History of the Tower Bridge and of other bridges over the Thames built by the Corporation of London. Including an account of the Bridge House Trust from the twelfth century ... With a description of the Tower Bridge by J. W. Barry ... and an introduction by the Rev. Canon Benham, etc

Front matter

History of the Tower Bridge. THE TOWER BRIDGE. From a drawing by W. L. Wyllie, A.R.A. HISTORY OF The Tower Bridge AND OF OTHER BRIDGES OVER THE THAMES BUILT BY THE CORPORATION OF LONDON. Including an account of the Bridge House Trust from the Twelfth Century, based on the Records of the Bridge House Estates Committee. BY CHARLES WELCH, F.S.A., — - / - LIBRARIAN TO THE CORPORATION OF LONDON. With a description of the Tower Bridge bv J. WOLFE BARRY, C.B., M.INST.C.E., ENGINEER OF THE BRIDGE. And an Introduction by THE REV. CANON BENHAM, B.D., F.S.A. PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE BRIDGE HOUSE ESTATES COMMITTEE |Sir ALBERT J. ALTMAN, Chairman I. LONDON SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 1894. Blades, East & Blades, Printers, 23, Abchurch Lane, London, E.C. BRIDGE HOUSE ESTATES COMMITTEE. Sir ALBERT JOSEPH ALTMAN, Chairman.

ALDERMEN. Sir William Lawrence, Knt. Sir Joseph Renals, Knt Sir Francis Wyatt Truscott, Knt Sir Joseph Savory, Bart., M.P. Lt.-Col. Horatio David Davies. Alfred James Newton, Esq. Frank Green, Esq COMMONERS. Pearse Morrison, Esq. William Henry Pannei.l, Esq., F.C.A., F.S.S. James Gallaiier, Esq., F.R.A.S. Daniel Greenaway, Esq. Daniel Robert Dale, Esq., F.R.I.B.A. Frederick Prat Alliston, Esq. William Henry Williamson, Esq. Edward Couchman Beedell, Esq. David Burnett, Esq., F.S.I. William Thornburgh Brown, Esq., Dep. Richard Clarence Halse, Esq., Deputy. George Joseph Woodman, Esq. Sidney Matthews, Esq. Alfred Thomas Layton, Esq., J. P. Robert Hargreaves Rogers, Esq., Dep. John James Baddelev, Esq. George Harris Haywood, Esq., Dep. Charles Dew Miller, Esq. William Alfred Plunkett, Esq. Horace Brooks Marshall, Esq., J. P. F.R.G.S. John Bertram, Esq., Deputy.

William Henry Liversidge, Esq. James Lewis Dowling, Esq., Deputy. Thomas Reynolds Bone, Esq. James Norris Pimm, Esq., Deputy. Henry Hodsoll Heath, Esq., J.P., Dep. George Berridge, Esq. James George White, Esq., Deputy. John Thomas Bedford, Esq., Deputy. Alfred Purssell, Esq. Arthur Byrne Hudson, Esq., F.S.I, (late Chair man). John Alexander Brand, Esq., Comptroller of the Citv of London and of the Bridge House Estates J. Wolfe Barry, Esq., C.B., M.Inst.C.E., Engineer of the Toie'er Bridge. CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction, by the Rev. Canon Benham, B.D., F.S.A. - I Chapter I. — The Story of London Bridge down to the middle of the i Sth century : — § I. Preliminary - - - - - 27 § 2. Origin of the Bridge House Trust ; Control by the Corporation ; Wardens or Keepers ; Records ; Seal and Mark - - 29 § 3.

Introduction

. 3 of the struggle of Wilkes and Brass Crosby with the House of Commons on behalf of the City liberties in 1771. It is, in fact, quite true to say that in all these cases the citizens of London took a leading part, a part worthy of the first City of the Kingdom. But in the following pages I shall confine myself to events and incidents of the present century. Some of the cases to which I am about to refer are matters wherein the City was rather the expresser of public opinion than a leader of it. But such a function is a very important one, and, when worthily discharged, reflects honour upon the whole nation. There lie before me the proof sheets of Mr. Welch's book on the medals issued by the Corporation from 1 83 1 to the present time, in commemoration of events which have taken place in London.

