This house stood in a quiet courtyard opening into Botolph Lane with a second entrance in Love Lane, and had been used since 1859 for the Billingsgate and Tower Ward School. The front, plain but well proportioned, was built of remarkably small bricks with stone facings. It had a projecting cornice and flat lead-covered roof. The doorway was approached by a double flight of steps, beneath which an opening had been left, once used as a dog kennel, to judge from the little hollow for water scooped out in front. Entering a hall which extended right through the house and was paved with alternate chequers of black and white marble, one saw in front a handsome staircase, part of which is shown; the date 1670 appeared on the plaster. Upstairs, the structure had been mutilated, the greater part of the landings on the first and second floors being latterly included in the schoolrooms, but a marble chimney-piece, fine cornices and plaster-work, evinced the taste of former possessors. Perhaps the most interesting part of the house was a small room immediately to the left of the main entrance. It was panelled throughout, and painted from ceiling to floor with strange designs, among which one could dimly discern the figures of Indians, a rhinoceros, antelopes, palm trees, and other signs of tropical life as it represented itself to the imagination or memory of the artist. According to some, the history of the tobacco plant was here depicted, but of this there was no sign. Fortunately we know the name of the painter of this curious series of pictures, one of the panels being signed "R. Robinson, 1696." The other decorations of the room were a carved mantelpiece and a panelled cupboard. The house is charmingly described in the late Mrs. Riddell's novel "Mitre Court," and she made it the home of her heroine. There is, however, no authority for her statement that Sir Christopher Wren was its architect and first inhabitant. This interesting old building was pulled down in 1905-6, although great efforts were made to induce its owners to preserve it. (11-9/16 × 9-5/8) D. 29-1896. 27. Staircase of No. 9, Great St. Helen's, 1891 (Black and white).