Charterhouse Street (east of Smithfield Market)
Before 1869, the one connection between the Smithfield
and St John Street area and the Charterhouse was an
ancient street called Charterhouse Lane. In the seventeenth century this street consisted of a narrow alley
which started from the east side of the open space at the
bottom of St John Street, then widened a little and swung
northwards on a straight line to the gate that protected
Charterhouse Yard. The opening-out of the western
section when the new Smithfield Market was built in the
1860s destroyed the old lane's integrity. Less than half its
former length remained, renamed as part of the otherwise
entirely new Charterhouse Street.
366. Charterhouse Lane and surroundings. Extract from a map of 1718
The earliest records of Charterhouse Lane go back to
the late fifteenth century, and twenty-four tenements were
recorded there in 1539–40. (ref. 152) Pre- and post-Reformation
tenants depended on the Charterhouse for the use of
its excess water which ran down the lane. (ref. 153) There
was already one large yard off the south side, called
Froggeswell, Frogwell or Fogwell Court. As property
ownership fragmented after the Dissolution, the density
increased. Since the vicinity was outside City jurisdiction
it became raffish and unruly. In 1611–12 alone several
incidents concerning Charterhouse Lane came before
the Middlesex sessions, including threats of violence,
victualling without licence, and keeping 'a house of lewd
report'. One resident was accused of 'harbouring a great
bellied whore, and as soon as she was delivered of two children in his house, he suffered her to run away with them
in her lap to bury them in a dunghill at Bunhill'. (ref. 154) In the
late 1620s Charterhouse Lane was one of the streets
singled out by magistrates as dens of open prostitution. (ref. 155)
Taverns proliferated hereabouts. Names noted between
1660 and 1751 include the Bricklayer, Feathers, Woolsack,
Red Lion, Red Cow, Red Lettice, Flying Horse, Boar's
Head, Rose and Crown, Fox and Anchor, Cat and Fiddle,
Sun, Moon and Duke William. (ref. 156) The Fox and Anchor
now at No. 115 is descended from a pub so named by 1756
and previously known as the Rose and Crown and the
Blue Anchor. (ref. 157) Its seventeenth-century predecessor was
deemed worthy of recording as one of the last reminders
of the street's antiquity before its demolition in 1897
(Ill. 370). By the early eighteenth century the courts on
the south side had increased to three, Frogwell, White
Lion and Red Lion Courts; there were less extensive ones
opposite. No particular trades appear to have predominated, but a map of 1718 shows warehouses, so named,
making an appearance at the west end of the lane (Ill. 366).
On the north side, where St Bartholomew's Hospital
owned properties, some rebuilding took place at the west
end around 1752. (ref. 158) It fell to St Sepulchre's Vestry, within
whose jurisdiction Charterhouse Lane came, to do more.
The parish promoted an abortive improvement bill for
widening the lane in 1764. In the next decade they were
more successful, and in 1775 improvement commissioners
purchased eleven houses for demolition on the south side
along with Frogwell Court, several then in the hands
of distillers. (ref. 159) The old Charterhouse gateway was also
removed, and new houses were built along the northern
frontage. Of the five erected on Charterhouse property
next to the gate in 1786–7 (see page 260) two were numbered in the lane, on the site of the present Nos 121 and
123 Charterhouse Street; the surviving lease of one of
them was to Daniel Pinder and William Norris, masons. (ref. 160)
No. 119, the oldest house now surviving here, appears to
be of similar date.
367. Charterhouse Street, looking east towards the Charterhouse, 2006; Nos 38–42 in centre
The City's redevelopment of Smithfield Market on a
cleared site north of the previous open market area had a
drastic effect on Charterhouse Lane, involving the demolition of most of the south side and the opening-up of
two-thirds of its length towards the market. In 1869–70,
with the new market building complete, it was resolved to
take the new road along the north side of the market
further east into the square itself, carried out in 1873–4.
The road was called Charterhouse Street, apparently at
the suggestion of the Charterhouse, on the grounds that
there was 'one Charterhouse-street already in existence,
but it is a small and unimportant street, and a new name
[Hayne Street] has been suggested for it'. (ref. 161) The name
Charterhouse Street was applied both to the eastward
extension into the square and to the remnant of
Charterhouse Lane, which name was formally abolished
in 1869. But Charterhouse Lane continued in informal
use as a name until 1881, when the whole length of
Charterhouse Street was sequentially numbered and the
present Nos 89–123 (odd) were assigned to addresses
formerly in the lane. The remnant of ground at the angle
between the old and new roads was laid out for a small
block of buildings and allotted the numbers 38–42 (even)
Charterhouse Street, behind which a tiny street, Fox and
Knot Street, was cut through in 1871. The name was taken
from Fox and Knot Yard, a court obliterated by the new
market.
The effect of these changes was immediate. Whereas in
1860 Charterhouse Lane enjoyed a mix of businesses, in
1876 half of the sixteen surviving houses were occupied
by meat and poultry traders. The same trades dominated
the new buildings put up, though there were also coffeerooms to rival the two remaining pubs and a large bank at
the corner with St John Street. By the time of the Second
World War most of the buildings west of the Fox and
Anchor at No. 115 were purpose-built cold stores. Only
with the decline of Smithfield Market did the grip of the
meat trades loosen. Today restaurants and bars have
largely supplanted them.
