William Davenant was, in 1656, permitted to get up an opera for recitations with music and scenery; the first dramatic entertainment licensed since the establishment of the Commonwealth. Still higher up is the Albion Tavern, famed for its good wines and its good dinners; while nearly opposite Shaftesbury House, stood Petre House, the townhouse until 1639 of the Lord Petre. Richard Lovelace, the poet, was, in 1648, confined in Lord Petre's house in Aldersgate by order of the House of Commons; and it continued to be used as a prison by Cromwell and his colleagues.1 In 1657 it was the residence of Henry Pierrepont, Marquis of Dorchester. After his death it was bought by the See of London, when the Great Fire had destroyed the Episcopal residence in St. Paul's Churchyard. Bishop Henchman died in London House, Aldersgate Street (as Petre House was then called), in 1675. Here Compton, Bishop of London, lived; and hither the Princess Anne (afterwards Queen) fled from Whitehall at the Revolution. In 1720 Bishop Robinson was residing in it. Shortly after the nonjuror, Thomas Rawlinson ("Tom Folio "), removed his great library to London House, where he died in 1725. In 1747 it was in the possession of Mr. Jacob Ilive.2 Bishop Sherlock, in 1749, obtained parliamentary power to dispose of London House for the benefit of the See. It was some years later purchased by Mr. Seddon, "an eminent upholsterer," and was destroyed by fire, July 14, 1768, but rebuilt, and the upholstery business was continued here till a few years back. In 1814 was made here, at an expense of £500, the cradle for Joanna Southcott's "Prince of Peace," with the inscription, "The freeoffering of Faith to the Promised Seed," and great crowds flocked to see it. The baby-linen with its laces, etc., cost £500 more. London House was taken down and shops built on the site in 1871. Eminent Inhabitants, not already mentioned.-Countess of Pembroke, 'Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother;" she died here in 1621. Thomas Flatman, poet, painter, and lawyer, was born in Aldersgate Street in 1633.-Walpole's Anecdotes, p. 300. Robert Greene (d. 1592), though not an inhabitant, was a familiar visitant at a "well-willer's house of mine" in Aldersgate Street.3 Bryan Walton, Bishop of Chester, editor of the Polyglot Bible, died here in 1661. John Milton. He made no long stay in St. Bride's Church Yard; necessity of having a place to dispose his books in, and other goods fit for the furnishing of a good handsome house, hastening him to take one: and accordingly a pretty garden-house he took in Aldersgate Street, at the end of an entry; and therefore the fitter for his turn, by the reason of the privacy, besides that there are few streets in London more free from noise than that.-Philips's Life of Milton, 12mo, 1694, p. xx. His own words are: As soon as I was able I hired a spacious house in the City for myself and my books, where I again with rapture renewed my literary pursuits, and where I calmly awaited the issue of the contest, which I trusted to the wise conduct of Providence, and to the courage of the people.—Second Defence of the People of England. 1 Dugdale's Troubles, p. 568. 2 Wilkinson's Londina Illustrata. 3 Robert Greene's Repentance. Milton's house was at the lower end of Lamb Alley (now Maidenhead Court), by No. 30, on the east side of Aldersgate Street, the court next to Shaftesbury Place southwards. Samuel Simmons, printer and publisher, "next door to the Golden Lion in Aldersgate Street," was the purchaser, April 27, 1667, of the copyright of Paradise Lost, but it is only the second edition, 1674, which professed to be printed by S. Simmons. Thomas Brown-Tom Brown the facetious-died here in 1704. James Petiver, the botanist (d. 1718), was an apothecary in Aldersgate Street. He was one of the earliest and ablest English collectors of specimens of natural history. Sir Hans Sloane offered £5000 for his collection. "At his house, against Little Britain in Aldersgate Street," lived John Pine the engraver, and received subscriptions (1738) for his exquisite edition of Horace. In Aldersgate Street, "against Jewin Street," lived Sutton Nicholls, the publisher, to whose industry we are indebted for so many engravings and valuable memorials of old London buildings now no more. In Trinity Chapel, Aldersgate Street, the last Nonjuring congregation in London met under John Lindsay, the translator of Mason de Ministerio Anglicano. He died in 1768.1 It was in a house in this street that John Wesley received that "assurance of salvation" which was the great turning point in his career, and to which the world owes the origin of Methodism. He writes in his Journal under Wednesday, May 24, 1738: About a In the evening I went, very unwillingly, to a Society in Aldersgate Street where one was reading Luther's Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed; I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation, and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death. began to pray