Cornhill, London

“ I have always thoughtt that the close connection of our maritime people with London had something to do with the names of our streets. The most striking instance is in the name of Cornhill, where this very Thomas Fleet had his book store, and where book stores have been an institution from that day to this. Our Cornhill in its relations to our water front occupies the same conditions which the London Cornhill had and has to the river front in London. The young reader should remember that Washington Street so far as it had one name was called the Main Street. ”

“ The very ashes of the founder of London have long since turned to earth, air, and water.
No doubt the few huts that formed early London were fought for over and over again, as wolves wrangle round a carcass. On Cornhill there probably dwelt petty kings who warred with the kings of Ludgate; and in Southwark there lurked or burrowed other chiefs who, perhaps by intrigue or force, struggled for centuries to get a foothold in Thames Street. But of such infusoria History (glorying only in offenders, criminals, and robbers on the largest scale) justly pays no heed. ”

“ How is London ceased, that rich, that joyous city! One corner, indeed, is left; but more than as many houses as were within the walls, are turned into ashes.
The merchants now have left the Royal Exchange; the buyers and sellers have now forsaken the streets: Gracechurch-street, Cornhill, Cheapside, Newgate-market, and the like places, which used to have throngs of traffickers, now are become empty of inhabitants; and instead of the stately houses which stood there last summer, they lie this winter in ruinous heaps. The glory of London is fled away like a bird ”

“ His ideas are magnificent: he must have his trading palace and warehouses beetling, lofty, and of granite or Portland stone, a great arch or portal for the entrance; a sort of City architecture has been engendered specially to meet his wants.
Most “West-enders” rarely travel beyond the Exchange and the banking streets adjoining. But until Cornhill is passed, this peculiar aspect we have been describing is not met with. It is when we reach Mincing Lane, and Mark Lane, and Leadenhall, and Fenchurch Street, that we come upon these grand and endless ranges of business palaces. ”

“ There was another Mermaid, in Cheapside, next to Paul's Gate, and still another in Cornhill. Of the latter we find in Burn's Beaufoy Catalogue, that the vintner, buried in St. Peter's, Cornhill, in 1606, "gave forty shillings yearly to the parson for preaching four sermons every year, so long as the lease of the Mermaid, in Cornhill, (the tavern so called,) should endure. He also gave to the poor of the said parish thirteen penny loaves every Sunday, during the aforesaid lease." ”

“ The Cornhills were a family of farmers-general of the revenues of the counties south of London, and between 1164 and 1215, Gervase, Henry, Ralph, and Reginald de Cornhill, appear as sheriffs of Surrey and Sussex then combined. In this year, 1213, also one hundred deer, "damos et damas," were given from Guildford to the Archbishop of Canterbury to replenish his park. In 1214, 24th August, 53s. was allowed for the entertainment of the Papal legate, then on his way to revoke the Interdict. Rochester and Guildford Castles are mentioned together in this year as undergoing some repairs. ”

“ Besides the standing watches all in bright harness, in every ward and street in this city and suburbs, there was also a marching watch that passed through the principal streets thereof, to wit, from the little conduit by Paul's gate to West Cheap, by the stocks through Cornhill by Leadenhall to Aldgate, then back down Fenchurch Street by Grace Church, about Grace church conduit and up Gracechurch Street into Cornhill, and through it into West Cheap again, and so broke up. ”

“ Peter’s-upon-Cornhill claims to be the oldest church in London, and to have been the stool or a Romano-British archbishop. The pretension seems to have been recognised by St. Paul’s in the Middle Ages, and Bishop Stubbs was inclined to accept the archbishopric as having existed in London. As the interval in Church continuity cannot have been long, it is most likely that Mellitus reconsecrated some Roman temples or some of the old churches, as Augustine is known to have done at Canterbury. ”

“ And we suppose that the notable benefit many men have received from those cellars which have been well and strongly arched, will persuade most men, who build good houses, to practise that good husbandry, by arching all convenient places.
We do declare, that Fleet Street, Cheapside, Cornhill, and all other eminent and notorious streets, shall be of such a breadth, as may, with God's blessing, prevent the mischief that one side may suffer if the other be on fire, which was the case lately in Cheapside ”

