important establishment, founded about 1840 for training young men for masters in the Society's schools. Here also is the Southlands Wesleyan Training College for female teachers. Battersea Marsh and Battersea Fields, fields and marsh no longer, were of old famous haunts of the London botanist and butterfly collector. Here, by the little pier on Thames's side, was the RED House, with its pleasure grounds, a noted place of entertainment, and until the formation of Battersea Park a great resort for pigeon shooting. It was in Battersea Fields that the Duke of Wellington fought a duel with Lord Winchelsea, March 21, 1829. Battersea Rise, the slope between Battersea Fields and Clapham Common, now much encroached upon by the builder, had formerly many good residences. William Wilberforce was living here in 1793; and here was the residence of Mr. Thornton, whose garden and the view from it were in his early days Macaulay's "especial delight." A factory for works in enamel was established at Battersea about the middle of the last century, and many excellent pieces were wrought there. It lasted however only 30 or 40 years, and Battersea enamels are now rare and greatly prized by collectors. Some good specimens are in the South Kensington Museum. Now Battersea abounds in factories, but of a very different and less elegant description, though some are interesting in their way. Among them are Price's Belmont Candle Works, which employ nearly 1000 hands; Field's Ozokerite Refinery and Candle Works; Plumbago Crucible Factory, the largest extant; Silicated Carbon Filter Factory; Delft and Fire-brick Works; Condy's Fluid and Chemical Works; Acetic Acid, Vitriol and Varnish Works; the Locomotive Works of the South Eastern, and London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Companies, and other large engineering establishments and iron foundries; and to assist in supplying healthy and comfortable homes for the great army of working men here, is the Shaftesbury Park Estate, of 40 acres, laid out with ample open spaces and providing several hundred dwellings, constructed on approved sanitary principles. Battersea is united to Chelsea by three bridges. Battersea Bridge, or "the old bridge," was of wood, and had seventeen narrow arches. It was built in 1771-1772 under the direction of Mr. Holland, at the expense of fifteen proprietors, who subscribed £1500 each. The proprietors' rights were purchased by the Metropolitan Board of Works and the bridge made toll-free in 1878. In 1881 it was closed as unsafe, and a new bridge. is now in course of building on the east of the old structure. It is of iron, with five spans, the centre 173 feet wide; width of roadway 40 feet; estimated cost £231,000. Lower down the river, immediately west of Battersea Park, is Albert Suspension Bridge. [Described under that title.] Chelsea Suspension Bridge, at the east end of Battersea Pier, was built, 1854-1858, by Mr. T. Page, C.E., the designer of Westminster Bridge. Directly east of this is a handsome iron bridge of four segmental arches, erected in 1860 to carry the west-end branch of the Brighton and VOL. I K South-Coast Railway across the Thames; and adjoining this is the bridge which carries the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway. The West London Railway crosses the Thames some distance west of Battersea Bridge. Battersea is well supplied with railway stations, and has two steam-boat piers. Battersea Park, east of Battersea, has an area of 199 acres. An Act empowering the formation of a park on the land known as Battersea Fields was passed in 1846, and an Act to alter and extend the powers of the commissioners in 1851. The construction of the park proved to be costly and tedious. Much of the land was submerged at every tide, and most of it was marshy. An embankment had to be carried along the Thames, the land thoroughly drained, and, as most of it was below the river, it was deemed expedient to raise the level of the surface by laying upon it about 1,000,000 cubic feet of earth, obtained in excavating the Victoria Docks, below Blackwall, and brought up here in barges. The land so prepared was ready for laying out and planting in 1856, and the park was formally opened, March 28, 1858. The total cost was nearly £313,000. The park was laid out with much taste and increases in beauty yearly. Its special feature is the Subtropical Garden, of about 4 acres, which is the finest thing of the kind open to the public. As mentioned under BATTERSEA, bridges cross the Thames directly east and west of the park, and there are railway stations and a steam-boat pier close at hand, so that Battersea Park is readily accessible from any part of London, and it is well worth visiting. Battle Bridge, ST. PANCRAS, at the junction of Gray's Inn Road with the Pentonville and Euston Roads. It is now known as KING'S CROSS, from a statue of George IV., erected in 1836 by Stephen Geary, a most execrable performance, cleverly burlesqued by Cruikshank, and not unfairly represented by Pugin in his amusing Contrasts. The statue was taken down in 1845, deposited