with all my might for all those who had in an especial manner despitefully used me and persecuted me. I then testified openly to all what I now first felt in my heart. I It was to "the house called the Mouth, near Aldersgate in London, which was then the usual meeting-place of Quakers," that the body of "Free-born John" Lilburne was conveyed on his death, August 29, 1657. This house, the well-known Bull and Mouth Inn, really situated in St. Martin's-le-grand, was destroyed in the Great Fire; and the inn of the same title became the Queen's Hotel, which has been cleared away for the enlargement of the General Post Office. The inns of Aldersgate were especially travellers' houses, and looked after by the watch accordingly. Fynes Morison, on his return from his ten years' wanderings, 1595, arriving in London on Sunday "at four of the clock in the morning. . . this early hour being unfit to trouble my friends "— I went to the Cock (an inn of Aldersgate Street), and there, apparelled as I was, laid me down upon a bed, when it happened that the constable and watchmen (either being more busy in their office than need was, or having extraordinary charge to search upon some foreign intelligence, and seeing me apparelled like an Italian), took me for a Jesuit or priest.-Morison's Itinerary. 1 Lathbury, History of Nonjurors, p. 402. 2 Wood, Athen. Oxon (1692), vol. ii. p. 102. A century and a half later the Cock was described as "a good inn, resorted to by waggons that bring meal and other goods." "1 The George Inn, formerly the White Hart, is "very large and convenient for the reception of coaches, waggons, and travellers. It hath galleries that lead to the chambers, as customary in many great inns. There is in Thanet House, which adjoins to this inn, a Lace Chamber of very good resort for buyers and sellers."2 The Bell Inn, whence Taylor the Water Poet set out on his travels, was still "of good resort;" it stood near Lauderdale House. There were besides the Half-Moon, "the place of resort of the most noted wits of the 16th century.”—Lambert. The Sun, "large and of a good trade," and many more. The Aldersgate inns were the usual starting-place for the Northern Counties,3 as it seems to have been for Ireland some years later. Thus Swift, describing the visit to London (1721) of an Irish acquaintance, says: "He was just getting on horseback for Chester: he has as much curiosity as a COW. He lodged with his horse in Aldersgate Street."-Journal to Stella. Gay and Pope write to Swift (October 22, 1727), "To our great joy you have told us your deafness left you at the inn in Aldersgate Street; no doubt your ears knew there was nothing worth hearing in England." In 1879 a row of old houses, some with projecting upper storeys on the west side of Aldersgate Street, was pulled down to make way for a pile of larger and more substantial buildings. One of these, No. 134, attracted much notice from its being absurdly called "Shakespeare's London House." It was not unpicturesque in its dilapidated condition, and was probably of 17th century date, but in no other respect remarkable. The name, Shakespeare's London House, was first given. to it within memory by an imaginative newsvendor who then occupied it, as a sort of advertisement. One of the most noticeable of the new buildings is the Manchester Hotel, a large structure of considerable architectural pretension at the corner of Long Lane, opposite to which is the Aldersgate Station of the Metropolitan Railway. 18 Aldewych. [See Wych Street.] Aldgate, a gate in the City wall towards the east, and, according to most authorities, called Aldgate from its antiquity or age, but in the earliest records the spelling is Alegate (1325-1344), or Algate (1381), which is suggestive of another derivation. The gateway, a stately structure, stood in the midst of the High Street, south of Aldgate Church. Duke's Place and Poor Jury Lane-now called Duke Street and Jewry Street-being immediately inside the gate and wall. In 1215 the barons who were at war with King John entered the city with ease at Aldgate, which was then in a ruinous condition. Shortly afterwards they rebuilt the gate. In 1374 a lease was granted for the term of his life to Geoffrey 1 Seymour, Survey of London, 1736, p. 772. 3 De Laune, Anglia Metropolis, 1690. 