A few, a very few, of these events might be made the subject of cavil, such for instance as the enthusiastic reception of the Emperor Louis Napoleon in 1855. But no one who remembers it will question that the enthusiasm was thoroughly that of the English nation. The Crimean war was in progress; the two nations, so often fighting against each other, had fought side by side on the deadly fields of the Alma and Inkerman, and the hope had gone forth, as a glance at any contemporary newspaper will show, that ill-feeling and jealousy between France and England could never be again. And the King of Sardinia was welcomed the same year because he had joined the Anglo-French alliance against Russia. There was equal enthusiasm on the French side. And it was a good, a righteous enthusiasm, even the hope, which we may still cherish, that the nations may live in peace, and love as brethren.

The medal which commemorates the utterance of that hope will never be a thing for the City of London to be ashamed of. And so with the similar ones, the reception of the Sultan, of the Shah, of the Russian Czar ; in every case it was the yearning of the nations that the long-deferred prophecy might be fulfilled, that the swords might be beaten into instruments of peaceful labour, and that wars might cease. And a few of the medals relate to events in home history, which also were at the time gladdening all hearts. Some of the hopes have, by the inscrutable Providence of the Most High, been blighted so far as we, in our limited vision, have been able to see. Such was that attending the reception in the City of the late lamented Duke of Clarence. But loyalty and generosity of spirit can never be forgotten; it all brings forth good fruit, though not always in the manner we had anticipated.

The best history of public opinion for the last fifty years is the series of Punch. To turn over Tenniel's cartoons week by week, is to see what English people were, for the time being, thinking and believing, just as the social caricatures tell us better than any book of fashion how ladies dressed and what was the shape of their bonnets. Even so these medals com memorate for all days to come what were the excitements from time to time which moved and strengthened and brought honour to the English nation. In some cases results which might have seemed ephemeral were not so. I believe keen political observers are agreed that the action of the City of London in its warm and genuine reception of the present German Emperor has provoked a corresponding cordial affection on the other side. It is impossible now, after more than twenty years have passed, to recall without a glow of delight and enthusiasm the spectacle presented by London on the day of the public thanksgiving for the recovery of the Prince of Wales, " this solemn ceremonial and perhaps unparalleled manifestation," as Mr. Gladstone called it.

It was a joy which entered into the very heart of the whole nation. It will be interesting to enumerate the medals in their chronological order — Opening of London Bridge, 1831. Passing of the Reform Bill, 1832. Foundation of the City of London School, 1834 Visit of Queen Victoria to Guildhall, 1837. Opening of the Coal Exchange, 1849. Reception of the Emperor and Empress of the French, 1855. Reception of the King of Sardinia, 1855. Entrance of the Princess Alexandra into London, 1863. Reception of the Sultan of Turkey, 1867. Thanksgiving for the Recovery of the Prince of Wales, 1872. Reception of the Shah, 1873. Reception of the Emperor of Russia, 1874. Removal of Temple Bar, 1878. Reception of the King of the Hellenes, 1880. Dedication of Epping Forest by the Queen, 1882. Opening of the New City of London School, 1882. Opening of the New Council Chamber, 1884. Admission of Prince Albert Victor to the Freedom of the City, 1885. Colonial and Indian Reception, 1886.

INTRODUCTION.

. 5 The Queen's Jubilee [Visit of the Queen to Mansion House, Reception of many Royal Guests at the Guildhall], 1887. Seven Hundredth Anniversary of the Mayoralty, 1889. Reception of the Emperor of Germany, 1891. Marriage of the Duke and Duchess of York, 1893. Reception of the King and Queen of Denmark, 1893. The object of the present paper is to speak of subjects connected with our municipal history, and therefore I pass by without further remark what I may call the national commemorations of the medals, and pass on to those which belong to London. Even the first, that which commemorates the opening of London Bridge, I pass by with a very few words, because it will be dealt with in a future page by a writer who has gathered with admirable skill a great amount of information. The history of London Bridge, from the days of Olaf downwards, may be called with absolute truth a series of romances.

