SOCIETY OUTINGS 2010

Organised and Reported by Sylvia Ladyman et alii

Clerkenwell four feet deep, so there was great opposition with John Garrod - 1 May from affected farmers and other land owners. The channel lead to New River Head in It was difficult to imagine that Clerkenwell Clerkenwell where there were four reservoirs had started as a small hamlet on the eastern 10 feet deep, ranging in area from one to two bank of the River Fleet surrounded by lush acres. In 1619 the Company was incorporated meadows and springs. Much of the land was by Royal Charter, half the shares being held owned by the Priory of the Knights of St by James I and one share to the Goldsmith’s John. To the north of Clerkenwell Green, Company for ‘needy brethren’. In 1946 the Augustinian nuns set up their nunnery, and last of the filter beds at the River Head was later in the 14th century, Charterhouse, a abandoned and the River ceased to flow. Carthusian monastery was established. The site is now a landscaped garden and the The roads were often full of cattle and sheep route of the River is shown on the footpath. on their way from the countryside to Unfortunately we were unable to visit the Smithfield Market to the south. main church, St James, near Clerkenwell Later, at the Dissolution of the Monasteries Green, as there was a wedding there. by Henry VIII, the properties of the religious This church was built on the site of St Mary’s communities were given to the nobility such nunnery and has a superb organ and as the Cavendishes, the Dukes of Newcastle excellent acoustics. As a result it is a popular and the Earl of Ailesbury. However at the place for recordings. There is a memorial to time of the Great Plague the aristocrats fled the Protestant Martyrs who were burnt at the and later waves of French Huguenots stake on the Green in the reign of Mary arrived, and Clerkenwell soon became a Tudor. We then made our way to Jerusalem centre for watch making, printing and Passage, just off Aylesbury Street where jewellery making. Later still, gin distillers Thomas Britton the ‘musical coalman’ held and brewers arrived, making use of the weekly concerts in the room above his plentiful supply of good water. warehouse. Handel often played the In 1683, in the grounds of Thomas Sadler’s harpsichord there. house, springs were discovered, which were The nearby Priory of St John of Jerusalem of course called Sadler’s Wells, a name which founded in the 12th century was the persists to this day. Other gardens also headquarters of the Knights Hospitallers. provided entertainment such as music and Their land covered five acres and included a dancing, and often refreshments such as tea, house of palatial size, three gardens, an coffee and cheesecake (a local speciality). orchard, a fish pond and a church. Today By the 19th century these gardens had only the gatehouse remains, which in the disappeared, giving way to alleys and small 18th century became the printing works for workshops. After much destruction during the Gentleman’s Magazine . Samuel Johnson the Blitz new buildings and modern factories was allocated a room there to give him have sprung up. peaceful surroundings for his writing. It later The growth of ’s population became a tavern and today houses the increased the demand for fresh drinking Museum of the British Order of St John water. So Hugh Myddleton, a goldsmith, which initiated the formation of St John financed a scheme to create a New River Ambulance. On the surface of St John’s from springs near Ware in Hertfordshire. Square was a circle of cobblestones marking As this was a commercial venture, customers the outline of the round Priory Church. had to pay 26 shillings per year, a Its 12th century crypt still survives. considerable sum at that time. The New River channel was 38 miles long, 10 feet wide and ______Ruislip, Northwood & 39 Journal 2010 Local History Society Our walk now took us to Clerkenwell Green, four chained libraries in , this outing which has been an open space for 900 years. seemed an obvious choice. It has been the site of riots, radical politics, A monastery was founded on the site of the reform movements and public meetings for Minster in 705 by St Cuthburga, sister of the centuries. Famous people associated with the King of the West Saxons. Unfortunately it area include William Morris and G.B. Shaw – was destroyed by the Danes in the late 10th not forgetting Karl Marx whose Memorial century. Later a College of Canons was Library is housed in the oldest building here, founded by Edward the Confessor in 1043. In built in 1737. Nearby, the original clerk’s well 1497 Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of can be seen through the window of an office Henry VII founded a chantry here. Her block – the origin of the name of the area. parents are buried near the altar. Following the route of those of cattle and The church is the only twin towered example sheep we walked through Smithfield Market. in , the centre dating from the 12th The impressive facade of this Market was century, the west part from the 15th century. designed in 1878 by Horace Jones. After The latter has Quarter Jack on its outside wall noting the William Wallace memorial plaque which strikes two bells every quarter of an we came to the site of Greyfriars Monastery. hour. At first the figure was a monk, but Unfortunately its