“ The Royal Exchange is situated on the north side of Cornhill, about the middle of the street, forming an oblong open square, the inside whereof is a hundred and forty-four feet in length from east to west, and a hundred and seventeen in breadth from north to south; the area sixty-one square poles, on every side whereof is a noble piazza or cloister, consisting of twenty-eight columns and arches that support the galleries above.
The length of the building on the outside is two hundred and three feet, the breadth a hundred and seventy-one, and the height fifty-six. ”

“ Cornhill is published by Smith, Elder & Co. All the Year Round is edited by Chas. Dickens, Jr., who is rated very high as a sketch writer, and is also well known as a rowing and yachting man. The London Society Magazine is published at 217 Piccadilly, and the most aristocratic of all the London magazines, being beautifully illustrated, and having excellent social, club, and fashionable sketches. The London Society is sold for a shilling, and has a number of lady artists who make drawings for its pages. ”

“ In the year 1283, Henry Wallice, then mayor, built the Tun upon Cornhill, to be a prison for night-walkers, and a market-house called the Stocks, both for fish and flesh, standing in the midst of the city. He also built divers houses on the west and north side of Paule’s churchyard; the profits of all which buildings are to the maintenance of London Bridge.
In the year 1332, William Elsing, mercer of London, founded Elsing Spittle within Cripplegate, for sustentation of an hundred poor blind men, and became himself the first prior of that hospital. ”

“ He was a close friend of King John, and hated as one of the cruellest of his evil counsellors. It was under his auspices that Cornhill, who was probably his nephew, but possibly his son, first entered into public life. About 1204 Cornhill's name begins to appear frequently in the records as a royal clerk and an officer of the exchequer. In that year he received from King John the grant of some houses in London (Rotuli Chartarum, i. 123) ”

“ Certainly it is not on the highest point of Panyer Alley. A writer in Notes and Queries has lately suggested that the highest point in the City was at or near Leadenhall Market, or the chancel of the primitive St. Peter’s Church on Cornhill.
A statuette, also representing a naked boy, not sculptured in stone, but carved in wood, is placed on a pedestal affixed to the wall of a public-house, at the corner of Giltspur Street and Cock Lane, called the Fortune of War. The spot was commonly [9] known as Pie Corner: it is hardly necessary to add that here ended the Great Fire of London. ”

“ Edmund and the west end of the street were two mansions formerly belonging, one to William de la Pole, Knight Banneret, and “King’s Merchant” in the reign of Edward III., and afterwards to his son, Michael de la Pole, Earl of Suffolk, and the other to Sir Martin Bowes, mayor, 1545. Here also was the Cardinal’s Hat Tavern, one of the oldest of the City taverns, mentioned in 1492.
The modern street gives a general impression similar to that of Cornhill. Everywhere we are confronted by solid banks and insurance offices, which seem to divide the ground between them. ”

“ This area is surrounded with a substantial and regular stone building, wrought in rustic. In each of the principal fronts is a piazza, and in the center are the grand entrances into the area, under an arch which is extremely lofty and noble; on each side that of the principal front which is in Cornhill, are Corinthian demi-columns supporting a compass pediment; and in the intercolumniation on each side, in the front next 275the street, is a niche with the figures of King Charles I. and his son Charles II. in Roman habits, and well executed. ”

“ It is built of stone and brick.
The several offices for transacting the business of this great company are admirably well disposed; and the great hall for sales is nowhere to be paralleled, either in its dimensions or ornaments, any more than the dining-room, galleries, and chambers above.
7. Cornhill Ward comprehends little more than the street of the same name, and some little lanes and alleys that fall into it, as Castle Alley, Sweeting’s or Swithin’s Alley, Freeman’s Yard, part of Finch Lane, Weigh House Yard, Star Court, the north end of Birching Lane, St. ”

