CHAPTER II.
SOUTHWARK (continued).—OLD LONDON BRIDGE.
"Ablegandæ Tiberim ultra."—Horace.
Controversy respecting the Trench from Rotherhithe to Battersea—How London Bridge was "built on Woolpacks"—Religious and Royal Processions at the Bridge-foot—Partial Destruction of Old London Bridge by Fire—Conflict between the Forces of Henry III. and those of
the Earl of Leicester—Reception of Henry V. after the Battle of Agincourt—Fall of the Southern Tower of London Bridge—Southwark
wholly destitute of Fortifications—Jack Cade's Rendezvous in Southwark—Death of Jack Cade—Heads on London Bridge—Reception of
Henry VI. and Henry VII.—Reception of Katharine of Aragon—Cardinal Wolsey—Insurrection of Sir Thomas Wyatt—Rebuilding of
the Northern Tower—Standards of the Spanish Armada placed on London Bridge—Southwark fortified by the Parliamentarians, to
oppose King Charles—Reception of Charles II.—Corn Mills on London Bridge—Tradesmen's Tokens—Bridge-foot—The "Bear" Inn—The "Knave of Clubs"—Bridge Street—The Shops on London Bridge—The Bridge House—General Aspect of Southwark in the Middle
Ages—Gradual Extension of Southwark—Great Fire in Southwark in 1676—Building of New London Bridge.
Stow, in his "Survey of London," advances as
highly probable the hypothesis that when the first
stone bridge was erected over the Thames the
course of the river was temporarily changed, being
diverted into a new channel, "a trench being cut
for that purpose, beginning, as it is supposed,
east, about Rotherhithe, and ending in the west,
about Patricksey, now Battersea."
Strype, too, seems to support this view, when he
writes: "It is much controverted whether the river
Thames was turned when the bridge over it was
built. . . . . But from all that hath been seen and
written upon the turning of the river, it seems very
evident to me that it was turned whilst the bridge
was building." But Sir Christopher Wren, and
after him Maitland, are of the contrary opinion,
and think that Stow confused the ditch of the tenth
century with that dug in the time of Knut.
Old London Bridge was said to have been "built
on woolpacks:" this, however, is, of course, a play
upon words, for, in reality, it was built largely out
of the produce of a tax on wool. Stow also
states that the bridge-gate at the Southwark end
was one of the four chief gates of the City of
London, and that it stood there long before the
Norman Conquest, when the bridge was only of
timber. But this supposition again is strongly
denied by Maitland.
Of London Bridge itself, and many of the historical scenes that were enacted upon it, we have
already spoken in a previous part of this work; (fn. 1)
but Southwark has played too important a part on
several occasions, in scenes connected with the
bridge, to be altogether lost sight of here. Indeed,
the bridge-foot must have seen very fine and gay
sights in the old days before the Reformation, in
the shape of religious and royal processions. For
instance, in 1392, when Richard II. suspended and
seized on the Charter of the City of London, and
the citizens offered to re-purchase their rights for
a sum of money, the king was graciously pleased
to travel up to London from Windsor, "to re-assure
them of his favour." The ceremony of publicly
receiving their Majesties, we are told, began at
Wandsworth, "with great splendour and a considerable train," when four hundred of the citizens of
London, well mounted, and habited in livery of
one colour, rode forth to meet the king. "At St.
George's Church, in Southwark," says Thomas of
Walsingham, "the procession was met by Robert
Braybrooke, Bishop of London, and his clergy,
followed by five hundred boys in surplices. . . . .
When the train arrived at the gate of London
Bridge, nearly the whole of the inhabitants, arranged
in order according to their rank, age, and sex,
advanced to receive it, and presented the king with
a fair milk-white steed, harnessed and caparisoned
in cloth of gold, brocaded in red and white, and
hung about with silver bells; whilst to the queen
(Anne of Bohemia) they presented a palfrey, also
white, and caparisoned in like manner in white and
red."
In 1212, the Priory of Southwark, and other
parts adjoining the south end, were destroyed by
fire, along with the greater part of the bridge itself,
which was then of wood. The flames having
caught the beams of the bridge, many of the Londoners lost their lives by fire, and others by water,
being drowned in attempting to escape.