Christchurch built by Wren during the Napoleonic Wars he became a was destroyed in 1940, leaving only the tower Grenadier Guardsman. standing. Beside the tomb of the Bankes’s family in the Once again, John, our Blue Badge Guide had crypt is the tomb of Ethelred (c. 830-71), elder provided a most interesting and informative brother of Alfred the Great (c. 849-99). But the tour of an area of London which was little real attraction of the Minster is its chained known to many of us, and which ended with library, which is accessed by a narrow spiral a welcome rest and cup of tea at St Paul’s stone staircase. At the top is a small room Café before the journey home. over the choir vestry, where there are 400 Sylvia Ladyman leather bound volumes, all chained, of which more than half are over 300 years old. The Wimborne and Kingston Lacey – 5 June library was founded in 1686 by the Rev. Stone for the free use of the citizens of On the south side of the Chancel of St Wimborne, so it is one of the first public Martin’s Church in Ruislip there is a libraries in England. Many volumes are of memorial to Lady Mary Bankes who course religious (e.g. a Breeches Bible), but defended Corfe against the others are by Plato and Pliny, and on law Parliamentarians during the Civil War. She medicine and music. The oldest is written on was the member of the Hawtrey family of lambskin and dates from 1343. Eastcote House who had married John In the North Transept are traces of murals Bankes, Lord Chief Justice and Attorney from the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries which General to Charles I. While her husband was are not easy to differentiate. absent from fighting for the King, she successfully defended the Castle After our guided tour of the Minster, some twice, but was betrayed in 1746. The wandered around this interesting town, Parliamentarians allowed her to escape, gave which included viewing handcuffs worn by her the keys of the Castle and then destroyed those waiting execution, still to be seen in the it. Bar of the ‘White Hart’. The Priests’ House The Bankes family estate is at Kingston Lacey Museum attracted others, perhaps because where she is remembered as ‘Brave Dame they could eat their sandwiches in the Mary’ – she is of course remembered in garden! The building dates from the 16th Ruislip in the name of ‘Lady Bankes Junior century and has been a stationery shop and School’. ironmongers in its time. Now it is a museum Having discovered, quite by chance, that the which traces the history of Wimborne. Bankes’s family Vault is at , and that this church held one of only ______Ruislip, Northwood & Eastcote 40 Journal 2010 Local History Society We were anxious to get to , so William Bankes’s ‘Golden Room’ (or Spanish time in the town was limited – indeed several Room) is the most lavish surviving example folk had to run to catch the coach! of his decorative taste. It was created between The Kingston Lacy estate, hoe of the Bankes’s 1835-55, as a setting for his Spanish pictures. family for over 300 years, covers 8500 acres There is a gilt and coffered ceiling and (3443 hectares). It was bought by painted leather wall hangings from a in 1632-6, but the House was not built until Venetian palazzo. It is here that the paintings the 1660s by Ralph, son of John and Mary. by Velazquez are displayed. Elsewhere in the The first House was of red brick, built by House are paintings by Titian, Rubens, Roger Pratt, with hipped roof, balustrade and Murillo, Romney and Van Dyck. The Tent inside, a great parlour flanked by four corner Rooms on the attic floor were memorable, as apartments. In the 18th century the interior some of us had never heard of them before. It was remodelled to create the present library was apparently the fashion for rooms to be and saloon. William Bankes in the 19th decorated as if they were tents in the late 18th century acquired many paintings and other century. items on his journeys through Syria and The original housekeeper’s room is now Egypt which are now displayed in the House. filled with William Bankes’s Egyptian The House itself was again transformed collection, including a male god with the between 1835-41 to give a 17th century features of Rameses II, copies of the wall Italianate palazzo. In 1981 gave paintings in the temple of Rameses II at Abu the property to the . Simbel and tomb inscriptions. The entrance hall is modest, but it leads to a There are 43 acres of formal gardens to grand marble staircase to the main floors. wander in, also a fernery, parterre and a Halfway up this staircase are full length Japanese garden. Further away is a 300 acre statues of Sir John Bankes and his first wife park and a large woodland area. However, Mary (née Hawtrey) who is holding the keys there was not time to explore the gardens and of Corfe Castle in her hand. The actual keys woods, so rather tired, after an interesting can be seen over the chimney piece in the day, we climbed on to the coach for the library. return trip to Ruislip. after they destroyed it in riots against the Bury St Edmunds – 17 July Abbey in 1327. The Abbey grounds are now a beautiful garden leading down to the River Bury St Edmunds is a busy thriving market Lark. town in West Suffolk which originated as the We were given a guided tour around the Saxon settlement of Beodricksworth where Cathedral, which had originally been