in a mason's yard, and broken up. The name Battle Bridge was commonly derived from a battle said to have been fought here between Alfred and the Danes. Stukeley, on the other hand, fancied he had found in Battle Bridge the site of the battle fought by the Britons, under Boadicea, against the Romans under Suetonius Paulinus. A fragment of stone bearing portions of a Roman inscription, in which occur the letters Leg. XX., was found here in July 1842.1 The spring after the conflagration at London, all the ruines were overgrown with an herbe or two; but especially one with a yellow flower: and on the south side of St. Paul's Church it grew as thick as could be; nay, on the very top of the tower. The herbalists call it Ericolevis Neapolitana, small bank cresses of Naples; which plant Tho. Willis [the famous physician] told me he knew before but in one place about the towne; and that was at Battle Bridge, by the Pindar of Wakefield, and that in no great quantity.-Aubrey's Natural History of Wiltshire, p. 38. As late as 1791 Battle Bridge is described as a small village on the new road from Islington to Tottenham Court."2 Battle Bridge, 1 Gentleman's Magazine, August 1842, p. 144. 2 Kearsley's Stranger's Guide. or King's Cross, is now a very busy place. Here is the terminus of the Great Northern Railway, erected 1852 by Mr. Lewis Cubitt, on the grounds of the Small-Pox Hospital; and only divided from it by St. Pancras Road is the magnificent terminus of the Midland Railway, designed by Sir Gilbert Scott. Battle Bridge, by Mill Lane, Tooley Street, SOUTHWARK. So called of Battaile Abbey, for that it standeth on the ground, and over a watere course (flowing out of the Thames), pertaining to that Abbey.-Stow, p. 155. The Abbot of Battle had here his inn or town-house, with its gardens and maze. Here by the Thames, opposite the east end of the Custom House, are Battle Bridge Stairs. Batty's Hippodrome, KENSINGTON, was situated immediately opposite the broad walk of Kensington Gardens, and was opened as a place of entertainment at the time of the Great Exhibition of 1851, when London was filled with visitors. The site was subsequently occupied by a riding school until it was required for building purposes. Bayham Street, CAMDEN TOWNS, runs from Crowndale Road to Camden Road, parallel to and east of High Street. So named from Bayham Abbey, Sussex, the seat of the Marquis Camden, ground landlord of the property. In 1821, when Charles Dickens was brought from Chatham to London, his father took a house in this street. Dickens in after life used to speak of his musings "in the little dark back-garret in Bayham Street."2 Mr. Holl the engraver, father of Mr. Francis Holl and Mr. William Holl, engravers, and Mr. Henry Holl the actor, lived in this street, as did Mr. Henry Selous the painter. Bayley Street, BEDFORD SQUARE, leading from Tottenham Court Road to the Square. It was formerly Bedford Street, but the name was changed in 1878. [See Bedford Street.] Baynard's Castle stood on the banks of the Thames, at the western boundary of London, and was so called of Ralph Baynard, or Bainardus, the Norman associate of William the Conqueror. It was forfeited by William Baynard, Baron of Dunmow, in 1111, and was granted by Henry I. to Robert Fitzgerard, son of Gilbert, Earl of Clare. In 1213 Robert Fitzwalter, who had succeeded to the castle and honour, taking part with the Barons, was banished the realm by John, and his castle dismantled. A year or two later he was recalled and pardoned, had his estates restored, and was declared of right chief bannerer or castellan of the City of London. The site of the castle was included in the precincts of the Blackfriars. The better-known Baynard Castle, built in 1428 by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, was built on land on the banks of the Thames, below Thames Street. The relative positions of the two Castles Baynard are shown in a plan of the ward of Castle Baynard in Mr. Loftie's London (Historic Towns). 1 Originally built in 2 Forster, Life of Dickens, vol. i. pp. 15, 19. 1793-1794 On the Duke of Gloucester's attainder it reverted to the Crown, in whose possession it continued to the reign of Elizabeth, when it was leased to the Earl of Pembroke. In 1457 Richard, Duke of York, was lodging in Baynard's Castle "as in his own house." On the death of Edward IV., the great council of nobles and prelates for the settlement of the government, and for arranging the coronation of Edward V., met from day to day at Baynard's Castle; and in the court there, after the murder of Hastings, Stafford, Duke of Buckingham, offered the crown to the Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III. Shakespeare has depicted it in a scene of inimitable excellence; but in his description he has closely followed Sir Thomas More's Life of Edward V., where the citizens are conducted to "the courtyard of Baynard's Castle," Catesby "enters from the castle;" Richard "appears in a gallery above between two bishops;" and Buckingham "plays the orator" so effectually that the whole assembly in the