The next item in the list claims one glance, though that is one which belongs chiefly to our general history as a nation. There are but few per sons comparatively who remember the enthusiasm in London over the passing of the Reform Bill in 1832. The City showed itself, as ever, eager for the rights, for the elevation and advancement of the people. During the progress of the great struo_de the excitement had risen to fever height, almost to that of civil war. The tension was now over, and there was a profound sense of relief. A magnificent festival was held at the Guildhall to give Lords Grey and Althorp the Freedom of the City in a gold box, and London went half wild in its desire to do honour to the men who were held to be national benefactors. Lord John Russell, who brought in the Bill, became Member for the City in 1841, and remained so until his elevation to the peerage.

If any differences of opinion exist as to that subject, there will be none as to the next, the foundation of the City of London School in 1834. Now this school, like those of St. Paul's and Merchant Taylors, as well as many other noble foundations, owes its existence to a London citizen. The founder of the school before us, John Carpenter, was the Common Clerk in the days of Henry V. He wrote a treatise on the laws and customs of the City of London, which is still preserved among the archives of the Corporation, and still regarded as of the highest value and authority. It was originally called Liber Aldus, but this name was afterwards transferred to a transcript made in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and the original was then named Liber Niger. Carpenter was one of the executors of Sir R. Whittington, who died in 1423, having been Lord Mayor four times ; and one of the many important trusts which he carried out was the foundation of the Guildhall Library.

The only portion, however, which concerns us here, is the fact that (in the words of Stow) "he gave tenements to the Citye for the finding and bringing up of foure poore men's children, with meat, drinke, apparell, learning at schooles in the Universities, etc., untill they be preferred, and then others in their places for ever." The property was situated in Thames Street, Bridge Street, Houndsditch, and Tottenham Court Road. The rental, originally very small, gradually increased; but in 1633 amounted to only .£49 13$. \d. After various schemes had been framed for extending the advantages of the bequest, the Court of Common Council decided in 1832 that four boys, from the age of eight to sixteen, sons of freemen of London, should be nominated from time to time by the Lord Mayor, and sent to the Skinners' Grammar School at Tonbridge, on leaving which each boy should receive ,£100, to be applied to his advancement in life.

Still it was felt that the benefit might be still further extended, and in 1834 the Corporation obtained an Act of Parliament for leave to discontinue Honey Lane Market in Milk Street, and to erect on its site a school " for the religious and virtuous education of boys and for instructing them in the higher branches of literature and all other useful learning." The sum of ,£900 a year was to be devoted to the school and charged upon the Carpenter Estates, and a building was erected at a cost of nearly .£20,000, the first stone being laid by Lord Brougham on the 21st October, 1835. The school was completed and opened for work on the 2nd February, 1837, when upwards of 400 pupils assembled. From the first it was a brilliant success ; the City Companies and private individuals gave scholarships, exhibitions, prizes.

The prizes annually awarded are worth ,£120, the scholarships tenable at the school reach a total of .£300 a year, and those available at the Universities more than ,£1,150. Still educational ideas advanced ; the buildings were considered too confined and therefore unsuitable, while the site was increasingly valuable for building purposes, and thus it was that, the Court of Common Council having granted a site of an acre and a half on the Thames

INTRODUCTION.

. 7 Embankment, valued at .£95,000, the present school was built and was opened by the Prince of Wales, December 12, 1882. In the speech of the Lord Mayor on that occasion, it was shown that the Corporation had added to the proceeds of the Carpenter Estates no less than £"217,000, to which the Livery Companies and private individuals had made further munificent contributions. This seems the fitting place for reference to other great educational efforts made by the Corporation of late years, and when we speak of education, though giving the word a wide sense, it is strictly accurate. Education does not cease when we get out of our teens. Every wise and thoughtful man will be ready to agree with the great Bishop Lightfoot, who said, in his very last days, that he had tried to be a learner all his life ; Sir Andrew Clark repeated the sentiment in a speech at the Mansion House on behalf of the Hospital Fund.

We take first of all the Guildhall School of Music. It is one of three great institutions in London for the study of the Art of Music, the other two being the Royal Academy and the Royal College of Music. The Guildhall School began in a small way, but has now grown into an important institution, and under the principalship of a conductor and teacher second to none in the musical world, Sir Joseph Barnby, it bids fair to have a yet more brilliant success. The buildings on the Thames Embankment were erected, at a cost of .£25,930, by the Corporation, which also contributes about ,£1,100 a year to their maintenance. There are between three and four thousand pupils on the register, and the teaching staff is in the highest state of efficiency. The Freemen's Orphan School, at Brixton, was founded by the Cor poration in 1850, and over £"5,000 a year is still expended upon it.