The small triangular block west of Fox and Knot Street
(Ill. 367) just within the City boundary, belongs to the land
acquired by the Corporation of London in the 1860s for
the Smithfield Market development. Set out for building
in 1871–2, it remained empty until 1875–6. At the apex a
warehouse (No. 38), was then built for Myer and Nathan
Salaman, ostrich-feather merchants, to designs by
Benjamin Tabberer. (ref. 162) It is four storeys high, of red brick
with regular fenestration; all the ornamentation is concentrated on the narrow corner. For many years there were
coffee-rooms here. The less eligible eastern portion (Nos
40–42) consisted originally of a mission school building
with commercial premises on the ground floor, designed
by Habershon & Pite and built by Matthew Allen & Son
for the trustees of the Fox and Knot charity schools. (ref. 163)
The site was redeveloped in 1956 for R. F. Garnham &
Son, meat salesmen, with the current Nos 40–42, Lindsey
House, a four-storey purplish-brick building to the
designs of Gerald Shenstone & Partners. (ref. 164)
368. Nos 111–113 Charterhouse Street. Elevation by
A. H. Mackmurdo, architect, c. 1900
Nos 91–93. This site appears not to have been rebuilt with
the extension of Charterhouse Street in the 1870s, when
maps show an irregular frontage occupied by a distillery.
The present six-storey neo-Georgian block, now known as
Boundary House, was erected speculatively in 1930–1 by
E. D. Winn & Son to the designs of H. Percy Monkton. (ref. 165)
Steel-framed and brick-clad, it is given vertical emphasis
by pilasters and higher wings. The style has residually
Egyptian touches. In its early years the building housed
the wholesale meat department of the London Co-operative Society, while there were commercial dining-rooms on
part of the ground floor and offices above.
No. 99 is an office block designed by Newman Levinson
& Partners, architects, for Glengate Properties, and
completed in 1983. (ref. 166) Its brick front is marked by tiers of
projecting windows with bronzed spandrel panels.
No. 105. This site was that of a long-lived pub, the Red
Cow, which had existed since at least 1751. As a plaque on
the front reveals, it was rebuilt under that name by J. H.
Schrader in 1871. The builder was Thomas Elkington. (ref. 167)
Remnants of the pub front survive, with cows' heads at
the two ends. The Red Cow continued until the early
1950s, when it became the Smithfield Tavern; it is currently the Wicked Wolf.
No. 107 is a building of minimal character. It underwent
reconstruction or major refurbishment in 1973 for
Guardian Properties, but its plain brick front appears to
be later.
Nos 109–113. The bold-scaled Wrenaissance frontage to
this building is the modified remnant of a cold-storage
warehouse of 1900, conceived by the maverick architect
designer A. H. Mackmurdo, who was working at the time
with Latham Withall, architect of the newly rebuilt Fox
and Anchor next door. (ref. 168) Mackmurdo's clients were the
meat-traders John Palmer & Co., who had occupied
premises in Charterhouse Street since about 1880. (ref. 169)
369. Nos 109–113 Charterhouse Street. Elevation before 1921 (left), showing original front at Nos 111–113 and addition of 1907 at
No. 109. Elevation in 2001 (right)
Of rubbed red brick, with dressings of stucco and
Portland stone, the façade incorporates rustication, giant
pilasters and elongated windows—features frequent in
Mackmurdo's oeuvre. But the existing elevation is not as
built. The original design covered only the centre and
right-hand bays of the frontage at Nos 111–113 and was
topped by a segmental pediment surmounted by three ball
finials (Ill. 368). An extra left-hand bay with a flat cornice
appears to have been added on the site of the former
No. 109 by Francis E. Jones, architect, in 1907, leaving the
front asymmetrical. (ref. 170) Symmetry was achieved only in
1921, when a new cooling plant was added on the roof, and
the present upswept parapet constructed to conceal it
(Ill. 369), to whose design is not known. The result was to
impose a sleeker, more Wren-like feeling upon a front previously more robust and vernacular in spirit. The cold
store behind was demolished in 1988–9. Mackmurdo's
modified façade was retained and incorporated as the
entrance feature of a large office development by IKA
Project Design & Management. (ref. 171)
370. Fox and Anchor, No. 115 Charterhouse Street, before
1897. Demolished
No. 115, the Fox and Anchor. This colourful public
house replaced the previous long-lived hostelry of the
same name in 1897–8 (Ills 370–372). (ref. 172) Its polychromatic
facade in Doulton's Carraraware is an exuberant example
of the work of W. J. Neatby, the designer, painter and
ceramic modeller best-known for his Harrods Food Hall
of 1902. (ref. 173) With the exception of Neatby's façade, the
building was designed by Latham A. Withall, a City architect experienced with pubs; the contractors were W. H.
Lascelles & Co., specialists in shopfitting. At the time of
the rebuilding the pub was sub-let by the brewers Meux
& Co. to the victuallers Roberts Brothers, who also ran a
cigar-store next door at No. 117. During their tenure an
opening was made between the two premises to create an
extensive first-floor dining-room. (ref. 174)
Neatby's front dates from his period as head of
Doulton's architectural decoration department, when he
was developing the art possibilities of Carraraware. The
façade exhibits a carefree yet disciplined balance of Queen
Anne and Tudor elements, set off by two projecting
beasts, plentiful relief sculpture and a charmingly painted
gable. Other than the intrusion of a modern facia, the
frontage has survived well. Some tilework remains in the
interior, which was most recently refurbished in 1992. The
pub is closed at the time of writing. (ref. 175)
No. 117 is a two-bay building of austere character, with
the windows on the main upper floors set back in deep
reveals. It was built in 1874 as a vestry room and parish
offices for St Sepulchre's parish, with commercial
premises in front and above. The architect was Lewis H.
