Part 5

About half of the Lane falls within the district, being in the parish of St. Andrew, Holborn. In it at the present time there is nothing worthy of remark, except the gateway of Lincoln's Inn, mentioned elsewhere. Offices, flats, and chambers in the solid modern style rise above shops. Near the north end is the Chancery Lane Safe Deposit. On the opposite side the old buildings of Lincoln's Inn frown defiance. Chancery Lane has for long been the chief connection between the Strand and Holborn, but will soon be superseded by Kingsway further west.

Near the north end are Southampton Buildings, rigidly modern, containing the Birkbeck Bank and Chambers. They are built on the site once covered by Southampton House, which came to William, Lord Russell, by his marriage with the daughter and heiress of the last Lord Southampton. It is difficult to realize now the scene thus described by J. Wykeham Archer: "It was in passing this house, the scene of his domestic happiness, on his way to the scaffold in Lincoln's Inn Fields, that the fortitude of the martyr for a moment forsook him; but, overmastering his emotion, he said, 'The bitterness of death is now past.'"

Cursitor Street was in the eighteenth century noted for its sponging-houses, and many a reference is made to it in contemporary literature. We are now in the Liberties of the Rolls, a parish in itself.

The Cursitors' Office was built by Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and adjoined the site of a palace of the Bishop of Chichester; and this adjoined the Domus Conversorum, or House of Converts, wherein the rolls of Chancery were kept, now replaced by the magnificent building of the new Record Office. Southward is Serjeants' Inn--the building still stands; also Clifford's Inn, once pertaining to the Inner Temple. The hall of Clifford's Inn was converted into a court for the adjustment of boundaries after the Fire of London.

On the west side of Chancery Lane, a few doors above Fleet Street, Izaak Walton kept a draper's shop. These details about the southern part of Chancery Lane are mentioned for the sake of continuity, for they do not come within the Holborn District.

Chancery Lane was the birthplace of Lord Strafford, the residence of Chief Justice Hyde, of the Lord Keeper Guildford, and of Jacob Tonson.

Passing on into Holborn and turning eastward, we soon perceive a row of quaint Elizabethan gabled houses (see Frontispiece), with overhanging upper stories and timber framework. The contrast with the modern terra-cotta buildings on the north side of the street is striking. The old houses are part of Staple Inn, now belonging to the Prudential Assurance Company, whose red terra-cotta it is that forms such a contrast across the way. It was bought by the company in 1884, and restored a few years later by the removal of the plaster which had concealed the picturesque beams. Still within St. Andrew's parish, we here arrive at the City boundaries. The numbering of Holborn proper, included in the City, begins a door or two above the old timbered entrance, which leads to the first courtyard of Staple Inn. The courtyard is a real backwater out of the rushing traffic. The uneven cobble-stones, the whispering plane-trees, the worn red brick, and the flat sashed windows, of a bygone date all combine to make a picture of old London seldom to be found nowadays. Dr. Johnson wrote parts of "Rasselas" while a resident here.

The way is a thoroughfare to Southampton Buildings, and continuing onward we pass another part of the old building with a quaint clock and small garden. Near at hand are the new buildings of the Patent Office and the Birkbeck Bank and Chambers, already mentioned, an enormous mass of masonry. The Inn contains a fine hall, thus mentioned in 1631:

"Staple Inn was the Inne or Hostell of the Merchants of the Staple (as the tradition is), wherewith until I can learne better matter, concerning the antiquity and foundation thereof, I must rest satisfied. But for latter matters I cannot chuse but make report, and much to the prayse and commendation of the Gentlemen of this House, that they have bestowed great costs in new-building a fayre Hall of brick, and two parts of the outward Courtyards, besides other lodging in the garden and elsewhere, and have thereby made it the fayrest Inne of Chauncery in this Universitie."

The whole of this district abounds in these one-time Inns of Chancery, formerly attached to the Inns of Court; but those that remain are all now diverted to other uses, and some have vanished, leaving only a name.

Further on there is Furnival Street, lately Castle Street, and so marked in Strype's map. The Castle Public-house still recalls the older name. Tradesmen of every kind occupy the buildings, besides which there is a Baptist mission-house. The buildings on the east side are of the old-fashioned style, dark brick with flat sashed windows.

Furnival Street lies within the City. The street takes its name from Furnival's Inn, rebuilt in the early part of the nineteenth century. This stood on the north side of Holborn, and was without the City. There is, perhaps, less to say about it than about any of the other old Inns. It was originally the town-house of the Lords Furnival. It was an Inn of Chancery in Henry IV.'s reign, and was sold to Lincoln's Inn in the reign of Elizabeth. Its most interesting associations are that Sir Thomas More was Reader for three years, and that Charles Dickens had chambers here previous to 1837, while "Pickwick" was running in parts. It was rebuilt in great part in Charles I.'s reign, and entirely rebuilt about 1818. With the exception of the hall, it was used as an hotel. The Prudential Assurance Company's palatial building now completely covers the site.

In Holborn, opposite to the end of Gray's Inn Road, formerly stood Middle Row, an island of houses which formed a great obstruction to traffic. This was removed in 1867.

The next opening on the south side is Dyers' Buildings, with name reminiscent of some former almshouses of the Dyers' Company. Then a small entry, with "Mercer's School" above, leads into Barnard's Inn, now the School of the Mercers' Company. The first court is smaller than that of Staple Inn, and lacks the whispering planes, yet it is redolent of old London. On the south side is the little hall, the smallest of all those of the London Inns; it is now used as a dining-hall. In the windows is some ancient stained glass, contemporary with the building--that is to say, about 470 years old.

