CHAPTER 1: BOROUGH HIGH STREET, BLACKMAN STREET AND NEWINGTON CAUSEWAY
The Roman settlement in Southwark, like the mediaeval borough,
was concentrated in the neighbourhood of London Bridge, but scattered
Roman finds, mainly burials, in St. George's Fields, Newington, and on
either side of Tabard Street, support the geological evidence that in the first
centuries of the Christian era the whole of Southwark was considerably higher
and dryer than it became later. (fn. a) If this is so, both building and road-making
were more possible at that time than at any later period until the area was
thoroughly drained during the first quarter of the 19th century.
It is generally agreed that the bridge built by the Romans was
roughly on the same site as the mediaeval London Bridge, i.e. about 180 feet
east of the present bridge, and that the bridge approach, which formed the
London end of Stane Street, lay a little to the east of the line of Borough High
Street as far as the site of St. George's Church. Recent finds of traces of a
Roman road below King's Head Yard (by Miss Kathleen Kenyon in 1946), (ref. 2)
and of a Kentish ragstone pavement of Roman date below Talbot Yard
(reported by Mr. Margary in 1952) (ref. 3) reinforce this view. There is some
indication that this road was built on piles, suggesting that even during the
Roman occupation the area was liable to flooding.
Both the author of the introduction to Roman London (ref. 1) and Mr. I. D.
Margary in Roman Ways in the Weald (ref. 4) have conjectured, in the absence of
evidence to the contrary, that Stane Street (the road from Chichester), whose
route has been plotted with reasonable certainty as far as Kennington,
continued in a straight line from Kennington Park Road to the site of St.
George's Church. The fact that Newington Causeway swings westward from
this line was thought to be a mediaeval deviation until the discovery in 1952,
during some roadworks there about 300 yards north of the Elephant and
Castle, of a section of metalled road some 4 feet below the existing surface
and resting on the gravel sub-soil. This, in the opinion of Mr. W. F. Grimes,
was of Roman date, and it appeared to be an indication that the Roman road,
instead of running in a straight line, followed the same curve as the mediaeval
and modern road. It was, therefore, thought worthwhile to seek some
explanation in the surface levels and the geology of the district to account
for the deviation. The material lay to hand in the Council's sewer records, (ref. 5)
for, when the systematic drainage of the area was carried out by the Surrey
and Kent Sewer Commissioners under an Act of Parliament passed in 1809
(see p. 54), a large number of sections were drawn showing ground levels.
A comparison of these levels shows that the three highest points were at the
Elephant and Castle, near St. George's Church and in the middle of St.
George's Circus where the obelisk formerly stood. Between the obelisk and
Newington Causeway the surface level sloped down 4 or 5 feet forming a
slight hollow, while on the east of the road there was a slope down of between
8 and 9 feet. The slope was as marked along the roads as on the unbuilt
ground between them. (fn. a) Reference to geological sections drawn from borings (ref. 6)
made at various points during the last 100 years, showed a marked rise in
the level of the gravel sub-soil along the line of Newington Causeway from
the west and a deep depression to the east of it. There is documentary evidence for the existence up to the beginning of the 19th century of a marsh
known as "Stewfen," between Newington Causeway and Great Dover
Street (see p. 82) and the geological sections show that in places in Rockingham Street, Falmouth Road, and Devonshire Street (now Avonmouth Street)
there were up to 18 feet of mud plus 14 feet of peat and 4 feet of made ground
above the sand and gravel sub-soil. The evidence now available is insufficient
to determine whether the deposit of peat and mud was made before or after
the Roman occupation, but the presence of either a bog or a sharp declivity
in the surface level affords a sufficient explanation of the curve of the road
away from the straight line. It is probable that even in Roman times the
line of Newington Causeway was the only route through St. George's Fields
that could have been made into a firm road without the use of piles. (fn. b)
Most of the evidence set out above was reviewed by T.A. Codrington
in an article on "London South of the Thames," published in 1915 (ref. 3) , but the
conclusions he reached were not entirely compatible with it. For example,
the existence of the hollow in the gravel and clay strata in the neighbourhood
of Rockingham Street makes unlikely the route he suggested for the original
Watling Street—leaving the line of the Old Kent Road a little south of St.
Thomas à Waterings (see p. 121) and crossing Newington Causeway just
north of the turnpike (near Keyworth Street). Nor does there seem to be any
firm basis for his suggestion that the Lock Stream (p. 121) drained St. George's
Fields. Rocque's maps do not show the stream crossing the road near the
Elephant and Castle, and the slight rise in the level of the ground there
makes such a crossing improbable. On the other hand, when the ground up
to Newington Church was flooded, as, for example, on the occasion described
by Stow in 1555, the water came from the direction of Lambeth and remained
on the west side of Newington Causeway until it ebbed back into the
river.