Isaacs, and the builder Thomas Elkington. (ref. 176) The site had
been in the ownership of St Sepulchre's Vestry since 1616
and the previous building dated from about 1651. (ref. 177) Isaacs,
the Vestry's architect, also produced plans for a parish
school here but these were set aside as too expensive. (ref. 178)
The Vestry's accommodation consisted of a top-lit room
at the rear with separate access. The leasing of the upper
floors was not at first successful. After 1900 most of the
occupants were connected with the meat trades. (ref. 179)
No. 119 is a plain brick mid-Georgian house probably
dating from the early 1780s, when the north side of
Charterhouse Lane was being set back. The interior is
largely featureless apart from the stair in the conventional
position at the back. Conspicuous on the front are ornamental iron tie-plates; the date given is 1855 and the initials appear to be those of Charles William Wilbraham,
general warehouseman, who occupied the premises
around that date. (ref. 180)
371, 372. Fox and Anchor, No. 115 Charterhouse Street, in
2006. Details of Doulton's Carraraware by W. J. Neatby,
1897–8, on upper façade and (below) in entrance
Nos 121–123. This tall, red-brick and stone building was
originally a warehouse, erected in 1907 by the proprietors
of the nearby Charterhouse Hotel as a storage facility for
the many commercial travellers among their clientele. The
site had already been occupied by Wheeler and Warren, the
developers of the hotel. Construction work was
undertaken on their behalf by the builders Thompson
& Beveridge. (ref. 181) By about 1913 the upper floors had been
partly converted to bed-sitting rooms for hotel staff. But in
the 1920s, after the Charterhouse Hotel went out of existence, the building was taken over by the meat trades for
cold storage and other uses. (ref. 182) The building shares something of the hotel's style and was possibly designed by the
same architect, Edward Haslehurst. But this is the plainer
building, of five storeys in brick with tightly packed
windows and minimal relief in the form of glazed brick
jambs to the arched doorways and a curved stone parapet.
Carthusian Street
The two sides of Carthusian Street have different characters today, corresponding to their different histories. The
north side retains small shops with offices or flats above,
and a pub (Ill. 374). The south side is dominated by office
blocks. The latter belongs to the City but is covered here
for the sake of completeness. In the late Middle Ages the
street was a narrow, gated outlet from the Charterhouse to
Aldersgate Street. The gatehouse was probably replaced
by plain gates halfway down the street in the first of two
road-widenings, around 1700 (when the name Carthusian
Street or Lane was already current); the second, adding a
full fifteen feet to the width and entailing rebuildings on
both sides, took place around 1820. After several replacements and shifts of position, the gates finally disappeared
in 1874. The street was wood-paved by the following
decade, no doubt to deaden the noise of heavy carts rumbling between Aldersgate Street and Smithfield. (ref. 183)
North side
Apart from some buildings at the Aldersgate Street end,
the north side is shown as blank on Ogilby & Morgan's
map (Ill. 333). It was filled up in the late 1690s when, in
conjunction with his houses at Nos 1 and 2 Charterhouse
Square, William Desborough built along the north side of
Carthusian Street and round into Aldersgate Street,
setting back the frontage by a few feet in the process. (ref. 184) In
1800 these buildings were the freehold property of the
Earl of Dartmouth. They comprised a pastrycook's shop
at the Aldersgate Street corner, a bakehouse and stables in
a yard to the rear, and eight three-storey houses with shops
along Carthusian Street (Ill. 373). (ref. 185)
In 1800 the governors of the Charterhouse bought
No. 1 Charterhouse Square, with the intention of roadwidening. That finally took place in 1820, when the
Charterhouse and the Corporation of the Sons of the
Clergy, owners of the property opposite, employed James
Humphreys, victualler, to widen Carthusian Street.
Humphreys subsequently built two shallow rows of
modest stock-brick houses on the north side. (ref. 186) The plain
façades of two of them, built in 1821, survive as Nos 7
and 8, but their interiors were reconstructed in 1997–8. (ref. 187)
Of the other buildings on the north side, No. 1 was
rebuilt by a Mr Stockwell, of City Road, for H. E.
Beddington in 1883, along with No. 129 Aldersgate
Street next door, in hard red brick with minimal stone
dressings and shaped dormers next to the corner. (ref. 188) Nos
2–5 are a plainish block of flats over shops with rendered
ends and a brick centre to the front, designed by the A &
Q Partnership for Berkeley Homes and erected in
1997–9. (ref. 189) No. 6, the Sutton Arms (Ill. 375), was rebuilt
in the robust pub style of 1898 for the New City of
London Brewery Co., by the builders Courtney &
Fairbairn of Albany Road. (ref. 190) It is well preserved. The
upper storeys, of red brick with plentiful stone dressings,
rise to a pair of shaped gables.
373. Nos 1–7 Carthusian Street, plans of houses and shops in 1819, shortly before demolition
374. Carthusian Street, north side looking west from
Aldersgate Street in 2006
South side
Traces of development on Carthusian Street's south side
have been found going back to the thirteenth century. (ref. 191)
By 1700 it was dominated by the flank of the Red Lion
inn, a large courtyard inn entered from Aldersgate Street
and reported in 1720 as enjoying 'a pretty good trade'
(Ill. 376). (ref. 192) The inn was owned from this time onwards
by the Sons of the Clergy. (ref. 193) Westwards lay the entrance
to the separate, ramifying Red Lion Yard. Probably to the
west of that was the charity school belonging to St Botolph
without Aldersgate reported here in 1708. (ref. 194)
The flank of the Red Lion, perhaps along with the rest
of the inn, was rebuilt as part of the road-widening of
1820 undertaken jointly by the Sons of the Clergy and the
Charterhouse. As opposite, the entrepreneur was James
Humphreys, victualler, but the building work was done by
Joseph Warren, bricklayer, Thomas Chandler, carpenter,
and Matthew Elwall, plumber. (ref. 195) These houses, at Nos
9–17, were replaced in 1885–6 by a block of four-storey
warehouses, reflecting the commercial transformation of
the area. This was a speculation undertaken by the railway
solicitor and prominent Wesleyan, Robert William Perks;
his architect was George Vickery and his builder John
Allen & Sons. (ref. 196) By then, following the extension of the
Metropolitan Railway from Farringdon to Moorgate, the
Red Lion had lost most of its back land and been reconstituted on a much smaller scale at the corner with
Aldersgate Street.
375. Sutton Arms, No. 6 Carthusian Street, in 2006
At the back between Perks's buildings and the railway
a large warehouse had been built in 1873–4 by Michael
Nairn & Co., Kirkcaldy-based floorcloth manufacturers,
with its entrance from Aldersgate Street. (ref. 197) Seeking a
frontage on to Carthusian Street, this company in 1924–5
negotiated the purchase of Nos 9–17 and the Red Lion
from the Sons of the Clergy. (ref. 198) Wheat & Luker, architects,
with G. E. Wallis & Sons as builders, reconstructed Nos
14–17 in 1927–8 as new offices and showrooms for Nairns,
and designed a matching new frontage to No. 131
Aldersgate Street. (ref. 199) The new street elevation was at first
interrupted by the Red Lion on the corner at No. 130
Aldersgate Street, but in 1936 Nairns were able to demolish the pub and unite the two fronts. Wheat & Luker's successors, George E. & K. G. Withers, carried out the work,
seamlessly joining the two blocks with a curved corner
(Ills 377, 378). (ref. 200) The four-storey classical façades to the
whole are in fine ashlar, with the vertical proportions and
Egyptian-style cavetto cornice then popular. Small venti
lation grilles are incorporated into the elevations in a
curious and conspicuous manner.
376. Red Lion inn and yards, Aldersgate Street,
plan in 1794. Demolished
The remaining warehouses on the south side of
Carthusian Street were demolished to make way in 1988–9
for the current Nos 9–13, the Chamber of Shipping, a
costly office block with flats above built by Ashby &
Horner to the designs of Ronald Ward & Partners. It was
built in the historicizing style latterly favoured by these
architects, using various materials for the front including
copious herringbone brickwork in panels under the
windows and Portland stone. (ref. 201) In the open vestibule is
a foundation stone and the cast-iron sign from the
Chamber's previous building.
Aldersgate Street and Goswell Road
This section covers the addresses Nos 106–134 (consec.)
Aldersgate Street and Nos 3–25 (odd) Goswell Road—a
small portion of a thoroughfare formerly one of the main
northward routes out of the City. Today the eye is drawn
to the heroic post-war developments of the Barbican and
Golden Lane Estate that skirt the opposite frontage of this
stretch of road. Its western side is marked by a miscellany
of office blocks, flats, a hotel and small shops built at
sundry dates over the past two centuries, but mostly
during the past fifty years.
The division between Aldersgate Street and Goswell
Road corresponds to the boundary between the City and
the modern London Borough of Islington, and was formerly the site of Aldersgate Bars, but no break is now
palpable at this point. The City boundary runs from
Carthusian Street up the centre of the road, so that apart
from Nos 129–134 Aldersgate Street none of the properties mentioned in this section was ever under City jurisdiction. The whole of the land on the west side north
of Carthusian Street lay within the precincts of the
Charterhouse, and was probably not much built upon
before the Dissolution.
Originally the name Aldersgate Street applied only to
the portion of that road from Aldersgate itself (sited close
to St Botolph without Aldersgate) as far north as Long
Lane. The stretch of the road northwards from Long
Lane to Aldersgate Bars and the start of Goswell Street
(after 1864 Goswell Road) was formerly called Pickax
Street. This name perhaps derived from Pickt Hatch, an
Elizabethan name for an area of brothels said to be in this
part of London. It is mentioned in The Merry Wives of
Windsor ('Goe … to your Mannor of Pickt-hatch') and
The Alchemist ('The decay'd Vestalls of Pickt-hatch'). By
the late eighteenth century the name Pickax had been
dropped, and the road became a northern continuation of
Aldersgate Street.
The principal features on the west side of Pickax Street
in the late seventeenth century were two substantial inns
of the type common on main roads out of London: the
Horse and Groom and the Black Horse. Behind them,
extended yards came into being after the break-up around
1700 of the old houses and gardens on the east side of
Charterhouse Square (see Ill. 333). Black Horse Yard was
the largest, with stables, coach-houses and rooms or
gallery apartments. Beyond Aldersgate Bars, Goswell
Street was 'meanly built and inhabited', reported John
Strype in 1720. (ref. 202) Here the western frontage and the
buildings behind belonged to the development of
Glasshouse Yard after 1664, separately discussed below.