a small King Sigebert founded a monastery in 630. church dedicated to St James within the During the Danish incursions of 869 the good Abbey complex. It became the Cathedral for Saxon King Edmund was murdered and his the Diocese of St Edmundesbury and Ipswich head sundered from his body. Tradition has it in 1914. The nave was built in the that his head was found by a wolf and was Perpendicular style by John Wastell in about miraculously reunited with his body, which 1503 although it has had Victorian was eventually brought to Beodricksworth modifications to the nave roof, and the and buried. His grave became a focus for windows are Victorian. The rest of the pilgrims and the town changed its name to Cathedral has been built since the 1960s but in Bury St Edmunds. a style which blends in well with the Tudor A splendid abbey was built after the Norman nave. The new Tower completed in 2005 is Conquest which dominated the town and the very attractive. It was interesting to tour a surrounding area until the dissolution in comparatively new Cathedral where some 1539, when the townspeople used the parts are still unfinished, and many of us ate buildings as a quarry. Today only the flint our lunch in their modern refectory. cores are still standing, except for the

Norman Tower which houses the bells, and the Gatehouse rebuilt by the townspeople ______Ruislip, Northwood & Eastcote 41 Journal 2010 Local History Society After lunch we had guided tours around the Continuing down Ludgate Hill we passed a town. I went on the slow leisurely trip, blue plaque commemorating the site of although all of us visited St Mary’s with its The Daily Courant the first daily London original hammer-beam roof with eleven newspaper, published in 1702. With St pairs of angels. We saw the very plain tomb Bride’s church clearly visible we turned into of Mary, Henry VIII's sister, who was Queen Farringdon Street, then Stone Cutter Street of France for a few weeks, and the cadaver and St Andrews Street to reach our next tomb of John Barat a wealthy benefactor of church, St Andrew , which had a the town. There is a connection with Ruislip very attractive garden. This Wren building in this church as it contains the tomb of Sir was almost completely destroyed during the Robert Drury (died 1536). He was Speaker of war and rebuilt in the early 1960s to give a the House of Commons and Privy Councillor light airy interior with very little stained to Henry VII. He also owned land in Ruislip glass. Above the outside entrance are two and it was he who ordered the construction figures of charity children in Coade stone, of Manor Farm. probably because inside there is a monument We walked down Honey Hill and noted the to Thomas Coram the founder of the houses. Most appeared to be Georgian but we Foundling Hospital; in fact the organ case were told that they were Mediaeval houses came from the chapel of the Foundling which had been updated in the eighteenth Hospital. The surgeon William Marsden is century. We passed only one Georgian house also commemorated here. After he found a built by Elizabeth Hervey wife of the first woman dying on the steps of the church in Earl of Bristol for entertaining her friends at 1827 and could not get her admitted to any gambling parties. The oldest house in the hospital he founded a hospital later to be town is Moyses Hall which dates from 1180 known as the Royal Free Hospital, an and is one of the few houses built of stone. offshoot of which became the Royal Marsden Finally back to the town centre and the Hospital. Athenaeum centre of town life for three Crossing Holborn Viaduct, a major feat of hundred years. Charles Dickens gave Victorian engineering built in the 1860s, we readings there and the Adam-style ballroom came to Holy Sepulchre without Newgate , is its main feature. the largest parish church in the City. This is We left Bury St Edmunds at 5pm and the National Musicians’ Church and in the returned to Ruislip at 7pm after a splendid Musicians’ chapel there are memorials to Sir history excursion. Henry Wood, the founder of the Proms, the Jessica Eastwood composer John Ireland and Dame Nellie Melba the famous Australian singer. As an Churches and Gardens in the City interesting aside there are some peaches in Walk with John Garrod - 5 August the corner of the stained glass window dedicated to Dame Nellie . Even the chapel We met outside St Paul’s Cathedral on a hassocks are embroidered with musical sunny morning and walked down Ludgate notations. In the main body of the church Hill to visit our first church, St Martin within there is a stained glass window as a Ludgate . This is unusual in being one of the memorial to Captain John Smith the few Wren churches which has not been seventeenth century founder of the state of restored. Despite being so close to St Paul’s Virginia. On a more gruesome note the hand Cathedral it was not damaged during the bell rung outside the condemned cell at the Second World War and the interior still nearby Newgate Prison (now the site of the contains original pews, bread shelves and a Old Bailey) by the bellman of the church on very rare double churchwardens’ seat from the eve of executions is on display. This 1690. The building is wider than it is long but custom was discontinued in the early a gallery along one side gives the correct nineteenth century. symmetrical effect.

