By 1842 the Wells was "almost a ruin,"1 and shortly after the place was closed, and house and gardens dismantled. The "pastoral figures" were a few years back in the possession of Dr. Lonsdale of Carlisle. The long room was converted into a brewer's store-room; and for many years a signboard over the tap gave notice that "Here was the famous Bagnigge Wells." But these vestiges have disappeared. The brewhouse was transformed into an engineer's workshop, but that disappeared, and the wells themselves are filled up and lost. The very name of the road has, by a foolish freak of the Metropolitan Board of Works, been changed from Bagnigge Wells Road to King's Cross Road, thus destroying, with all that was distinctive in the name, the last local memorial of the Old Wells.

Bagnio (The Duke's) LONG ACRE, later known as THE QUEEN'S,2 stood on the south side of Long Acre, between Conduit Court and Leg Alley. It was built in 1682, and rebuilt and enlarged in 1694.3 Lord Mohun left this Bagnio in a hackney coach to fight his famous duel in Hyde Park with the Duke of Hamilton. It afterwards became a house of ill-fame, and gave its name as a generic to similar places.

This Bagnio is erected near the west end of Long Acre, in that spot of ground which hath been called by the name of Salisbury Stables. At the front of it, next the street, is a large commodious house, wherein dwells that honourable person, Sir William Jennings who, having obtained His Majesty's Patent for the making of all public Bagnios and Baths, either for sweating, bathing, washing, etc., is the only undertaker of this new building. In this house there are several rooms set apart for the accommodation of such as shall come to the Bagnio; and to the further side of it the structure of the Bagnio is adjoined, so that the first room we enter to go into the Bagnio is a large hall where the porter stands to receive the money. Hence we pass through an entry into another room, where hangs a pair of scales to weigh such as, out of curiosity, would know how much they lose in weight while they are in the Bagnio. . . . The Bagnio itself is a stately edifice, of an oval figure, in length 45 feet, and in breadth 35. 'Tis covered at the top with a high and large cupola, in which there are several round glasses fixt to let in light, which are much larger and no fewer in number than those at the Royal Bagnio [in Bath Street]. . On the east side of the Bagnio there is a coffee-house fronting the street, with this inscription on the sign, "The Duke's Bagnio Coffee House." . . The same reception and entertainment do also women find, only with this difference, viz., on Women's Days there are all imaginable conveniences of privacy, and not a man to be seen, but all the servants are of the female sex.-A Description of the Duke's Bagnio, by Sam. Haworth, M.D., 12mo, 1683.

2 Hatton, p. 797.

1 Lewis, History of Islington, p. 36.

3 Strype, B. vi, p. 74; London Gazette, No. 3019. There is a view of it, done in 1694, among Bagford's Prints in the Museum.-Harl. MS.,

5953, pt. i. p. 115. Of the Bagnio, with its cupolaroof, there is a view on the metal tickets of admission for women, well known to the curious in such matters.

The charges in 1708 were, "5s. some, and 2s. 6d. other rooms. the bath still remains, but boarded over, at No. 3 Endell Street.

Bagnio (The Royal), BATH STREET, Newgate Street. Was built and first opened in December 1679; built by Turkish Merchants.Aubrey's Lives, vol. ii. p. 244.

A neat contrived building after the Turkish mode, seated in a large handsome yard, and at the upper end of Pincock Lane, which is indifferent well built and inhabited. This Bagnio is much resorted unto for sweating, being found very good for aches, etc., and approved of by our physicians.-Strype, B. iii. p. 195.

Royal Bagnio, situate on the north side of Newgate Street, is a very spacious and commodious place for sweating, hot-bathing, and cupping; they tell me it is the only true Bagnio after the Turkish model, and hath 18 degrees of heat. It was first opened Anno 1679. . . . Here is one very spacious room with a cupola roof, besides others lesser; the walls are neatly set with Dutch tile. The charge of the house for sweating, rubbing, shaving, cupping, and bathing, is 4 shillings each person. There are nine servants who attend. The days for ladies are Wednesdays and Saturdays, and for gentlemen Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays; and to show the healthfulness of sweating thus, here is one servant who has been near 28 years, and another 16, though 4 days a-week constantly attending in the heat.-Hatton's New View of London, 8vo, 1708, p. 797.

The Bath, with its cupola roof, its marble steps, and Dutch tiled walls, was used as a Cold Bath, and called the OLD ROYAL BATHS, until 1876, when it was pulled down to make way for a lofty range of offices.

Bagnio Court, NEWGATE STREET, was so called from the Bagnio described in the preceding article. In 1843 the name was changed to Bath Street; and in 1869 all the houses on the east side of the street were swept away to make room for the new Post Office.

Bail (Le). [See Old Bailey.]

Bainbridge Street, NEW OXFORD STREET, once notorious in the annals of crime, was built prior to 1672, and derives its name from an eminent inhabitant of St. Giles's in the reign of Charles II. It leads from Dyott Street westward into New Oxford Street, and is chiefly occupied by the buildings of Meux's brewery. Before the brewery was built the street led into Tottenham Court Road.

