Folgate Street
Only that part of Folgate Street (formerly White
Lion Street, previously White Lion Yard) west of
Nantes Passage (formerly Church Passage or
Tabernacle Yard) and lying within the former
Liberty of Norton Folgate formed part of the St.
John and Tillard estate, but the history of the
eastern part of the street in Spitalfields within the
Wheler estate is appended here for convenience.
The development of Folgate Street by the
Tillards did not involve the formation of a new
street but the rebuilding of one already existing;
this street led from Norton Folgate High Street
to Wheler Street, and had probably been developed
from a yard on the east side of the High Street,
perhaps at about the time that Wheler Street was
built up. In the late seventeenth century the
street was usually known as White Lion Yard.
The difference in level between the seventeenth-century Folgate Street and the northern arm of
Spital Square constructed in 1724–5 with its roadway artificially ’made-up’ appears clearly in a
photograph of the junction of the streets (Plate 57).
The western end of the street is shown in
Hollar's 1667 plan of London after the Great
Fire (the eastern part being obscured) and the
entire line of the street, called White Lion Yard,
is shown on Ogilby and Morgan's map of 1677.
The street was, however, probably completely
rebuilt between this period and the mid-eighteenth
century. In the 1674–5 Norton Folgate hearth
tax returns sixty houses, twelve of them empty,
were listed under White Lion Yard, containing
from one to four hearths each. (ref. 98)
Something of the character of the street at this
period is indicated in two pamphlets of 1674, one
of which, apparently the more reliable, is entitled
A True and Perfect Relation of that Execrable and
Horrid Fact committed in White-Lion Yard …
Published to prevent false reports. (ref. 115) This tells of
the poisoning of weavers and their families by
food, in which yellow arsenic or ’ratsbane’ was
thought to have been placed, bought at the house
of Mr. Emson, a victualler, ’a place where many
poor weavers and Throsters did buy Broath for
their Breakfast, at which time of 9 a Clock in the
Morning there came several to the house to eat
their Messes of Broath, according to their usual
manner; and many others that had Families did
send at the same time for Broath both for themselves and Houshold’.
In Ogilby and Morgan's map of 1677 the line
of the street frontages appears not to have been
straight, and in subsequent rebuilding the frontages on the north side may have been set back
into line with the buildings on the north side of the
Norton Folgate High Street corner containing the
fragment of the old gateway, and the southern side
of the corner moved back to widen the street to
twenty-five feet.
These alterations probably took place about
1700. At least one building lease was granted in
1697 and in 1704 the street was described as ’a
certain place … commonly called White Lyon
Yard intended to be rebuilt and called White
Lyon Street’. (ref. 116) The widened street appears on
the ’New Church’ plans of 1711–12. On these plans the lower part of Blossom Street,
designated ’Sote's Hole’, is shown, but there is no
street or opening on the line of Elder Street. It is
not clear whether these plans show all the buildings within the area, but it seems probable that
some of the buildings on the north side of the
street had been demolished since 1677. Plainly
buildings on the south side shown in 1677 had
been cleared away and this area was proposed as a
site for a church.
On the south side of the street a ’brewer's
house’ is shown (Plate 6a): this was probably
occupied in connexion with the brewery which
was situated on the north side of the street in
Spitalfields. This brewery was owned in 1671 by
Robert Holden, who in 1673 was included as of
Norton Folgate by Blome in a list of nobility and
gentry in London and Middlesex (ref. 117) (see page 80).
