The porch was known as the Guildhall Gate, and there was a lower gate
which was probably situated in a line with the Church of St. Lawrence
Jewry, in Gresham Street.
The crypt is one of the best of the few mediæval examples remaining in
London. It forms the eastern portion of the sub-structure of the hall, and
is 76 feet by 45-1/4, with an average height of 13 feet 7 inches. It is
divided into three equal portions by clustered columns of Purbeck marble,
from which spring the stone-ribbed groins of the vaulting. The bosses at
the intersections are all carved with devices of the usual mediæval
character, and include the arms assigned to the Confessor and those of the
See and City of London.
Of these crypts--a beautiful feature of ancient architecture in which
London formerly abounded--the great part have disappeared. There are those
of the Church of St. Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield; Bow Church,
Cheapside (used for burial purposes); Etheldreda's Chapel, Ely Place; the
Priory Church of St. John, Clerkenwell; Lambeth Palace; Merchant Taylors'
Hall; and St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster. Several fine examples have
been destroyed within quite recent times, including the crypt or Lower
Chapel of Old London Bridge, Gerard's Hall crypt in Basing Lane, and that
under the Manor of the Rose in Lawrence Pountney Hill, the two latter
buildings being fine examples of the houses of distinguished citizens. To
this tale of destruction must be added the crypts of Lamb's Chapel in
Monkwell Street, Leathersellers' Hall, St. Martin's-le-Grand, and St.
Michael, Aldgate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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