Of the ecclesiastical buildings of Holborn that of first interest is the
chapel of St Etheldreda in Ely Place, opening from Holborn Circus. Ely
Place takes its name from a palace of the bishops of Ely, who held land
here as early as the 13th century. Here died John of Gaunt in 1399. The
property was acquired by Sir Christopher Hatton, Lord Chancellor under
Queen Elizabeth, after whom Hatton Garden is named; though the bishopric
kept some hold upon it until the 18th century. The chapel, the only
remnant of the palace, is a beautiful Decorated structure with a vaulted
crypt, itself above ground-level. Both are used for worship by Roman
Catholics, by whom the chapel was acquired in 1874 and opened five years
later after careful restoration. The present parish church of St Giles
in the Fields, between Shaftesbury Avenue and New Oxford Street, dates
from 1734, but here was situated a leper's hospital founded by Matilda,
wife of Henry I., in 1101. Its chapel became the parish church on the
suppression of the monasteries. The church of St Andrew, the parish of
which extends into the City, stands near Holborn Viaduct. It is by Wren,
but there are traces of the previous Gothic edifice in the tower.
Sacheverell was among its rectors (1713-1724), and Thomas Chatterton
(1770) was interred in the adjacent burial ground, no longer extant, of
Shoe Lane Workhouse; the register recording his Christian name as
William. Close to this church Is the City Temple (Congregational).
Two of the four Inns of Court, Lincoln's Inn and Gray's Inn, lie within
the borough. Of the first the Tudor gateway opens upon Chancery Lane.
The chapel, hall and residential buildings surrounding the squares
within, are picturesque, but of later date. To the west lie the fine
square, with public gardens, still called, from its original character,
Lincoln's Inn Fields. Gray's Inn, between High Holborn and Theobald's
Road, and west of Gray's Inn Road, is of similar arrangement. The fabric
of the small chapel is apparently of the 14th century, and may have been
attached to the manor house of Portpool, held at that period by the
Lords Grey of Wilton. Of the former Inns of Chancery attached to these
Inns of Court the most noteworthy buildings remaining are those of
Staple Inn, of which the timbered and gabled Elizabethan front upon High
Holborn is a unique survival of its character in a London thoroughfare;
and of Barnard's Inn, occupied by the Mercer's School. Both these were
attached to Gray's Inn. Of Furnival's and Thavies Inns, attached to
Lincoln's Inn, only the names remain. The site of the first is covered
by the fine red brick buildings of the Prudential Assurance Company,
Holborn Viaduct. Among other institutions in Holborn, the British
Museum, north of New Oxford Street, is pre-eminent. The varied
collections of Sir John Soane, accumulated at his house in Lincoln's Inn
Fields, are open to view as the Soane Museum. There may also be
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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