Despite piecemeal rebuildings of the shops and pubs
along the main road, the frontage had attained a fair semblance of regularity by the mid-nineteenth century (Ills
379, 380). (ref. 203) But the properties behind had decayed into
slums. When, typically for the times, a large warehouse
was built on the sites of Nos 110–115 Aldersgate Street
and the land behind, the Builder applauded the fact that it
replaced 'small shops, with miserably low ceilings, and
dirty, ill-ventilated back buildings' along with 'stables,
immediately over which there dwelt in small and crowded
rooms a large number of the labouring poor'. It added that
the clearance would increase demand for improved
dwellings, 'so that in the end it is to be hoped all classes
will be benefited by the general "move on"'. The warehouse, elaborately fronted and iron-framed, was designed
by Lander & Bedells (Ill. 382). (ref. 204)
This block was one of several badly damaged by
wartime bombing and later demolished (Ill. 378). In the
subsequent rebuildings, light manufacturing, notably the
finishing of clothing, was at first as common as offices, but
quite soon offices prevailed, not least because the authorities in the post-war years discouraged industry on the
fringes of the City. On those grounds an applicant was
refused permission in 1957 by the London County
Council to use a portion of a new building in Glasshouse
Yard, for making ladies' 'wearing apparel'. (ref. 205) Since about
1980 residential development has spread outwards from
the Barbican and Golden Lane into this area generally,
warehouses giving way to flats and a hotel, together with
a mixture of other uses.
377. Aldersgate Street, looking south in 2006, showing
junction with Carthusian Street. Nos 123 to 134 (right to left)
Aldersgate Street (west side)
Faced in yellow brick with stucco dressings, No. 107 and
No. 1 Goswell Road were built around 1850 as part of a
row of three houses, the third of which has been
demolished (Ills 380, 383). No. 107 carries a plaque
commemorating the erection of a drinking fountain
opposite by Robert Besley in 1878.
No. 108, Crown House, is a neat brick-clad block designed
in 1972 by a Hampstead firm of architects, Baldwin
Beaton Everton & Isbell, to contain offices on the lower
floors with flats above. (ref. 206)
Nos 110–115, replacing the Lander & Bedells building
mentioned above, was built as Steinberg House, a warehouse, offices and ladies' clothing manufactory for
Steinberg & Sons in 1963–4 to the designs of Emberton,
Franck & Tardrew, with Tersons of Finchley as builders.
C. L. P. Franck was the partner chiefly involved. This
project, contemplated since 1956, was originally intended
also to cover the site to the south where No. 120 now
stands. The deep, seven-storey block is clad in brickwork
and rests on a podium supported by columns clad in black
glass mosaic. It was radically altered in 1995 when it was
converted into flats for Barratts by the A & Q Partnership
and renamed Cathedral Lodge (St Paul's, presumably, is
visible from the upper floors). The alterations included
the addition of three full-height bow-windows, one to
Aldersgate Street, two towards Glasshouse Yard. The
glazing bands are separated by polyester spandrel panels
of duck-egg blue, affording a faint Festival of Britain air. (ref. 207)
No. 120, a concrete-framed office-building of 1977–8,
named Priory Fields House, was designed for the British
Land Co. by Elsom, Pack & Roberts. It was radically recast
in 2000 for Bee Bee Developments Ltd, with new glazed
elevations and a new four-storey building at the rear. (ref. 208)
378. Aldersgate Street looking south towards Barbican station
in 1963. Right to left: No. 122 (demolished); Nos 125–127;
beyond junction, Nos 129–131 and 133–134
379. Aldersgate Street and Goswell Street in 1861, showing Liberty of Glasshouse Yard within border
No. 123 (Ill. 377) is a plain small office building of
1979–80 designed by Peter Thom Associates, structural
engineers of Chingford, for Chester Estates Ltd, with A.
Bell & Son as builders. (ref. 209)
No. 124, set back in a yard, originated as a plain Victorian
industrial building behind No. 4 Charterhouse Square. In
1963 it was still being used by the firm of Roscoe &
Howard for light engineering and included a forge, but by
1970 they had joined the flight of manufacturing industry
from the area and relocated to Edenbridge, Kent. In 1980
the building was converted by Campbell Zogolovitch
Wilkinson Gough (CZWG). Rex Wilkinson, the job architect, told the local authority that they were doing their best
to retain the 'exceptional charm and character of the
building's interior', including the timber main staircase. (ref. 210)
Nos 125–127 (Ills 377, 378) comprise a short terrace of
three tall and narrow houses with ground-floor shops,
probably built in 1854–5. (ref. 211)
No. 128 (Ill. 377) is a low and narrow four-storey house
perhaps dating from around 1808. (ref. 212) The first floor has
been refronted and a modern shopfront inserted but the
top two storeys are relatively unaltered.
For Nos 129 and 131 see Carthusian Street, above.
Nos 133–134. This handsome Italianate bank building just
north of Barbican Station was erected in 1873–4 for the
London & County Bank by the builders Hill & Sons to the
designs of C. J. Parnell. (ref. 213) A sophisticated exercise in the
cinquecento banking manner (Ill. 381), it rises from a
principal storey of granite with engaged Doric columns to
limestone-clad upper storeys with Ionic and Corinthian
window surrounds, and hence to a rich cornice. The
carving is of high quality throughout. Large additions
were made to unite the bank with neighbouring premises
to the south, now demolished, in 1887–8. (ref. 214)
Goswell Road (west side)
For No. 1 see No. 107 Aldersgate Street, above.