“ Henry of Cornhill was faithful to the Chancellor. These two knights had been sheriffs at Richard’s coronation, and both represented the burgher aristocracy.’ Longchamp betook himself to the Tower, and a meeting was held at St. Paul’s on Tuesday the 8th, and the barons welcomed the Archbishop{225} of Rouen as chief justiciar, and saluted John as Regent. ‘This done, oaths were largely taken: John, the justiciar and the barons swore to maintain the Communa of London ”

“ Maitland.
St. Michael’s Cornhill, on the east side of St. Michael’s alley. We find that a church was situated here, dedicated to the same holy angel, so early as before the year 1133; but the last edifice being destroyed with the other public buildings by the fire of London, the present Gothic structure was raised in its stead. Stowe.
The body is seventy feet long and sixty broad, the height to the roof is thirty-five feet, and that of the tower an hundred and thirty feet. The lower part of the tower occupies the center, and on each side there is a regular extent of 326building. ”

“ Michael-le-Querne, ad Bladum, or at the Corne, which was destroyed in the Great Fire, and not rebuilt, stood close to Panyer Alley, at the extreme end of Paternoster Row, and Stow says it was so called ‘because in place thereof was sometime a corn market, stretching by west to the shambles.’ The Rev. W. J. Loftie tells us that at present the sign of the Boy and Panyer is not on the highest point in the City, [8] being fifty-nine feet, while the site of the Standard in Cornhill is sixty feet above sea-level. ”

“ The Stews of Southwark are once, and only once, alluded to in this volume, and the result of this enactment was no doubt to drive the unfortunates thither.’ Ordinances of later date appear to have been still more stringent. The Tun, a round-house or prison on Cornhill, was so called from its having been ‘built somewhat in fashion of a tun standing on the one end.’ It was built in 1282 for the special reception of night-walkers.
In spite of stringent regulations the streets were seldom free from rioting of some kind, and the watch were kept fully employed. ”

“ Burgon thinks, of Gresham's determining to devote his money to the benefit of his fellow-citizens. Lombard Street had long become too small for the business of London. Men of business were exposed there to all weathers, and had to crowd into small shops, or jostle under the pent-houses. As early as 1534 or 1535 the citizens had deliberated in common council on the necessity of a new place of resort, and Leadenhall Street had been proposed. In the year 1565 certain houses in Cornhill, in the ward of Broad Street, and three alleys—Swan Alley, Cornhill; New Alley, Cornhill, near St. ”

“ Intersecting the town lengthwise, or from east to west, are three great leading thoroughfares at a short distance from each other, but gradually diverging at their western extremity. One of these routes begins in the eastern environs, near Blackwall, and extends along Whitechapel, Leadenhall Street, Cornhill, the Poultry, Cheapside, Newgate Street, Holborn, and Oxford Street. The other may be considered as starting at London Bridge, and passing up King William Street into Cheapside, at the western end of which it makes a bend round St. ”

“ The churches of St. Michael and St. Peter, Cornhill, were both built by Wren, except the tower of the former, which escaped the Great Fire, but was rebuilt some fifty years after that terrible event. St. Peter’s possesses a rood-screen, a great rarity, and seldom found except in our old country churches. From the pamphlet which records the doings of the Puritans, and which we have before mentioned, we find the rector of St. Michael’s, Cornhill, “Dr. Brough, sequestered, plundered; wife and children turned out of doors; his{68}
ST. MICHAEL’S CHURCH, CORNHILL.
wife dead with grief; Mr. ”

“ After that they ran headlong into Cornhill, and there likewise spoiled divers houses of the French men that dwelled within the gate of Master Newton's house, called Queene Gate. This Master Newton was a Picard borne, and reputed to be a great favourer of Frenchmen in their occupiengs and trades, contrary to the laws of the Citie. If the people had found him, they had surelie have stricken off his head; but when they found him not, the watermen and certain young preests that were there, fell to rifling, and some ran to Blanch-apelton, and broke up the strangers' houses and spoiled them. ”