Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

78 FRENCH ANGLICAN EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. JOHN

Cockerell, the former hall being preserved and incorporated in the new one. This hall is also used by the Freemasons.

French Anglican Episcopal Church of St. John, BLOOMSBURY STREET, BLOOMSBURY, formerly in the Savoy. Designed, 1845-1846, by Ambrose Poynter, architect.

French Hospital (HOSPICE), VICTORIA PARK, Owes its origin to M. de Castigny, Master of the Buckhounds to William III., who died in 1708, and bequeathed £1000 towards founding a hospice for distressed French Protestants and their descendants resident in England. In 1716 a piece of ground "contiguous to the Pest Houses on the S. side of St. Luke's parish" in a lane (afterwards called Bath Street, City Road) leading from Old Street to Islington, was purchased from the Ironmongers' Company, and a building erected for the reception of 200 inmates. In 1718 a Charter was granted, and by 1760 the hospital sheltered 234 poor people. In later years the charity underwent many fluctuations; the governors were compelled to dispose of portions of their land on building leases, and the hospital became closely surrounded by houses. But the leases fell in, and at length the directors were enabled to purchase a piece of ground on a more open and healthy site close to Victoria Park, and on it they in 1864-1866 erected the present building, which provides accommodation for sixty inmatesforty men and twenty women. It is a very pretty and appropriate example of French Domestic Gothic, designed by Robert Louis Roumieu, architect, himself descended from a refugee family. It stands in about 3 acres of pleasure grounds; attached to it is a neat little chapel.

[ocr errors]

French Protestant Church, ST. MARTIN'S LE GRAND (next the Bull and Mouth Hotel and Tavern), formerly St. Martin's Orgar Church, was rebuilt, 1842-1843, from designs by T. E. Owen of Portsmouth, carried out by J. N. Higgins, architect. It was pulled down with the Bull and Mouth in 1888 for the extension of the General Post Office. The church was founded by Edward VI., who gave the Protestant refugees the Church of St. Anthony's Hospital in Threadneedle Street. This was destroyed in the Great Fire, and rebuilt; and ultimately demolished for the approaches to the New Royal Exchange. Misson, himself one of the refugees, who wrote in the reign of William III., says that in his time there were two and twenty French churches in London, and about a hundred ministers that were pensioners of the State, without reckoning those who had acquired other means of subsisting.1 After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes the church in Threadneedle Street was regarded as the cathedral of the French Protestants. As late as the middle of the last century it was not large enough to contain the monthly communicants.

The French and Walloons here perform divine service after the manner of the Church of England in the French tongue; but though it is a pretty large and com

1 Misson, Travels, p. 232.

modious edifice, it is not sufficient to accommodate all the communicants; they therefore make an exchange with the Dutch Church in Austin Friars every first Sunday in the month, where the Lord's Supper is constantly administered in French, the Dutch preaching on that day in the French Church in Threadneedle Street.— Dodsley (1761), vol. ii. p. 348.

Fresh Wharf, LOWER THAMES STREET, or, as Stow writes it, "Frosh Wharf," so called after its owner, is immediately east of the Church of St. Magnus the Martyr.

Friar Street, SOUTHWARK, extending from Suffolk Street to Blackfriars Road, was formerly Higlers Lane; upon Hangman's Acre at the east end of it was built the new Bridewell; it is shown in Horwood's Map, and is now the site of a large soap manufactory.

Friars Lane, afterwards FRIARS ALLEY, UPPER THAMES STREET, nearly opposite Little College Street.

In Thames Street, on the Thames side, west from Downegate, is Greenewich Lane, of old time so called, and now Frier Lane, of such a sign there set up. In this lane is the Joiners' Hall, and other fair houses.-Stow, p. 87.

Friars (The), a term used familiarly for the Blackfriars. In the "Ordinances as to the Watch and Ward of the City," which date prior to the 15th century, it is directed "That bars and chains shall be made in all the streets, and more especially towards the water at the Friars Preachers." This was then the ordinary name, and it is easy to see how in common usage it would be abbreviated to the Friars. Among the Gunpowder Plot Papers is a letter from Lord Cobham to Mellersh, asking him "to let him know if his house at the Friars is seized." Friars Street, now Friar Street, runs from Carter Lane to Ireland Yard, Blackfriars.

Friary (The), ST. JAMES'S PALACE, a courtyard, so called from the Friars who attended Catherine of Braganza, Queen of Charles II.