In the reign of Henry III. (A.D. 1307), Southwark
was the scene of a conflict between the forces of
the king and those of Simon de Montfort, the
sturdy Earl of Leicester, which were marched, we
are told, through the county of Surrey, and being
victorious near the foot of the bridge, forced the
king to beat a retreat, while De Montfort passed in
triumph over the bridge into the City: the citizens
of London being, nearly to a man, upon his side.
Splendid pageants were, doubtless, seen frequently here whilst the Court lived at the Tower,
and when London Bridge was the only way from
the south of England into the City. Of some of
these we have already spoken in the chapter above
referred to, particularly of those in the reign of
Richard II., which was, indeed, a memorable reign
for London Bridge.
King Henry V. was received here in great state
on his return to London after the victory of Agincourt; an event which was celebrated in verse by
John Lydgate or Lidgate, the monk of Bury:—
"To London Brygge then rode our kyng,
The processions there they met him right;
Ave, rex Anglorum, they' gan syng,
Flos mundi, they said, Godde's knight.
To London Brygge when he com right
Upon the gate he stode on hy—
A gyant that was full grym of myght
To teche the Frenchmen curtesy.
Wot ye well that thus it was;
Gloria tibi, Trinitas!"
Fabyan tells us, in his "Chronicles," that in
1437, on Monday, the 14th of January, the great
stone gate and the tower standing upon it, next
Southwark, fell suddenly down at the river, with
two of the fairest arches of the said bridge." To
which Stow piously adds, "And yet no man
perished in body, which was a great work of
Almighty God."
It appears from the narratives which have come
down to us concerning the insurrections of Wat
Tyler, Jack Cade, and Falconbridge, that in the
Middle Ages Southwark was still somewhat destitute of fortifications; and, probably, its first regular
defences were those of the circuit of fortifications
thrown up by order of the Parliament during the
civil war.
Jack Cade seems to have made Southwark his
head-quarters all through his rebellion. In Shakespeare's vivid scenes of this rebellion (Henry VI.,
Part II.), a messenger tells the king:—
"Jack Cade hath gotten London Bridge; the citizens
Fly and forsake their houses," &c.
Jack Cade, after his skirmish on Blackheath,
took up his quarters at the "Hart Inn," both
before and after his entry into the City. On the
night of Sunday, July 5th, 1450, Cade being then
in Southwark, the city captains, the mayor, aldermen, and commonalty of London, mounted guard
upon the bridge. "The rebelles," says Hall, in his
"Chronicle," "which neuer soundly slepte, for feare
of sodayne chaunces, hearing the bridge to be kept
and manned, ran with great haste to open the
passage, where betwene bothe partes was a ferce
and cruell encounter. Matthew Gough, more expert in marciall feates than the other cheuetaynes
of the citie, perceiuing the Kentish men better to
stand to their tacklyng than his ymagination
expected, aduised his company no farther to procede toward Southwarke till the day appered; to
the entent that the citizens hearing where the
place of the ieopardye rested, might seccurre their
enemies and releue their frendes and companions.
But this counsail came to smal effect: for the
multitude of the rebelles drave the citizens from
the stulpes [wooden piles] at the bridge-foote, to
the drawe-bridge, and began to set fyre in diuers
houses. Alas! what sorow it was to beholde that
miserable chaunce: for some desyringe to eschew
the fyre lept on hys enemies weapon, and so died;
fearfull women, with chyldren in their armes, amased
and appalled, lept into the riuer; other, doubtinge
how to saue them self betwene fyre, water, and
swourd, were in their houses suffocate and smoldered; yet the captayns nothyng regarding these
chaunces, fought on this drawe-bridge all the nyghte
valeauntly, but in conclusion the rebelles gat the
drawe-bridge, and drowned many, and slew John
Sutton, alderman, and Robert Heysande, a hardy
citizen, with many other, besyde Matthew Gough,
a man of greate wit, much experience in feates
of chiualrie, the which in continuall warres had
valeauntly serued the king, and his father, in the
partes beyond the sea. But it is often sene, that
he which many tymes hath vanquyshed his enemies
in straunge countreys, and returned agayn as a
conqueror, hath of his owne nation afterward been
shamfully murdered and brought to confusion.
This hard and sore conflict endured on the bridge
till ix of the clocke in the mornynge in doubtfull
chaunce and fortune's balaunce: for some tyme
the Londoners were bet back to the stulpes at
Sainct Magnus Corner; and sodaynly agayne the
rebelles were repulsed and dryuen back to the
stulpes in Southwarke; so that both partes beyng
faynte, wery, and fatygate, agreed to desist from
fight, and to leue battayll till the next day, vpon
condition that neyther Londoners should passe
into Southwarke, nor the Kentish men into
London."
During the truce that followed this defence of
London Bridge, a general pardon was procured for
Cade and his followers by the Lord High Chancellor, Archbishop Stafford; and all began to
withdraw by degrees from Southwark with their
spoil. Cade, however, was soon afterwards slain,
and his dead body having been brought up to
London, his head was placed over the south gate
of London Bridge. Mr. Mark A. Lower has been
at the trouble of recording the fact that he was
slain, not at Hothfield, in Kent, but at Heathfield,
near Cuckfield, in Sussex, where a roadside monument is erected in his honour. It bears the following inscription:—
"Near this spot was slain the notorious rebel,
Jack Cade,
By Alexander Iden, Sheriff of Kent, A.D. 1450.
His body was carried to London, and his head fixed on
London Bridge.
This is the success of all rebels, and this fortune chanceth
ever to traitors."—Hall's Chronicle.
By that awful gate which looked towards Southwark, for a period of nearly three hundred years,
under Tudor and Stuart sovereigns, it must have
been a rare thing for the passenger to walk without seeing one or more human heads stuck upon
a pike, looking down upon the flow of the river
below, and rotting and blackening in the sun. The
head of the noble Sir William Wallace was for many
months exposed on this spot. In 1471 Falconbridge—"the bastard Falconbridge"—made Southwark his head-quarters in his impudent attack on
London. He arrived here in May, giving out that
he came to free King Henry from his captivity;
and by way of proof of his intention, burnt part
of the bridge, together with some of the houses
in the suburbs of Southwark. After meeting with
defeat, his head and those of nine of his comrades were stuck together on ten spears, where they
remained visible to all comers, till the elements
and the carrion crows had left nothing of them
there but the bones. At a later period the head
of the pious Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, was
stuck up here, along with that of the honest and
philosophic Sir Thomas More. The quarters of
Sir Thomas Wyatt, the son of the well-known poet
of that name, were exhibited here, at the end of
the bridge, during the reign of Queen Mary.
One of the most imposing pageants witnessed at
London Bridge was that accorded here by the
citizens to Henry VI., on his return to London,
after having been crowned King of France in the
church of Notre Dame at Paris; the "pageant"
consisting, if Fabyan may be trusted, of a "mighty
gyaunt standyng, with a swoard drawen," and
figures of three "emperesses," representing Nature,
Grace, and Fortune; with seven maidens, all in
white, representing the seven orders of the angelic
host, who addressed the king in verses recorded
at full length by Lydgate, of which the following
stanza may serve as a sample:—
"God the (thee) endue with a crowne of glorie,
And with a sceptre of clennesse and pité,
And with a shield of right and victorie,
And with a mantel of prudence clad thou be:
A shelde of faith for to defendé the,
An helme of hettlé wrought to thine encres
Girt with a girdel of loue and perfect peese (peace)."
Henry VII. was received here in pomp, after
defeating the insurgents, in 1497; the heads of the
leaders of the outbreak, Flamoke and Joseph, being
set over the entrance to the bridge.
In 1501, Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII.,
with his bride, Katharine of Aragon, was welcomed
here on his way from "Lambhithe" to witness the
rejoicings prepared for them in the City. Stow
tells us, in his "Annals," "that at the entrance
of London Bridge they were greeted by a costly
pageant of St. Katharine and St. Ursula, with many
virgins." How little did she then think of the fate
that awaited her!
Cardinal Wolsey rode in great state over the
bridge, and through the High Street, Southwark,
and along the Kentish Road, when he left the
kingdom in 1526, for the purpose of arranging a
marriage between Henry VIII. and the Duchess
d'Alencon. Two years later, the public entry of
Cardinal Campeggio, as legate from the Pope,
into London, to deal with the question of Henry's
divorce from Queen Katharine, must have been
a brave sight. The nobility rode in advance
from Blackheath towards London Bridge, "well
mounted, and wearing elegant attire;" then came
the cardinal himself, in magnificent robes, "glittering with jewels and precious stones;" then his
"cross-bearers, the carriers of his pole-axes, his
servants in red livery, his secretaries, physicians,
and general suite." Next came two hundred
horsemen and a "vast concourse of people." The
procession is said to have grown to two miles in
length before it reached the City gates. From St.
George's Church to the foot of the bridge the
road was lined on both sides by the monks and
the other clergy, dressed in their various habits,
with copes of cloth of gold, silver and gold crosses,
and banners, who, we are told, as the legate
passed, "threw up clouds of incense and sang
hymns." At the foot of the bridge two bishops
received the cardinal, the people shouted for joy,
whilst all the bells of the City were rung, and the
roar of artillery from the Tower and the river-forts
"rent the air"—to use Wolsey's own words—"as
if the very heavens would fall."
In the insurrection of Sir Thomas Wyatt in
1553–4, (fn. 2) Southwark formed the rallying-point for
that misguided rebel and his force, some four
thousand strong. His soldiers, meeting with but
little opposition on the south of the Thames,
attacked and sacked the palace of the Bishop of
Winchester, whose fine library they destroyed. As
the artillery in the Tower began to fire on Southwark next day, in order to dislodge Sir Thomas,
the inhabitants urged him to retreat, in order to
save them from loss and destruction. His subsequent movements and his ultimate fate we have
already recorded.
Stow tells us, in his "Survey" (vol. i., p. 64),
that in April, 1577, the tower at the northern end
having become decayed, a new one was commenced
in its place; and that during the interval the heads
of the traitors which had formerly stood upon it
were set upon the tower over the gate at Bridgefoot, Southwark, which consequently came to be
called the Traitors' Gate. It may be remembered
that John Houghton, the Prior of the Charterhouse, Sir Thomas More, and Bishop Fisher, were
among the "traitors" who were thus treated.
About the time when these heads were removed,
several alterations and improvements would seem
to have been made in the bridge, especially in the
erection of a "beautiful and chargeable piece of
wood"—i.e., a magnificent wood mansion, which
formed a second Southwark Gate and Tower.
It is worthy of note that after the defeat of the
Spanish Armada, eleven of the captured standards
were hung upon London Bridge at the end looking
towards Southwark, on the day of Southwark Fair,
"to the great joy of all the people who repaired
thither."
When the Parliamentary cause was in the ascendant, and King Charles was expected to attack
the City, Southwark was rapidly fortified, particularly about the foot of London Bridge, like the
other outlying portions of the metropolis; (fn. 3) and
one of Cromwell's officers, Colonel Rainsborough,
with a brigade of horse and foot, was able to hold
the whole borough of Southwark almost without
opposition.
On Tuesday, the 29th of May, 1660, King
Charles II. entered London in triumph, after
having been magnificently entertained in St.
George's Fields. About three in the afternoon he
arrived in Southwark, and thence proceeded over
the bridge into the City, attended by all the glory
of London and the military forces of the kingdom.
Lord Clarendon, who makes this "fair return of
banished majesty" the concluding scene of his
noble "History of the Great Rebellion," gives us
but little information as to the details of the
king's reception at London Bridge, though we
learn incidentally from his pages that "the crowd
was very great."
Bloome, one of the continuators of Stow, expressly says that in the Great Fire some of the old
houses at the south end of the bridge—several of
them built in the reign of King John—escaped
the flames.
Two Gothic towers—not uniform in plan, however—defended the southern end of the original
bridge, and also of the second. At this end of the
bridge were, likewise, four corn-mills, based on
three sterlings, which projected far into the river
westward. They were covered with a long shed,
formed of shingles or thin boards, and could certainly have been no ornament to the structure to
which they were an appendage. We have already
spoken of the houses and shops which lined the
roadway of old London Bridge, (fn. 4) but we may here
make mention of the tradesmen's tokens which
were once in use here. A full list of those used in
Southwark will be found in the appendix to Manning and Bray's "History of Surrey." Several of
these tokens relate to London Bridge. The author
of "Chronicles of London Bridge" gives illustrations of several, among which is a copper token,
farthing size, having on the one side, to speak
heraldically, a bear passant, chained; and on the
reverse, the words "Abraham Browne, at ye Bridgefoot, Southwark; his half penny." Another copper
token shows the same device, with the legend
"Cornelius Cook, at the 'Beare' at the Bridgefoot." Another displays a sugar-loaf, with the
name, "Henry Phillips, at the Bridj-foot, Southwark."
PRIORY OF ST. MARY OVERY, 1700.
