CHAPTER XVI - The Tenter Ground Estate
This area was bounded in the seventeenth
century by Lolesworth field and the
Wheler estate on the north, Wentworth
Street and the hamlet boundary on the south,
Rose Lane on the east and Bell Lane on the west.
The bounding streets on the south, east and west
were built up by the 1640's and the northern
boundary was formed into the south side of
White's Row in about 1650. The central plot of
ground remained open, however, until the second
decade of the nineteenth century and was the last
part of Spitalfields to be formed into streets.
In 1550 the area had, like the later Fossan and
Halifax estates to the east and west, formed part of
two closes in the Manor of Stepney lying between
Hog Lane (Middlesex Street) and Brick Lane. (ref. 1)
By about 1642 it was, like the Fossan estate, held
on lease by William Smyth. The Rose Lane and
Wentworth Street frontages were then completely built up. The Bell Lane frontage, on
which the buildings were said to be wholly of
brick, lay partly open to the nineteen tenters in the
possession of a Mr. Seed which lay between Bell
Lane and Rose Lane. In Bell Lane also were
’the Shedds or Little houses for theTeinder men to
laie theirToulesin and sometimes their Clothes’. (ref. 2)
In July 1650 Smyth, who had with others
acquired possession of the manor in March 1642/3
(see page 238), made, together with John Smyth
of the Middle Temple, esquire, a conveyance of
the northern part of this area to Joseph Gull,
senior, of Little Bardfleld, Essex, yeoman, and
William Hickman of St. Alban's, Hertfordshire,
ironmonger, for the use of Nathaniel Tilly of
London, gentleman. It included the then unbuilt
northern boundary, houses in Rose Lane and Bell
Lane and half the soil of those streets, on east and
west, and between them ’that parcell of ground
whereon taynters or Cloth Rackes stand’. Other
ground of Nathaniel Tilly lay to its south-west or
south, where it also reached the backs of houses
and yards in Wentworth Street. (ref. 3) The south side
of White's Row was evidently built-up without
delay by Nathaniel Tilly (see page 144), but unlike the contemporary development on the Fossan
estate the rest of the area was left open.
The Tilly property did not include the houses
in Wentworth Street, two of which were conveyed by William and John Smyth to Bartholo-mew Fossan as co-trustee for John and Robert
Bumpstead on the same day as the conveyance to
the use of Nathaniel Tilly. (ref. 4)
By 1707 Tilly's property was owned by
Nathaniel Shepherd, gentleman, who, like one of
Nathaniel Tilly's trustees, was of St. Alban's. (ref. 5) It
was under a lease from him that No. 5 White's
Row was built, probably in the 1730's (see page
145). Shepherd at that time reserved the right to
prevent access from White's Row to the Tenter
Ground, (ref. 6) which was still entered through a
’Teynter Gate’ in Bell Lane. (ref. 5)
In 1736 the use of ground south of the tenters
was included in a lease of houses in Bell Lane to
two dyers by Shepherd's widow, who reserved to
herself ’the Grass and Herbage of the said piece
of ground’. (ref. 7)
In 1768 the estate was owned by Miss Mary
Freeman Shepherd. (ref. 8)
The tenter ground site is shown open on Horwood's map of 1799. By 1810 it was owned by
John Butler (ref. 9) of Johns Terrace, Hackney Road,
Shoreditch, gentleman, who was responsible for
laying it out in streets during the next twelve
years or so. (ref. 10) In that year he granted a lease of
No. 2 White's Row together with ground on its
south ’intended to be formed into or made a new
street called Tilley Street’ (in fact called Tenter
Street), and included specifications for any building erected by the lessee in the new street as a
’third-rate’ house. (ref. 9) Horwood's map of 1819
shows the estate half-completed and it is shown
fully built in Greenwood's map surveyed in
1824–6.
None of the first lessees seem to have taken the
site of more than four houses and most took only
one. Not all the lessees were builders, but a number of builders occur. These included Thomas
Burton of White's Row, carpenter; (fn. a) James Free
man of St. Mary Axe, builder; Samuel Hetherington Hurt of Whitechapel Road, carpenter; James
Love of Seward Street, Goswell Street, carpenter;
John McNeal of No. 5 White's Row, carpenter;
John Stebbing of Red Cow Lane, builder; and
Hervey John Tredeman of No. 12 Flower and
Dean Street, stonemason.
The leases contained provision for the payment
to Butler of a yearly sum, additional to the rent,
for his maintenance of the roadway and pavements.
