London (England) -- History; London (England) -- Social life and customs
More fortunate than the other monastic churches, that of the Austin
Friars was allowed to remain standing. The nave was walled off and
assigned to the Dutch residents, with whom it has continued to this day.
You may attend the service on Sunday, and while the preacher in the
black gown addresses his scanty audience in the language which, though
it sounds so much like English, you cannot understand, you may look
about you, and think of the Augustine Brothers who built this church. In
their time it was filled with monuments, of which not a single one now
remains. The nave was greatly damaged by a fire in 1862, but the walls
and columns of the ancient church remain. The rest of the church,
including the finest and most beautiful spire in the whole city, was all
pulled down by the Marquis of Winchester, who broke up and sold the
whole of the monuments for £100. In this church were buried, among other
illustrious dead, the great Hubert de Burgh; Edmund Plantagenet, half
brother to Richard II.; the barons who fell at the battle of Barnet;
Richard FitzAlan, Earl of Arundel, beheaded 1397; the Earl of Oxford,
beheaded 1463; and Edward Strafford, Duke of Buckingham, beheaded 1521.
Winchester House, which stood till fifty years ago, was built on part of
the abbey grounds; Cromwell House, on a site where now stands the
Drapers' Hall, on another part.
The Priory of the Holy Trinity, granted to Sir Thomas Audley, fared
worse still, for the whole church--choir, transepts, nave, steeple, and
all--was, with great labor, pulled down, and the whole materials and
monuments sold for paving or building stones at sixpence a cart-load.
The ring of nine bells was divided between Stepney Church and St.
Katherine Cree, where, I believe, they still hang and do their duty. So
much, and that is all, is left of this proud foundation. Sir Thomas
Audley, who obtained the precinct by gift of the King, built a house
upon it. His daughter and heiress marrying the Duke of Norfolk, the
house and grounds were named after their new owner. Duke's Place and
Duke Street preserve the new name. The former, now a mean square,
crowded with Jews engaged in the fruit trade, is certainly the site of
one of the courts of the old priory. It is at the back of St. Katherine
Cree Church in Leadenhall Street. Strange, that of this most rich and
splendid house not a vestige should remain either of name, or building,
or tradition.
Crutched Friars' Church was made into a carpenter's shop and a tennis
court. Their refectory, a very noble hall, became a glass-house, and was
burned to the ground in the year 1575.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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