2 Ibid. Chaucer of "the whole of the dwelling-house above the gate of Algate with the rooms built over, and a certain cellar beneath the same gate, on the south side of that gate, and the appurtenances thereof," he undertaking that he "will competently and sufficiently maintain and repair" them under penalty of being "ousted" on the neglect to do so. On the other hand he is not to let any portion of the said gate or dwelling, and “in time of defence of the city" the mayor and authorities are, when, and as often as it shall be necessary, to be free "to enter the said house and rooms, and to order and dispose of the same, in such times, and in such manner as shall then seem to us to be most expedient." Great evils resulted from the occupation of the city gates as residences, and in 1386 the city enacted "that no grant shall from henceforth in any way be made unto any person, of the gates, or of the dwelling-houses above the gates, etc. On her accession in 1553, Queen Mary entered London by this gate; the princess Elizabeth, escorted by 2000 horse, was in waiting to receive her, and the greeting of the sisters was in appearance warm and affectionate. This is one and the first of the four principal gates, and also one of the seven double gates mentioned by Fitzstephen. It hath had two pair of gates, though now but one; the hooks remaineth yet. Also there hath been two portcloses: the one of them remaineth, the other wanteth; but the place of letting down is manifest.— Stow, p. 12. The gate described by Stow was taken down in 1606, and a new one erected in its stead, the ornaments of which are dwelt upon at great length by Stow's continuators. Two Roman soldiers stood on the outer battlements, with stone balls in their hands, ready to defend the gate: beneath, in a square, was a statue of James I., and at his feet the royal supporters. On the city side stood a large figure of Fortune, and somewhat lower, so as to grace each side of the gate, gilded figures of Peace and Charity, copied from the reverses of two Roman coins, discovered whilst digging the new foundations for the gate. The whole structure was two years in erecting. The inscription, from the amusing assumption of the Corporation, is worth preserving: Senatus Populus Que Londinensis Fecit 1609 Many things that seem foul in the doing, do please, done. . . You see gilders will not work but inclosed. . . . How long did the canvas hang before Aldgate? Were the people suffered to see the City's Love and Charity, while they were rude stone, before they were painted and burnished?-Ben Jonson, The Silent Woman, Act. i. Sc. I. The "City's Love and Charity" were standing in 1760; 2 the other statues had been long removed. The apartments over the gate were in the early part of the 18th century appropriated to one of the Lord 1 Riley, Memorials, p. 377. 2 London and its Environs, 1761 14 Mayor's carvers, but afterwards used as a charity school. was taken down in 1761; the materials sold for £177: 10s.1 The gate Here in the 14th century was a garden, marking probably the site of an earlier hermitage. 19 Edward III. (1325).—The garden at the south side of Aldgate, called The Hermitage, which Roger atte Wattre, the serjeant, held, was granted to Peter de Stanndone, blader [corn dealer], for the whole term of his life, at a yearly payment of ten shillings. Aldgate (Ward of). One of the twenty-six wards of London, and so called from Aldgate, the gate in the City wall towards the east. General Boundaries.-Bevis Marks and Duke's Place; Crutched Friars ; the Minories; St. Mary Axe and Lime Street. Before the Reformation the main feature in the ward was the Priory of the Holy Trinity, called Christ's Church; founded by Matilda, Queen of Henry I. [See Duke's Place.] There are three parish churches:-1. St. Catherine Cree, or Christ Church; 2. St. Andrew Undershaft; 3. St. Catherine Coleman. And in Stow's time, there were three halls of companies :— 1. The Bricklayers' Hall; 2. The Fletchers' Hall; 3. The Ironmongers' Hall. The East India House was in this ward. [See all these names.] Aldgate High Street. The main street from Leadenhall Street to Jewin Street, the site of the ancient City gate, is known as Aldgate; the street eastward to Mansell Street and Petticoat Lane (now Middlesex Street), where Whitechapel High Street commences, is called Aldgate High Street. At the north-west corner of Aldgate High Street is St. Botolph's Church. The Three Nuns' Inn, and the Pye Tavern, over against the end of Houndsditch, are mentioned by De Foe in his History of the Plague. The Three Nuns continued to be a busy coaching inn till coaches were superseded by railways. It has lately been rebuilt on a large scale. The Bull was another large coaching inn. In Aldgate was the Saracen's Head-the site marked by Saracen's Head yard. A token was issued from "The Pye without Aldgate" as early as 1648.-Burn, p. 14. The Pye was one of the old inns "in which plays were occasionally acted. In 1661 was published The Presbyterian Lash, or Noctroffe's Maid Whipped; a tragi-comedy as it was lately acted in the great room at the Pye Tavern at Aldgate." When Foxe, the martyrologist, returned to London in 1559, the Duke of Norfolk received him at his "Manor House, Christ Church, Aldgate." The south-side of Aldgate High Street is lined with butchers' shops, and known as Aldgate Market. Aldgate Pump, at the junction Leadenhall Street and Fenchurch Street in ALDGATE. 1 Dodsley, 1761, vol. i. p. 151; Hughson, vol. iii. p. 181. Sir Walter Blackett of Wallington, Northumberland, obtained some of the ornamental stones and used them in decorating Rothley Castle, an eye-trap which he erected on the crags of that name, near Wallington.-Notes and Queries, 1st S. vol. iv. p. 131. |