During the late Mediaeval and Tudor periods St. George's Bar or
Stones End, approximately where Borough Road now joins Borough High
Street, marked the end of
the paved road from London
Bridge and of Southwark
proper. In the time of John
Stow it had houses on both
sides as far as this point.
Newington Causeway, which
does not appear to have been
so named until the middle of
the 18th century, (fn. a) was built
up on the east side by 1746
(see Plate 53). The west side
was developed with the rest of
St. George's Fields at the end
of the 18th and beginning of
the 19th centuries.
Figure 1:
No. 215 Borough High Street
The development of
the part of Borough High
Street in St. George's parish
is much like that of the northern half, an account of which
has been given in Bankside. (ref. 7)
Many of the buildings were
inns for the use of travellers
between London and the
coast. Later, tenements were
built on either side of the inn
yards which gradually became
narrow courts and alleys. On
the west side the tenements
backed on to the Bishop of
Winchester's Park and were
bounded on the south by the
maze of narrow streets known
as the Mint (see Chapter 3)
on the site of Suffolk House.
On the east side the prisons,
the Marshalsea, King's Bench,
County Gaol, and House of
Correction (see Chapter 2)
occupied much of the area,
but the ground between was
closely built up. Behind the
tenements and at a distance
of about 300 feet from the street frontage was a ditch; beyond the ditch the
ground lay open until the second half of the 18th century. In 1622 the City
Corporation granted (ref. 8) an acre of ground lying between Borough High Street
and Long Lane, on condition that the lessee, William Smith, enclosed it so that
it should no longer be used for the deposit of refuse from the King's Bench.
Sir John Lenthall, Marshal of the King's Bench, later acquired this lease and
planted an orchard on the ground. (ref. 9) By 1698 it had been made into a bowling
green, and a second green had been formed adjoining it on the north. (ref. 10)
Collier's Rents were built on the bowling green near Long Lane by John
Collier (ref. 9) before 1746. The whole of this area at the rear of the premises in
Borough High Street between Mermaid Court and Collier's Rents, which
suffered severe air raid damage during the 1939–45 war (see the aerial
view on Plate 13), has recently been cleared and is now occupied by
the extension of the London County Council Tabard Garden Housing
Estate. In excavating in order to lay a drain, approximately along the line
of the old ditch, considerable deposits of pottery were found. The section
behind Layton's Buildings (on the site of the King's Bench) consisted of:
2 feet 6 inches of hardcore and brick rubbish; 2 feet of heavy unglazed 19th
century pottery, sugar loaf moulds, mixing bowls, and storage bins; 2 feet
6 inches of dark soil, small brick and tile rubbish, oyster shells, and mid-18th
century delft fragments; 2 feet of very dark soil with green, yellow, and red
glazed pottery, and pipes of 1620–90 date; 3 feet of dark wet soil, with traces
of gravel, sand, and oyster shells and, at the bottom of this layer, fragments
of 2nd century Roman pottery.
Sir John Lenthall
Southwark Fair (Plate 1b), sometimes called Our Lady Fair because
it was held at the time of the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
was granted to the City of London in 1462 by a charter of Edward IV, together
with the right of holding a court of pie-powder there. (ref. 11) The wording of the
charter suggests that the fair was then already a well-established institution.
The continuator of Stow's Survey of London (ref. 12) describes the ceremonial of
the opening of the fair in the time of Charles I as follows—
"The Lord Maior and the Sheriffes ride to S.Magnus Church in
their Scarlet Gownes lined, without their cloaks, after dinner at two of
the clocke; and there the Aldermen meet the L. Maior: when evening
Prayer is ended, they ride thorow the Faire, till they come unto St.
Georges Church, and then ride further to Newington Bridge, or to St.
Thomas of Waterings to the Stones that point out the Liberties of
the City (if it bee so their pleasures) and they then returne backe
againe unto the Bridge-house, where they refresh themselves with
a Banquet. Then returning over the Bridge, the Aldermen take their
leave of the Lord Maior and depart the next way every one unto his
own house. After all this is done, & the Lord Maior brought home:
his Officers have a supper provided for them by the Bridge-Masters."
The booths and stalls erected for Southwark Fair spread from the
main street near St. George's Church into the alleys and courts and on to the
bowling greens, and the period of the fair was gradually extended from three
days to fourteen. During the Commonwealth the authorities tried to suppress it
and among the Overseer's Accounts for St. George's Parish (ref. 13) there are many
entries between 1656 and 1660 of fines for "Abuses and Misdemeanours"
in fairtime. Players, dancers, victuallers, mountebanks, proprietors of puppet
shows, clockwork shows, etc., all had to pay their fines, but the fair went on.