Nos 3 and 5 were built as part of a row of four houses in
1802–3, making them the oldest surviving buildings in this
small area (Ill. 383). (ref. 215) No. 5 has arched window recesses
on the first floor. The wheatsheaf keystones, a later addition, denote the fact that it was at one time a bakery. (ref. 216)
Nos 7–21. This long red-brick front belongs to the
Citadines Apartment Hotel, completed in 1993 for a
French hotel chain, Orion City (Ill. 383). Their architects
were the Boisot Waters Cohen Partnership. An asymmetrical arrangement of tiered balconies and a bow at the
north end over the entrance add variety to the flat
façade. (ref. 217)
No. 23, now known as Italia Conti House, was built as an
eight-storey office block in 1959–61 to designs by Morgan
& Branch, replacing a large warehouse of about 1866. (ref. 218)
Its south end is carried on pilotis over the northern access
to Glasshouse Yard, making the lower storeys asymmetrical. The upper six storeys are fronted by alternate window
and spandrel strips within a strong overall frame of purple
brick. In 1969–70 the building was converted for the use
of the City University, becoming Lionel Denny House. (ref. 219)
More recently it became the head offices of the Italia Conti
Academy of Theatre Arts.
380. Aldersgate Bars looking south from Goswell Street into
Aldersgate Street, drawn by T. H. Shepherd, 1857. Junction
with Fann Street to left. Mostly demolished
381. London & County Bank, Nos 133–134 Aldersgate Street,
c. 1887. C. J. Parnell, architect, 1873–4
382. Nos 110–115 Aldersgate Street. Lander & Bedells,
architects, 1872–3. Demolished
No. 25, long a vacant site used as tennis courts, is
currently (2007) being built up with flats and commercial
space by the Irish property developers Thornsett Group.
The new buildings will be linked to another new block
adjoining Charterhouse Buildings in Clerkenwell Road.
The site was formerly occupied by St Thomas's
Charterhouse Church and related buildings, discussed in
detail below. The church was built to the designs of
Edward Blore in 1841–2, adjacent schools following on in
1846–7 and two parsonages to the north in 1869–70. The
church and schools were demolished in 1909, but the parsonages survived until the Second World War, when they
were damaged beyond repair. Various post-war plans to
build a hall of residence for St Bartholomew's Medical
College here failed to mature. (ref. 220)
St Thomas's Charterhouse Church and Schools
(demolished)
St Thomas's was a project instigated by Bishop Blomfield
of London about 1839 for the purposes of serving a very
poor district that lay largely within the parish of St Luke's,
Old Street, on the east side of Goswell Road, beyond the
area covered by the present volume. The second vicar of
St Thomas's, William Rogers, claimed that Blomfield
'had a mania for erecting churches in all sorts of inconvenient places. He could not … have chosen a much
less favourable situation, but, as a Governor of the
Charterhouse, he got the land for nothing and other considerations had to give way'. (ref. 221) The site was formerly part
of the Charterhouse's school playing ground and wilderness garden, which stretched northwards from here to
Clerkenwell Road. The Charterhouse sold this piece of
land to the Commissioners for Building New Churches in
1839. A district of seventeen acres was formally assigned
to the church in June 1843, well after its completion,
under Peel's Act of that year for the subdivision of
parishes. According to Rogers, it was entirely inhabited by
costermongers and ragamuffins. (ref. 222) In 1862 this district was
halved in size when a second daughter church and parish
of St Mary Charterhouse were created—to the east of the
area covered by this volume.
383. Goswell Road, looking north in 2007; Nos 1–23 to left
Blore's design for the church (Ill. 385) adopted a bare,
round-arched Romanesque style in brick, popular at the
time and similar to his recent churches of St Peter,
Stepney, and Holy Trinity, Barkingside, Essex. (ref. 223) Building
was carried out by Robert and George Webb and cost a
little over £6,000, supplied by the Metropolis Churches
Fund. Consecrated in August 1842, the church provided
680 rented sittings and 336 free seats. (ref. 224) The interior was
aisled and galleried on three sides. Externally, the east
front facing Goswell Road featured a shallow three-sided
apse in the centre flanked by the ends of aisles, of which
the northern one was surmounted by a squat tower
crowned with an octagonal turret and pointed roof.
Surviving illustrations suggest a sombre building. Rogers
called it an 'unsentimental structure of the Bishop
Blomfield era'. (ref. 225)
Little is recorded of the church interior. In 1877 the
galleries were removed, and in 1881 St Thomas's was
'artistically decorated', the deal floor of the chancel and
sanctuary being replaced with a tile pavement, and various
new fittings added. The works were executed by John
Allen & Sons, builders, to designs by Medland & Powell,
architects. (ref. 226)
384. St Thomas's Charterhouse Church, Goswell Road.
Demolition in 1909
385. St Thomas's Charterhouse Church, Goswell Road. Elevations of east (left) and west ends. Edward Blore, architect, 1842.
Demolished
St Thomas's was closed in July 1906 and the district
amalgamated with that of St Mary's. Most of the fittings
were removed to St Mary's, but the organ was installed in
St John's, Upper Edmonton, and the stone font—a gift of
about 1891—taken to the new church of St Michael,
Cricklewood. The freehold site of the church and adjacent
schools was then sold at auction and the buildings were
demolished (Ill. 384). (ref. 227)
St Thomas's was noted for its pioneering schools, instigated by the muscularly Christian second vicar William
Rogers (1845–63). Concluding that 'it was ludicrous that
an individual with the scanty education and loose habits
of a costermonger would voluntarily sit through a liturgical service of which he could not understand a word',
Rogers 'set to work on the children'. After searching in
vain for a site, he 'fastened upon the space round the
Church, thinking that by using the walls of the building
and clapping a roof on top, the thing might be done
cheap'. (ref. 228) By this curious and controversial device, two
school blocks were built abutting the church on its north
and south sides in 1846–7 to the plans of Robert Hesketh.
On the insistence of the Church Commissioners they were
designed to resemble extra side aisles. (ref. 229)
These schools flourished, and Rogers claimed them as
the first where the pupil-teacher system was introduced.
Since the children who attended these schools 'did not
come from Costermongria' but were mostly of artisan
parentage, he proceeded with aristocratic and mercantile
support to open fresh schools on the opposite side of
Goswell Street in 1853, and in 1857 yet further schools in
Golden Lane, aiming increasingly to educate the very poor
but avoiding the concept of the ragged school. (ref. 230) After
Rogers's translation to St Botolph Bishopsgate in 1863, his
educational work was carried on by the next vicar of St
Thomas's, the Rev. John Rodgers, who under the changed
circumstances of the 1870s became an influential member
and vice-chairman of the London School Board. At
Rodgers's death in 1880 it was said that his work at the St
Thomas's Charterhouse Schools had 'done much for the
education of the lower middle classes'. (ref. 231)
St Thomas's and St Mary's vicarages
(demolished)
William Rogers repeatedly requested the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners to provide a parsonage house for St
Thomas's. He thought it should not be close to the church
since 'the neighbourhood is so extremely low that no clergyman could with any propriety or comfort reside in it',
preferring Charterhouse Square as 'an eligible situation'
which already contained the parsonages of St Botolph
without Aldersgate and St Sepulchre. (ref. 232) Only after the
parish had been subdivided in 1862 and Rogers had been
succeeded as vicar by John Rodgers did the
Commissioners acquire the plot to the north of the church
(see page 390). There they built houses for the vicars of
St Thomas's and the new parochial district, St Mary,
Charterhouse. Ewan Christian provided the plans and the
houses were built in 1869–70. Benjamin Wells was the
builder of the St Thomas's parsonage, while Thomas
Ennor built the abutting parsonage of St Mary's to the
north. (ref. 233) Both were damaged in the Second World War
and afterwards demolished.
386. Glasshouse Yard, plan of
railway carriage works and tenements
in Union Place in 1865. All
demolished
Glasshouse Yard
Glasshouse Yard is an easily missed, now rather characterless backwater west of Aldersgate Street and Goswell
Road. The street is essentially T-shaped, with two
entrances from Goswell Road. Its picturesque name stems
from a short-lived glassworks set up here in 1660 by the
2nd Duke of Buckingham, when this area was part of the
garden to Rutland House, adjoining the Charterhouse.
By 1716 at the latest a wider district had been designated the Liberty of Glasshouse Yard, partly within the
City and partly beyond. By 'liberty' was meant an independent district for the purposes of local jurisdiction. The
origin of this one was explained in 1756 by the fact that
'the Poor of this Liberty having increased considerably,
occasioned the City Liberty to separate from them, and
each to maintain its own Poor'. (ref. 234) For a time the Liberty
ran its own workhouse, but by a 'tacit understanding' its
poor were eventually sent to that of St Botolph without
Aldersgate, to which parish the area still belonged. (ref. 235) The
Liberty covered Glasshouse Yard, the area southwards to
Carthusian Street, part of Charterhouse Square, and a
finger of land on the east side of Goswell Road, north of
Fann Street (Ill. 379). (ref. 236) Very few records survive for the
Liberty, and no clue as to its formation or basis.
The Liberty was not renowned for good government.
According to William Rogers of St Thomas' Charterhouse
Church, writing of the 1840s, 'The Act of Parliament
prescribed that the police rate should be collected by the
overseers, and as in our land of liberty there was only one
overseer, the rate was not collected, and the police were
not employed. Those of the inhabitants who had any
property were naturally anxious that it should not be at
the mercy of every blackguard whose greedy eyes were
fixed upon it, but we were out-voted in the vestry by those
whose belongings were of such a trashy description that
they were not worth the trouble of stealing. The Church
and I suffered in turn. One night the communion plate
was carted off, and six weeks later my house was broken
into'. (ref. 237) The Liberty's independence was still causing
problems in co-ordinating local infrastructural works on
Goswell Road as late as 1859. (ref. 238)
Records of the Duke of Buckingham's glasshouse
(c. 1660–4) are scanty, but it is known to have been one of
the first in England to make Venetian-style rock-crystal
glass. (ref. 239) The manufactory may either have been new, or in
a converted garden building or stable, like an earlier crystal
glassworks of 1658 at Nijmegen, set up in a converted
chapel. Buckingham appointed John de la Cam to oversee
the work. The latter's application to manufacture crystal
glass in England specifically states his intention to 'discover … the Art and Mistery of melting of Christall de
Roach'. (ref. 240) De la Cam appears to have left by November
1661, when a licence was granted to Martin Clifford
(Buckingham's secretary and later Master of the
Charterhouse) and Thomas Paulden for a term of fourteen years, for the exercise of their 'Arte skill & invention
of makeing Christall Glasse'. A patent was granted to
them a year later. (ref. 241) In 1663 Clifford and Paulden surrendered their grant to Thomas Tilson. This may have coin
cided with the establishment of Buckingham's glassworks
at Vauxhall, where mirror-plate as well as crystal glass was
made. (ref. 242) At any event, glassmaking on this site ceased soon
after.
