Volume XIII / Number 4
Memoirs of the Geological Survey, 1889; W. Whitaker, The Geology of London and Part of the Thames Valley. Lord Avebury—The Scenery of England. Catalogue of the Collection of London Antiquities in the Guildhall Museum. Londina Illustrata Henry C. Shelley—Inns and Taverns of Old London. Philip Norman—London Signs and Inscriptions. Robert Withington—English Pageantry. Dean Stanley—Memorials of […]
By: George Byron Gordon
Volume XIII / Number 4
Temple Bar Adjacent to the Temple in Fleet Street and sharing its traditions are or were many ancient landmarks with memories preserved in literature and history, in song and in legend. Conspicuous among these landmarks was Temple Bar, a barrier or gateway extending across Fleet Street, a little to the west of the archway leading […]
By: George Byron Gordon
Volume XIII / Number 4
Neville’s Court I find it more pleasant to call attention to some old houses that still survive and I have in mind a group in Neville’s Court, Fetter Lane. This narrow thoroughfare lies just outside the burnt area of the Great Fire and Neville’s Court is a short passage leading from its east side. The […]
By: George Byron Gordon
Volume XIII / Number 4
“As for the Women of the City, they are Sabines.” In these words of praise Fitzstephen wrote with feeling of the London women for there is both feeling and finality in that summing up—Sabinae sunt. Near the centre of London in conspicuous positions are to be seen five memorials to women, not all of whom […]
By: George Byron Gordon
Volume XIII / Number 4
Sometimes on a clear morning after rain if you happen to cross Green Park you may see a streak of white mist stretching from the dip in Piccadilly to the Mall. That line of mist marks the course of the brook Tyburn where it flows underground. Its hidden course leads to the pond in Saint […]
By: George Byron Gordon
Volume XIII / Number 4
Now it might be supposed by someone reading these brief abstracts relating to Tyburn that life in ancient London was a grim and terrible business. That is wholly a false conclusion. The great mass of the people went quietly about their business undisturbed. Moreover there were frequent pageants on the river and ridings in the […]
By: George Byron Gordon
Volume XIII / Number 4
Wherever there is in the world a City speaking the English language, with wards, with municipal government consisting of Mayor, Aldermen or Common Council representing the wards, there you have, on one scale or another, a model of London. These institutions, this system of municipal government was introduced in London in the twelfth century, was […]
By: George Byron Gordon
Volume XIII / Number 4
Of the many scores of ancient customs that keep alive the memory of other days, marshalling the Middle Ages in the service of this mechanical century, I will recall only three to serve the purpose of illustration. Royal Maundy On Maundy Thursday, the Thursday before Easter, at a ceremony in Westminster Abbey, gifts are distributed […]
By: George Byron Gordon
Volume XIII / Number 4
Westminster is a Metropolitan borough. It is also a City and its formal name is the City of Westminster. In this larger official sense it is bounded by the City on the East, by Chelsea on the West by Oxford Street on the North, and the Thames on the South. It therefore includes the Law […]
By: George Byron Gordon
Volume XIII / Number 4
3rd Gentleman. So she parted, And with the same full state paced back again, To York where the feast is held. 1st Gentleman. Sir, you Must no more call it York place, that is past, For since the Cardinal fell that title’s lost, ‘Tis now the King’s and called Whitehall. 3rd Gentleman. I know it, […]
By: George Byron Gordon
Volume XIII / Number 4
Chelsea Chelsea leads its charming life beside the Thames, not oblivious of the distinguished lives it has harboured but quite at ease with that splendid company and, unconcerned about its reputation, adopts all sorts of real people with supreme indifference. Old china made in Chelsea is less rare today than the buns for which it […]
By: George Byron Gordon
Volume XIII / Number 4
London Bridge is falling down, Falling down, falling down. Old Nursery Rhyme One day in the summer of 1921, the London papers announced a discovery on the north bank of the Thames at Adelaide Place. This was nothing less than an arch of Old London Bridge, begun in 1176 by Peter of Colechurch—priest, master mason […]
Volume XIII / Number 4
Two Drawings of the Old London Bridge Our appreciation of Old London Bridge is greatly helped and our interest sustained by the contemporary drawings and prints, especially by the two here reproduced. The first is after a drawing by John Norden, engraved in 1597, which shows the east side of the Bridge together with a […]
Volume XIII / Number 4
This event took place towards the end of the 14th Century during a brief truce between England and Scotland when Richard II was King of England and Robert III was King of Scotland. Briefly and in modern English the narrative of Hector Boece is as follows. During the peace, many companies of knights from either […]
Volume XIII / Number 4
The members of expeditions that are at work in Palestine and Mesopotamia have experiences that sound strange to readers of the Bible and the history of these ancient lands. A letter has just been received from Mr. C. Leonard Woolley, in charge of the Joint Expedition of the British Museum and the University Museum in […]