The end of London Bridge, on the Southwark
side, was known as Bridge-foot. The "Bear" here
was, for some centuries, one of the most popular of
London taverns; indeed, if we may accept Mr.
Larwood's statement, it was the resort of aristocratic
pleasure-seekers as early as the reign of Richard III.
Thus, in March, 1463–4, it was repeatedly visited
by the "Jockey of Norfolk," then Sir John Howard,
who went thither to drink wine and shoot at the
target. Peter Cunningham, in his "London, Past
and Present," adds that the "Bear" is mentioned
frequently by name by writers of the seventeenth
century.
Thus Pepys writes, under date April 3, 1667:—"I hear how the king is not so well pleased of this
marriage between the Duke of Richmond and Mrs.
Stuart, as is talked; and that he, by a wile, did
fetch her to the 'Bear' at the Bridge-foot, where
a coach was ready, and they are stole away into
Kent without the King's leave." Mr. Larwood
observes that the wine sold at this establishment
did not meet with the approbation of the fastidious
searchers after claret in 1691:—
"Through stinks of all sorts, both the simple and compound,
Which through narrow alleys our senses do confound,
We came to the Bear, which we now understood
Was the first house in Southwark built after the flood
And has such a succession of visitors known,
Not more names were e'er in Welch pedigrees shown;
But claret with them was so much out of fashion,
That it has not been known there for a whole generation."
(Last Search after Claret in Southwark, 1691.)
This old tavern was taken down in December,
1761, when a quantity of coins, dating as far back as
the reign of Elizabeth, were found, as may be seen
by a reference to the Public Advertiser of that date.
We learn from the Harleian manuscripts that
there was here another old inn, known as the
"Knave of Clubs," kept by one Edward Butling,
whose advertisement states that he "maketh and
selleth all sorts of hangings for rooms, &c.," and
who, probably, also sold playing-cards, if his sign
had any meaning.
Bridge Street, probably, extended itself gradually
on to the bridge itself; the houses being distinguished by signs, some of which have come down
to our times, in the works of antiquaries and on
tradesmen's tokens and bill-heads. For instance:
there is extant a small copper-plate tobacco paper,
probably of the reign of Queen Anne, with a coarse
and rude engraving of a negro smoking, and holding in his hand a roll of tobacco; above his head
is a crown, two ships in full sail are behind, and the
sun issues from the right-hand corner above; in
the foreground are four little negroes planting and
packing tobacco, and beneath is the name "John
Winkley, Tobacconist, near ye Bridge, in the
Burrough, Southwark." We have also seen another
shop bill, of about the same date, displaying, within
a rich cartouche frame, a pair of embroidered
small-clothes and a glove: beneath is the legend,
"Walter Watkins, Breeches-maker, Leather-seller,
and Glover, at the sign of the 'Breeches and Glove,'
on London Bridge, facing Tooley Street, sells all
sorts (of) leather breeches, leather, and gloves,
wholesale and retail, at reasonable rates." It is
clear, from these notices, that it was very doubtful
where London Bridge ended and Bridge Street
actually began.
OLD HOUSES FORMERLY AT BANKSIDE.
In the sixteenth century, the street on the bridge
ranked with St. Paul's Churchyard, Paternoster Row,
and Little Britain, as one of the principal literary
emporia of the City. "The Three Bibles," "The
Angel," and "The Looking-Glass," are some of the
signs of the publishers established "on London
Bridge," and mentioned on the title-pages of books
published at this date.
John Bunyan at one time certainly used to
preach in a chapel in Southwark; but, in all probability, the author of "Wine and Walnuts" is
using the vagueness of after-dinner talkers when he
says that the converted tinker lived on London
Bridge. Perhaps he was led into the error by the
fact that one of Bunyan's lesser books was published
there.