The exterior of this hall, with its steeply-pitched roof, is a favourite subject for artists. Beyond it are concrete courts, walls of glazed white brick, and cleanly substantial buildings, which speak of the modern appreciation of sanitation. A tablet on the wall records in admirably concise fashion the history of the Mercers' School and its various peregrinations until it found a home here in 1894. Before being bought by the Mercers' Company, the Inn had been let as residential chambers. It was also an Inn of Chancery, and belonged to Gray's Inn. It was formerly called Mackworth's Inn, being the property of Dr. John Mackworth, Dean of Lincoln. It was next occupied by a man named Barnard, when it was converted into an Inn of Chancery.

The further court is bounded on the east side by one of the few very old buildings left in London. This was formerly the White Horse Inn, but is now also part of the Mercers' School buildings.

Timbs quotes from Lord Eldon's "Anecdote Book," 1776, in which Lord Eldon says he came to the White Horse Inn when he left school, and here met his brother, Lord Stowell, who took him to see the play at Drury Lane, where "Lowe played Jobson in the farce, and Miss Pope played Nell. When we came out of the house it rained hard. There were then few hackney coaches, and we both got into one sedan-chair. Turning out of Fleet Street into Fetter Lane there was a sort of contest between our chairmen and some persons who were coming up Fleet Street.... In the struggle the sedan-chair was overset, with us in it."

The white boundary wall of the Mercers' School replaces the old wall of the noted Swan Distillery (now rebuilt). This distillery was an object of attack in the Gordon Riots, partly, perhaps, because of its stores, and partly because its owner was a Roman Catholic. It was looted, and the liquor ran down in the streets, where men and women drank themselves mad. Dickens has thus described the riot scene in "Barnaby Rudge":

"The gutters of the street and every crack and fissure in the stones ran with scorching spirit, which being dammed up by busy hands overflowed the road and pavement, and formed a great pool into which the people dropped down dead by dozens. They lay in heaps all round this fearful pond, husbands and wives, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, women with children in their arms and babies at their breasts, and drank until they died. While some stooped their lips to the brink and never raised their heads again, others sprang up from their fiery draught, and danced half in a mad triumph, and half in the agony of suffocation, until they fell and steeped their corpses in the liquor that had killed them."

Both the Holborn and Fleet Street ends of Fetter Lane were for more than two centuries places of execution. Some have derived the name from the fetters of criminals, and others from "fewtors," disorderly and idle persons, a corruption of "defaytors," or defaulters; while the most probable derivation is that from the "fetters" or rests on the breastplates of the knights who jousted in Fickett's Field adjoining.

An interesting Moravian Chapel has an entry on the east side of Fetter Lane. This has memories of Baxter, Wesley, and Whitefield. It was bought by the Moravians in 1738, and was then associated with the name of Count Zinzendorf. It was attacked and dismantled in the riots. Dryden is supposed to have lived in Fetter Lane, but Hutton, in "Literary Landmarks," says the only evidence of such occupation was a curious stone, existing as late as 1885, in the wall of No. 16, over Fleur-de-Lys Court, stating:

"Here lived John Dryden, Ye Poet. Born 1631--Died 1700. Glorious John!"

But he adds there is no record when or by whom the stone was placed. Otway is said to have lived opposite, and quarrelled with his illustrious neighbour in verse. In any case, Fleur-de-Lys Court lies outside the boundaries of the parish we are now considering. It may, however, be mentioned that the woman Elizabeth Brownrigg, who so foully tortured her apprentices, committed her atrocities in this court. Praise God Barebones was at one time a resident in the Lane, and in the same house his brother, Damned Barebones. The house was afterwards bought by the Royal Society, of which Sir Isaac Newton was then President, and the Royal Society meetings were held here until 1782.

Returning to Holborn, from whence we have deviated, we come across Bartlett's Buildings, described by Strype as a very handsome, spacious place very well inhabited.

Thavie's Inn bears the name of the vanished Inn of Chancery. Here was originally the house of an armourer called John Thavie, who, by will dated 1348, devised it with three shops for the repair and maintenance of St. Andrew's Church. It was bought for an Inn of Chancery by Lincoln's Inn in the reign of Edward III. It is curious how persistently the old names have adhered to these places. It was sold by Lincoln's Inn in 1771, and afterwards burnt down. The houses here are chiefly inhabited by jewellers, opticians, and earthenware merchants. There are a couple of private hotels.

In St. Andrew's Street are the Rectory and Court-house, rebuilt from the designs of S. S. Teulon in yellow brick. The buildings form a quadrangle, with a wall and one side of the church enclosing a small garden. In the Court-house is a handsome oak overmantle, black with age, which was brought here from the old Court-house in St. Andrew's Court, pulled down in the construction of St. Andrew's Street and Holborn Viaduct in 1869.

Holborn Circus was formed in connection with the approaches to the Viaduct. In the centre there is an equestrian statue of the Prince Consort in bronze, by C. Bacon. This was presented by an anonymous donor, and the Corporation voted L2,000 for erecting a suitable pedestal for it. The whole was put up in 1874, two years after the completion of the Circus. On the north and south sides are bas-reliefs, and on the east and west statues of draped female figures seated.

Holborn Viaduct was finished in 1869. It is 1,400 feet in length, and is carried by a series of arches over the streets in the valleys below. The main arch is over Farringdon Road, the bed of the Fleet or Holbourne Stream, and is supported by polished granite columns of immense solidity. At the four corners of this there are four buildings enclosing staircases communicating with the lower level, and in niches are respectively statues of Sir William Walworth, Sir Hugh Myddleton, Sir Thomas Gresham, and Sir Henry Fitz-Alwyn, with dates of birth and death. On the parapets of the Viaduct are four erect draped female figures, representative of Fine Art, Science, Agriculture, and Commerce. Holborn Viaduct is a favourite locality for bicycle shops.