Guilds -- England -- London; London (England) -- Description and travel; London (England) -- History
=King William Street= contains few associations of interest, having been
built, as its name implies, in the reign of the fourth monarch of that
name, whose statue on a pedestal, which outrivals every other in the
City on the score of weight alone, stands at the south end. This is the
work of W. Nixon and was set up in December 1844. The figure is 15 feet
3 inches high, and the whole statue weighs 20 tons. Special arrangements
had to be made for carrying the Metropolitan Railway beneath it. The
statue is on the site of the Boar’s Head Tavern, noted in old days as a
famous rendezvous, and familiar to readers of Shakespeare from
Falstaff’s frequent resort thither. Goldsmith and Washington Irvine have
written on the Boar’s Head Tavern, which rose again after the Fire; the
sign of the later house is preserved in the Guildhall Museum.
King William Street was cut through various lanes, which are now dealt
with. At the north end in Gresham Place is Gresham Club, which was built
in 1844; the architect was Henry Flower. It is for merchants and City
men; the entrance fee is twenty guineas, annual subscription eight
guineas, and the membership is limited to 500. It is a grey stone
building with triangular stone pediments projecting over the upper
windows.
[Illustration:
_Pictorial Agency._
ST. MARY WOOLNOTH
]
=St. Clement’s Lane= leads to St. Clement’s Church. I find a reference
to rents in Clement’s Lane in 1322. In 1371 the “good folk” of
Candelwyke Street and Clement’s Lane petitioned the mayor against
certain plumbers who proposed to melt their lead in a place hard by
called the Woodhaugh; they said that the vapours were noxious and even
fatal to human life, that trustworthy people would depose to the
mischief caused by inhaling these fumes, and that the shaft of the
furnace was too low. In the end the plumbers were allowed to go on with
their work, provided that they raised the shaft. In the lane was the
bank in which Samuel Rogers was a partner.
In Church Court, we come to the ancient graveyard of St. Clement, a
minute space with one great shapeless tomb in the centre of the asphalt
and a few small erect tombstones in the little border running inside the
railings.
ST. CLEMENT, EASTCHEAP
The Church of St. Clement was destroyed by the Great Fire, but
rebuilt by Wren in 1686, when St. Martin’s Orgar was annexed to it.
The earliest date of an incumbent is 1309.
The patronage of the church was in the hands of: The Abbot and
Convent of Westminster, 1309; then Henry VIII., who seized it and
gave it to the Bishop of Westminster in 1540; next the Bishop of
London, by Mary, March 3, 1553-54, in whose successors it continues.
Houseling people in 1548 were 271.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account