Baker Street, PORTMAN SQUARE to YORK PLACE, MARYLEBONE ROAD, named after Sir Edward Baker of Ramston, a friend of Mr. Portman. Eminent Inhabitants.-Lord Camelford (who fell in the duel with Best), at No. 64, in the year 1800.

Went to Monsieur.

May 22, 1799.-Called on Mr. Pitt, who was gone out. Visit to Monsieur, Baker Street, No. 1.—Windham, Diary, p. 409. The Right Hon. Henry Grattan, the distinguished orator, died May 14, 1820, in No. 27 Upper Baker Street. Mrs. Siddons, on the east side, at the top of Upper Baker Street, looking into the Regent's Park; here she died June 8, 1831.

In 1817 Mrs. Siddons took the lease of a house pleasantly situated, with an adjoining garden and small green, at the top of Upper Baker Street, on the right side towards the Regent's Park. Here she built an additional room for her modelling.-Campbell's Life of Mrs. Siddons, p. 360.

August 29, 1817.-But, adieu! I must dress to dine what I call out of town -the top house in Baker Street.-H. L. Piozzi, Letter to Sir James Fellowes.

1 Hatton, p. 797.

Pitt lived at the north end of Baker Street, No. 14 York Place. Ladies, are you aware that the Great Pitt lived in Baker Street? What would not your grandmothers have given to be asked to Lady Hester's parties in that now decayed mansion ?-Thackeray's Vanity Fair, p. 421.

Sir Alexander Boswell, the poet, and eldest son of Johnson's biographer, lodged for some time at No. 65. No. 69 was the residence of John Braham the great tenor. Here, at the "Bazaar in Baker Street" (No. 58), was the Wax Work Exhibition and Chamber of Horrors, well and widely known as Madame Tussaud's. Madame Tussaud died in this house, April, 15, 1850, aged ninety. The exhibition has been removed to a new building in Marylebone Road. The Smithfield Club held their Annual Cattle Show at the back of the Bazaar from 1839 to 1861, when they removed to the Agricultural Hall, Islington. By Adam Street is Portman Chapel, erected about 1779-1782. Edward Bulwer (afterwards Lord Lytton) was born at No. 31 in 1803, on the east side.

Bakers' Hall, No. 16 HARP LANE, GREAT TOWER STREET, a neat plain building erected on the site of one destroyed by fire in January 1715; the last words spoken by Robert Nelson, the author of Fasts and Festivals, were an allusion to the flames which were visible from his dying bed at Kensington. The hall was repaired and the interior restored about 1825, under the superintendence of James Elmes, architect, author of the Life of Sir Christopher Wren. The Banqueting Hall is large, has a good oak screen, with Corinthian columns, pilasters, and entablature, and contains several portraits of benefactors and eminent members of the Company.

In this Hart Lane is the Bakers' Hall, sometime the dwelling-house of John Chichley, Chamberlain of London, who was son to William Chichley, Alderman of London; brother to William Chichley, Archdeacon of Canterbury; nephew to Robert Chichley, Mayor of London; and to Henry Chichley, Archbishop of Canterbury.— Stow, p. 51.

The bakers of London were of old divided into "White Bakers" and "Brown (or tourte) Bakers," 1 no maker of white bread being allowed to make tourte, and by the regulations of the City the loaves brought into the city by the bakers of Stratford-le-Bow were required to be heavier in weight than the loaves of the same price supplied by the London bakers. Every baker was to "have his own seal, as well for brown bread as for white bread," wherewith to stamp his loaves, and each alderman was required to "view the seals of the bakers in his ward." The penalties for "default," either in quality or weight, "in the bread of a baker of the City" were very severe."2 The City bakers were to hold four principal "hallmotes" in the year, on days fixed, to regulate the assay of bread and for other trade matters, when all who did not attend, or "reasonably excuse or essoin themselves," were to be amerced in a penalty of 21 pence. The bakers remained a guild by prescription till 1486, when Henry VII. gave them a Charter of Incorporation.

1 Strype, B. v. p. 338.

2 Liber Albus, p. 231.

3 Ibid., p. 311.

Bakewell Hall, BLAKEWELL, or BLACKWELL HALL, a “spacious building on the east side of Guildhall, or on the west side of Basinghall Street." >> 1 Here was held a weekly market for woollen cloths, established by the Mayor and Corporation (20th of Rich. II.) in a house belonging, in 1293, to John de Banquelle, Alderman of Dowgate ward. The building originally belonged to the Cliffords and the Basings, but subsequently to Thomas Bakewell, who was living in it in the 36th of Edw. III., and from whom Stow makes the Hall or Market derive its name. Bakewell Hall was rebuilt in the year 1588, destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, re-erected in 1672, and ultimately taken down to make way for the present Bankruptcy Court in 1820. The profits or fees paid on pitchings were given by the City to Christ's Hospital, and in 1708 were reckoned at 1100.2 Bacon speaks of "the stand of cloth in Blackwell Hall" as 66 keeping up the State." 3

Bakewell Hall was by the Corporation converted to a warehouse or market-place for all sorts of woollen cloth, and other woollen manufactures brought from all parts of the kingdom, and by an Act of Common Council, held August 8, 1516, this was to be the only market for such woollen manufactures, and none to be sold in London but at this place. . . Cloths pay one penny each pitching, and a halfpenny per week resting; and to avoid trouble every factor has a rest, or one certain number for which he pays.-Hatton, p. 599.

