=Monument Street= was only opened about ten years ago, and cost half a million of money; this was spent partly in compensation to the dispossessed leaseholders. It was designed to afford a wide and direct route to the City for the fish brought from Billingsgate. A row of new red brick buildings lines part of the way on the right; at the corner of St. Mary-at-Hill is a post-office. Beyond these buildings is the ancient graveyard of St. Botolph, Billingsgate, which church was burnt in the Great Fire and not rebuilt. The graveyard is now used as a public recreation ground, and is fronted by a neat wall with a parapet, and on either side of the gate is a high brick pier with a lamp on the summit. On the south side of Monument Street fragments of waste ground remain still unbuilt on, and form receptacles for decayed fish and garbage. For the Coal Exchange see p. 270. THE WATERMEN In the sixth year of the reign of Henry VIII. an Act was passed regulating the traffic of watermen, ferrymen, and bargemen on the Thames, and settling the fares to be charged by them. In 1555 a court was held by the “Company,” and in 1648 a proclamation compelled certain “dirtboats and bumboats” to submit to the regulations of “the Company.” The Lightermens Company was united to the Watermens in 1667. But the first charter of incorporation was not granted until 7 and 8 George IV., 1827; and this was amended by two acts of Victoria in 1859 and 1864. After the Great Fire the Watermen’s Hall was erected on the south-west corner of the Cold Harbour quay, where Strype’s map shows it. It was a handsome brick building, and was in use by the Company until 1780, when, their premises being required for an extension of the brewery, they vacated them, afterwards removing to their present hall in St. Mary-at-Hill. The old hall faced the Thames upon New Key, and in front to the river there was a large flight of stone stairs, open at all times to watermen and the public. They had been in uninterrupted use for a long period since the Great Fire, and had neither gate nor other obstruction. They became at length much dilapidated, and were “altogether removed and the wharf closed up” says Wilkinson, a few years prior to 1825. The hall, wharf, and stairs are shown in an engraving published by S. and N. Buck in 1749. Love Lane was formerly Rope Lane, afterwards Lucas Lane, and then corruptly Love Lane. It is a crooked winding thoroughfare paved by flags, and the houses are mainly inhabited by fish salesmen who work at Billingsgate. Beyond the church are large warehouses, and business houses in the usual style.