Altogether ,£162,422 have been given to it. The great encouragement given to Technical Education began with the guilds. The Turners' Company claim to have led the way, being closely followed by the Clothworkers and Drapers. Then the Goldsmiths, Fishmongers, Mercers, and others joined in, subscribing largely from their funds. The Corporation, as a body, took up the work, and the City and Guilds of London Institute is the result. Technical classes are organised, and technological examinations are held simultaneously at various centres c in connexion with the headquarters of the Institute at South Kensington and Finsbury, on the same plan as the Science and Art Department examinations. The sum of £"14,702 has been expended on this work by the Corporation. The history of the City Library is one of the most interesting in our City annals.

It is the subject of a monograph of sixty-eight pages by the present Librarian, a work from which I take most of these few notes about it. Such a Library existed in 1425 (temp. Henry VI), for there is a grant of "the New House or Library" that year to the executors of Richard Whittington and Wm. Bury, to be in their custody, and one of these executors, John Carpenter, some of whose other good deeds have already been mentioned, worthily fulfilled his trust, and bequeathed valuable books of his own. All went well with the Library, and there are pleasant notes about it from time to time which Mr. Welch has gathered together, until the evil days of Protector Somerset. That rapacious scoundrel sent to "borrow" the books, promising to return them shortly, and they w_ere carried away in three "carriers" and never returned.* The Corporation were negotiating with him to allow them to carry out some improvements in the City, and were afraid to say him nay.

Probably many of the valuable MSS. and ancient books have found their way into private libraries. The building being of no further use was turned into a cloth market. And there was no more City Library until 1824. On the 8th of April in that year, Mr. Richard Lambert Jones moved and carried in the Court of Common Council the appointment of a Committee, to consider how " a Library of all matters relating to this City, the Borough of Southwark, and the County of Middlesex " might be formed. On the report of that Committee it was done, the purchases at first being confined to books relating to the manners, customs, laws, privileges and history of the City of London and the neighbouring localities. " The condition of the book market," says Mr. Welch, "was then favourable for the procural of old and scarce London books, private collectors being fewer than at present, and our American rivals not being then in the field."

So the books were bought and catalogued by Mr. Upcott, of the London Institution, and the Library was * This was the same patriot who, having built himself the mansion known as Somerset House, proposed to remove all the buildings eastward of it as far as St. Paul's Churchyard, in order to make himself a grand park.

INTRODUCTION.

. 9 opened with 1,700 volumes in June, 1828. Before the end of the following year the number had increased to 2,800, to which were added 2,100 prints and drawings. In 1840 there were 10,000 volumes. From that time the Library has steadily increased, both in the number and importance of its books, and the extent to which they have been used by the public. It would be impossible to enumerate here the splendid additions which have been made to the Library since its formation. Sir David Salomons and his brother Philip gave a magnificent collection of Hebrew works, illustrating not only the religion of the Jews, but their history and general condition in the world. Mr. J. R. Daniel Tyssen gave an interesting collection (comprising 1,000 volumes) of Nonconformist writings, and in 1863 the valuable library belonging to the Dutch Church in Austin Friars was presented to the Corporation.

Three or four years later the Library Committee proposed to the several Wards and Parishes that they should deposit their records in the Library, not only for safe custody, but also to make archives of so much importance more available for historical research, and several have been so deposited. It is not possible to refer to these records without bearing testimony to the splendid service which Dr. Edwin Freshfield has rendered to London history by his reprints, and his other publications, teaching the value of these manuscripts. Of course such large accretions rendered new buildings necessary, and in 1869 a motion was carried by Dr. Sedgwick Saunders, in the Court of Common Council, for the erection of a new Library and Museum at a cost, exclusive of fittings, of ,£25,000. The formal public opening of the new- Library by Lord Selborne, then Lord Chancellor, took place on the 5th of November, 1872, and it was thrown open for the admission of readers in the following March.

That the work was appreciated was shown by the fact that the yearly attendance of readers rose from 14,316 in 1868, the last year ofthe old buildings, to 173,559 in 1874, the first complete year of the new. Since then splendid additions have been made to the Library ; the Clockmakers', Shipwrights', Fanmakers', Gardeners' and Parish Clerks' Companies having made valuable donations. The Catalogue is an excellent piece of work, and has served as a model in various libraries ; the Library has 68,369 volumes and 38,075 pamphlets. Some of these are very rare, early printed plays and pageants connected with the City, c works referring to the history and archæology of London, and a priceless collection of engravings illustrating its topography and architecture. In the adjacent Museum may be seen a deed of conveyance with Shakespeare's autograph upon it, which the Corporation bought at a public sale for ,£147.

Muniment rooms are provided for the City archives, which extend in an unbroken series from the Conquest to the present day, and the Museum is equally rich in London antiquities. It contains the whole ofthe remarkable " find " discovered in excavating for the Royal Exchange, supplemented by others, hardly less interesting, made in digging for the foundations of the many large buildings since erected within, and several found beyond, the City boundaries, including pavements of tesseræ, a group of Deæ Matres found in Crutched Friars, a fluted marble sarcophagus from Clapton, etc. Of later date are a large collection of mediæval pilgrims' tokens, and the fine Beaufoy collection of tavern and tradesmen's tokens ; signboards, the most interesting of which is the carved and painted Boar's Head from the tavern in Eastcheap where Prince Henry and Sir John Falstaff played their wild revels ; the parish syringe of the days before fire-engines were invented, and hundreds of other relics of old London.

These buildings involved an outlay of £"100,000 from the City's cash, £"1,000 is granted each year for the purchase and binding of books, and for other expenses £"5,000 a year. In 1893 the total number of persons visiting the library, reading room, and museum, amounted to no less than 300,445. The museum is open daily from ten to five, the library from ten to nine. The arrangements to facilitate the work of readers are admirable, and the courtesy offered them above all praise. In 1886 the Guildhall Art Gallery was opened. It contains a great number of pictures and works of art belonging to the Corporation, amongst which is a munificent gift of paintings presented last year by Sir John Gilbert. In addition to these a loan exhibition of pictures was held in 1890, when the Gallery was enlarged, and it was visited by 109,383 persons.

A second was held in 1892, to which over 240,000 persons came ; and a third during this present year, at which the number of visitors has exceeded 300,000. The whole expense is borne by the Corporation, amounting during the past six years and a half to .£7,650.

INTRODUCTION.

. 11 To all these noble educational institutions we have to add yet another, namely, the Gresham College. Its Committee consists of twenty-four members appointed in equal numbers by the Corporation and the Mercers' Company, and its history is this: Sir Thomas Gresham by his will, dated 1575, devised one moiety of the Royal Exchange to the Mayor and Commonalty of London, and the other moiety to the Mercers' Company on trust for the City of London, to provide lectures in Divinity, Astronomy, Music, Geometry, Law, Physic, and Rhetoric; and he also devised his mansion in Bishopsgate Street to be the residence of the Lecturers. This house was sold in the reign of George III, and Gresham College was built in Gresham Street with the proceeds. There is a large lecture hall capable of holding 600 persons, as well as a library.

The lecturers are some of the most eminent men in England in their respective subjects, and not unfrequently the hall is not large enough to contain the crowds who seek to attend the lectures. The writer of these lines has frequently attended the Divinity lectures of Professor Bevan and found people unable to get in, and those of Dr. Bridge on Music are obliged to be given at the City of London School, so great are the numbers of people attending. Twice since Gresham's will came into operation the Royal Exchange has been burnt down, and on the Gresham trustees has devolved the duty of managing the cost of re-building. That the funds at their disposal have been most wisely applied will be evident to anyone who will carefully look into the accounts. We turn to another of these commemorations, that of the dedication of Epping Forest by Queen Victoria in 1882.

This medal at once suggests thoughts on a most interesting and important subject, namely, that of the recreation grounds of the London people. No apology will be needed for following out this subject with some care. When London meant the City and the parts immediately adjacent, when Islington and Hoxton were hamlets approached by lanes, and Chelsea was a far-off village, to and from which the carriers' carts lumbered along over unpaved roads two or three times a week — and unless you had a horse of your own or walked you had to go by them — in those days the rural retreat of the citizens was the Moor, between Cripplegate and Bishops o-ate, the site of the present Finsbury. There, sometimes, the Lord Mayor and Corporation went hunting,* the apprentices practised their archery and in winter-time skated, their skates being made of shank bones of animals, and their speed accelerated with iron-pointed poles which they carried in their hands.

It was a wild and desolate-looking spot ; the pools of standing water, dotted over with reeds, formed, except in dry weather, a most dismal swamp, so that Shakespeare talks of the "melancholy of Moorditch " as a gruesome simile. People were sometimes drowned, and fever and plague found here their most congenial preserves. Lord Mayor Falconer, in- 1414, made some progress in draining this district, and he constructed causeways through it, that passengers to the northern suburbs might at least go dryshod. People had begun to realise that fever and pestilence came not by chance, but through bad drainage and bad water. They needed to learn the lesson, for the 14th century was one of almost continuous plague, and two-thirds of the whole nation died. In Charterhouse Square, 50,000 persons were buried in 1349, who had died of the Black Death.

Murrain, which swept off geese from the village green and bees from cottagers' gardens, destroyed the greater part of the live stock of the nation. The air was tainted with rotten carcases, dogs and ravens which fed upon them died, and birds on the wing dropped dead as they flew through the poisoned air. Even in the days of James I the Moor is described as a "most noysome and offensive place, being a general laystall." Consequently, in 1606, fresh efforts were made to render the place decent. Between Cripplegate on one side and Bishopsgate on the other lay the district which was now known as Moorfields, and there were three divisions of these. "Upper" Moorfields was on the site of Finsbury Square, "Lower" of Finsbury Circus, and "Middle" on the ground now occupied by South Street and Cross Street.

To the north of the Upper Moorfields was a great mound, consisting of hundreds of cartloads of bones which the Protector Somerset had caused to be removed hither from the vaults of Old Saint Paul's and covered over with a layer of earth. It was called the Bonehill, and the name still survives as Bunhill. At a later date a windmill was set up on this hill, and the name Windmill Street, which has only recently been altered to Tabernacle Street, is a memento of it. The * The site of the Dugkennel, near where South Place Chapel is now, was discernible as late as 1732.

INTRODUCTION.

. 13 three Moorfields were in different hands. Upper and Middle were ecclesiastical property, belonging to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's, but were in the occupation of the Corporation of London, and used partly as a recreation ground, partly as meadow land. Laundresses used to come and hang out their linen to dry. Lower Moorfields belonged to the family of Fiennes, and it is from them, and not from the " Fen," that the name Finsbury is derived. The family dwindled down to two maiden sisters, and they, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, gave their land to the City authorities in trust for the -use of the citizens. Trees were planted and it was laid out in walks. This then was the first London Park, and very much the citizens appear to have prized it. There and in the Upper Fields were musters of militia, cudgel players, peripatetic vendors of sweets.

And not only respectable citizens, but the riffraff came, for health, for amusement, for gambling, for pocket-picking. At a time when Aldersgate Street was inhabited by peers, when the Duke of Norfolk lived in Thames Street, and Prince Rupert and the Spanish Ambassador in Barbican, and there was no West End, and people went snipe shooting in St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, Moorfields was the St. James's Park and Hyde Park of Court and City, noisy with the throng of pleasure seekers. Sam Pepys and his wife came with hundreds of citizens and walked on Sundays at noon and evening. And sometimes there was a wrestling match ; sometimes apprentices met to discuss their grievances — who does not remember Mr. Sim Tappertit ? — and workmen gathered to discuss the fall of wages and the rise in food prices.

In fact, we recognise the anticipation of the Marble Arch meetings. Under the trees were stalls of second-hand booksellers, and on lines stretched from limb to limb halfpenny ballads fluttered in the breeze. Men with telescopes at eventide invited you to have a look at the moon. The great attraction was the whipping a thief at the cart's tail, and the Moor was the favourite spot chosen for this interesting spectacle. Now and then there was a hanging. And amid thimble-riggers' tables, gingerbread stalls, Punch and Judy, merryandrews, stages for grinning matches, jugglers, might be seen grave ambassadors walking with noblemen and talking affairs of State. The great fire of 1666 produced a marked change in the condition of these fields. The burnt-out citizens came here by hundreds and took up their habitation, at first in tents, afterwards in wooden shanties.