January 23, 1666-1667.-My Lord Brounker and I walking into the Park, I did observe the new buildings; and my Lord seeing I had a desire to see them, they being the place of the priests and friers, he took me back to my Lord Almoner [Cardinal Howard of Norfolk]; and he took us quite through the whole house and chapel, and the new monastery, shewing me most excellent pieces in wax worke; a crucifix given by a Pope to Mary Queene of Scotts, where a piece of the Cross is; two bits set in the manner of a cross in the foot of the crucifix; several fine pictures, but especially very good prints of holy pictures. I saw the dortoire [dormitory] and the cells of the priests, and we went into one; a very pretty little room, very clean, hung with pictures and set with books. The priest was in his cell, with his hairclothes to his skin, bare-legged with a sandall only on, and his little bed without sheets, and no feather bed; but yet I thought soft enough. His cord about his middle; but in so good company, living with ease, I thought it a very good life. A pretty library they have; and I was in the refectoire, where every man his napkin, knife, cup of earth and basin of the same; and a place for one to sit and read while the rest are at meals. And into the kitchen I went, where a good neck of mutton at the fire, and other victuals boiling. I do not think they fared very hard. Their windows all looking into a fine garden and the Park; and mighty pretty rooms all. I wished myself one of the Capuchins.-Pepys, Diary; see also under March 17, 1667.

1 Liber Albus, p. 561. ↑

The Popish Chapel to which the Monks belonged at St. James's, being lent to the French Protestants, they had prayers and preaching in it on Sunday.-The London Mercury, December 31, 1688, to January 3, 1689.

The German Royal Chapel occupies the site of the old Friary.
St. James's Palace.]

[See

Friday Street, CHEAPSIDE. "So called," says Stow, "of fishmongers dwelling there, and serving Friday's market." The name occurs in the City books as early as 1305. In the Roll of the Scrope and Grosvenor Controversy, the poet Chaucer is recorded as giving the following evidence connected with this street :

Geffray Chaucere Esquier, of the age of forty years and more armed twentyseven years, for the side of Sir Richard Lescrop sworn and examined, being asked if the arms, azure a bend or, belong, or ought to pertain to the said Sir Richard by right and heritage, said Yes; for he saw him so armed in Fraunce before the town of Retters, and Sir Henry Lescrop armed in the same arms with a white label and with banner; and the said Sir Richard armed in the entire arms azure a bend or, and so during the whole expedition until the said Geffray was taken. Being asked how he knew that the said arms belonged to the said Sir Richard, said that he had heard old Knights and Esquires say that they had had continual possession of the said arms; and that he had seen them displayed on banners, glass painting and vestments, and commonly called the arms of Scrope. Being asked whether he had ever heard of any interruption or challenge made by Sir Robert Grosvenor or his ancestors, said No: but that he was once in Friday Street, London, and walking up the street, he observed a new sign hanging out with these arms thereon, and inquired what inn that was that had hung out these arms of Scrope? And one answered him saying, 66 They are not hung out, Sir, for the arms of Scrope, nor painted there for those arms; but they are painted and put there by a knight of the county of Chester, called Sir Robert Grosvenor." And that was the first time he ever heard speak of Sir Robert Grosvenor or his ancestors, or of any one bearing the name of Grosvenor.Scrope and Grosvenor Roll, vol. i. p. 178 (translation from French). The Nag's Head Tavern, at the Cheapside corner of Friday Street, was the pretended scene of the consecration of Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. As the Official Records show, Parker was duly consecrated at Lambeth Palace in December 1559, and the "Nag's Head Story," 1 invented half-a-century afterwards, is now generally discredited by all respectable controversialists belonging to that party. The White Horse, another tavern in Friday Street, makes a conspicuous figure in the Merry Conceited Jests of George Peele, as the place in which he "helped his friend to a supper;" and again in the opening scene of The Old Wives Tale, 1595. Destroyed in the Great Fire, the White Horse was rebuilt and still exists, retaining the old sign. It is at the end of the street on the west side. Another inn of note was the Bell.

September 1, 1608.-Sir Thomas Estcourt, Sheriff of Gloucester, to Thomas Wilson. Is about to leave London and proffers his services. If he has occasion to write to him he may have weekly messengers, either clothiers or carriers, at the Bell, Friday Street, and the letter will be delivered within three days.-Cal. State Pap., 1603-1610, p. 455.

1 There is a view of the Nag's Head in La Serre's Entrée Royale de la Reyne Mère du Roy, 1638, and a copy of it in Wilkinson's Londina

Illustrata, and in the new Shakspere Society's edition of Harrison's England.

Gambol. Here's one o' Friday Street would come in.

Christmas. By no means, nor out of neither of the Fish Streets, admit not a man; they are not Christmas creatures: fish and fasting days, foh! Sons, said I well? look to't.

Gambol. Nobody out o' Friday Street, nor the two Fish Streets there, do you hear. Ben Jonson, Masque of Christmas.

Old Fish Street was at the end of Friday Street. In Friday Street, in 1695, at the "Wednesdays Clubs," as they were called, certain wellknown conferences took place, under the direction of William Paterson, which ultimately led to the establishment of the Bank of England. Friday Street is now chiefly occupied by warehousemen and other wholesale firms. On the west side stood the church of St. Matthew, which has been pulled down, and the parish united to that of St. Vedast.

Frippery, or Phelipery, a place on CORNHILL, so called (A.D. 1311) from a market held there by the phelipers or fripperers, i.e. the dealers in old clothes, furniture, and household utensils, or, as we should now call them, the brokers of London. As early as 1303 we find the phelipers a recognised fraternity of traders, appointing "overseers of their mystery," to carry out the City regulations, which were numerous and minute, respecting the trade, and taking their place as assessors of the "value of pledges to be sold for arrears in the King's Tallage," along with goldsmiths, drapers, haberdashers, potters, and cofferers. Gradually they seem to have established many markets or standing places, and to have held them in the evening as well as by day, for by various ordinances it was declared that there shall be no market of fripperers "held upon London Bridge, or elsewhere, but in the places assigned;" that "the market at Sopers Lane, that is called Evechepyng [Evening Market] shall be abolished;" that "there shall be no market in Chepe or on Cornhill after Curfew rung at St. Paul's ;" and finally that "Fripperers shall not hold market, except between sunrise and noon; and that their markets shall not be held after Vespers rung at St. Thomas of Acon "-the last, as would seem, a superfluous clause, if they were only to keep market "between sunrise and noon." The Cheap Market was held in "the street of Westchepe," but, like the others, it was more restricted in its scope than that on Cornhill, it being ordained that "No Market for pots, pans and other utensils shall be held elsewhere than at Cornhulle "-which seems to have been the true progenitor of the modern Rag Fair.1

Frith Street, SOHO, built circ. 1680,2 and so called from Mr. Richard Frith, a great (and once rich) builder. William Duncombe, the translator of Horace, was living here in 1749. Here, March 1, 1757, Sir Samuel Romilly was born. In a single room, up two pair of stairs, in this street, lived Mrs. Inchbald, and here, in the winter of 1790, she wrote her Simple Story. Edmund Kean, the great actor, passed his infancy with a poor couple in this street; and at No. 64, his

1 Liber Albus; Riley, Memorials.

2 Rate-books of St. Martin's.

VOL. II

3 Hatton's New View of London, 8vo, 1708, P. 31.

G

successor Macready was in lodgings when he made his first London appearance as Orestes in the Distressed Mother, September 6, 1816. At No. 28, in 1801, lived Arthur Murphy. William Hazlitt came to live at No. 6 in the beginning of 1830, and his troubled life ended on Saturday, September 18, in the same year. Charles Lamb, was in the room when he died. He was buried in the churchyard of St. Anne's, Soho. In Maitland's London the name is Thrift Street, and this form was common in the last century. In Thrift Street the Venetian Ambassador lived in great state. He arrived in London, October 8, 1745, and his wife shortly after gave a masquerade at their Thrift Street mansion, which excited much admiration by its splendour.

Fruiterers' Company. The fruiterers, the forty-fifth in order of the City Companies, have no hall. "The Mystery of Fruiterers" were incorporated, 3 James I., 1606, and are governed by a master, upper and under wardens, and a court of eighteen assistants. From a very early date it was customary for the fruiterers to make the Lord Mayor an annual gift of twelve bushels of apples. The gift is still regularly presented, but it now consists of a selection of the choicest fruits of the season. On presenting it at the Mansion House, the Master and Court are received by the Lord Mayor in full state, and invited at the close of the ceremony to a banquet, which some time after is given, with all civic splendour, in the Egyptian Hall.

Frying-Pan Alley. Maitland (1731) enumerates no fewer than thirteen places of this name in London, and Dodsley (1761) swells the number to seventeen; whilst Elmes (1831) reduces them to five, and the Post Office London Directory, the City Directory, and the Postal Guide ignore the nomenclature altogether.

Fuller's Rents. [See Fulwood's Rents.]

Fulwood's Rents, in HOLBORN.

A narrow paved court, with a closed gate at the end leading into Gray's Inn Walks, Gray's Inn Gardens, and so called from Christopher Fulwood, Esq., of the time of James I.

Jane Fulwood, gentlewoman, sister unto Christopher Fulwood, Esquire, out of Fulwood's Rents, was buried the first of December, 1618.-Register of St. Andrew's, Holborn.

Christopher Fulwood, the younger, a distinguished Royalist, was killed in 1643, and his daughters died in poverty in Fulwood's Rents. In 1608, when Francis Bacon drew up his curious Ancilla Memoria, he was living in "Fulwood's House," and valued his furniture there at £60. He was then contemplating removal, as there are entries to "inquire of the state of Arlington's house, and to get it for a rent;" "to inquire of Bath House;" of Wanstead, etc. From these he selected Bath House, and in the entry regarding the furniture, Fulwood's is crossed out and Bath substituted. He still kept on his chambers in Gray's Inn. Powell, in his Mysterie of Lending and Borrowing, 1623,

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »