Lost London (29 page)

Vauxhall remained a fashionable venue, hosting the latest musicians and contemporary theatre, redesigning its gardens as taste and style demanded until the end of the 18th century when its
popularity faltered.

The opening of Nine Elms railway terminus in 1838 effectively ended the gardens rural seclusion. The very last night of opening was 25 July 1859, the land being sold off for building development
that was to devour rural south London over the next fifty years.

It was too narrow and shallow to be used for navigation, although excavation has revealed a Roman wooden dock where it entered the Thames. Its route to the river after passing
Bank is remembered in a nearby eponymous street name.

It was long suspected that the Romans built a temple here on its banks, and in 1889 a relief of the god Mithras was discovered – he is shown slaying a bull. At the same time a statue of a
reclining river god was also found, 20 feet deep. The area was devastated by Second World War bombing and further discoveries were made in 1954.

Records show that by the late 13th century the river was so filthy that city officials decreed it must be ‘made free from dung and other nuisances’. One hundred years later it was
again reported to be totally blocked by rubbish thrown in by residents who lived along its banks. When St Margarets Lothbury was rebuilt in 1440 much of the river was covered over on orders of the
Lord Mayor, Robert Lange, who paid for much of the work. By the time John Stow published his seminal
Survey of London
in 1598, the river had gone and Stow says ‘the course of Walbrook
is now hidden underground, and thereby hardly known’.

Unregulated and often chaotic, the state first attempted to control river traffic with an act of Parliament in 1514 aimed at fixing fares. A further act in 1555 drew up the
‘Rulers of all Watermen and Wherrymen working between Gravesend and Windsor’. This led to the formation of the Company of Watermen and Lightermen. Their livery hall, built in 1780, is
still open at St Mary’s Hill,
EC
4.

By 1600 it is estimated that there were 40,000 people earning a living transporting people and goods across the river. The Company ran a seven-year apprenticeship, something like the Knowledge
for today’s black cab drivers. Watermen were prone to disease, due to the river pollution, especially after the invention of the flush toilet, which turned the Thames effectively into an open
sewer. Boatmen faced two other great risks – violent crime, normally committed at night, and attempting to ‘shoot the bridge’.

The ancient London Bridge so restricted the flow of the river, due to the numerous waterwheels constructed between its nineteen piers, that the water rushed with awesome force between the
central navigable arch. The difference in height was over 5ft at high tide, and it is estimated that 30 people lost their lives in the furious waters every year.

Westminster

W
ITH OVER
1500
ROOMS STRETCHING ACROSS
23 acres from Northumberland Avenue to the current Houses of Parliament, this was once
one of the largest royal palaces in Europe.

The home of the British monarchy from as early as 1049, its heyday was during the reign of Henry
VIII
. His annexing of Cardinal Wolsey’s property
– along with his expansion of the palace (adding tennis courts, a bowling alley, a tilting yard used for jousting and a cockpit) – cemented its place at the heart of government, a
position the area has retained to this day. It was here that Henry
VIII
married both Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour.

In 1622 James
I
had the Banqueting Hall built. It was designed by Inigo Jones, with a ceiling painted by Sir Paul Reubens. Ironically, it was outside this last major
Whitehall expansion that James
I
’s ill-starred son, Charles, was beheaded on 30 January 1649.

The Banqueting Hall was one of the few buildings to survive a fire in 1691 that destroyed much of the Palace’s magnificent medieval structure, as well as many fine works of art, including
Michelangelo’s sculpture of Cupid and Holbein’s portrait of Henry
VIII
. The great London diarist, John Evelyn, recorded the following day: ‘Whitehall
burnt! Nothing but walls and ruins left.’

CHURCHES DEMOLISHED:

All Hallows, Bread Street; All Hallows the Great, Lombard Street; All Hallows, Lombard Street; St Antholin, Watling Street;

St Bartholomew, Exchange; St Benet Fink, Threadneedle Street;

St Benet, Gracechurch Street; St Christopher-le-Stocks, Threadneedle Street; St Dionis Backchurch, Fenchurch Street;

St Matthew, Friday Street; St Michael, Bassishaw;

St Michael, Crooked Lane; St Michael, Queenhithe;

St Michael, Wood Street; St Mildred, Poultry

CHURCHES LOST FOR OTHER REASONS:

St Mary Magdalene, Fish Street (gutted by fire 1886)
.

CHURCHES WHERE ONLY THE TOWER REMAINS:

St Alban, Wood Street (destroyed by bombing in 1940);

St Anne’s Church, Soho (demolished in 1953 after war damage)

St Dunstan in the East (destroyed by bombing in 1941)

St Mary Somerset, Thames Street (demolished in 1871)

St Olave, Old Jewry (demolished 1888–9)

CHURCHES DESTROYED BY WORLD WAR II BOMBING:

Christ Church, Newgate Street (only ruins remain);

The Cloisters, Pump Court, Middle Temple (1940–1);

St Augustine, Watling Street (1945); St Mildred, Bread Street (1941);

St Stephen, Coleman Street (1940);

St Swithin, Cannon Street, (1941)