Drawing -- England -- London -- Catalogs; London (England) -- Pictorial works -- Catalogs
A sign derived from a famous commander, like that mentioned in the
note to No. 56, was the Blakeney's Head, 35, Bartholomew Close—a
memorial of the man who so bravely defended Minorca against the
French in 1756. In the year 1890 the house was untenanted. It
remained closed and in a dilapidated condition for some time,
but about 1895 was done up and re-christened the Rahere, after
the founder of St. Bartholomew's Priory and Hospital. In June, 1900,
having changed its name a second time, it was again closed, and was
destroyed soon afterwards.
(11-1/4 × 7-7/16) D. 49-1896.
59. The Green Man and Still, Cow Cross Street, Clerkenwell, 1886
(Black and white).
This picturesque little ale-house had absolutely no history as far as
the writer could discover, but it must have dated from the latter part
of the seventeenth century. It was rebuilt about 1889. Stow says:—"On
the left-hand side of St. John Street lieth a lane called Cow Cross,
of a cross some time standing there, which lane turneth to another lane
called Turnmill Street."
(11-1/4 × 5-7/8) D. 51-1896.
60. Chimney-piece in the Baptist's Head Public-house, St. John's
Lane, Clerkenwell, 1889 (Black and white).
On the eastern side of St. John's Lane, Clerkenwell, near the old
Priory Gate, a stuccoed public-house with the above sign stood until
about the year 1895. Though outwardly modern and commonplace, a
fragment of it had once formed part of a mansion which, early in the
sixteenth century, belonged to Sir Thomas Forster, a judge of the
Common Pleas, who died in 1612. The chimney-piece, here portrayed,
was in the taproom. It is of fine Reigate stone, the frieze being
ornamented with fruit and flowers. In the centre are arms, and on each
side a crest, thus heraldically described by Cromwell in his History
of Clerkenwell:—"The arms are quarterly; first and fourth argent;
a chevron vert between three bugle-horns sable, for the family of
Radclyffe with which that of Forster intermarried, the crescent being
introduced as the filial distinction of a second house. The Buck at
one end was the original crest of the Forsters; the Talbot's head
at the other, with the crescent, might be that of this branch of the
Radclyffe's." The frieze was supported by pilasters in the same style,
and one side of the room had panelling of the linen pattern. This
was apparently all that remained of the original house, which, in the
days of its splendour, must have covered a good deal of ground, for
it had another frontage in St. John Street; it was then ornamented
by grotesque carvings, and had bay windows with painted glass. The
sign may have been selected out of compliment to Sir Baptist Hicks,
afterwards Lord Campden, who built a Sessions-house hard by. In the
18th century the Baptist's Head was doubtless resorted to by some of
the literary men who worked for Cave; it also afforded solace to a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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