London City

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 _The Survey of London_




                                 LONDON

                                  CITY


[Illustration:

  _Pictorial Agency._

  INTERIOR OF ROYAL EXCHANGE.—(Page 128)
]




                                 LONDON

                                  CITY


                                   BY

                           SIR WALTER BESANT

[Illustration]

                                 LONDON

                          ADAM & CHARLES BLACK

                                  1910

------------------------------------------------------------------------




                                PREFACE


With this volume we begin what may be called the second part of the
Survey. All that has preceded it has dealt with the history of London as
a whole; now we turn to London in its topographical aspect and treat it
street by street, with all the historical associations interwoven in a
continuous narrative with a running commentary of the aspect of the
streets as they were at the end of the nineteenth century, for the book
is strictly a Survey of London up to the end of the nineteenth century.
Sir Walter Besant himself wrote the greater part of the volume now
issued, calling it “The Antiquities of the City,” and it is exclusively
confined to the City. For the topographical side of the great work,
however, he employed assistants to collect material for him and to help
him; for though, as he said, he had been “walking about London for the
last thirty years and found something fresh in it every day,” he could
not himself collect the mass of detail requisite for a fair presentation
of the subject. In the present volume, therefore, embedded in his
running commentary, will be found detailed accounts of the City
Companies, the City churches and other buildings, which are not by his
hand. A word as to the plan on which the volume is made may be helpful.
In cases where the City halls are standing, accounts of the Companies
they belong to are inserted there in the course of the perambulation;
but where the Companies possess no halls, the matter concerning them is
relegated to an Appendix. The churches, however, being peculiarly
associated with the sites on which they are standing, or stood, are
considered to be an integral part of the City associations, and
churches, whether vanished or standing, are noted in course of
perambulation. A distinction which shows at a glance whether any
particular church is still existing or has been demolished is made by
the type; for in the case of an existing church the name is set in large
black type, as a centre heading, whereas with a vanished church it is
given in smaller black type set in line.

The plan of the book is simplicity itself; it follows the lines of
groups of streets, taken as dictated by common sense and not by the
somewhat arbitrary boundaries of wards. The outlines of these groups are
clearly indicated on the large map which will be found at the end of the
volume.




                                CONTENTS

                      THE ANTIQUITIES OF THE CITY


                                 GROUP I

                                                                    PAGE

 STREETS NORTH AND SOUTH OF CHEAPSIDE AND THE POULTRY                  1


                                GROUP II

 STREETS NORTH OF GRESHAM STREET AND WEST OF MOORGATE STREET          63


                                GROUP III

 STREETS BETWEEN MOORGATE AND BISHOPSGATE STREETS                     91


                                GROUP IV

 STREETS BETWEEN FENCHURCH AND BISHOPSGATE STREETS                   146


                                 GROUP V

 THAMES STREET AND THE STREETS NORTH AND SOUTH OF IT                 190

 THE TOWER OF LONDON                                                 288


                                GROUP VI

 NEWGATE STREET AND THE STREETS NORTH AND SOUTH OF IT                300

 ST. PAUL’S                                                          327


                                GROUP VII

 FLEET STREET AND THE ADJACENT COURTS (INCLUDING THE TEMPLE AND THE
   ROLLS)                                                            362

 THE TEMPLE                                                          370

 THE ANCIENT SCHOOLS IN THE CITY OF LONDON                           385


                               APPENDICES

 1. THE CITY COMPANIES                                               433

 2. MAYORS AND LORD MAYORS OF LONDON FROM 1189 TO 1900               455

 3. A CALENDAR OF THE MAYORS AND SHERIFFS OF LONDON FROM 1189 TO
   1900                                                              461


 INDEX                                                               483




                             ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                                    PAGE

 Interior of Royal Exchange                               _Frontispiece_

 Cheapside Cross (as it appeared on its erection
   in 1606)                                                            5

 St.