The lay-out was designed to give the maximum
street frontage, with little space at the back of
houses either in the cross-streets or in the outer
streets, between which and the surrounding roads
a number of narrow courts were formed. A
’twine-ground’ ran between Shepherd Street and
Rose Lane and was swept away when Commercial
Street was formed. The only regular access was
from two entrances in White's Row, the westernmost being the stuccoed archway bearing the
name ’Shepherd's Place’, shown in Plate 74a,
through which a glimpse of the buildings on the
estate can be seen. Except for a narrow outlet to
Ann's Place, in the south-east corner, which may
be of later date, the estate formed a large cul-de-sac.
The houses were small, with a frontage of
fifteen feet, and were probably not particularly
well built since within forty years at least one had
fallen down. (ref. 11)
All of this estate, with the exception of the
north side of Butler Street (now Brune Street) and
the northern end of Tenter Street (now Tenter
Ground), was demolished for the erection of the
London County Council Holland estate in 1927–1936.
Bell Lane Meetings and Bell Lane
French Church
A deed of 1718 refers to a former meetinghouse, then demolished, on the east side of Bell
Lane, approached by a passage north of the third
house from the corner of Wentworth Street. This
building, which had been described as ruinous in
1681, (ref. 12) is perhaps shown by Ogilby and Morgan
on their map of 1677. There are successive
records of three congregations meeting in Bell
Lane, but it is not certain which, if any, occupied
the building described in this deed.
In 1666 John Belcher (or Bellchar) brought a
Seventh-day Baptist congregation from Brick
Lane to Bell Lane. (ref. 13) Two witnesses claimed in
1671 that ’they heard a person preach at an unlawful assembly in Bell Lane, near Spitalfields,
who went by the name of John Bellchar, a bricklayer and a Sabbatarian, or Fifth Monarchy man’.
Belcher, described as ’a most notorious knave
from Oxfordshire’, was committed to the Tower,
presumably as a result of this report, (ref. 14) and many
of his followers appear to have been in prison at
about the same time. By 1677 the meeting had
moved to Fenchurch Street. (ref. 13) In 1683 a Presbyterian congregation was meeting in Bell Lane. (ref. 15)
A series of extracts from the registers of a
French church in Bell Lane exists for the years
between 25 December 1709 and 5 February
1715/16. (ref. 16) One of its ministers is mentioned in
an entry of 3 January 1708/9 in the registers of
l'Eglise de l'Artillerie, (ref. 17) and another in 1723. It
has been suggested that the church was dissolved
in the following year. (ref. 18) If the French congregation had ever met in the meetinghouse described
in the deed, they must have moved to other
premises during their closing years.
Wentworth Street Ragged School
In about 1859 a free (ragged) school was
opened in a building on the north side of Wentworth Street, at the corner of Ann's Place. (ref. 19) The
premises, which had formerly been a public
house, were reputed to have been a popular resort
of fashionable society during the Regency. The
Prince Regent himself is said to have visited it
frequently, and the presence of the royal arms over
the door was accounted for in this way. Later the
building is said to have housed a gambling den in
its cellars. (ref. 20)
The school was originally conducted by a
society associated with the Ragged School Union.
When the Rev. R. C. Billing came to Christ
Church in 1878 he took over the school, (ref. 20)
obtaining a new lease of the building in the following year. (ref. 21) The school was closed in 1890 owing
to the dilapidation of the building and the expiry
of the lease. The children were transferred to the
parish schools in Brick Lane. (ref. 20) The building is
now occupied by a bakery.
The pleasant exterior, in early nineteenth-century Classical taste, has lost its original ground
storey but is otherwise well preserved. It is faced
with yellow brick and liberally dressed with stucco. The fronts to Wentworth Street and
Rose Court are alike, with three windows in each
storey. The tall second-storey windows are
dressed with architraves and triangular pediments
resting on consoles, and a plain bandcourse underlines the attic-storey windows, which are almost
square and have moulded architraves. The fronts
are finished with a plain frieze and a dentilled
cornice, above which is a stepped parapet, possibly
part of an open balustrade, now missing. Above
the angle is placed a spread eagle.
Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor,
Nos. 17–19 Brune Street
The London Hebrew Soup Kitchen or Jews’
Soup Kitchen was founded in Leman Street in
1854. (ref. 22) It moved subsequently to Black Horse
Yard, Aldgate, and then to No. 5 Fashion
Street, (ref. 23) where it is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1873. In 1903 the charity moved to
Brune Street. In 1951 it provided assorted foods
for as many as 1,500 persons. (ref. 24)