugar from the Warden. For information of Clerks, Attorneys, Sheriffs, Bayliffs, and all other Officers and Persons concerned; These are to let them know, That the Prison of the Fleet, being very fairly rebuilt in the place where it anciently stood at Fleet Bridge, London, containing about one hundred and fifty rooms new furnished and well fitted, with all manner of necessaries for Prisoners upon Saturday last [21 Jan'y, 1670-1671] were all removed from Caroone House at Lambeth into this new prison; and the said house at Lambeth is no longer to be a prison—London Gazette, No. 541. The office of Warden was a patent office, and was frequently let by the holder of the patent to any responsible person who would farm the prison at the highest rate. In 1729, when the gaol committee made its celebrated inquiry into the state and condition of our prisons, the patent belonged to a person of the name of Huggins, who had let it to 1 Harl. MS., 1848. 2 Instructions to officers, Audit Office MS., vol. i. p. 61. |