The Bridge House and Yard in Tooley Street
are closely connected with the history of the
bridge itself. For Stow tells us, in his "Survey"
(vol. ii., p. 24), that they were so called as being
"a store-house for stone, timber, or whatsoever
pertaineth to the building or repairing of London
Bridge." He adds that this Bridge House "seemeth
to have taken beginning with the first foundation
of the bridge, either of stone or timber;" and that
it covers "a large plot of ground on the banks of
the river Thames, containing divers large buildings
for the stowage of materials" for the bridge. The
Bridge House, in fact, was long used as a receptacle
of provisions for the navy, and as a store-house for
the public in times of dearth; ovens were attached
to it, in which the biscuit for the Royal Navy was
baked. It was also used on certain occasions as
a banqueting-hall, when the Lord Mayor came in
his official capacity to the borough. One of these
occasions was at the opening of Southwark Fair, of
which we shall have more to say presently. We
may state here, however, that the fair was instituted in the reign of Edward VI., and was held
annually in the month of September. "At the
time of this fair, anciently called 'Our Lady's Fair
in Southwark,'" observes the author of "Chronicles
of London Bridge," "the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs
used to ride to St. Magnus' Church after dinner,
at two o'clock in the afternoon, the former being
vested with his collar of SS., without his hood, and
all dressed in the scarlet gowns, lined, without
their cloaks. They were attended by the swordbearer, wearing his embroidered cap, and carrying
the 'pearl' sword; and at church were met by the
aldermen, all of whom, after evening prayer, rode
over the bridge in procession, and passed through
the fair, and continued either to St. George's
Church, Newington Bridge, or the stones pointing
out the City Liberties at St. Thomas of Waterings.
They then returned over the bridge, or to the
Bridge House, where a banquet was provided, and
the aldermen took leave of the Lord Mayor; all
parties being returned home, the Bridge Masters
gave a supper to the Lord Mayor's officers."
"The two governors of the bridge," writes the
author of the work above quoted, "have an excellent house in the suburb of Southwark, as well
as a store-house, containing everything belonging
to their occupation." From the same work we
learn that a cross, charged with a small saltire, is
supposed to have been the old heraldic device for
Southwark or the estate of London Bridge; and
we know that the arms used for those places are
still Azure, an amulet, ensigned with a cross patée,
Or, interlaced with a saltire, conjoined in base of
the second.
The following just remarks on the general aspect
of Southwark in the Middle Ages are taken from
Dr. R. Paule's "Pictures of Old London:"—"On
the other side of the river lay many points, isolated
and unconnected with one another, which are now
joined together into a district of the town that
numbers its hundreds of thousands of inhabitants.
It was only at the outlet of the bridge at Southwark that, from different causes, there had arisen in
ancient times a town-like settlement. Two great
priories—the monastery of St. Mary Overies and
the convent of Bermondsey—had early given rise
to the active and busy intercommunication which
naturally resulted from the vicinity of such ecclesiastical institutions as these were. Near to St.
Mary's, and not far from the bridge, there stood
till the time of the Reformation the magnificent
palace of the Bishop of Winchester, one of the
wealthiest and most powerful prelates in the land,
and whose extensive spiritual jurisdiction included
the county of Surrey. The most important agent
in this great intercommunication was the high road
which ran from the bridge, and extended through
the southern counties to the ports of Kent, Sussex,
and Hampshire. Here heavily-laden wagons were
constantly moving to and fro; and here, too,
assembled, at the appointed seasons of the year,
the motley crowd of pilgrims who were bound for
the shrine of the holy Thomas à Becket at Canterbury. The 'Tabard' inn had been known far
and near for many ages, from the vivid descriptions
given by Chaucer of the busy life and stir which
blended there with devotion and adventure. All
remains of it are not yet (1861) effaced, although
there has been erected in its immediate neighbourhood the railway terminus of that great overland
route which connects England with India. . . . .
The greater part of the land lying on the opposite
(i.e., the Surrey) bank of the river consisted of
fields and gardens, with a few larger hamlets, and
some places of amusement, where bear-baiting and
cock-fighting were practised. Immediately opposite
to Westminster rose the chapel and castellated
towers and walls of the princely residence which
the Archbishops of Canterbury had chosen before
the close of the twelfth century for their town
residence, in the immediate neighbourhood of the
chief offices of state and the tribunals of justice."
Such must have been, speaking generally, the
appearance of Southwark five centuries ago.
In the time of Elizabeth, if we may rely on the
statements of the "Penny Cyclopædia," Southwark
appears to have consisted of a line of street extending from the bridge nearly to where now is the
Borough Road, formerly called "Long Southwark;"
Kent Street, then the high road to Canterbury and
Dover, and of which only the part near St. George's
Church was lined with houses; a line of street,
including Tooley or St. Olave's Street, extending
from the "Bridge-foot" to Rotherhithe Church;
another line of street running westward by Bankside to where is now the Blackfriars Road; and,
lastly, Bermondsey Street, branching off from
Tooley Street to Bermondsey Church. Excepting
near St. Saviour's Church, there were at that time
scarcely any back or cross streets. Near Bankside
were the Bishop of Winchester's palace, the Globe
Theatre, the "Stews," and two "Bear Gardens" for
baiting bulls and bears. The "villages" of Lambeth, Kennington, Newington, and Walworth were
then separated from Southwark, and from each
other also, by open fields.