Some building enterprise in Folgate Street was
contemplated by the third Earl of Bolingbroke in
June 1697. He then granted a sixty-one-year
lease to William Goswell of Norton Folgate,
carpenter (perhaps the father of the builder of
Nos. 21–27 and 29–32 Spital Square), of a piece
of ground on the south side of White Lion Yard
measuring in front 45 feet and in depth north to
south 101 feet. It abutted east on ground in
possession of George Wheler and west on other
ground of the Earl then in the possession of
William Goswell. (ref. 118) Its eastern abutment indicates that the plot was at the extreme eastern
end of the St. John estate, corresponding roughly
to the site of the present Nos. 34–38 (even) Folgate Street, and abutting south on the ground later
purchased by Isaac Tillard for the formation of
the eastern arm of Spital Square. Probably the
site was not built-up, however, as it is shown as
consisting largely of a stable-yard on Rocque's
and Horwood's maps and in the mortgage
assignment of the lease in 1728 no buildings are
mentioned as having been erected. (ref. 118)
In March 1703/4 the Earl granted a sixty-one-year building lease to William Price, later an
executor of William Seager, carpenter, of another
piece of ground on the south side of the street,
measuring 24 feet east to west and 101 feet north
to south, abutting east on ground in the occupation
of William Goswell and west on other of the
Earl's ground. A Robert Pickard appears to have
built a dyehouse on this site, corresponding
approximately to the present No. 32, presumably
under an assignment from Price. (ref. 116)
The street-fronts of most of the houses built by
the Tillards were similar to those built in Spital
Square in 1724–5 but the occupants were probably rather less prosperous. In 1838–9 the street
was said to be ’principally composed of small
private houses, the residences of weavers and other
mechanics’. (ref. 23)
Nos. 6 and 8 Folgate Street
Formerly Nos. 6 and 8 White Lion Street, previously
Nos. 3 and 3½ White Lion Street
These houses on the south side of the street,
together with No. 4 (now demolished) were built
under a lease for sixty-one years granted in
November 1809 by William Tillard to Josh. Day
and John Roberts of No. 10 Norton Folgate
High Street, lead and glass merchants, who
probably were responsible for the building of
Nos. 32 and 34 three years later. The lease
included also the yard on the north side of Spital
Square leading to a shop and warehouse and to the
premises numbered 3 in that Square, and also
No. 10 Norton Folgate High Street, a shop that
was occupied during the nineteenth century together with the yard in Spital Square. The lessees
covenanted to build dwelling-houses or a substantial warehouse on the Folgate Street frontage
within seven years. (ref. 119)
Nos. 6 and 8 are early nineteenth-century
terrace-houses with stock brick fronts of simple
design, three storeys high and two windows wide.
The doors are framed by arch-headed openings
and all the windows have gauged flat arches, those
of the second storey being set within shallow
arch-headed recesses underlined by a plain band-course.
In 1856 No. 6 was let as lodgings and No. 8
was occupied as a ladies' school. (ref. 28)
Nos. 10–18 (even) Folgate Street
Formerly Nos. 10–18 (even) White Lion Street, previously Nos.4–8 (consec.) White Lion Street
Altered
There is no documentary evidence of the
building of these houses (Plate 60c) but the rain-water-head dated 1724 and bearing the initials
I.T. indicates the date of their erection under
lease from Sir Isaac Tillard at the same time as the
houses on the west side of the northern arm of
Spital Square. Nos. 10 and 12, which were built
as a pair with a distinct roof-line, and a cornice returned at each end against the face of each house,
were perhaps built a little earlier than the others.
The doorcase of No. 10 is similar to those of
Nos. 22–26 and the general stylistic similarity of
the houses on the south side of the street suggests
that the same builder was at work.
These houses are single-fronted and two rooms
deep, each house containing a cellar-basement and
four storeys. The front of this range, including
the recently demolished No. 20, was designed to
conform with that of the west side of the north
arm of Spital Square, though here the windows
are spaced in groups of three to each house. Nos.
10 and 12 are paired, with mirrored plans and
central chimney-stacks, but in Nos. 14, 16 and 18
the hall and staircase are alongside the east party
wall. Modern shop-fronts replace the original
ground-storey windows of Nos. 10, 12 and 14,
and No. 10 has the only surviving example of the
wooden Doric doorcases with which all these
houses were doubtless embellished. The archheaded doorway of No. 18 contains an elaborately
moulded front door below a metal fanlight of interlaced circles, probably a Regency alteration, and
the box-frames of the first-floor windows have
trellis-pattern facings of the same period. The
moulded brick cornice below the attic storey is
returned at each end of the paired fronts of Nos.
10 and 12, omitted from the apparently rebuilt
front of No. 14, and continued across Nos. 16
and 18. Between Nos. 12 and 14 is the rain-water-pipe with a lead box-type head bearing the
date 1724 and the initials I.T.
The interior of No. 10 is probably typical of
the rest. The narrow entrance-hall is lined with
plain panelling in two heights, and an elliptical
arch on Doric pilasters opens to the stair-well.
The dog-leg staircase has cut strings with shaped
brackets, simply turned balusters, column-newels,
and a moulded handrail. The first-floor rooms
are lined with plain panels in two heights, set in
ovolo-moulded framing with a moulded chair-rail
and a box-cornice. Elliptical arch-headed recesses
flank the chimney-breast in the large front room.
The upper rooms are generally lined with plain
rebated panelling.
In 1779–80 Nos. 14 and 16 were occupied by
weavers. In 1813 Nos. 12, 14 and 16 were
occupied by two weavers and a leather-cutter and
No. 18 by an attorney who was perhaps responsible for the introduction of the Regency style
door and fanlight and the trellis decoration of the
window frames. In 1856 all were occupied by
silk or velvet manufacturers. (ref. 28)
Between 1831 and 1836 No. 16 passed into
the occupation of James Stillwell and Son, silk
manufacturers, who occupied it until at least 1885.
James Stillwell is said to have woven the cloth-of-gold for Queen Victoria's Coronation robes and
to have furnished some of the hangings for
Westminster Abbey. It is said that he was ’the
last of the old-time prosperous master silk weavers,
and on his death in the early sixties his class became
extinct’. (ref. 120)
Nos. 22–26 (even) Folgate Street
Formerly Nos. 22–26 (even) White Lion Street, previously Nos. 10–12 (consec.) White Lion Street
These houses (Plate 60b) were erected together
with Nos. 17–19 Spital Square under a lease of
15 April 1725 from Sir Isaac Tillard to Jonathan
Beaumont, mason, of London. In August the
houses were assigned to William Goswell. (ref. 121)
Figure 20:
No. 26 Folgate Street, 1725, first-floor plan
Nos. 22, 24 and 26 are double-fronted houses,
only one room deep, each house containing a
basement, three storeys, and a roof garret. They
are simply planned houses, the front door opening
to a small hall containing a dog-leg staircase. On
each side is a room of average size with a fireplace
in the back wall, which has no windows other than
those lighting the staircase (figs. 20, 21). Each
upper storey is similar except for the small closet
at the head of the stairs, over the entrance-hall.
The fronts conform with those of Nos. 17, 18 and
19 in the north arm of Spital Square, to which
No. 22 Folgate Street has a return front, two
windows wide. The three Folgate Street houses
are uniform in width, with central doorways and
five evenly spaced windows in each upper storey.
The two right-hand windows in each storey of
No. 22 are blind, and this house has a poor doorcase. Nos. 24 and 26 have wooden doorcases,
with Doric rusticated pilasters and triglyphed
entablatures, similar to those at Nos.17, 18 and
19 Spital Square, that at No. 26 being slightly
wider than the others. Between each front is a
lead rainwater-pipe with a moulded box-type head.
Each house has three dormer windows in the pantiled roof. The interiors are disappointing, the
rooms generally being lined with plain or ovolo
moulded panelling, and the staircases having close
strings, simply turned balusters, column-newels,
and moulded handrails.
Figure 21:
Backs of houses at the south-cast angle of Spital Squart and Folgate Street
In 1779–80 No. 26 was occupied by handkerchief weavers. In 1819 and 1825 No. 22 was
occupied by John Wallen, probably the architect.
In 1866 No. 26 came into the occupation of
the Spitalhelds School of Design (see page 139),
which in 1874 was joined to the Bishopsgate ward
school in Primrose Street. (ref. 71)
No. 28/30 Folgate Street
Formerly No. 28/30 White Lion Street, previously
No. 12½–13 White Lion Street
In March 1716/17 Isaac Tillard granted a
sixty-one-year building lease to William Price of a
piece of ground measuring east to west 20 feet and
north to south 100 feet, abutting east on the house
erected under the lease granted to Price in March
1703/4 (see page 74) and west on other ground
of Tillard's, the later site of No. 26. Price built
the present No. 28/30 on this piece of ground (ref. 116)
(Plate 60b). It is a single-fronted house, two
rooms deep, containing a basement and three
storeys, with weavers' garrets in the picturesquely
hipped roof. The front is of plum-coloured stocks,
with red brick jambs and gauged flat arches to the
three windows of each upper storey. A plain
frieze and cornice of wood are carried across the
heads of the twin doorways and two ground-floor
windows; a moulded brick bandcourse marks the
second-floor level; and the front is carried up to form a parapet with a narrow stone coping. The
flat arch of the second-storey middle window is
cut to a serpentine profile. The window sills are
of stone and the exposed box-frames contain
sashes with glazing bars of late eighteenth-century
pattern.
The house was occupied in 1779 and 1819 by
Thomas Pickersgill, (ref. 28) possibly a relation of
Henry William Pickersgill, R.A., (ref. 46) who spent
his youth in Spitalfields in the 1790's (see page
190).
Nos. 32–36 (even) Folgate Street
Formerly Nos. 32–36 (even) White Lion Street, pre
viously Nos. 14, 15 and 16a White Lion Street
A house approximately on the site of No. 32
was built between 1704 and 1717 by Robert
Pickard as a dyehouse (see page 74). It was subsequently rebuilt to form a pair with No. 34 when
that house was built. This was probably in 1812,
as a sixty-one-year lease of the site of Nos. 32 and
34 was granted, with the buildings ’which shall be
made thereon’, in May of that year by William
Tillard of Bloomsbury, esquire, to Day and
Roberts, the lead merchants of No. 10 Norton
Folgate High Street, who in 1809 had covenanted
to build Nos. 4, 6 and 8. (ref. 122) No. 36 was probably
also built between 1812 and 1819. All three are
single-fronted houses, two rooms deep, with a
basement and three storeys. Nos. 32 and 34
(Plate 60a) form a pair with mirrored plans,
sharing a simple front of stock brick with gauged
flat arches to the windows, of which there are two
in each upper storey and one in the ground storey.
Some distinction is given by the Gothick glazing
and trellis-pattern window guards of the first-floor
windows (the guards have been removed from
No. 34), and the narrow marginal panes of the
top-storey windows. The six-panelled doors are
recessed in arch-headed openings with stucco
surrounds, plain but for the moulded imposts and
keyblocks. The party wall is marked by a narrow
vertical recession in the brick face, stopped on a
stone sill. The front of No. 36 is basically similar
to those just described, but the windows are
smaller and lack the decorative glazing and iron-work.
Nos. 40–54 (even) Folgate Street
Formerly Nos. 40–54 (even) White Lion Street, pre
viously Nos. 18–25 (consec.) White Lion Street
Demolished
This part of the street between Nantes Passage
(formerly Church Passage and previously Tabernacle Yard) and Drant Street (formerly the
southern end of Wheler Street) formed part of the
Wheler estate and is shown to be completely
built-up on Ogilby and Morgan's map of 1677.
