CHAPTER 18: PARIS GARDEN MANOR
The manor of Paris Garden, which is roughly coincident with the
parish of Christ Church, has been a well-defined area from the early mediaeval
period. It was bounded on the north by the river and on the other three sides
by a stream or open sewer which ran in a wide loop round the manor from
the Old Barge House Stairs, south to what is now Surrey Row, and north
again to the river near Falcon Dock. The stream may have been in part a
natural feature, though it is unlikely that it was so for the whole of its length,
but the earth wall which flanked it was certainly man-made. The only survival
of it is the street named Broadwall, which now forms the western boundary
of Christ Church parish.
The whole district was several feet below high-water level and would
have been unusable without the embankment walls along the river bank at
Upper Ground and the sewers which carried off the water either to the river
or south to St. George's Fields. Until 1809, when the Surrey and Kent Sewer
Commission obtained powers by Act of Parliament to build new main sewers, (ref. 202)
the whole area was subject to flooding whenever there was an exceptionally
high tide and most of the ground was too marshy for building. Throughout
the Middle Ages and until well into the 17th century the district must have
presented much the same appearance as the Kent Marshes do at the present
time, though from at least as early as the 14th century there was a fringe of
houses along Upper Ground.
From the 12th century to the 18th a water mill, known later as
Pudding Mill, stood near the river bank at the east end of the manor. The
mill pond is shown on the 1627 plan (see Plate 65). Pudding Mill stream,
which provided the motive power for the mill, was the stream which surrounded the manor. For many centuries it had its exit to the river near Falcon
Wharf but early in the 19th century it became a closed sewer. It still exists
as a small drain but ceased to have any importance even for drainage purposes
after the formation of new main sewers along the line of Blackfriars Road
circa 1812. Pudding Mill, together with the ditch and walls surrounding the
manor, were held by copyhold and the holder was responsible for their maintenance. There are many instances in the Court Rolls from 1461 onward of
persons being presented for allowing the ditch or sewer to get stopped up,
or for failure to repair either the bridges over it or the embanking walls. (ref. 203)
Similar entries occur in the minutes of the Surrey and Kent Commission
of Sewers. In 1571 Mr. Downes was presented "for anoyaunce of the
highe waye from the mylle dore to saynt Georges feylde by reson of the
great stor of watter that his myller contynually letteth in and kepethe in to
the drowninge of the quens maiestyes grounde." In 1629 the millpond was
"rayled about for the safftie of the poore people of this liberty many of
whome have heretofore beine endaingered and som ther droowned; the doing
wherof cost six powndes." (ref. 204)
The manor of Paris Garden comprised a little less than 100 acres and
roughly corresponded to the hide of ground called Wideflete with a mill and
other appurtenances granted by Robert Marmyon to the Abbey of Bermondsey in 1113, (ref. 205) and which a few years later was granted to the Knights
Templars. (fn. a) The name probably signified willowstream from the Old English
wiþig = willow and flēot = stream. (ref. 207) The ground is diversely named
"Wythiflete" and "Wylys" in later documents.
In 1308, just before the suppression of the Order of the Templars, a
survey was made of their property in Southwark. It was stated to consist of
meadow land and a few acres of arable both ditched and walled; one house
so dilapidated and ruined that its upkeep would cost more than it was worth;
three cottages, and a number of water mills which were mostly in need of
repair. (ref. 206) In 1311 William de Monte Alto, "keeper of the Templars' lands in
Suthwerk" was ordered to repair "the walls and ditches on the bank of the
Thames pertaining to the said lands, (ref. 3) " and in the following year he was
ordered to spend £10 in repairing the mills of the manor. In 1324 the
manor, with the other possessions of the Knights Templars, was granted to
the Knights Hospitallers, (ref. 3) and it remained their property until 1536 when
Sir William Weston, the Prior, surrendered it to Henry VIII. (fn. b) (ref. 208) The Hospitallers at first farmed out their Southwark property. The cartulary contains
a charter dated 1337 granting four water mills "called le Temple milnes" on
the river bank and a close called "the Wyles" to Joan, widow of Robert
Swalclive, whose family had previously had a lease of two water mills and
pasture ground there. In 1394 John Radyngton, prior of the order, and the
brethren, granted all their "waste and marshy ground opposite London" to
Stephen Speleman, citizen and mercer of London. It was then described as
lying between the road running from "les Stywes" to Lambeth on the south
and the Thames on the north.
Sometime before 1420 the land was farmed out to John, Duke of
Bedford, for there are extant some ordinances made by him in that year (ref. 206)
concerning "the privileged place called parish gardyn otherwise called Wideflete or Wiles." This is the first recorded use of the name Parish or Paris
Garden; no reasonable explanation of the name has been found though many
conjectures have been put forward. (fn. c) This, too, is the first reference to the
district being a privileged place or liberty, i.e. to private rights of jurisdiction
there. The ordinances prescribe the conditions on which fugitives from
justice might be admitted to the liberty and the fines (payable to the lord of
the manor, the seneschal or the bailiff) that should be imposed on persons
committing a felony within the liberty.
Presumably the property reverted to the Hospitallers after the death
of the Duke of Bedford in 1435, but no further information is available until
1460 when the Court Rolls of the Manor of "Paresgarden alias wylys" begin.
The records of the Court Baron (for transfers of land) are extant, with a few
short gaps, from 1460 to 1936. (ref. 203) The records of the Court Leet (for the trial
of offences) are much more fragmentary, but enough exist to throw some light
on the conditions of the manor and its inhabitants in the 15th and 16th
centuries. In the early rolls most of the persons presented for misconduct
were women, common scolds, whores, or huxters who gave short measure; the
offences for which men were indicted were mainly connected with property—failure to repair buildings or wharves, or to cleanse the sewers. It is noteworthy
that whereas before 1560 many offences seem to have been compounded for
by a money payment, after that date there are a number of references to
the cage, the cucking-stool, and the stocks as instruments of punishment.
The cucking-stool for scolds was, however, in use from a much earlier period.
In 1489 the tenants of the manor were ordered to put crosses on their
houses "as other tenants of the prior of St. John of Jerusalem in England
were accustomed to do." The prior and knights of the order do not seem to
have occupied a house in Paris Garden but it seems probable that the Duke of
Bedford and other lessees of the manor had built a house there for their own
use. In 1505 the then prior, Sir Thomas Docwra and the brethren granted
to Robert Udale, citizen and goldsmith of London, "ther' mansion place of
parisgarden . . . as it standeth wtin the mote ther and also ij gardens
buttyng opon the said mansionplace wt the gatehouse. Wt iiij pastures called
the powndyarde, the Conyng Garth, the Chapell Hawe, And walnot tres
. . . like as oon John Hellow lately all the same held . . . And also ij other
pasturs aboute the dikes ther called the Willowes, Woddes and trees opon
the said pastures ther growing oonely except. (ref. 209) " Possibly a chapel once
existed in the manor which gave its name to Chapel Hawe or field, but no
other reference to it has been found.
Early in the reign of Henry VIII, William Baseley (fn. a) acquired the lease
of the mansion house. It was then falling into ruins and the grounds were
flooded. (ref. 210) Baseley repaired the house and lived there himself for over twentyfour years. He made it into a public gaming place with bowling alleys out of
doors and "cardes, dyze and tables" indoors and obtained a royal licence to
maintain it as such after the manor had been taken into the king's hands. (ref. 7)
The house thus began to acquire the reputation for licentiousness which
culminated in the time of Charles I when it was known as Holland's Leaguer. (fn. b)
In 1578 Queen Elizabeth granted Paris Garden Manor to Henry
Cary, Lord Hunsdon, (ref. 211) who two years later, demised the demesne lands to
Thomas Cure (ref. 212) and the copyhold land to Thomas Taylor and Richard Platt
as trustees for the copyholders, (ref. 213) for a period of 2,000 years. Thenceforward
the copyhold land and the demesne land of the manor have separate histories.
The copyholder's lease was enlarged into a fee simple under the Conveyancing
Act of 1881, but the conditions of copyhold tenure and the ceremonial of
the Court Baron continued until the abolition of manorial rights in 1936.
Hunsdon
Thomas Cure was the son of the Thomas Cure who founded the
College Almshouses (see p. 83). In May, 1589, he, and his wife Christine,
sold the manor to Francis Langley, (ref. 214) with appurtenances described as four
messuages, two tofts, four gardens, ten acres of land, fifty acres of meadow,
thirty acres of pasture and one acre of woodland. Presumably Francis
Langley lived in the manor house. He is shown in the Token Books as the
occupier of a house near Copt Hall (see the 1627 plan, Plate 65) from 1593
until 1601. He built the Swan Playhouse (see p. 72), and also some tenements nearby and in Upper Ground close to the mill. The playhouse brought
actors and hangers-on to the neighbourhood and in October, 1596 householders were ordered not to take lodgers into their houses without permission
from the constable, and Langley was instructed to mend the cage, the cuckingstool, the pound, and the stocks. (ref. 203) In December, 1601, he sold the manor to
Hugh Browker and Thomas, his son. (ref. 215) The 1627 map (fn. a) shows the manor
as it was in the time of Thomas Browker.
All the centre part of the area, with the exception of Copt Hall, (fn. b) is
shown as demesne land. The copyhold lands were on the fringe—the Upper
Ground, the Broad Wall round the manor, and the triangular piece of ground
at the north-east corner.
The return of newly erected houses, made circa 1634 and now among
the records of the Corporation of Wardens, mentions about thirty houses in
the manor, with sheds, stables and other buildings. These included a brick
house built on an old foundation by John Wrench in 1622 but then in the
possession of Edmund Kenneday and a house, part brick, part timber, built
by William Sherlock about sixteen years previously. Both these houses are
shown on the 1627 map.
The demesnes of the manor remained in the hands of the Browkers
until 1655 when Thomas Browker and Mary, his wife, sold them to William
Angell, the younger, citizen and grocer of London, for £500. (ref. 217) The manor
was then said to comprise ten messuages, eighty cottages, twenty tofts, twenty
gardens, twenty orchards, ten acres of land, fifty acres of meadow, thirty acres
of pasture and one acre of woodland. A large part of the property was in lease
to various tenants.
Browker
Angell seems to have bought the property as a speculation. (fn. a) He
carried out a certain amount of building in the neighbourhood of Upper
Ground and he laid out Angell Street (now Broadwall) between the
Old Barge House and Melancholy Walk (now Surrey Row) along the
line of Broadwall. He was living in the manor in 1680 when he was
presented before the Court of Sewers "for placeing two Dams in the Sewer
or Millstreame neare to his dwelling house in the parish of Christ
Church." (ref. 129)
The notorious Holland's Leaguer, formerly the manor house, was
sold by Angell in 1660 to Hugh Jermyne, woollen draper. (ref. 218) It was at this
time in the tenure of Widow Blunden and was used for bleaching cloth. The
acre of land sold with it was still "incumpassed with a moate." In addition
Jermyne bought two-and-a-half acres of ground between Holland's Leaguer
and Copt Hall, most of which was in use as a "whiteing ground."
In the same year Angell sold about twelve acres of ground and a
number of tenements near Copt Hall to William Oxton. (ref. 217) This property
also included several "Whitster's grounds. (fn. b) " Not content with selling the
demesne lands, Angell sold to Oxton a piece of ground near the mill bridge
and a messuage known as "the musicke house," both of which were
copyhold, (ref. 213) and part of the Broadwall to John Shorter. Apparently Angell's
speculations had prospered well for in 1677 we find him mortgaging the manor
for 2,000 years to George Baron and others for £1,600, (ref. 213) four times what he
had paid for it twenty years earlier. The manor remained in the hands of the
Baron family throughout the 18th century. In 1798 Jasper Baron left it to be
divided between his son and daughter. His son, William, died intestate in
1827; his daughter, Elizabeth Ann, married John King Lethbridge in 1819
and died without issue in 1833. Both moieties therefore became vested in the
Lethbridges, (ref. 213) in whose family part of the property remains till the present
day.
Angell
The Brown Estate
As stated above, William Angell, lord of the manor of Paris Garden,
sold part of the demesne land to William Oxton of Westminster, brewer, in
1660. The condition of this land is typical of the area at the period and the
description of it is therefore given at some length. (ref. 217) It comprised a messuage
and over six and a half acres of ground in the occupation of William Fisher,
together with the use of a bridge over the ditch near the south end of the
orchard late of Thomas Austin, free access to the "bancke or Cawsway"
called Gravel Lane, and free use of the watercourse running "to and from
the Thames in the ditch . . . betweene the said . . . ground" and Gravel
Lane; also a messuage containing a low room, two chambers and a garret
and two and a half acres of "Whitsters ground" together with "one Cloth
house, seaven Wash-houses and foure fowlding houses" in the occupation of
Thomas Webb "Whitster"; also two other messuages, one of four rooms and
one of two, and a piece of "Whitsters ground" separated from them by a
quickset hedge; also two sheds, one of which was lately used for a brewhouse; a yard called Bowyers Yard and three tenements adjoining; a tenement and wash ground at the east end of the houses in the tenure of Thomas
Webb, and a messuage and piece of ground near Copthall; half a rood of
ground "inclosed with Pales and ditches" and the buildings thereon erected
by Edward Bowes, deceased, in the tenure of Thomas Worrall; four tenements on the west side of the passage to Copthall; three messuages lately
built by William Angell and a washing ground and folding house adjoining;
and a victualling house called the "Blew Anchor" in the tenure of Bennett
Edwards and a messuage and wash ground adjoining.
William Oxton died in 1662 leaving (ref. 219) most of his estate to his daughter
Catherine who subsequently married Hungerford Dunch. Mrs. Dunch
developed the estate to the extent of laying out Bear Lane and part of Green
Walk. (fn. a) (ref. 220) Charles Hopton, the founder of Hopton's Almshouses and the
guardian of her son and heir, Edmund, bought his ward's (ref. 221) freehold and
copyhold land in Christ Church in 1706 and at Hopton's death it passed to
his cousin Thomas Jordan. (ref. 222) In 1760 Jordan and his wife, Mary, sold the
freehold property to John Pardon, (ref. 223) a well-known Southwark attorney, who
was treasurer of the County of Surrey. (ref. 224)
Pardon died without issue in 1803. He left the bulk of his property,
including the land in Christ Church and his own residence in Blackman Street,
to Mary and Elizabeth Middleton and made Henry Bunn and George
Theakston his executors. (ref. 225) In the same year Mary Middleton married Edward
Bilke and in the marriage settlement (ref. 220) her real estate is described as a moiety
of all the land of the late John Pardon with the messuages thereon in Charles
Street, Pit Street, Thurlow Street, George Street, William Street, Bear Lane,
Union Place, Green Walk, Church Street, Green Street, the New Road (i.e.
Blackfriars Road) and the "Octagon Chapel, now used for divine worship by
the Rev. Rowland Hill," together with the house in Blackman Street and
land in Kent.
Elizabeth Middleton did not marry and at her death in 1830 she left
her moiety of the estate in trust for her sister Mary Bilke and her niece Mary
Elizabeth, wife of Edward Brown of Collumpton. Brown's Estate was
formed into a company in 1899. (ref. 220) The property then comprised Nos. 41 and
42 Nelson Square (see p. 129), Nos. 22 to 32 and 37 and 38 Bear Lane,
Nos. 30 to 36 Blackfriars Road, No. 231 Borough High Street (formerly
5 Blackman Street), Nos. 33 to 43 Charlotte Street together with the Thurlow
Works and the Surrey Works (formerly Surrey Chapel) (see p. 119), and
another two houses there, Nos. 15 to 23 (odd) Burrell Street and Nos. 72 to
80 (formerly 1 to 5) Collingwood Street (see p. 125), Nos. 14 and 19 to 25
and the artisans' dwellings Nos. 15 to 18 Gambia Street (formerly William
Street), Nos. 1–17 Scoresby Street (formerly York Street), Nos. 1 to 18 and
42 to 56 George Street (now Dolben Street) (see p. 127), Nos. 10 to 18 (even)
and 31 to 37 (odd) Price's Street, Nos. 2 to 4 Chancel Street (formerly 43,
44 and 47 Price's Street), Nos. 14 and 15 Thurlow Street and the Industrial
Dwellings erected in 1881 on the site of other houses in Thurlow Street and
of Nos. 1 to 5 Puddy's Court, Nos. 6, 8, 33, 31, 29 and 27 Edward Street
(formerly 5–10 Union Place). More detailed accounts of such of these
premises as are of interest are given on the pages indicated in brackets.