Walter Besant

“ While some stooped their lips to the brink and never raised their heads again, others sprang up from their fiery draught, and danced half in a mad triumph, and half in the agony of suffocation, until they fell and steeped their corpses in the liquor that had killed them. ”

“ The garden extends along the east side of Lincoln's Inn Fields, the New Square occupying the south portion, the new hall and library the middle part, and the west part of Stone Buildings facing the northern part. A terrace divides them, and there is a gate into the Fields, the [Pg 41] roadway leading north to Great Turnstile and Holborn. North of the Old Buildings and the chapel is Stone Buildings, in a handsome classical style, with a wing which looks into Chancery Lane near its Holborn end, and is half concealed by low shop-fronts. ”

“ Betterton Street was until comparatively recently called Brownlow, from Sir John Brownlow of Belton, who had a house here in Charles II.'s time. The street is now, to use a favourite expression of Stow's, "better built than inhabited," for the row of brick houses of no very squalid type are inhabited by the very poor.
Endell Street was built in 1844, at the time of the erection of the workhouse. In it are the National Schools, a Protestant Swiss chapel, and an entrance to the public baths and wash-houses, to the south of which rise the towers of the workhouse. ”

“ In Old Square, the first court we enter, are situated the ancient hall and the chapel, the south side being occupied by chambers, some of them ancient. The turret in the corner, and one at the south-western corner, behind the hall, are very like those at St. James's Palace, and probably date very soon after the gate. Here at No. 13 Thurloe, Oliver Cromwell's Secretary of State, concealed a large collection of letters, which were discovered long after and have been published. The hall is low, and cannot be praised for any external architectural features of interest. ”

“ Denmark Street "fronts St. Giles Church and falls into Hog Lane, a fair broad street, with good houses well inhabited by gentry" (Strype) .
This description is no longer applicable. Denmark Place was once Dudley Court, and the house here with a garden was given by the Duchess of Dudley as a rectory for the parish. The Court or Row was built on the site of the house previous to 1722.
Broad Street is one of the most ancient streets in the parish, and there were a few houses standing on the north side when the rest of the district was open ground. ”

“ The library, modern, adjoins on the east, and contains a collection of important records and printed books on law.
Passing through an arch at the western end of the hall, we enter Gray's Inn Square, formerly Chapel Court. The chapel is close to the library on the north side, and opens into Gray's Inn Square. This court was probably open on the north side to the fields before the reign of Charles II. Some of the buildings surrounding it are in a good Queen Anne style, and some have the cross-mullioned windows of a still earlier period. The exterior of the chapel is covered with stucco. ”

“ Nearly every house is cut up into chambers. Abernethy, the great surgeon, formerly lived in this street, and Addington, Viscount Sidmouth, was born here; Bishop Warburton, the learned theologian and writer of the eighteenth century, and Elizabeth, daughter of Oliver Cromwell, are also said to have been among the residents. Ralph, the author of "Publick Buildings," admired it prodigiously, naming it one of the finest streets in London.
Red Lion Square took its name from a very well-known tavern in Holborn, one of the largest and most notable of the old inns. ”

“ It is a broad street, and in times past was a place of residence for well-to-do people.
The lower part of Saffron Hill was known at first as Field Lane, and is described by Strype as "narrow and mean, full of Butchers and Tripe Dressers, because the Ditch runs at the back of their Slaughter houses, and carries away the filth." He also says that Saffron Hill is a place of small account, "both as to buildings and inhabitants, and pestered with small and ordinary alleys and courts taken up by the meaner sort of people, especially to the east side into the Town. ”

“ At the north end, beyond the chapel, the old houses are down, and new ones will be erected in their place. At the end a small watchman's lodge stands on the spot where stood the Bishops' Gateway, in which the parasite, Sir Christopher Hatton, first fastened on his host.
Hatton Garden is a wide thoroughfare with some modern offices and many older houses, with bracketed doorways and carved woodwork. It has long been associated with the diamond merchant's trade, and now diamond merchants occupy quite half of the offices. It is also the centre of the gold and silver trade. ”