It was probably rebuilt in 1716 by William Seager
of Stepney, carpenter, who in October of that
year received a sixty-one-year lease from Sir
George Wheler of ground on the south side of the
street abutting east on Drant (formerly Wheler)
Street and west on Nantes Passage (formerly
Church Passage and Tabernacle Yard). When
this was assigned by Seager's relations, including
William Seager of Stepney, bricklayer, probably to
a mortgagee, in 1738, after William Seager's
death, the site included seven messuages and one
garden. It was described as abutting south on
Tabernacle Yard and also on the carpenter's yard,
formerly of William Seager. (ref. 123)
Seager had built the Seven Stars public house in
Brick Lane in 1711 (see page 215). He had been
one of the carpenters at St. Mary Woolnoth, (ref. 124)
and had in August 1716 unsuccessfully submitted
proposals (ref. 125) to the ’Fifty Churches’ Commissioners for doing the carpenter's work at Spital-fields, St. George's-in-the-East and Limehouse
churches. (fn. a)
No. 1 Folgate Street: the Norton Folgate Court House
Formerly No. 1 White Lion Street, previously No. 32
White Lion Street
Demolished
This house was apparently a late seventeenth-century building (Plate 61a). It had a wide front
faced with coursed stucco, three storeys high with
four rectangular flush-framed windows in each
upper storey. A raised bandcourse marked each
floor level, that over the first-floor windows being
lettered, in bold raised type, ’NORTON FOLGATE
COURT HOUSE’.
This building became the court house in 1744
when it was leased by William Tillard of Feather
stone Buildings, Holborn, esquire, for eighty years
to an oilman and a weaver, ’overseers of the Poor
for the Manor or Liberty of Norton Folgate’, and
to a dealer in silk, a calender, a dyer and nine
weavers, inhabitants of the manor or liberty, in
trust to allow ’the Room up one pair of Stairs’ to
be used for the court house of the manor or liberty
’in lieu of the Ancient Court house of the said
Manor or Liberty which stood in the midst of the
high street near Hog Lane [Worship Street] there
and which the Inhabitants of the said Mannor or
Liberty have lately caused to be taken down deeming the same by the standing in the midst of the
said street an Inconvenience within the said
Manor’. The lower room was to be used as a
watch-house. (ref. 128)
The former court house had been found to be
’in a very ruinous condition’ in October 1742. (ref. 128)
Its position was indicated on the 1746 and later
editions of Rocque's map (although it had by then
been demolished) about three-quarters of the way
north from Folgate Street towards Worship
Street. (fn. b) A building in a similar position is also
shown on Faithorne and Newcourt's map of the
1640's, published in 1658. In April 1745 a shop-keeper in Norton Folgate High Street paid the
overseers of the poor for Norton Folgate £31 10s.
collected from inhabitants of the liberty living in
the High Street towards the cost of removing the
old watch-house. (ref. 129)
A covenant in the lease of 1744 provided that
at its expiry the lessees should ’find and provide a
Competent and convenient Court House within
the said Manor or Liberty’, but the house in Folgate Street continued in use for meetings of trustees of the liberty until its abolition in 1900.
Norton Folgate Boys' Charity School
In 1691 a charity school for thirty boys of the
liberty was established by Humphrey Seymore,
Richard Turner and others. At an early period
and possibly from the date of its foundation it was
accommodated on the upper floor of the court
house in Norton Folgate High Street. When this
was demolished in 1743 the school moved to a
house in White Lion (Folgate) Street, perhaps
No. 1, the new court house. In 1775 the trustees
of the school built a new school-house on a site in
Primrose Street, Bishopsgate, of which they took
a lease for sixty years. (ref. 130) The school's chief
benefactor was Richard Turner, a son of one of
the founders, who by his will of 1767 left it an
endowment of £5,000. The school, which had
become known as Turner's Free School, (ref. 131) remained in Primrose Street until it was closed in
1880. (ref. 132) The endowment was then converted
into the Turner Exhibition Fund. (ref. 133)
Nos. 3–11 (odd) Folgate Street
Formerly Nos. 3–11 (odd) White Lion Street, previously
Nos. 31–27 (consec.) White Lion Street
Demolished
Houses are shown on the sites of Nos. 1–9 in
the 1711–12 ’New Church’ plans. In April 1724
Sir Isaac Tillard leased an ’old messuage’ on the
site of No. 11, but not as a building lease. In 1742
William Tillard leased for sixty-one years to
John Sparklin of Norton Folgate, carpenter,
ground, apparently without a street-frontage,
probably near the western end of Blossom Place
on the west side of Blossom Street. This ground
was described as being ’northwards of and partly
behind houses there lately built by the said
William Tillard’. (ref. 134) This probably refers to some
or all of Nos. 3–9.
In July 1748 William Tillard leased the site of
No. 11 to John Brown of Norton Folgate, brick-layer, and No. 11 was probably erected at that
time. (ref. 135)
Nos. 13–27 (odd) Folgate Street
Formerly Nos. 13–27 (odd) White Lion Street, pre
viously Nos. 26–19 (consec.) White Lion Street
Nos. 13, 15, 23 and 25 demolished
The rebuilding of the houses on the north side
of Folgate Street probably proceeded from Blossom
Street eastward. One site, that of No. 13, 15
(both now demolished) or 17 was probably leased
by Sir Isaac Tillard in July 1722 to an unknown
lessee, the lease being assigned in 1757, to John
Winn, variously described as stable-keeper, inn-keeper or coachmaker, who in 1723 had possessed
premises west of No. 19. (ref. 136) No. 17 has the
appearance of being earlier than the date of this
lease, as had Nos. 13 and 15, but they are not
shown on the 1711–12 ’New Church’ plans.
Nos. 19 and 21, facing the northern end of
Spital Square, were built by Daniel Le Sueur of
Spitalfields, goldsmith (elsewhere described as
silversmith), under a sixty-one-year lease of February 1722/3 from Sir Isaac Tillard of two
plots abutting west on John Winn and east on
vacant ground of Sir Isaac Tillard's. In 1750 the
lease was assigned by the executors of Le Sueur's
son-in-law, an apothecary of White Lion Yard,
to his widow, together with ’the leaden cistern in
the yard’. (ref. 137)
Nos. 23–27 were built, together with Nos.
32–36 Elder Street, by William Goswell under a
building lease of May 1725 from Sir Isaac Tillard.
In July Goswell assigned the lease, together with
the six houses and six stables containing twenty-eight stalls at the back of Nos. 23 and 25, as a
mortgage to secure £1,000 to Oakey, Fuller and
Sudbury, (ref. 138) to whom he also mortgaged houses on
the eastern corner of Folgate Street and Spital
Square in December. They then assigned their
mortgage of Nos. 23–27 and the Elder Street
houses to Alexander Garrett of Spitalfields,
merchant. (ref. 139)
No. 17, a single-fronted house one room deep,
contains three storeys and a roof garret. The
brick front has been largely rebuilt, but the upper
part preserves an early eighteenth-century character. Each upper storey has three windows, the
left-hand one being narrow, with double-hung
sashes in exposed flush frames set in openings with
stone sills and gauged flat arches of brick. The
top-storey arches are concealed by a cement
facing. A raised brick bandcourse marks the
second-floor level and the front is carried up to a
parapet with a narrow stone coping.
Nos. 19 and 21 are four-storeyed houses, single-fronted and two rooms deep. The fronts resemble
those of Nos. 10–18 (even) opposite, and are of
stock brick with red dressings to the segmental-headed windows. These are evenly spaced, three
in each upper storey. No. 19 has a Doric door-case similar to that of No. 10, and the ground
storey of No. 21 has a wide canted bay containing
two windows, finished with an entablature fascia,
probably an alteration of around 1800. There is a
simple brick cornice above the third-storey window arches; the middle window in the top storey
of each house is blind, and the fronts finish with a
narrow stone coping.
Nos. 23 and 25 have been recently rebuilt and
are of no interest.
No. 27 is a single-fronted house two rooms
deep, containing basement, three storeys, and a
roof garret. The front, with three segmental-headed windows in each upper storey, is a rebuilding in yellow stocks of the original, which
was probably uniform in style and materials with
the return front of No. 36 Elder Street. The
front door, set in a plain arch-headed opening,
appears to be of Regency date, but the double-hung sashes in flush frames are modern.
In November 1726 Nos. 23 and 25 were
occupied by John Winn, stable-keeper, inn-keeper
or coachmaker. (ref. 140) No. 23 was occupied by a
horse dealer and livery-stables keeper in 1812 and
1856. (ref. 141) For an unknown period terminated at
midsummer 1873 it was used by the Volunteers. (ref. 142)
In 1885 and 1900 it was a dairy; (ref. 71)
In 1779 No. 27 was occupied by an apothe
cary. (ref. 28)
Nos. 29–33 (odd) Folgate Street
Formerly Nos. 29–33 (odd) White Lion Street, pre
viously Nos. 18–16 (consec.) White Lion Street
Nos. 29 and 31 were built, together with No. 23
Elder Street, under a sixty-one-year building lease
of a piece of waste ground granted in June 1727
by William Tillard to William Goswell, who
assigned the lease as a mortgage to a Shoreditch
gingerbread maker in June 1728. (ref. 143) In February
1728/9 the ground was described as lately demised
to William Goswell and intended to be built
upon. (ref. 144) The inferior construction of No. 29
(Plate 61b) suggests, however, that Goswell
may not have been as closely associated with the
actual construction of these houses as elsewhere.
These premises abutted east on Joseph Townsend, brewer. In October 1728 Townsend took a
lease of the site of No. 33 and the yard on its east
side, measuring 135 feet north to south (ref. 145) (presumably
from William Tillard although Sir Isaac,
who died in 1726, is named in the recital of
the deed). In February 1728/9 Townsend's executrix, maria
Townsend, granted a building lease
of the site of No. 33 only to Goswell for
fifty-six and three-quarter years, ’together with
the two Brick Coach houses Roomes and Chambers over the same and stabling for six horses’,
said in 1736 to have been built thereon by Goswell.
The lease was witnessed by Richard Gregory of
Red Cross Street, carpenter. (ref. 146) Assignments of
the property were subsequently made between
various partners in the brewery situated between
the yard and Wheler Street (see below).
In 1794 a lease of No. 33 and the yard,
measuring about 209 feet north to south, containing warehouses and a counting-house, was
granted by William Tillard of Southampton
Street, Bloomsbury, to the executors of John
London, late of Folgate Street, coachmaker, in
consideration of £700 laid out by him in building,
rebuilding, repairs and improvements. (ref. 147)
No. 29, a three-storeyed house with basement
and garret, has a return front of Elder Street with
two windows in each upper storey. The principal
front to Folgate Street has four window recesses
in each upper storey, but only the extreme right-hand window is glazed. The fronts are of poor
design and built in varied stocks, with raised
bandcourses above the segmental-arched heads of
the first- and second-floor windows. A stucco
bandcourse links the sills of the first-floor windows
and the apron face below is also stuccoed. The
upper windows have double-hung sashes in flush
frames, but in the ground storey of the Elder
Street front is a three-light sash window of later
date, perhaps inserted as a shop-front, for above it
and across the front extends a deep fascia and a
modillioned cornice of wood. The doorway in
Folgate Street has a six-panelled door with a fan-light set in a tall rectangular opening, with
panelled linings and a narrow architrave frame
surmounted by a hood resting on shaped brackets.
To the right of the doorway is a small shop-window. The plain brick face to the left shows
straight joints, possibly indicating blind windows
now faced up. Internally, the house is divided by
panelled partitions into two rooms per floor, one
almost square to the west, and one L-shaped to the
east, with the stair in the angle thus formed. Some
of the rooms are fully panelled but there are no
features of particular note (fig. 24).
No. 31 is generally similar to No. 29 but only
half as wide, the front continuing the same design
with two windows in each upper storey. The
stucco-faced ground storey has one straight-headed window and, on the left, a plain archheaded doorway. There is a five-light weavers'
window in the roof.