______Ruislip, Northwood & Eastcote 42 Journal 2010 Local History Society Our final church in the morning was St Bartholomew the Less, off Smithfield Square, which is unique in being the only surviving parish church solely for a hospital. It was founded in the twelfth century and after surviving the it was rebuilt by George Dance the Younger in 1789. Later in 1825 it was again rebuilt with an unusual octagonal nave. It is hard to believe that the centre of Bill Black Smithfield Square used to be an execution Fig. 1 Fig. 2 site where now there is a peaceful garden, the Winkle Garden. This garden contains after its dissolution the buildings were two specimens of a rare tree, the Caucasian amalgamated. This church too was damaged Wingnut. by the IRA bomb. Passing Richard Rogers’s Lloyds Building we After a welcome lunch break at the Barbican turned into Cornhill, the highest point in the we walked through its very attractive public City. Here we viewed our last two churches gardens on our way to Finsbury Circus from the outside, St Peter upon Cornhill and Gardens . Unfortunately only half of the area St Michael Cornhill. The former is the oldest of these gardens is open at the moment place of Christian worship in the City and because of extensive excavations for Crossrail was rebuilt by . Nowadays but it is planned that the bowling-green and it is a Christian Aid centre. The latter was other facilities will be reinstated. also redesigned by Christopher Wren, Our next church was St Botolph without although the work was completed by with its tennis courts and Nicholas Hawksmoor. garden dwarfed by a new City development, We then walked through the Royal Exchange the Heron Tower. The church, despite to finish a fascinating and informative walk surviving the Great Fire, was demolished in at Bank Station. 1724 and rebuilt four years later by George Susan Toms Dance the Elder. During the nineteenth century a glass dome was inserted in the Thames Path – 25 September nave roof to give extra light. Although the church was spared from Second World War We had a perfect day for our walk from bombing it was damaged in 1993 by an IRA London Bridge and as a bonus saw dozens of bomb which destroyed the nearby Baltic small boats competing in the annual Great Exchange. River Race from Millwall to Richmond. The nearby church, St Ethelburga the Virgin We passed City Hall and HMS Belfast and within Bishopsgate was completely crossed to St Katherine’s Dock, destroyed by that same IRA bomb and it then on to Wapping, haunt of pirates such as stood as a ruin for many years (Fig.1) while Captain Kidd, and historic inns such as the various schemes were discussed. Finally, in Prospect of Whitby , favourite vantage point for 2002, it opened as the St Ethelburga Centre the artists Whistler and Turner. The nearby for Peace and Reconciliation (Fig. 2). It has an site of Execution Dock was where pirates interesting circular tent in the garden were once hanged. We admired the designed to facilitate cooperative meetings. converted warehouse developments and We were only able to view the outside of the apartments along the river front, which took next church, St Helen Bishopsgate, which is us through to Limehouse (our lunch stop), dominated by that icon of the modern city which gets its name from the lime kilns ‘The Gherkin’. St Helen has an unusual around the once adjacent Dock, and finally to double frontage because originally the parish the dramatic architecture of Canary Wharf. church had a nunnery adjoining it but Anne Lamb

______Ruislip, Northwood & Eastcote 43 Journal 2010 Local History Society