Figure 2:
No. 220 Borough High Street
On the night of 22nd September, 1689, a fire broke out in a stationer's
shop opposite the King's Bench. (ref. 14) It quickly caught and consumed the
wooden booths on the west side of the street and then spread to the east
side where "the Buildings, being Timber for the most part, and generally
old, with many intricate Alleys running backward, the Flame, driven on
by the Wind raged extremely." The Common side of the King's Bench was
burnt, as were the Falcon and Half Moon Inns and some 180 houses.
The fire was in fact nearly as disastrous as the one which had devastated the
northern part of the street thirteen years earlier (see Bankside (ref. 7) ).
When it was rebuilt, Borough High Street and its courts and alleys
were little less congested than before. (fn. a) In 1733 a woman was pressed to
death in the crowd in Mermaid Court during the fairtime. (ref. 15) During the
18th century the fair got more and more
rowdy. The City Corporation continually
tried to limit its duration and extent, but
it was not until 1762, when the bailiff was
ordered to cease proclaiming it, that the fair
came to an end. (ref. 16)
Figure 3:
No. 177 Borough High Street
Many of the houses built after the
1689 fire were still standing in the early
years of this century (Plate 3), and a few
remnants have survived even the destruction
of the 1939–45 war, which in this area was
particularly heavy (see Plate 13).
No. 177 (formerly 128) retains its
17th century wooden staircase, though
little remains of the rest of the original
building, which has been occupied in turn
by tea dealers, grocers, woollen drapers,
a government contractor, and now by a
firm of drawing instrument manufacturers.
There has been an inn with the sign of
the Half Moon (Plate 2a) at No. 183,
since at least 1550 (ref. 17) , when the property
belonged (as it still did until the 1920's)
to Jesus College, Cambridge. Tenements
in the rear have from time to time been
rented by hop and seed factors, livery
stable keepers, and others. In 1728 coaches
left the inn every week for Blechingley,
Croydon, East Grinstead, Godstone, Lingfield, and Oxted (ref. 18) . The inn was pulled down in 1919 and the site is now
covered by the premises of Moons Motors, Ltd.
Angel Court (or Place) is called after an inn of that name which was
used in the time of Henry VIII for the confinement of prisoners (see p. 12).
The tablet on the rear of No. 209 Borough High Street, just south of Angel
Place, refers to the rebuilding of the premises, previously
known as the Black Bull, by John and Sarah Reeve in
1677 and again by John Hicks in 1818. The property
was granted to St. Thomas' Hospital in 1568 (ref. 19) and has
remained in its possession ever since.
Figure 4:
No. 209 Borough High Street
No. 215, near St. George's Church, survived until
1903, when it was pulled down for the widening of Long
Lane. Its wooden staircase with its turned balusters and
carved string and handrail is illustrated on p. 3. The house
was occupied by cheesemongers during the first half of the
19th century, of whom the last were the firm of Purdue and
Twiddy. They were succeeded by Messrs. Barker and
Nelson, who used the premises as a "mourning warehouse."
The best known of the inns on the west side of
Borough High Street in St. George's Parish was the
Catherine Wheel (Plate 4b), which stood almost exactly opposite the Half
Moon Inn on the site of the present No. 136. It is not marked on the
1542 plan (Plate 1a), though it is listed in the survey of Southwark Manor of
1555. John Strype described it in 1720 as "very large and well resorted
unto by Coaches, Waggons and Horsemen." From the time of Elizabeth I
the premises have belonged to St. Thomas' Hospital (ref. 18) . The inn was pulled
down circa 1870.
The part of Borough High Street south of St. George's Church was
known until 1889 as Blackman Street. Strype describes it in 1720 (ref. 20) as "broad,
but the Buildings and Inhabitants not much to be boasted of; the End next
to Newington hath the West side open to St. Georges Fields being rather a
Road than a Street." Just over a century later Blackman Street is described
in the text accompanying Tallis' Views as "a broad, open street, principally
consisting of well supplied tradesmen's shops. Its thoroughfare is very
considerable, it being the leading road to the south of England." The
1542 plan (Plate 1a) shows the Swan Inn, which gave its name to Swan
Street, just south of St. George's Church on the east side of Blackman
Street (see p. 105).
There is in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries an elaborate
pictorial plan of the Unicorn Brewhouse or Inn which formerly stood at the
point where Trinity Street now joins Borough High Street. (fn. a) The plan, part
of which is reproduced on Plate 12, shows the numerous tenements built in
the inn yard and on the ground adjoining. John Strype described the inn in
1720 (ref. 20) as "very neat and fine, being adorned with carved Figures, and sundry
sorts of Birds stuft, and set about, as if they were alive, with a small Ship, such
as are hung up in great Halls." Unicorn Court is marked on the 1761
edition of Rocque's map but had disappeared before the end of the century.
On the west side No. 96 Blackman Street, now No. 220 Borough High
Street, retains its original staircase.
Figure 5:
No. 220 Borough High Street