Said the Italian sculptor Canova, "Gladly would I journey to London if
only to see Somerset House, St. Paul's and St. Stephen's, Walbrook."
Just behind the Mansion House, in the ancient by-way called Walbrook,
stands hidden away the church of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, planned by Sir
Christopher Wren. Its name recalls one of the little streams of the
London of centuries ago, called the Brook by the Wall. Outwardly the
only thing to take notice of is the shop which has been built into its
side, and it is a surprise to note its lofty dome as seen from within.
The Corporation was very proud of St. Stephen's when it was first built,
and after many expressions of gratitude as to the skill and economy
evidenced by the great architect, presented Lady Wren with a purse of
ten guineas.
On the tower of the Royal Exchange rests a great gilded grasshopper,
eleven feet in length, put up when the Exchange, founded by Sir Thomas
Gresham, was built. It has been there for more than three hundred years.
The Great Fire of 1666 destroyed the building, but the metal grasshopper
was rescued from the ruins and raised above the dome when a new
structure was erected. In 1838 the Exchange was again burned, but the
tower on which the emblem rests was saved. The grasshopper was believed
to cast a spell of enchantment, insuring riches and good fortune, at
least so the old Romans used to think.
Close by the Mansion House the street called Poultry ends. This homely
name has clung to it for more than three hundred years, ever since the
poulterers had their chief market here. Where the house numbered 31
stands, Thomas Hood, who wrote the "Bridge of Sighs," was born in 1799.
Elaborate terra cotta panels on the house No. 14, commemorate the royal
processions that passed through Poultry in 1546, 1561, 1660 and 1844.
The thoroughfare called Old Jewry was occupied by the Jews whom William
I. brought over from Rouen, and came by its name from a synagogue which
was located in this street up to the time of the persecution of the Jews
in 1291.
Bucklersbury enters from the south where Poultry ends and Cheapside
begins, taking its name from the Bukerels, quite a famous family of the
13th century, one member of whom was made the Lord Mayor. The
thoroughfare was for centuries a market place for fruits and herbs, and
here dealers in medicines and drugs had their shops. In "The Merry Wives
of Windsor," Shakespeare tells of those who smell like Bucklersbury in
simple time. At this end of Bucklersbury there stood, in the middle of
the road, set up in 1285, the Great Conduit or cistern, round, and of
stone, to which water was brought underground in leaden pipes from
Paddington. Beside the Great Conduit, Jack Cade, the Kentish rebel,
beheaded Lord Say, the king's favourite. Here Lady Jane Grey was
proclaimed queen, here DeFoe was put in the stocks and the Bishop of
Exeter beheaded. After the Great Fire Bucklersbury market was no more.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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