Nooks and Corners of Old London

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.

In Pudding Lane by London Bridge, in the year 1666, a fire started which has always been known as the Great Fire, for by it five-sixths of London within and without the walls was destroyed. From September 2nd to the 7th it burned, eating up 13,200 houses, 89 churches, and despoiling 460 streets.

"Chepe" is an old-time name for market, and there have been markets of one kind or another in the neighbourhood of Cheapside for hundreds of years. In the days of King Edward III. and on into the times of Burly King Hal, Cheapside was a famous street and the place of city pageants. When Elizabeth held her much bejewelled court, Cheapside was the gathering point for the shops of goldsmiths.

Set in the wall of house No. 6, near the end of Ironmonger Lane, is a panel of 1668, limning the head of a girl with flowing hair--part of the arms of the Mercers' Company.

Turn again, Whittington Lord Mayor of London.

This is what the bells of St. Mary le Bow, sometimes called Bow Church, chimed in the ears of Dick Whittington running away from London and his hardships as a kitchen boy. And the sound cheered him, so that he did turn, and in time came to be the best and most famous Lord Mayor that London ever had. The church came by its name for being the first church in London to be built on "bows" as the stone arches were called. Bow Church was swallowed up by the Great Fire, and Sir Christopher Wren rebuilt the present frame upon the ruins of the old arches. The tower is considered the finest of the great number built by Wren after the Fire. From the balcony many kings and queens and their attendants have witnessed the shows and pageants in Cheapside. The Great Bell of Bow is the last of the churches to speak in the old rhyme "Oranges and Lemons," in which one can almost hear the different tones of the bells as they question and answer each other: