Spital Square

Spital Square was the nucleus of the St. John and Tillard estate; the Square formed a cruciform lay-out, but the whole of the eastern arm and much of the northern and western arms were demolished in the 1920's and 1930's. Fortunately a fairly comprehensive survey of the building was made about 1909, when the Square was still largely intact.

Spital Square was mainly a residential area. Most of the first occupants of Nos. 20–32 were described as weavers and in 1909 when the majority of the houses still survived it was found that silk waste had been used as packing in the floorboards of the houses, perhaps to deaden the sound of looms overhead. (ref. 19) The houses were not, however, constructed with the wide windows usual in premises occupied by working weavers and most of the houses were certainly occupied by silk merchants and master weavers, rather than by working weavers. In 1733, when the eastern arm of the Square was being built, Robert Seymour's edition of Stow's Survey of London re marked that ’in place of this hospital [St. Mary Spital], and near adjoining, are now built many handsome houses for merchants and others’. (ref. 20) In 1751 it was said that there were twelve coaches kept in Spital Square, two by weavers and the rest by silk merchants and brokers. (ref. 21) At least nine of the thirteen Spitalfields silk manufacturers who in 1828 resolved not to grant an advance of wages to weavers on strike lived in the Square. (ref. 22) Tallis described the Square in about 1838–9 as ’a small quadrangle consisting of respectable private residences and wholesale warehouses … mostly in the Silk trade’ (ref. 23) In 1842 it was described as mainly inhabited by silk manufacturers, ’the humble operatives living for the most part eastward of this spot’. (ref. 24) Nine of the fourteen trustees for the Norton Folgate almshouses in 1851 were residents in the Square. (ref. 25) The establishment of a girls’ school in the Square in 1891 probably indicates the end of its residential attractions but some measure of quiet was preserved until the 1914–18 war by its freedom from through-traffic.

In 1909 an old silk manufactory existed at the back of No. 32, then described as ’the only instance known in the Square of a separate building being erected for work apart from residences’ (ref. 19) There was also, however, a ’Warehouse or Workshop’ at the back of No. 27 in 1734. (ref. 26) A ’chenille manufactory’ existed here in the late nineteenth century and the passage to the industrial buildings at the back, although not marked on nineteenth-century maps, appears on Rocque and also in the 1909 photograph (Plate 59b). A ’factory’ was also built at the back of No. 26 between 1803 and 1812, (ref. 27) and factories were also mentioned in mid-nineteenth-century rate books at the back of Nos. 20, 21, 30 and 31. (ref. 28)

In the eighteenth century the seclusion and quiet of the Square was preserved, despite its proximity to Spitalfields Market and Bishopsgate Street. In 1775 an extra watchman was employed by the Liberty of Norton Folgate to being borne by James Dalbiac of No.20. The patrol the northern arm of the Square, the cost privacy of the Square was, however, chiefly maintained by the obstacles to through-traffic There was only a comparatively narrow entry, nineteen feet wide, from Bishopsgate Street, while bars or bollards at the northern and eastern ends of the Square prevented the entry of wheeled vehicles from Folgate Street and Lamb Street. The right of the lessee of No. 34/35 in 1742 to make a communication with Fort Street was limited to a footpassage blocked against wheeled traffic by posts: the other bollards in the Square were probably then also in place. In 1781–2 occupants of the Square complained that the posts on the pavement at the east end of the Square were too close together and that the bar, which presumably occupied the width of the carriageway, projected over the pavement. (ref. 29) In 1781 the Commissioners for paving the Old Artillery Ground claimed that the posts at the eastern arm of the Square stood on ground belonging to their liberty, (ref. 30) and apparently this was so as in 1789 the Norton Folgate Commissioners asked the Old Artillery Ground Commissioners either to narrow the eastern entrance ’so as to prevent any but foot passengers passing (as used formerly to be)’ or to allow the Norton Folgate Commissioners to do so at their own expense, they wishing ’to prevent danger to the inhabitants of Spital Square and Especially to Children from the driving of Cattle and Carts and Horses through the Opening in the Old Artillery Ground near the Grocers to said Spital Square’. The Old Artillery Ground Commissioners refused to comply with this request, and it was then suggested that the posts should be moved nearer ’the open part of the said Square’, but nothing was done. (ref. 31)

In 1821 James Tillard had new iron bollards placed at the eastern end of the Square, being thanked for his liberality by the Pavement Commissioners of the liberty, who at the same time carried the pavement across the roadway on the west side of the bollards. Mr. Tillard also placed iron bollards of similar design and an iron gate at the northern end of the Square. Those at the east end of the Square were marked ’J. Tillard 1821, Dodgson Fecit Shadwell London’ (ref. 32) (Plate 64b).

All these bollards, together with others at the north and south ends of Church Passage, survived until 1917, when those at the east end of the Square were removed by the Stepney Borough Council at the request and cost of Robert Horner, the lessee of Spitalfields Market, in order to relieve congestion in the neighbouring streets. Members of the Tillard family objected that this prejudicially affected their property but in July 1918 agreed with the Borough Council that they would waive their right to immediate replacement of the bollards, the Borough Council undertaking to replace them if required, meanwhile preserving the bollards in good repair. (ref. 33)

The provision of easier access to the extended market through the southern part of the Square was completed in 1929 by the widening of the western entrance to the Square from Bishopsgate Street from nineteen feet to forty-eight feet. The bollards and gate at the north end of the Square, opening on Folgate Street, were removed in 1931. (ref. 34)

In the 1918 agreement respecting the street bollards it was said that Spital Square ’was never a public thoroughfare except for foot passengers’, the property of the Tillard estate including the roadways. (ref. 35) The 1742 lease of No. 34/35 included the right to extend the southern arm of the Square: this southern arm is marked as a private road in a deed of 1889 (ref. 36) and was described as such when No. 33 was conveyed to the Corporation of London in 1923. (ref. 37) When the Pavement Commissioners for the liberty were constituted by the Act of 1778 (ref. 38) they petitioned for a new sewer in Spital Square to the Middlesex Commissioners of Sewers, who replied that they ’considered Spittal Square as Private Property’. (ref. 39) Obstructions of the streets and pavements were, however, occasions of presentment before the manorial court of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's in the mid-eighteenth century. In 1757 the occupant of No. 24 was presented for erecting posts before his house ’on the Common Highway to the great Nuisance of his Majesty's Subjects’. (ref. 40)

The houses on the north and south sides of the eastern arm of Spital Square, together with No. 21, were purchased between 1921 and 1927 by the Corporation of London under powers granted them for the extension of Spital fields Market, and pulled down to widen the street. The demolition of the south side was in progress in 1922. The demolition of the north side was completed by 1929. No. 21 was demolished in 1933. (ref. 41)

The houses on the north side of the western arm and the west side of the northern arm were, with the exception of No. 15, demolished in the early 1930's for the site of the Co-operative Wholesale Society Fruit Warehouse, built in 1935–6. (ref. 42) No. 15 was demolished in 1952 under a ’dangerous structure’ order. (ref. 43)

Nos. 1 and 2 Spital Square

Demolished

These were not rebuilt in about 1700 like Nos. 4–9. In 1750 they appear to have been unoccupied. (ref. 19) In December 1751 James Tillard of Red Lion Square, esquire, granted a sixty-one-year lease of the site and old houses on it to John Brown of Norton Folgate, bricklayer. In July 1754 Brown assigned the lease and premises described as in 1751 to Richard Sparkes of Duke's Place, carpenter. The two new houses were probably built at this time and appear to have been occupied before the end of the year. (ref. 44)

There are no records of the appearance of No. 1, apparently a small house of no significance, but No. 2 is described as a plain brick-fronted house. A photograph of 1909 shows that it had a four-storeyed front with three rectangular windows to each upper storey and a block cornice below the attic windows. The best internal feature was the staircase, generally similar to those in Nos. 21–28, with turned balusters and columnnewels supporting a moulded handrail, and carved brackets against the cut strings.

No. 2 was occupied in 1758 and 1763 by Lewis Ogier, a flowered-silk weaver and trustee under the Local Act of 1759. (ref. 45)

No. 3 Spital Square

Demolished

In 1750 and 1770 premises north of Nos. 1–2 on the west side of the yard between Nos. 2 and 4 were occupied by a ’Mr. John Canton’, who had been succeeded in 1773–4 by William Canton, who occupied the house in 1803. (ref. 44) John Canton was probably the scientist of that name (1718–72) who came to London in 1737 and is said to have ’articled himself for five years to a school-master in Spital Square, London, with whom he subsequently entered into partnership’. He was a notable early student of electricity, becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1749 and a member of the Council of the Society in 1751. His life was written by his son William for Rippis's Biographia Britannica. (ref. 46)

In 1809 the yard and premises at its upper end including a warehouse and a shop facing the yard were leased by William Tillard of Gloucester Street, Bloomsbury, esquire, for sixty-one years to Jos^h. Day and John Roberts, lead and glass merchants, as part of a plot of ground including No. 10 Norton Folgate High Street (see page 90) and Nos. 4–8 (even) Folgate Street (see page 74). Day and Roberts covenanted to build within seven years a ’third-rate dwelling house’ over the entry to the yard from Spital Square, (ref. 47) but this was not built. The premises in this yard, numbered 3 in the Square, continued to be occupied with No. 10 Norton Folgate throughout the nineteenth century. (ref. 19)

Nos. 4–9 (consec.) Spital Square

Demolished

The architectural character of these houses (Plates 56, 99a), like that of No. 38, suggests construction in about 1700. It is known that the third Earl of Bolingbroke was granting leases to builders on the south side of Folgate Street in 1697 and 1704 (see page 74). Nos. 4–9 were terracehouses containing basements, three storeys, and garrets in the M-roof. The brick fronts of Nos. 4, 7, 8 and 9 were fairly uniform and typical of house design around 1700, having in each upper storey three equally spaced sash windows with flush frames, stone sills, and generally flat arches of gauged brick. Raised bandcourses of brick marked each floor level and the wall was carried up to form a high parapet with a narrow stone coping. This parapet probably replaced a wooden eaves-cornice similar to that which had survived at the back of the houses. The party walls were marked by narrow sunk panels, corresponding in height and form with the windows, and the angle of No. 4 was finished with long and short quoins. Nos. 7 and 8 had wooden doorcases of mid-eighteenth-century character, with Doric columns framing an arch and supporting an open triangular pediment. The fronts of Nos. 5 and 6 were rebuilt during the Regency period and presented imitation stone-coursed stucco faces containing two casement windows in each upper storey, the arched doorways having reeded surrounds. Both houses had trellis-patterned iron balconies at firstfloor level, and No. 5 had a good overthrow lampiron. These houses had dog-leg staircases with closed strings, square newels, and moulded handrails supported by turned balusters. The rooms generally were lined with moulded panelling in two heights with moulded chair-rails and boxcornices. The houses were demolished in the early 1930's to form the site of the Co-operative Wholesale Society Fruit Warehouse built in 1935–6.

No. 4 was occupied in 1750 and 1775 by John Vansommer, a gold and silver and flowered-silk weaver and a trustee under the Local Act of 1759. (ref. 45)

No. 5 was occupied in 1758 and 1761 together with No. 4. In 1812 and 1819 it was occupied by George Ferry, described in 1813 as Ferry and Wallen, surveyors, also of No. 17 (now No. 13) Elder Street. In 1817 ’Wallen and Ferry, surveyors and architects’ also appear at No. 22 Folgate Street. In 1813 Ferry and John Wallen reported on dilapidations to the Norton Folgate workhouse. (ref. 48) (For George Ferry and John Wallen see H. M. Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of English Architects, 1954, and for John Wallen see also sub No. 11 Spital Square.)

No. 6 was occupied in 1727 and 1750 by Stevens Totton, a ’dealer in silk’ and one of the trustees of the Norton Folgate court house in 1744; (ref. 49) in 1758 and 1761 (together with No. 7) by Samuel Totton, silk broker and trustee under the Local Act of 1759. (ref. 45)

No. 7 was occupied in 1727 and 1731 by James Dalbiac, later occupant of No. 20 Spital Square; from 1758 to 1782 by Samuel Totton, silk broker. (ref. 19)

No. 8 was occupied in 1731 and 1761 by Simon Dalbiac, a trustee under the Local Act of 1759, (ref. 19) and from 1791 to 1808 was occupied by Doctor William Hawes (1736–1808), physician to the London Dispensary and founder of the Royal Humane Society. (ref. 50)

No. 9 was occupied in 1719 by Samuel Warner, an attorney; (ref. 51) in 1750 and 1775 by Lucy Dalbiac. (ref. 19)

Nos. 10–15 and 17–19 (consec.) Spital Square and Spital Square German Synagogue

Nos. 10–15 and the Synagogue demolished

Nos. 10–15 were built, together with Nos. 10–18 (even) Folgate Street, under a lease from Sir Isaac Tillard in about 1724. Rainwaterheads bearing the initials I.T. and the date 1724 were formerly on Nos. 12, 14 and 15 Spital Square and one still exists at No. 14 Folgate Street. They were probably built by the builder of Nos. 17–19 Spital Square (Plates 57, 58).

No. 10, on the north-west corner of the Square, was larger than the houses to the north and west of it, being rated at £70 in 1773–4 compared with ratings of £25 to £42 for Nos. 4–9 and 11–15. In 1884 Nos. 10 and 11 were leased by Philip Tillard to the President and Trustees of the German Synagogue, New Broad Street, (ref. 52) where the congregation had been established in 1858. The synagogue erected on the site of No. 10 and on part of that of No. 11 was of heavy Victorian Classical design, and was demolished, together with Nos. 11–14, in the early 1930's. The congrega- tion was amalgamated with the Poltava Synagogue, now in Heneage Street. (ref. 53)

Nos. 17–19 were built, together with Nos. 22–26 (even) Folgate Street, under a sixty-one-year lease granted by Sir Isaac Tillard to Jonathan Beaumont, mason, of London, on 15 April 1725. The plot leased abutted south on waste ground of Sir Isaac Tillard. On 5 August Beaumont assigned the lease, together with the six ’Substantiall Brick Messuages’ he had covenanted to build within a year of the lease, to William Goswell, carpenter, of Norton Folgate. (ref. 54) In December the lease was assigned by Goswell as a mortgate to secure £1,000 to John Oakey of Bethnal Green, esquire, William Fuller of the same, brewer, and Daniel Sudbury of Spitalfields, weaver, executors of Andrew Mayhew (ref. 55) to whom in July Goswell had mortgaged houses built by him on the north -west corner of Folgate Street and Elder Street. Apparently Goswell's mortgage was paid off by December 1726 when he assigned the lease to William Tillard, for a consideration of £1,900. (ref. 56)

Figure 10: No. 15 Spital Square, 1725, ground-floor plan

No records of the original Nos. 10 and 11 are available beyond a ground-storey plan in the Middlesex Land Register for 1884, (ref. 52) made when the houses had already been considerably altered. Both appear to have been double-fronted, No. 10 having a return front of thirty-one feet to the west arm.

The uniform front of Nos. 10–15, on the west side of the north arm, was generally similar to that of Nos. 17–19, still standing on the east side, the only substantial difference being that the west range was of four storeys, including the attic above the main cornice, whereas the east range has a three-storeyed front and a mansard garret. Before the surviving houses are described, it is worth noting that Nos. 12 and 13 were single-fronted houses, three windows wide; No. 14 was four windows wide; and Nos. 10, 11 and 15 (figs. 10, 11) were double-fronted and five windows wide. The doorcases were generally similar to those of the east range houses except for No. 15 where the ground storey had been faced with stucco, horizontally channelled to resemble stonework, with moulded architraves to the window openings, and the original doorcase had been replaced by one of Adamasque character, with Ionic pilasters supporting a frieze and cornice (fig. 12). Nos. 11–14 were demolished in the early 1930's to make way for the Co-operative Wholesale Society Fruit Warehouse, but No. 15 survived until 1952.

No. 17 is double-fronted and five windows wide, but only one room deep, whereas Nos. 18 and 19 are single-fronted, three windows wide, and two rooms deep. The houses share a three-storeyed front of brown stock brick, red brick being used for the jambs and segmental arches of the grouped windows, which are furnished with moulded flush frames containing sashes with slender glazing bars, the heads of the frames and top sashes conforming to the curve of the brick arches. The front is finished with a moulded brick cornice of slight projection, surmounted by a brick paraped with a narrow stone coping. Each house has a wooden doorcase composed of V-jointed rusticated Doric pilasters supporting an entablature that has a triglyphed frieze and a dentilled cornice. The doors generally have six panels, and an ornamental fanlight of later date survives at No. 17 (Plate 81c). These houses have disappointing interiors, the rooms being lined with ovolo-moulded or rebated panelling of an ordinary standard. The staircases have closed moulded strings and moulded straight handrails supported by column-newels and turned balusters of simple profile.

No. 10 was occupied in 1727 and 1731 by John Lekeux, gentleman, who witnessed many deeds relating to neighbouring properties, and was probably a lawyer; (ref. 19) and in 1758 and 1805 by Stevens Totton, a mercer who described himself as ’secretary to the Gentlemen of the Liberty’ and concerned himself with the drainage of the Square (see page 19). He was a deacon of the French Church in Threadneedle Street in 1762 and a witness of Sir Benjamin Truman's will in 1779.

Figure 11: No. 15 Spital Square, 1725, front elevation

No. 11 was occupied in 1740 and 1750 by J. A. Merle, an ’African director and merchant’; (ref. 57) in 1831 and 1856 by John Wallen, (ref. 58) probably the architect of St. Mary Spital Square Schools (see page 104) who in 1847 reported on the Norton Folgate almshouses. In 1813 John Wallen produced, as a partner of George Ferry, a plan for the repair of Norton Folgate workhouse, and in 1836 Messrs. Wallen and Beatson superintended the repairs of Christ Church, Spitalfields (see page 167). In 1837 a Mr. Wallen was asked to survey Spitalfields workhouse and also to survey the rateable property in Norton Folgate, but this may have been John's brother, William, who is said to have been of Spital Square. (ref. 58)

Figure 12: No. 15 Spital Square, 1725, doorcase

No. 12 was occupied in 1803 and 1825 by Samuel Fearn, a stockbroker and trustee under the Local Act of 1810. (ref. 59)

No. 17 was occupied in 1781–2 and 1790 by Charles De St. Leu, a stockbroker and trustee under the Local Act of 1810, described in 1813 as of ’the Rotundo Bank or Tom's Cornhill’. (ref. 60)

No. 19 was occupied in 1803 and 1819 by Charles De St. Leu.

Nos. 20–28 (consec.) Spital Square

Nos. 21–28 demolished

The construction of the Square south of No. 19 and of the eastern arm of the Square appears to have depended on the acquisition of land from Sir George Wheler and others. This ground measured 105 feet by 205 feet (the orientation of these dimensions is not certain), and formed an ’oblong square’: this purchase was made between 1717 and 1727 and may have been made in 1719 (see page 47). It included the site of Nos. 20— 28. The reservation of ’so much of the south side thereof to be left to the open street as shall make the present public Passage, now about ten Foot wide, to be thirty Foot wide’, (ref. 61) indicates its location north of the eastern arm of Spital Square, the widening of which to the dimensions of Lamb Street evidently dates from this time.

William Goswell, the most active builder on the Tillard estate, was responsible for the building of Nos. 21–27 and Nos. 30—32; he probably also built No. 20. Together these houses represented the best group of domestic buildings in the Spital-fields area. Only No. 20 survives.

No record of the building lease of No. 20 (Plates 59a, 83, 89b, 103b, figs. 13–15) is known to exist but it was occupied in March 1732/3 by James Dalbiac, its first occupant, whose coach-house and stable are then mentioned. (ref. 62) In 1731 a James Dalbiac occupied No. 7 (ref. 19) and No. 20 was probably erected in the following year. James Dalbiac was a weaver, a trustee for the Norton Folgate court house in 1744 (ref. 63) and a trustee under the Local Act of 1759. As ’Captain James Dalbiac’ he undertook in 1745 to raise a body of eighty of his workmen to resist the Young Pretender. (ref. 64) The occupants in 1763 were James and Charles Dalbiac, makers of silk and velvet. (ref. 65) In 1775 Mr. James Dalbiac agreed to pay for an extra watchman to be employed by the liberty to patrol the northern arm of the Square. (ref. 66) A James Dalbiac continued in occupation until 1779. In 1790 the occupant was D. Giles, (ref. 28) probably the Daniel Giles of Giles and Bottalin of Old South Sea House, Broad Street, merchants, mentioned in London directories at this period. (ref. 67) He was probably related to the Daniel Giles, silk broker, who occupied No. 36 Crispin Street in 1750 and 1759 and No. 25 Spital Square in 1761 and 1766. (ref. 28) During the period between 1781–2 and 1812 the rateable value of No. 20 rose appreciably above those of the other houses built in 1732–3, rising to £100 compared with about £60 or £70 for Nos. 21–27. It was perhaps during Giles's tenure that the ground- and first-floor interiors were embellished, the imposing entrance-hall formed and the lower part of the exterior reconstructed to include a large doorway with Coade stone surround.

Figure 13: No. 20 Spital Square, ?1732, front elevation

Figure 14: No. 20 Spital Square, ?1732, section

In 1803 the house was occupied by Benjamin Goldsmid and in 1812 and 1819 by J. L. Goldsmid. (ref. 28) In 1805–7, 1813 and 1818 it was also occupied by Isaac Lyon Goldsmid. (ref. 68) Benjamin Goldsmid was probably the prominent financier and stockbroker who, with his brother Abraham, had an office in Whitechapel and, later, in Capel Court, and who committed suicide in 1808. He had a son, J. L. Goldsmid; and Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, a broker, who was later the owner of Spital-fields Market and a noted philanthropist and worker for the cause of Jewish emancipation, was his nephew. (ref. 46)

In 1825 the house was empty. In 1831 it was rated for ’house and factory’: the addition of this building at the back had perhaps been partly responsible for the rise in rating between 1781–2 and 1812.

In 1831 the house and the factory were occupied by a William Emerson. (fn. 28) In the same year they were occupied by Alexander Duff and Co., silk manufacturers, described as Duff and Peacock in 1844. (ref. 69) In 1845 and 1850 the occupants were Boyd and Harmer and in 1853 and until 1894 Thomas Kemp and Son, both silk manufacturers. From at least 1865 Kemp and Son also occupied No. 21. (ref. 70) In 1896 and 1900 the occupant was a waterproof-clothing maker and in 1909 a cap-maker. (ref. 71) It is now occupied by wholesale tobacconists. In 1873 there was a fountain in the back garden: (ref. 72) this perhaps dated from the occupation by Giles or the Goldsmids.

No. 20 was designed on a far more generous scale than the preceding houses (Plate 59a, figs. 13–15). It has a frontage of forty feet and a depth of thirty-five feet six inches, with a large garden at the back, now almost built over. The interior is simply planned, with the spacious hall lying to the left of a large front room and leading to a staircase compartment between two rooms, almost equal in size, at the back. It is surprising to find no secondary or service stair in a house of this size.

Figure 15: No. 20 Spital Square, ?1732, ground- and first-floor plans

The lower part of the house was extensively remodelled around 1790, the basement and ground storey being refronted with yellow stock brick. This accounts for the marked difference in scale and style between the lower and upper stages of the front elevation. The imposing doorway (Plate 83), now partially obscured by two iron grilles, dominates the plain ground storey, with its arch-headed opening formed of brick dressed with vermiculated blocks, guilloche impost-blocks, and a triple keystone ornamented with a bearded male mask, all of Coade stone. The six-panelled door of oak is framed by narrow pilasters with panels containing bell-flower pendants, and flanked by narrow side lights. The impost lines are continued by a wooden transom enriched with fluting between circular paterae, and the arch lunette is filled with a handsome fanlight frame of radial pattern, in iron and lead. The narrow wall-face left of the doorway contains a passage entry, and the wide face to the right has two large windows, with stone sills and flat arches of gauged brick-work. The sashes, with slender glazing bars, are recessed within stuccoed reveals. The ground storey is finished with a frieze band of guilloche ornament and a delicately moulded cornice, also of Coade stone.

The upper part of the front is original, with a brown brick face containing two storeys of five evenly spaced windows, with stone sills and triple keystones, and red brick jambs and segmental arches. The moulded window frames are recessed with stuccoed reveals and contain sashes with slender glazing bars, the heads of the frames and top sashes being curved to conform with the brick arches. Below the parapet, which has a narrow stone coping, runs a dentilled cornice of stone, returned at each end against the brick face. There are three segmental-headed dormers evenly spaced in the front face of the mansard roof. The front area is guarded by handsome railings of wrought iron, with ornamental panels at intervals and, on the right of the doorway, the remains of a lamp-iron. This ironwork dates from the reconstruction carried out in the 1790's.

The late eighteenth-century entrance-hall (Plate 89b) is the most important and least-changed internal feature. Each side wall con-tains a six-panelled door of oak (that on the north wall being a blind respond) placed centrally in a lunette-headed bay of equal width with the hall. The wall-faces flanking the bay project slightly, forming wide piers linked to their opposites by arched soffits, springing from moulded imposts enriched with husk festoons and oval paterae over a guilloche band. These imposts continue across each lunette-headed bay and form the heads of the door architraves, the jambs being of similar profile but having the enrichment of a repeated motif of formalized lilies rising from a vase at the base. Over each door is a fan-shaped motif of formal leaves and palmette sprays. The arched soffits linking the wide piers have three moulded panels, the middle one containing an acanthus boss and the others a motif composed of a vase with scrolls and olive sprays. The square central compartment is ceiled with a flat circular panel and shaped spandrels. The circular panel has a central acanthus boss and a guilloche border, and each spandrel is decorated with a circular patera and a border moulding of wreathed reeding. Between the hall and the staircase compartment is a screen formed by a wide arch rising from plain-shafted Corinthian columns which have half-column responds on the side walls. The imposts continue those of the side walls, the archivolt is moulded, and the arch soffit is ornamented with a double guilloche band.

The staircase, up to the second-floor landing, was remodelled around 1790, but the fine orna-mental standards of wrought iron have been re-placed with square-section balusters. The mahogany-veneered handrail survives minus its curtail. The first-floor rooms retain the original panelling, but the enriched plaster cornices and six-panelled doors belong to the later period. These rooms contained unusual chimneypieces with enriched mouldings framing copper panels, those on the pilaster and frieze painted with jasmine vines and festoons, and the oval medallions above the pilasters with figure subjects (Plate 103b). The crude way in which an arched opening has been cut through the panelling between the two front rooms suggests that the walls were hung with silk or paper in the late eighteenth-century redecoration.

Building leases of the sites of Nos. 21–27 for seventy-one years were granted by Sir Isaac Tillard's brother William to William Goswell on 20 March 1732/3. (ref. 73) The houses were evidently erected in the same year, as a rainwater-head between Nos. 24 and 25 bore the date 1733. (ref. 19) An assignment of No. 27 in 1734 was witnessed by Marmaduke Smith of Christ Church, Spital-fields, gentleman, probably the carpenter of Princelet Street, who built No. 4/6 Fournier Street. (ref. 74)

There is no documentary evidence of the building of No. 28 but in March 1732/3 and July 1733 its site was occupied by Thomas Miller, silk thrower. (ref. 75) The house appears to have been rebuilt in the late nineteenth century; nothing else is known about it.

The first occupant of No. 21, to whom the lease was assigned in May 1735, was John Anthony Rocher of Hackney, weaver. (ref. 76) In 1745 the lease was assigned by a banker, with the consent of the assignees under a commission of bank-ruptcy awarded against J. A. Rocher, Peter Lapierre and Samuel Rocher, merchants and partners, to Daniel Mesman of Spitalfields, weaver, (ref. 77) who in that year undertook to raise forty-eight workmen against the Young Pretender. (ref. 64) Mesman and others of the same name, black silk and velvet weavers, retained possession until at least 1814–15. (ref. 19)

The lease of the corner house, No. 22, was assigned in May 1734 as a mortgage to secure £600 plus interest, by William Goswell to Andrew Hope of Norton Folgate, brewer (ref. 78) (page 80). In January 1736/7 the lease was assigned by Hope and Goswell to James King of Spital Square, weaver, (ref. 79) who in 1741 occupied both No. 22 and No. 23. (ref. 19)

The lease of No. 23 was assigned in March 1733/4 as a mortgage to secure £262 10s. by Goswell to Robert Norris of Shoreditch, vic-tualler. (ref. 80) The lease was evidently assigned sub-sequently to James King.

The leases of Nos. 24, 25 and 26 were assigned in December 1734 as a mortgage to secure £840 by Goswell to John Winn of Norton Folgate, stable-keeper, whose stables were in Folgate Street. (ref. 81) The first of these houses whose lease was assigned to an occupant appears to have been No. 26, the lease of which was assigned in June 1736 by Winn and Goswell to John Gastineau of Dartmouth, Devon, weaver. (ref. 82)

In December of the same year Winn and Goswell assigned No. 25 to Peter James Douxsaint of Spitalfields, merchant, (ref. 83) who still occupied the house in 1758. (ref. 19) He was evidently responsible for the embellishment of the interior with fine wood carvings and plasterwork.

In April 1739 Winn and Goswell assigned No. 24 to Matthew Parroissien of the Old Artillery Ground, weaver. (ref. 84) It appears, however, that by 1741 No. 24 was occupied by Abraham Ogier. T. A. Ogier, a weaver and a trustee under the Norton Folgate Local Act of 1759, occupied the house in 1758 and 1770. (ref. 85) In 1741 Parroissien appears as the occupant of No. 26. (ref. 19)

The lease of No. 27 was assigned in September 1734 by Goswell to John Pincock of Shoreditch, gentleman, (ref. 74) who was included, as a sail-cloth maker, of Spital Square, in a list of Eminent Merchants and Traders in London in 1740. (ref. 86)

The fronts of Nos. 21–27 were architecturally uniform, although the houses different in size (Plates 56, 58, 59b). No. 21 was five windows wide, with a central doorway; No. 22, the corner house, and Nos. 23 and 27 were four windows wide, with their doorways placed off centre; and Nos. 24, 25 and 26 were three windows wide, with their doorways on the left. The fronts of brown brick contained four storeys of windows, having stone sills and red brick jambs and seg-mental arches, those of the first and second storeys with triple keystones, and those of the third storey with single keystones. The return front of No. 22 alone varied this pattern with its large arch-headed staircase window flanked by blind window recesses, one to each storey. A simple moulded stone cornice underlined the attic storey, where the windows were without keystones, and a parapet coping of stone finished the front. Each house had a wooden doorcase of simple but elegant design, the opening containing the six-panelled door and fanlight being framed by a straight-headed Classical architrave, flanked by plain jambs with enriched upright consoles supporting the cornice-hood. At No. 25, however, the architrave framed a rusticated arch with moulded imposts and a lion-mask keyblock. The windows had segmental-headed top sashes and the partly exposed frames were recessed within shallow reveals.

All these houses were well finished internally, with fine staircases and rooms lined with moulded or fielded panelling. The staircase of No. 21 was fairly typical of the rest, having shaped brackets to the cut strings, and moulded handrails ramped over the Doric column-newels. The balusters, with turned and twisted shafts, were spaced two to each tread. The north front room on the first floor of this house had a charming ceiling of Rococo plasterwork, with a central circle of floral garlands and pendants surrounding a putto seated on a rocaille scroll and holding a garland. Diagonally placed motifs, and an enriched border introducing female heads, completed the design (Plate 107). No. 22 had a staircase constructed round an oblong well, beginning with a short flight of segmental-curved steps (Plate 94d). The balus-trade was of mahogany and generally similar to that of the staircase at No. 21, except that the brackets to the cut strings were enriched with carving.

No. 25, though outwardly little different from the other single-fronted houses on the north side of the east arm, was remarkable for the wealth of carved woodwork and Rococo plasterwork decorating its entrance-hall, staircase, and first-floor front room. The narrow hall was lined with raised-and-fielded panels in two heights, set in ovolo-moulded framing, with a moulded chair-rail and a dentilled cornice having three enriched members. A square-headed quadrant architrave, carved with scallops and darts, framed the arched entrance doorway, each spandrel being adorned with a finely carved winged cherub's head. Above the arch was a cartouche of elaborate Rococo form (Plate 88d). In each side wall was a doorway, that on the party wall being a decorative respond, with a six-panelled door framed by a moulded archi-trave and surmounted by a frieze ornament of carved foliage branching from a portrait medallion, and an angular pediment with two enriched mem-bers (Plate 97a). The staircase was of the usual dog-leg type, its moulded mahogany handrail resting on fluted newel-columns and turned balusters, with fluted and twisted shafts arranged alternately, these, with the carved scroll brackets against the cut strings, being of deal (fig. 17). The staircase walls were panelled and the cornice carved to accord with those of the hall (Plate 97b). The soffit of the first-floor landing beam had a sunk panel containing carved foliage centred on a high-relief flower, perhaps a water lily. The beam was supported by consoles carved with cartouches framing male and female masks, these consoles resting in turn on Doric pilasters with fluted shafts and enriched capitals. The plastered soffits of the staircase flights and the ceilings over the ground- and first-floor landings were decorated with enriched mouldings to form panels containing compositions of Rococo and naturalistic ornaments, perhaps the most charming being the panel over the first-floor landing, with its incurved corners and Rococo shells, and within the panel a flying cherub holding a wreath, surrounded by foliage and rocaille ornaments (Plates 105, 106b, d). In each wall of the landing was a door-way, framed by an enriched architrave. The door-way to the front room had a carved frieze of foliage and rocaille scrolls centred on a female bust, and an angular pediment with three enriched members. The side doorways, one being a decorative respond, had similar architraves but the friezes were carved with formal acanthus leaves centred on Aurora masks, and the cornices were not pedimented (Plate 96a). The first-floor front room was also lined with raised-and-fielded panelling; the chair-rail was enriched with carving and a fret-band, and the dentilled cornice had its cymatum carved with acanthus (Plate 92b). The doorway was dressed with an enriched architrave, carved frieze and triangular pediment, and the doors of the cupboards flanking the Regency marble chimneypiece had carved ovolo architraves. The most striking feature of this room was the ceiling of modelled and cast plaster, dominated by a large circular panel in high relief, portraying the myth of 10, transformed into a heifer and watched over by Canopus, who is lulled to sleep by Hermes piping while Jupiter descends in the guise of an eagle (Plate 104). This panel, flanked by Rococo flourishes, was framed by a moulding forming a quatrefoil with flat lobes. Each spandrel panel contained a relief decoration of a cherub against a ground of rocaille shells and scrolls.

Figure 16: No. 25 Spital Square, 1733, first-floor plan

Figure 17: No. 25 Small Square, 1733, detail of staircase balustrade

All these houses (except No. 20) were acquired and demolished by the Corporation of London in connexion with the extension of Spitalfields Market. Nos. 23–27 were demolished in 1927–1928, the vendor of No. 25 retaining the ’panelling, staircase and woodcarving’ which were sub-sequently sold to Osborne & Co. (Contractors), Ltd., and the panelling and woodcarving of the other houses being sold by the Corporation to Miss E. Friend. No. 21 was demolished in 1933. Offers were invited for the panelling ’but with poor result’ and it was removed by the demolition contractors, Messrs. Goodman Price Ltd. (ref. 87)

Nos. 30–32 (consec.) Spital Square

Demolished

These three houses were also built by William Goswell, probably in about 1739, under a lease from William Tillard. No. 30 was assigned by Tillard and Goswell to its occupant in July 1739, and No. 32 in May 1740. (ref. 88) The basement of No. 32 contained in the late nineteenth century a lead cistern bearing the date 1739 and the initials of the first occupant. The assignment of this house was witnessed by Samuel Worrall, the most active of Spitalfields builders.

No. 30 was assigned in 1739 to Giles Biget of Steward Street, weaver: in April 1741 Giles assigned the lease to his son Peter, also a weaver, who in May re-assigned it to his father. (ref. 89) Peter Biget or Biggott occurs as occupant in 1741 and 1750. In 1744 ’Bigot and Delavau’ of Spital Yard were included among Eminent Merchants and Traders in and about London , (ref. 57) and in 1745 they undertook to raise a body of thirty of their workmen to resist the Young Pretender. (ref. 64) In 1761 and in 1781–2 the house was occupied by James Fosket, a worsted stuff weaver, and also described as an ’orchelmaker, refiner of salt-petre and weaver’. (ref. 45)

No. 32 was leased in 1740 to Joseph Green of Fort Street, weaver, a trustee under the Local Act of 1759. (ref. 90) Elizabeth or Joseph Green appear as occupants until at least 1761. (ref. 19) They under-took to raise a body of thirty-two of their work-men in 1745. (ref. 64)

Nos. 30, 31 and 32 were four–storeyed houses with uniform fronts, the first two having four windows in each upper storey and the last having three. Each house had a fine wooden doorcase (Plate 80c), with a rusticated arch framed by plain-shafted Ionic three-quarter columns supporting a triangular-pedimented entablature, having a pulvinated frieze and a modillioned cornice. The rusticated arch had moulded imposts and a lion-mask keyblock, and the deep reveal framed a six-panelled door and fanlight. In all other details the fronts were similar to those of Nos. 21–27.

The interior of No. 30 must have been at least as fine as any in the Square. The handsome two-storeyed staircase compartment had an enriched compartmented ceiling and plastered walls with, presumably, painted decoration. The staircase of generous width rose in two flights to stop at the first-floor landing (Plate 87a). Its details appear to have been similar to those of the staircase at No. 25. The rooms were lined with fielded panels set in moulded framing, with moulded chair-rails and enriched cornices, and the doors were framed by eared architraves finished with frieze and cornice, sometimes pedimented, which, with the ovolo architraves of the windows, were enriched with carving (Plate 87b). There were at least four handsome chimneypieces of carved wood (Plates 100, 101), which, with a length of carved cornice and two Corinthian pilasters (probably from the entrance-hall) were re-used in Pelham House, the late nineteenth-century hostel that replaced No. 30 (see below). Two of the chimneypieces were of the continued type, broadly Palladian in design, the more elaborate having a bracketed cornice-shelf supported by child-headed termini, flanked by inverted scroll consoles. The upper stage contained a plain panel with a gad-rooned frame, flanked by short pilasters that were adorned with floral pendants and supported a broken triangular pediment. The other continued chimneypiece had an enriched ovolo-moulded architrave framing the chimney-opening, the angles being eared and shouldered to include a frieze ornamented with a female mask between floral festoons. The jambs were flanked by child-headed inverted consoles, and mask-fronted brackets supported the cornice-shelf. The upper stage consisted of a plain field, probably for a painting, flanked by fluted Corinthian columns supporting an enriched entablature and a broken triangular pediment. Another chimneypiece, probably based on a Batty Langley design, had an enriched ovolo-moulded architrave, eared and surmounted by an open triangular pediment resting on acanthus brackets. The deep tympanum contained an oval medallion carved in high relief with a female portrait-bust. No. 32 had a fine open-well staircase (Plate 95c, 95d), similar in details to that in No. 25, but the unique feature of this house was the large silk factory adjoining at the back, with a plain front containing four storeys of nine segmental-headed windows.

From 1870 No. 30 was partly used under the name of Pelham House as a Home for Working Boys by a body founded in that year by Samuel Morley and others, to provide better accommodation than the common lodging houses. (ref. 91) No. 14 Fournier Street was similarly used by the same organization, under the name of Howard House. Other homes were maintained at Maida Vale, Bloomsbury, Chelsea, Blackfriars Road and Fleet Street. In 1892 the original house was pulled down and rebuilt, the architect being W. H. Seth-Smith of Lincoln's Inn, who in 1908 was a member of the committee of the organization. (ref. 92) Four of the original chimneypieces were retained. No. 30 and the adjoining houses were demolished by the Corporation of London in 1922, when the four chimneypieces were sold to Messrs. Robersons. (ref. 93)

No. 33 Spital Square

Demolished

The southern arm of the Square was constructed across part of the garden of the Tillards' house (No. 34/35) but never fully completed. In October 1742, when William Tillard granted a lease of the house, the ground east of its garden, which in 1711–12 had stretched east to the liberty boundary, was described as ’lately designed for a street’ and the lessee was given leave ’to make a common passage between the same and the Artillery Ground southwards thereof if he or they can procure the same, setting up and continuing posts therein in such manner as to prevent Wheel Carriages passing through the same’. (ref. 94) Rocque's map of 1746 shows this arm extending to the southern boundary of the liberty, but no communication with Fort Street was opened.

No. 33 was built south of the former Tillard house between 1770 and 1773. (ref. 19) No record of its appearance has survived. The first occupant was Thomas Killner, a silk throwster. (ref. 95) The house was occupied in 1790 and 1831 by James Collins, solicitor. (ref. 96)

Nos. 34 and 35 Spital Square

Formerly No. 34 Spital Square. The seventeenth-century house occupying this site was known as Spital House

Demolished

There is no early documentary evidence of the architectural history of this house, occupied by the Earl of Bolingbroke and then by the Tillards and later divided into two houses to form Nos. 34–35 Spital Square. It appears in plan on Ogilby and Morgan's map of 1677, and in elevation on their map of 1681–2 (Plate 2) and on an early eighteenth-century plan of the parish of St. Botolph Bishopsgate and the Liberty of Norton Folgate. At this time the house apparently faced south with an irregular-shaped garden or court behind it stretching some 140 feet north-ward. The elevation sketchily delineated on these maps, presumably the south front, suggests an Elizabethan or Jacobean house of considerable size, four storeys high and seven bays wide. The second and sixth bays projected for two storeys, and the middle one for three, all being finished with crested balconies. But whereas the parish map shows a top storey with five windows and a cornice coping, Ogilby and Morgan show two pedimented semi-dormer windows centred over the side bays and a cartouche over the middle one.

The hearth tax assessments for 1662–4 include a house in ’Spittle Yard’ occupied by Lady Elizabeth St. John assessed for eight hearths: this was not the largest number of hearths contained by houses in the yard and seems too small for the apparent size of the house as shown in elevation. (ref. 97) The assessments for 1674–5 include a similar return for a house of Lady St. John's with eight hearths. Juxtaposed to this is the entry ’Empty. Lady St. John's owner 60.’ It is difficult to believe that Spital Yard contained a house possessing sixty hearths; sixty is perhaps a clerk's aural error for sixteen. (ref. 98)

The house appears on the ’New Church’ maps of 1711–12 with a block plan different from that of 1677 but identical with that indicated on a deed of 1882 (ref. 36) after it had been divided into two (fig. 18). The plan of 1882 and Horwood's map make it evident that the house was reconstructed or rebuilt between 1681–2 and 1711–12, after which it faced east on to a garden. Two of the plans of 1711–12 appear, however, to show a small extension on the north side which may represent the porch of a side-door opening directly on to the Square.

Figure 18: Nos. 34 and 35 Spital Square, reconstruction of ground-floor plan, based on a lease of 1882

The reconstructed or rebuilt house might be that crudely represented on Jeffery's map of 1735 as a two-storeyed house with a high-pitched roof. The ground-floor plan, however, is quite clearly shown on the deed of 1882, albeit in the much altered state consequent on division into two houses, then numbered 34 and 35 Spital Square. The house was approximately U-shaped and the entrance front faced east, at a right angle to the west arm of the Square. The front range, five windows wide, contained the hall between two rooms. Behind these were ante-rooms and closets, and two more rooms facing north and south. Between these back rooms was, presumably, the staircase. A large yard south of the house contained the stables and coach-houses.

Before the construction of the southern arm of the Square the garden of the rebuilt house stretched to the eastern border of the liberty: subsequently it was bounded on the east by this roadway. The house was described in August 1711 as ’that Capitall Messuage or Chieff Man sion house then in the occupation of the said [third] Earle’. (ref. 99) It was occupied by (Sir) Isaac Tillard who died there in May 1726, (ref. 7) and then by his brother William, probably until about 1741 when it was occupied by John Davy (ref. 19) to whom, described as of Christ Church, Spitalfields, silk thrower, William Tillard leased the house with its garden, coach-house, stable and yard in 1742 for ninety-nine years at a rent of £80 per annum. (ref. 100) John Davy was included in 1744 in a list of Eminent Merchants and Traders in and about London (ref. 86) and in 1763 was described as a silk merchant. (ref. 65) He was a trustee under the Norton Folgate Local Act of 1759. At this time the house was numbered 34.

Between 1763 and 1770 Davy was succeeded by T. and W. Ravenhill, merchants. (ref. 101) In 1778–1779 the Ravenhills were succeeded by Michael Pearson, (ref. 102) an apothecary. Between 1805–7 and 1812 Pearson was succeeded by Michael Sampson who does not occur in lists of merchants or tradesmen. In 1824 Sampson was succeeded by Abraham Samuda, colonial broker and father of Joseph Samuda, engineer and shipbuilder. (ref. 46) Samuda remained in occupation until 1844. (ref. 71) From about 1830, however, the house was divided into two or more premises and henceforward was numbered 34 (occupied by Samuda) and 35, the former Nos. 35, 36 and 37 being numbered 36, 37 and 38 respectively. From 1831 to 1837 No. 35 was occupied by T. A. Gibson & Co. and from 1840 by Stone and Kemp, both firms being silk manufacturers. (fn. a) From 1841 to 1843 No. 34 was also occupied by a woolstapler and No. 35 by an umbrella-maker and carman. From 1845 to 1865 Stone and Kemp occupied both Nos. 34 and 35. From 1869 the premises were occupied by wholesale baby-linen manufacturers. (ref. 103) In 1882 Philip Tillard leased the house, as Nos. 34 and 35, to Charles Kuypers, merchant, when a plan of the house and garden was drawn (ref. 36) (fig. 18). No. 34 was described as lately used as a dwelling-house only and No. 35 as a warehouse, the two communicating at groundand top-floor levels. No. 34 was described as having no first-floor rooms but this is probably a mistake for No. 35. In 1889 the Rev. James Tillard conveyed property including the house and the planted garden which then still survived on its east side to the Great Eastern Railway Company who in the following year conveyed it to the parish of St. Botolph Bishopsgate, to be cleared for the building of the Central Foundation School for Girls.

The Central Foundation School for Girls

This school originated as a free charity school for boys and girls established on a permanent footing in St. Botolph Bishopsgate parish in about 1726, being endowed in that year with two houses in the part of Artillery Lane within the parish, where the school may have been held. In 1819 the Charity Commissioners reported that the parochial charity school of St. Botolph Bishopsgate had existed since 1702: this was probably the school endowed in 1726. (ref. 104) The school was subsequently described as a ward school, the Aldermen and Councillors of the ward being among the trustees in 1732. In 1816 property in Peter Street was acquired on which a new school was built by 1821. In about 1870 these premises were acquired by the Great Eastern Railway Company under statutory powers and the school moved to premises in Primrose Street acquired in 1871.

In 1873 the school was united with the school of the St. Ethelburga's Society founded about 1719 by inhabitants of that parish, previously situated in Cavendish Court, Bishopsgate.

In 1887 the schools contained 150 boys and 280 girls. In that year the buildings in Primrose Street were acquired by the Great Eastern Railway Company under the Great Eastern Railway (General Powers) Act, 1887. (ref. 105)

Under the provisions of the Act of 1887 the Great Eastern Railway Company was obliged to provide other accommodation for the school and in May 1889 purchased for £19,500 from the Rev. James Tillard and mortgagees a site on the south side of Spital Square including Nos. 33 and 33½ with stabling, and Nos. 34 and 35 with a garden and stabling. (ref. 36) By a deed of June 1889 the rector of St. Botolph Bishopsgate, the trustees of the parish estates, and the trustees of Bishopsgate ward schools agreed to accept this land ’as the site for the erection of the New School, Chapel, Curate's residence and Ward Schools’, which was conveyed by the Company to the rector and trustees in March 1890. (ref. 36) The site for the school was described by the Charity Commissioners as containing 1,196 square yards. (ref. 105)

By a scheme established by the Charity Commissioners in April 1890 the boys' school was transferred from Primrose Street to the Middle Class School in Cowper Street and a school for girls and infants only was established in Spital Square. (ref. 105) The girls' school was in the meantime accommodated in Whitfield's Tabernacle. (ref. 106)

By a scheme of the Charity Commissioners of February 1891, the endowment of the Bishopsgate ward schools, together with those of the St. Ethelburga's Society School and the Middle Class School in Cowper Street, merged in that of a new foundation to be called the Central Foundation Schools of London, which also received endowments from the Estates Governors of Dulwich College. The Foundation was to maintain the boys' school in Cowper Street, the girls' school in Spital Square and a Higher Commercial School in St. Luke's parish. (ref. 107)

In 1897 the school was attended by 363 girls. (ref. 108)

The school buildings in Spital Square were opened by the Chairman of the Central Foundation Schools, Lord Goschen, on 16 December 1891. (ref. 106) The architects were Messrs. T. Chatfield Clarke and Son, and the cost, excluding the value of the land, was £18,000. (ref. 109) Adjoining the school was a hall used by the school and a curate's house for the use of Bishopsgate parish. In 1899 and 1905–7 additional buildings were erected by H. Chatfield Clarke on a site in Montague Court with an entrance in Bishopsgate parish, (ref. 110) the school thereby becoming ’the one City Ward and Parochial School which having developed into a secondary school still stands in its original parish and ward’. (ref. 106) In 1911 St. Botolph Hall, which stood on the north-west part of the site and which the school had shared with the parish, was purchased by the school. (ref. 111)

The school comprises an asymmetrical group of buildings in red brick and biscuit terra-cotta, designed in a free version of the Flemish Renaissance style. The main class-room block at the back of the site is ranged east and west and has a short north wing at its east end. The three lofty storeys have ranges of large sash windows looking north over the forecourt, and a few gables break the slated expanse of the pitched roof from which a flêche rises. The former curate's house and parish hall of St. Botolph, fronting directly on to the Square, are more florid in detail. The end of the hall is a composition of three bays, one wide between two narrow, each with a large mullioned and transomed window. A blind arcade underlines the gable, which is flanked by obelisks and contains a window dressed with a swan-necked pediment.

Nos. 36 and 37 Spital Square

Formerly Nos. 35 and 36 Spital Square

No. 36 Demolished

There is no documentary evidence of the building of these houses, although both are shown on the ’New Church’ plans of 1711–12 and were probably built at the same time as Nos. 4–9 and 38. Notes of rate books no longer surviving suggest that the original No. 37 may have existed in 1699. It occurs in the rate books in 1731 and 1750 but apparently not in 1741; it may be that it was then unoccupied and in course of reconstruction, as its present appearance is of the mid-eighteenth century. (ref. 19) The only surviving house on the south side of the west arm, it has a plain stock brick front, three storeys high. The wooden doorcase is of simple but elegant design, with a moulded architrave flanked by plain narrow jambs, and a cornice-hood resting on carved consoles. The windows, three to each upper floor, have stone sills and straight arches of gauged brick. The interior is generally lined with plain panelling; the first-floor front room has a good modillioned cornice with enriched members, and a Doric archway links the hall with the staircase compartment.

No. 36 was occupied in 1761 and 1790 by Robert Galhie, surgeon, and in 1802–3 and 1819 by ’Galhie and Gayton’, surgeons. (ref. 27)

Figure 19: No. 38 Spital Square, ? c, 1700, plan and front elevation. Re-drawn from The Builder

No. 38 Spital Square

Formerly No. 37 Spital Square

Demolished

The architectural character of this house suggests construction about 1700; it may, like No. 37, have existed in 1699. It was a double-fronted house, one room deep, facing east and almost closing the west arm of the Square. It is illustrated (fig. 19) in an article by Gilbert H. Lovegrove, in The Builder of 15 January 1910. The plan was simple, with a room on each side of the centrally placed dog-leg staircase, and the house contained a basement, three storeys, and a roof garret. The front was of stock brick, with a raised bandcourse marking each floor level, and a modillioned eaves-cornice of wood below the tiled roof. There were two windows on each side of the central doorway, and five windows evenly spaced in each upper storey. All had gauged flat arches and jambs of red brick, and exposed flush frames containing double-hung sashes, those of the top storey having the original stout-section glazing bars. The doorway, with a six-panelled door surmounted by a metal cobweb fanlight, was framed by a wooden doorcase of Adamesque design.

It was rebuilt in 1909–10 (ref. 112) and the greater part of the rebuilt house was demolished in 1929 when the western entrance to the Square was widened. (ref. 113) In 1741 and 1758 it was occupied by Robert Lee, merchant, (ref. 114) perhaps the Robert Lee who undertook in 1745 to raise forty-one of his workmen against the Young Pretender. (ref. 64)

Footnotes

References