“ Great and Little Wild Streets are called respectively Old and New Weld Streets by Strype. Weld House stood on the site of the present Wild Court, and was during the reign of James II. occupied by the Spanish Embassy. In Great Wild Street Benjamin Franklin worked as a journeyman printer. ”

“ Andrew's parish, we here arrive at the City boundaries. The numbering of Holborn proper, included in the City, begins a door or two above the old timbered entrance, which leads to the first court [Pg 47] yard of Staple Inn. The courtyard is a real backwater out of the rushing traffic. The uneven cobble-stones, the whispering plane-trees, the worn red brick, and the flat sashed windows, of a bygone date all combine to make a picture of old London seldom to be found nowadays. Dr. Johnson wrote parts of "Rasselas" while a resident here. ”

“ Crossing Holborn Circus to the north side, we come into the Liberty of Saffron Hill, Hatton Garden, and Ely Rents. This Liberty, is coterminous with the parish of St. Peter, Saffron Hill. Hatton Garden derives its name from the family of Hatton, who for many years held possession of house and grounds in the vicinity of Ely Place, having settled upon the Bishops of Ely like parasites, and grown rich by extortion from their unwilling hosts. The district was separated from St. Andrew's in 1832, and became an independent ecclesiastical parish seven years later. ”

“ The parish almshouses were built in the wide part of Broad Street on ground granted by Lord Southampton, but were removed as an impediment to traffic in 1783 to the Coal Yard, near the north of Drury Lane. A row of little alleys—Salutation, Lamb's, Crown, and Cock—formerly extended southward over the present workhouse site. There are still one or two small entries both north and south. The immense yard of a well-known brewery fills up a large part of the south side, and a large iron and hardware manufactory on the north gives a certain manufacturing aspect to the street. ”

“ It looks rather frowning from Chancery Lane, where it rises against the western sky. The old hall and the chapel are rather curious than beautiful, and cannot compare with Middle Temple Hall or the Church of the Knights. The fine buildings which overlook the gardens and trees of Lincoln's Inn Fields owe much to their open situation. ”

“ We have now wandered over a district rich in association, containing some of the oldest domestic architecture existing in London, but which, taken as a whole, is chiefly of a date belonging to the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries—a date when ladies wore powder and patches, when sedan-chairs were more common than hackney cabs, and when the voice of the link-boy was heard in the streets. ”

“ Here was Craven House, here was Clare House; here lived the Earl of Stirling, the Marquis of Argyll, and the Earl of Anglesey. Here lived for a time Nell Gwynne. Pepys says:
"Saw pretty Nelly standing at her lodgings door in Drury Lane in her smock-sleeves and bodice, looking upon one. She seemed a mighty pretty creature."
The Lane fell into disrepute early in the eighteenth century. The "saints of Drury Lane," the "drabs of Drury Lane," the starving poets of Drury Lane, are freely ridiculed by the poets of that time. ”

“ The centre is laid out as a public garden, and forms a green and pleasant oasis in a very poor district.
St. John the Evangelist's Church, of red brick, designed by Pearson, stands at the south-west corner. It was built 1876-1878, and is very conspicuous, with two pointed towers and a handsome, deeply-recessed east window. Next door is the clergy house. There are in the Square various associations and societies, including the Mendicity Society, Indigent Blind Visiting Society, St. Paul's Hospital, and others. ”

“ The Holborn Municipal Baths are in a fine new building on the south side.
About High Street, which joins Broad Street at its west end, there is surely less to say than of any other High Street in London. In 1413 the gallows were set up at the corner where it meets Tottenham Court Road. But even previously to this executions had taken place at Tyburn, and soon Tyburn became the recognised place of execution. Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, is the most notable name among the victims who [Pg 20] suffered at St. Giles. ”

“ "This work fascinates me more than anything else I've ever done. Nothing at all like it has ever been attempted before. I've been walking about London for the last thirty years, and I find something fresh in it every day." ”

“ Maurice was succeeded in the principalship by Thomas Hughes, and Hughes by Lord Avebury, then Sir John Lubbock.
The Hospital for Sick Children is a red-brick building designed by Sir C. Barry. Within, the wards are lined by glazed tiles, and the floors are of parquet. Each ward is named after some member of the Royal Family—Helena, Alice, etc. The children are received at any age, and the beds are well filled. Everything, it is needless to say, is in the beautifully bright and cleanly style which is associated with the modern hospital. The chapel is particularly beautiful ”

“ If we take the south side of the street, we find ourselves walking past Shoe Lane, St. Andrew's Church, Thavies' Inn, Fetter Lane, Staple Inn, Barnard's Inn, Chancery Lane, Great and Little Turnstiles, Little Queen Street, Drury Lane, and St. Giles's. On the north side we pass Field Lane, Ely Place, Hatton Garden, Brooke Street, Furnival's Inn, Gray's Inn, Red Lion Street, and Tottenham Court Road. All these will be found described in detail further on. Of eminent residents in Holborn itself, Cunningham mentions Gerarde, the author of the "Herbal" ”

“ There are in all seven wards, two for men, three for women, one for girls, and one for children. The children's ward is as pretty as any private nursery could be. The hospital is absolutely free, and the out-patient department exceptionally large.
In Great Ormond Street there are also one or two Benefit Societies, Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows for the North London District, and many sets of chambers. This district seems particularly favourable to the growth of charitable institutions. ”

“ Christ Church is hemmed in by the workhouse, having an outlet only on the street. The church was consecrated in 1845. In Short's Gardens is the Lying-in Hospital, the oldest institution of the kind in England. On the west [Pg 25] side, between Castle Street and Short's Gardens, the remains of an ancient bath were discovered at what was once No. 3, Belton Street, now 23 and 25, Endell Street. Tradition wildly asserts that this was used by Queen Anne. ”

“ Queen Square was built in Queen Anne's reign, [Pg 82] and named in her honour, but it is a statue of Queen Charlotte that stands beneath the plane-trees in the centre.
When it was first built, much eulogy was bestowed upon it, because of the beautiful view to the Hampstead and Highgate Hills, for which reason the north side was left open; it is still open, but the prospect it commands is only the further side of Guilford Street. The Square is a favourite place for charitable institutions. ”

“ Within, the walls rise right up to the roof with no break, and give an impression of great spaciousness. There is a small chapel on either side, that on the east, of an apselike shape, being used as a baptistery. The western one contains a ponderous monument erected in memory of one of their officials by the East India Company. There are other monuments in the church, but none of any general interest. The Communion-table is enclosed by a wooden canopy with fluted columns, [Pg 96] said to be of Italian origin, and to have been brought from old Montague House. ”

“ The Horseshoe Hotel can claim fairly ancient descent; it has been in existence as a tavern from 1623. It was called the Horseshoe from the shape of its first dining-room. A Consumption Hospital stands midway between North and South Crescent.
Bedford Square also falls within St. Giles's [Pg 98] parish, but it belongs by character and date to Bloomsbury. The Square was erected about the very end of the eighteenth century. Dobie says that "Bedford Square arose from a cow-yard to its present magnificent form ... ”

“ More real is Thomas Cromwell, [Pg 77] the terrible Vicar-General of Henry VIII. Sir Thomas Gresham was a member of the Inn, as was his contemporary Camden, the antiquary. Lord Burghley and his second son, Robert, Earl of Salisbury, were both members, it is said, but certainly Burghley. The list of casual inhabitants is almost inexhaustible, being swelled by the heroes of many novels, actually or entirely fictitious. Shakespeare was said to have played in the hall. ”

“ The streets of Seven Dials attained a very unenviable reputation, and were the haunt of all that was vicious and bad. Terrible accounts of the overcrowding and consequent immorality come down to us from the newspaper [Pg 24] echoes of the earlier part of the nineteenth century. The opening up of the new thoroughfares of New Oxford Street, Shaftesbury Avenue, and Charing Cross Road, have done much, but the neighbourhood is still a slum. The seven streets remain in their starlike shape, by name Great and Little White Lion Street, Great and Little St. ”

“ There we found what we sought, about three-quarters of a mile north of Montague House, and 500 yards east of Tottenham Court Road. The steps are of the size of a large human foot, about three inches deep, and lie nearly from north-east to south-west. We counted only seventy-six; but we were not exact in counting. The place where one or both the brothers are supposed to have fallen is still bare of grass. The labourer also showed us where (the tradition is) the wretched woman sat to see the combat. ”