William Tooke of Purley (b. 1719, d. 1802), Horne Tooke's friend, made his fortune as a "Blackwell Hall factor."

Baldwin's Gardens, on the east side of GRAY'S INN LANE (now Gray's Inn Road), is said to have derived its name from Richard Baldwin, one of the royal gardeners, who built some houses here in 1589. It became a place of sanctuary, abolished by Act of Parliament in 1697. It was used as a refuge by Henry Purcell, the musician (d. 1695); Tom Brown (d. 1704) dated some verses "from Mrs. Stewart's, at the Hole in the Wall in Baldwin's Gardens." In the Guildhall Collection of Tradesmen's Tokens is one of Nicholas Smith, "the Wheatsheaf in Baldwyn's Gardens, 1666." There is still a Hole in the Wall in Baldwin's Gardens, but no Wheatsheaf.

But I suppose you spoke figuratively, and by robbing of orchards you understood. Baldwin's Garden, and by lampooning the Court you meant Three Crane Court; and you might have enlarged with Bond's Stables and the Pall Mall.—Andrew Marvell, The Rehearsal Transprosed, pt. 2, 1674.

A single sheet, entitled "The English and French Prophets mad, or bewitcht at their Assemblies in Baldwin's Gardens," was published by J. Applebee, 1707. Dr. Rimbault describes a letter of Anthony Wood's, addressed "For John Aubrey, Esq., to be left at Mr. Caley's house in Baldwin's Gardens, near Gray's Inn Lane, London."-Notes and Queries, 1st S., vol. i. p. 410.

Baldwin's Gardens acquired an evil reputation, but its character has greatly improved of late years. Here was the notorious "Thieves Kitchen," pulled down to make way for St. Alban's Church. [See that heading.]

1 Hatton's New View of London, 1708, p. 599.

2 Of the last hall there are views in Price's Guildhall, 1886.

3 Letters, 4to, p. 183.

Ball's Pond, ISLINGTON, so called from the Ducking Pond of a person of the name of Ball, who kept a tavern here in the reign of Charles II. This man issued a token with this inscription, "John Ball, at the Boarded House, neare Newington Green, his penny." Islington ponds were, in the 17th century, a noted resort for citizens intent on their favourite sport of duck hunting.

What... because I dwell at Hogsden, I shall keep company with none but the archers of Finsbury, or the citizens that come a-ducking to Islington Ponds! A fine jest i' faith!-Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, Act i. sc. 1.

For there in Pond, through mire and muck,

We'll cry hay Duck, there Ruffe, hay Duck.

DAVENANT, The Long Vacation in London,
(Works, 1673, p. 289).

The church of St. Paul was erected from the designs of Sir Charles Barry, R.A., 1826-1827, at a cost of £10,947: one of his earliest Gothic works. On the north side of the Ball's Pond Road, and occupying contiguous sites, are the Cutlers' Almshouses; the Metropolitan Benefit Society's Asylum; and the Bookbinders' Provident Institution.

Balmes House, HOXTON, an old moated house built originally in 1540, but rebuilt in the next century by Sir George Whitmore, Lord Mayor of London, 1631. "Here on November 25, 1641, Sir William Acton, Lord Mayor, with the Aldermen, Recorder, etc., awaited the arrival of Charles I. on his return from Scotland, when he was received right royally, a roadway being cut through Sir George's estate to Moorgate." Sir George Whitmore died at this house, which, some years afterwards, was purchased by Richard de Beauvoir (whose name survives in De Beauvoir Town). Balmes was at one time esteemed a mansion of note, but it was subsequently occupied as a lunatic asylum, and was pulled down a few years ago.

i

Baltic Coffee House, THREADNEEDLE STREET, the rendezvous of merchants and brokers connected with the Russian trade. In the upper part of the Baltic is the auction sale-room for tallow, oils, etc.

Baltimore House. [See Russell Square.]

Banbury Court, on the south side of LONG ACRE, leading to Hart Street, Covent Garden. "At the corner house of Banbury Court in Long Acre," lived Simon Gribelin the engraver.2

Bancroft's Almshouses, MILE END ROAD (for 24 poor old men of the Drapers' Company, afterwards increased to 28), and SCHOOL (for 100 boys), erected 1729-1735, pursuant to the will of Francis 1 Analytical Index to the Remembrancia, 1878, p. 296 (note).

2 Advertisement in London Gazette of May 27-29, 1712.