courtyard say Amen when he winds up with— 1 Thus I salute you with this royal title Long live King Richard, England's worthy King. From its occupation by the Duke of York, Baynard's Castle had come to be called York House; but the old name was restored by Henry VII., about 1487, when he entirely re-edified the castle, but made it less like a fortress and more like a palace than before. He and his queen lodged or refreshed here on occasion of visits of ceremony to the City. In 1503 the King of Castile was lodged at Baynard's Castle. In 1515, when the great case of Dr. Standish was pending, "all the Lords spiritual and temporal, with many of the House of Commons, and all the judges and the King's council, were called before the King [Henry VIII.] to Baynard's Castle," where the proceedings commenced by Wolsey kneeling down before the King and stating the case of the clergy. It was here that, on July 19, 1553, "the council, partly moved with the right of the Lady Mary's cause, partly considering that the most of the realm were wholly bent on her side, changing their mind from Lady Jane, lately proclaimed Queen, assembled themselves, where they communed with the Earl of Pembroke and the Earl of Shrewsbury; and Sir John Mason, clerk of the council, sent for the Lord Mayor, and then riding into Cheap, to the Cross, where Garter King-at-Arms, trumpets being sounded, proclaimed the Lady Mary, daughter of King Henry VIII. and Queen Katherine, Queen of England, etc." 2 Queen Elizabeth granted Baynard's Castle on lease to the Earl of Pembroke; and here the brothers, to whom the first folio of Shakespeare was dedicated, William, Earl of Pembroke, in 1617, and Philip, Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, in 1641, were respectively installed Chancellors of the University of Oxford; and here the latter's second countess, the still more celebrated "Anne Pembroke, Dorset, and Montgomery," took up her abode while her husband, as Lord Chamberlain, resided at the Cockpit at Whitehall. 1 Burnet, vol. i. p. 13; Greyfriar's Chronicle. 2 Stow, p. 26. She describes it in her Memoirs as "a house full of riches and more secured by my lying there." April 25, 1559.-The Queen in the afternoon went to Bainard's Castle, the Earl of Pembroke's place, and supped with him, and after supper she took a boat and was tossed up and down upon the river Thames, hundreds of boats and barges rowing about her, and thousands of people thronging at the water-side to look upon her Majesty, rejoicing to see her, and sights upon the Thames.-Strype, History of the Reformation under Queen Elizabeth, p. 188. Sir Philip Sidney writes to Hatton, "from Bainard's Castle," November 13, 1581.1 Here, on June 19, 1660, King Charles II. went to supper :— June 19, 1660.-My Lord [i.e. Lord Sandwich] went at night with the King to Baynard's Castle to supper.-Pepys. In a letter of December 18, 1648, Evelyn mentions that the Parliament had garrisoned Baynard's Castle with divers other considerable places in the body and rivage of the City. Baynard's Castle was destroyed in the Great Fire. "Only a round tower, part of Baynard's Castle, yet stands, and, with other additional buildings, is converted into a dwelling-house." 2 A memory of its existence is preserved in the name it has given to the ward of Castle Baynard, and in the sign of Castle Baynard given to a new tavern, noticeable for its elaborate terra-cotta decoration, at the corner of St. Andrew's Hill, in Queen Victoria Street. Bayswater, a large district of handsome houses, west of Oxford Street, and within the parish of Paddington, formed into crescents, terraces, squares, and streets since 1839. The best houses front Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, the largest and showiest cluster about Lancaster Gate. The eastern portion of the district is now best known perhaps as Tyburnia, but this last is a colloquial term, and somewhat indefinite in its limitations. [See Tyburnia.] Bayswater was so called from Bainardus, the Norman associate of William the Conqueror, who has given his name to Baynard's Castle, and the ward of Castle Baynard. Bainardus was a tenant of the Abbot of Westminster, and in a Parliamentary grant of the year 1653 of the Abbey or Chapter Lands, "the common field at Paddington" is described as "near to a place commonly called Baynard's Water." In 1720 the lands of the Dean and Chapter in the same common field are stated (in a terrier of the Chapter) to be in the occupation of Alexander Bond, of Bear's Watering, in the parish of Paddington. To this we may add that in the Vestry Minute Book of the Parish of St. Martin's for the year 1654, is the entry, "From the place or water commonly called by the name of Baynard's Watering." Canon Taylor's conjecture that Bayswater derives its name from the circumstance that "where this stream [the Westbourne] crossed the Great Western Road it spread out into a shallow bay-water where cattle might drink by the wayside," finds no support in local character, documents, or tradition. 1 Wright, vol. ii. p. 163. 2 Strype's Stow (1720), B. i. p. 62. |