387. Glasshouse Yard, looking north in 2006
In 1662 Buckingham had surrendered Rutland House
to his creditor John Eaton and in 1664 Eaton and John
Nelthorpe divided much of the house and all of the
garden into building plots. Extensive subdivision of the
glasshouse site is clearly shown in Ogilby & Morgan's map
of 1676 (Ill. 333), with some plots tightly built up and
others as yet empty. The first buildings were mostly coachhouses, stables and workshops, and two public houses.
There was also a sawmill at the north end of the yard, and
a Baptist meeting-house, established by Francis Smith by
1669, with a small burial ground to the rear. The Baptists
removed to the Barbican in 1768, but the chapel remained
in use by Independents for some years more. It was sold
at auction in 1825 and demolished shortly afterwards. (ref. 243)
Subsidiary courts off the yard in the 1740s were called
Rutland Court (not to be confused with the Rutland Court
off Charterhouse Square), Ship Yard (after the Ship pub),
Peel Yard and Pump Yard, while addresses included
Snaggs Tenements and Mawsons Rents. The housing was
occupied by poor or lowly paid workers. (ref. 244) In 1825 the
freehold of much of Glasshouse Yard was sold by the
descendants of John Eaton and broken up into small
parcels. Purchasers included a distiller, grocer, scalemaker, tyre and coach smith, tallow chandler, stationer,
linen draper, chemist and druggist. (ref. 245) Shortly after the
sale, a fresh court called Union Place appeared in the
north-western sector. (ref. 246)
In the nineteenth century the scale of industry in the
enclave increased. The biggest enterprise here (Ill. 386)
developed from a coach works and tyre manufactory at the
north end, purchased by James Whitburn in the sale of
1825. It became a railway carriage works in the hands of
either Walter Williams or Charles Cave Williams in the
1840s. By the time of the latter's bankruptcy in 1865, the
premises wrapped round the tenements of Union Place
and included a warehouse at No. 23 Goswell Road, connected to the main works by a bridge. By 1898 the railway
works had become a smithy and repairing shop for
Pickford & Co. the carriers, and by the 1930s the Harris
Plating Works. (ref. 247) In the early twentieth century this and
other properties along the main western frontage of
Glasshouse Yard appear to have been the freehold of the
executors of David Cohen, for whom the firm of Lewis
Solomon acted as architects in various respects. (ref. 248)
Along with these industrial developments went
attempts to improve the housing and facilities. A 'refuge
for the houseless poor' fitted up with a few baths existed
here in 1848. (ref. 249) Later, some artisans' dwellings were
erected, among them Glasshouse Chambers of 1888 on
the site of the present Nos 26–28, and the current No. 10
of 1885, now the sole survivor of the buildings built before
the Second World War, in the former Rutland Court. (ref. 250) A
renumbering took place in 1936–7, when Union Place and
Rutland Court were subsumed into Glasshouse Yard.
Extensive wartime bombing, subsequent clearances and
rebuildings, some large-scale, have transformed the area
(Ill. 387). The first post-war buildings still had a measure
of manufacture in mind, clothing especially, but warehousing, offices and computing had replaced that by the
1970s.
Other current buildings numbered in Glasshouse Yard
are as follows:
No. 8. A plain two-storeyed building of 1956–7 on a concrete frame, designed by Geoffrey Shires, architect, and
built by A. A. Contractors of Deptford. Though intended
for the manufacture and storage of ophthalmic supplies,
the upper storey was used from the start for women's
clothing; by 1962 the occupants dealt in cine equipment. (ref. 251)
Nos 20–25 (Ruth Potter House). Corner building of three
main storeys, with piers of blue engineering bricks and
windows of varying width, built by William Moss Ltd for
Trust Securities Holdings to the designs of the Thomas
Saunders Partnership, 1979–81. (ref. 252)
Nos 26–28 (The Glasshouse). A composite, inchoate
building with recessed and glass-fronted lower storeys
behind concrete piers, protruding second storey and
further accommodation above. Its core appears still to be
the warehouse and model-gown workrooms built here by
Geoffrey Shires and John Reddick, architects, in 1955. In
the early 1970s it became the Barbican Computer Centre
of the Post Office's Data Processing Service; many alterations followed. The present appearance of the building is
due to large additions of about 1999–2001 by C2
Architects. (ref. 253)
Nos 29–30. At the time of writing, an eight-storey building housing student study-bedrooms was erecting here to
the designs of T. P. Bennett, architects. It replaced
Therese House, a brick-faced office building of similar
size. A speculation of the developer Harry Hyams, this
was built in 1959–60 by Wates Ltd to the designs of
Richard Seifert & Partners. Like Nos 26–28 it was used
from the 1970s by the Post Office's computer services. (ref. 254)