London and Its Environs Described, vol. 5 (of 6): Containing an Account of Whatever is Most Remarkable for Grandeur, Elegance, Curiosity or Use, in the City and in the Country Twenty Miles Round ItAnonymous
History
London and Its Environs Described, vol. 5 (of 6): Containing an Account of Whatever is Most Remarkable for Grandeur, Elegance, Curiosity or Use, in the City and in the Country Twenty Miles Round It
Anonymous
London (England) -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; London (England) -- Gazetteers -- Early works to 1800
_St._ PETER’S _Cornhill_, a plain neat church, near the south east corner
of Cornhill, in the ward of that name. There has been many ages a church
in the same place, under the patronage of the same apostle: but the last
edifice was destroyed by the fire of London, and this substantial
structure rose in its place. The body is eighty feet long, and
forty-seven broad; it is forty feet high to the roof, and the height of
the steeple is an hundred and forty feet. The body is plain, and
enlightened by a single series of windows. The tower, which is also
plain, has a small window in each stage, and the dome which supports the
spire is of the lantern kind; this spire, which is well proportioned, is
crowned by a ball, whence rises the fane, in the form of a key.
The patronage of this rectory is in the Lord Mayor and Commonalty of
this city. The Rector receives, besides other profits, 120_l._ a year by
glebe, and 110_l._ a year in lieu of tithes.
_St._ PETER LE POOR, on the west side of Broad street, in the ward of that
name, is supposed by Maitland, to have received its additional epithet
_le Poor_, from the mean condition of the parish in ancient times: tho’
it is now extremely wealthy, it being inhabited by a great number of
merchants, and other persons of distinction.
Others imagine that it was called le Poor, from the neighbouring friary
of St. Austin, where reigned an affected poverty. A church stood upon
the same spot before the year 1181, and the present edifice which
escaped the fire in 1666, is supposed to have been built about the year
1540.
This Gothic structure, instead of being an ornament to the street in
which it is placed, as all public buildings ought to be, is a very great
deformity; the building itself is mean, one of its corners being thrust
as it were into the street, renders it narrow, obstructs the passage,
and destroys the vista. This structure is of very considerable breadth
in proportion to its length; it being fifty-four feet long, and
fifty-one broad: the height to the roof is twenty-three feet, and that
of the tower and turret seventy-five. The body is plain and
unornamented; the windows are very large; and the dial is fixed to a
beam that is joined on one end to a kind of turret, and extends like a
country sign post, across the street; a very rude and aukward
contrivance. The tower, which rises square, without diminution, is
strengthened at the corners with rustic; upon this is placed a turret,
which consists of strong piers at the corners arched over, and covered
with an open dome, whence rises a ball and fane.
The advowson of this church appears to have been all along in the Dean
and Chapter of St. Paul’s. The tithes at present amount to 130_l._ a
year; and the other profits by annual donations settled upon the Rector,
amount to about as much more.
PETER’S _court_, 1. Ironmonger row. 2. St. Martin’s lane, Charing cross.
3. Peter lane. 4. Rosemary lane.
PETER’S _hill_, 1. Knightrider street. 2. Saffron hill.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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