Towards the end of the seventeenth century
Southwark had extended itself considerably. The
houses on the east side of Blackman Street now
stretched to Newington and Walworth, which thus
became joined on to the metropolis, though St.
George's Fields, on the western side, still remained
open country. Back streets, also, and alleys had
been formed on either side of High Street, as far
as St. George's Church. In the early part of the
eighteenth century the buildings of Southwark extended along the river-side as far as Lambeth;
and in the opposite direction Rotherhithe Street
was continued to and even beyond Cuckold's
Point, where the river bends to the southward.
Later still, in the middle of the eighteenth century,
the opening of Blackfriars Bridge led to the formation of Great Surrey Street; and towards the
close of the century, St. George's Fields were
enclosed and laid out in new streets. Since the
commencement of the present century, Lambeth
Marsh—which formerly separated Southwark from
Lambeth—has been covered with new streets and
buildings; and in every direction Southwark has
spread itself till it has united itself with all the
surrounding villages, from Greenwich in the far
east to Battersea in the far west, and combined
them into one large town, having a population of
about 300,000, of which Southwark proper may be
regarded as the nucleus.
In a little less than ten years after the Great Fire
of London—namely, in May, 1676—Southwark was
visited by a fire which did, in proportion, almost
equal damage with the conflagration which has
become historical. "It broke out," writes Mr. C.
Walford, in the "Insurance Cyclopædia," "at an
oilman's, between the 'George' and 'Tabard'
inns, opposite St. Margaret's Hill. The front of
the 'Tabard' was consumed, but was immediately
rebuilt, presumably in fac-simile of the original,
with its court-yard, galleries, pilgrim's hall, and
quaint old sleeping-rooms. It is doubtful," he
adds, "how far any part of the hotel then burnt
may have been part of the actual inn described by
Chaucer: where, on the eve of a pilgrimage, the
pretty prioress, the 'Wife of Bath,' the 'Knight,'
the 'Squire,' the 'Sumpnour,' and the 'Pardoner,'
met, chatted, laughed, and flirted. The 'White
Hart,' whose name was connected with that of
Jack Cade, was also burnt in this fire. The fireengines were first worked with hose-pipes on this
occasion, and did good service. It was probably
owing to these that the conflagration was stayed at
St. Thomas's Hospital."
The king (Charles II.) was so much touched by
the sight, which recalled vividly the scenes which
he had witnessed ten years before, that he went
down the river in his state-barge to London Bridge,
in order "to give such orders as His Majesty found
fit for putting a stop to it." It is difficult, however,
to see how a king could be of more use in such an
emergency than a good chief-fireman, or even of as
much service. The buildings being as yet, like
those of Old London, chiefly of timber, lath, and
plaster, the fire spread extensively; and its further
progress was only stayed "after that about 600
houses had been burnt or blown up."
Old London Bridge, and the street winding
southward from it, were situated about a hundred
feet eastward of the present bridge and its approach
from the High Street. The building of New
London Bridge was actually commenced on the
15th of May, 1824, when the first coffer-dam for the
southern pier was driven into the bed of the river;
the first stone was laid in June, 1825; and the
bridge was publicly opened by William IV. and
Queen Adelaide on the 1st of August, 1831. "I
was present, a few days ago," writes Lucy Aikin, in
September of that year, "at the splendid spectacle
of the opening of new London Bridge. It was
covered half-way over with a grand canopy, formed
of the flags of all nations, near which His Majesty
dined with about two thousand of his loyal subjects.
The river was thronged with gilded barges and
boats, covered with streamers, and crowded with
gaily-dressed people; the shores were alive with
the multitude. In the midst of the gay show I
looked down the stream upon the old, deserted, halfdemolished bridge, the silent remembrancer of
seven centuries. I thought of it fortified, with a
lofty gate at either end, and encumbered with a
row of houses on each side. I beheld it the scene
of tournaments; I saw its barrier closed against the
rebel Wyatt; and I wished myself a poet for its
sake."