No. 33 has a plain three-storeyed front of
yellow brick. A mid-nineteenth-century shop-front fills the ground storey, and each upper
storey has three evenly spaced windows, with
gauged flat arches, stone sills, and stuccoed reveals
framing double-hung sashes with slender glazing
bars.
No. 35 Folgate Street and Hope's or
the While Lion Brewery
Formerly No. 35 White Lion Street, previously No. 15a
White Lion Street
The brewery is demolished
The greater part of this property formed part of
the Wheler estate, but its history is appended here
for convenience.
In 1671 ground behind the houses on the west
side of Wheler Street and the north side of Folgate
Street, and lying near the south side of Three
Crown Court, was leased by Charles and George
Wheler to Robert Holden, brewer, (ref. 148) who may
have lived on the south side of Folgate Street.
Part of this land, together with other ground,
was leased in 1733 by Granville Wheler to
Thomas Beacon and John Hope, brewers. (ref. 148)
Land immediately east of the Norton Folgate
Liberty boundary and the yard adjoining No. 33
Folgate Street was, however, already occupied by
the brewhouse of Thomas Beacon in October
1728. (ref. 145) The yard itself and the premises in it,
to a distance of some 210 feet north from Folgate
Street, were described as being in the possession of
Bacon, Townsend and Firth, brewers, (ref. 149) in the
Elder Street building leases of 1725–7; in October
1728 part of the yard was leased by Sir Isaac
Tillard to Joseph Townsend. (ref. 145) At this time the
greater part of the ground on the north side of the
street between the back of the Elder Street
properties and Wheler Street was probably
occupied by brewery premises, including land on
both the Tillard and Wheler estates.
An exception may have been the corner site
with a frontage of about 27 feet on Wheler Street
and 43 feet on Folgate Street, which was leased by
Sir George Wheler in July 1709 to John Brooks
bank of Stepney, dyer, who erected one house
where three old houses formerly stood. (ref. 150) In
December 1740 this was leased by the Rev. Granville Wheler to Robert Matthews of Love Lane,
carpenter, the house having for several years past
stood empty. It was then described as abutting
west on Hope's brewery. (ref. 151)
In March 1742/3 the whole site on the north
side of Folgate Street between the liberty boundary and Wheler Street, reaching 208 feet north
on the west side and 190 feet north, to Three
Crown Court, on the east side, was leased by the
Rev. Granville Wheler to John Hope of Wheler
Street, brewer, ’on which … there is now standing
and being erected a Brew House, compting House with Storehouses, Granaries, Hop Lofts, Stables,
Malt Houses and divers dwelling houses' for
fifty-nine years at a rent rising from £26 to £100
per annum. (ref. 152) The site of the brewhouse is
indicated on Rocque's map of 1746.
In 1756 John Hope, John Stubbs and George
Barlow, all of Spitalfields, and William Smith and
John Thornton of Norton Folgate, brewers and
co-partners, were granted the lease of a house in
Elder Street by Isaac Mather, apothecary. (ref. 153) This
was possibly No. 23 Elder Street. About this
time presentments were made of the brewery
owners in the manorial court of Norton Folgate
for obstructing Elder Street and Blossom Street
with their drays. (ref. 128)
The death of the ’eminent brewer’ John Hope,
esquire, took place in 1759.
In Horwood's map of 1799 and Greenwood's
map of 1824–6 most of the Folgate Street frontage appears not to be built-up, opening direct on
to the brewers' yard.
In February 1849 the site of the White Lion
brewery was conveyed by Thomas Gaskell and
Edward Downs, of White Lion and Wheler
Streets, to the Commissioners of Works for the
formation of Commercial Street. (ref. 154)
No. 35, a detached house with a basement and
three storeys, has a tall and narrow front of yellow
stock brick, each upper storey having two windows
with gauged flat arches. The general
austerity of this front is tempered by the elegant
iron guards, patterned with interlaced segments,
before the tall first-floor windows.