Restoration of the Monarchy

May 29^th  

On this day in 1660, Charles II was restored to the throne at the end of the Commonwealth and Protectorate of Oliver and Richard Cromwell.

The Civil War that led to the creation of the Commonwealth is discussed in Spital Square on our Thursday morning “Aldgate, Bishopsgate and beyond – Priories and Play-Houses” walk (see also our May 19^th “Civil War and Commonwealth” blog post). 

Other notable Civil War localities in Greater London include Brentford and Turnham Green, where battles were fought in 1642 (see “The Battle for London” by Stephen Porter and Simon Marsh).

The site of the Battle of Brentford is marked by a granite memorial and by a commemorative and informative plaque (pictured, above).  According to the plaque, what happened here was as follows:

“Parliamentarians had arrived in the prosperous market town on Friday 11 November.  The following day the royalists marched from Hampstead Heath and in the early afternoon broke through a parliamentary barricade at the bridge over the Brent.

Near this information panel, the royalists were delayed, fighting two or three hours until the parliamentarian soldiers fled.  This position was defended by about 480 of Lord Brooke’s regiment and survivors of the earlier fighting, with two small pieces of artillery.   

The royalists soon gained the upper hand.  There seem to have been no civilian dead despite the capture of the town.  About 20 royalists were killed, and perhaps 50 parliamentarians died in the fighting with more drowning in the Thames.  Parliamentary Captain John Lilburne was amongst those captured”.

And what happened next was as follows:

“Later that afternoon the royalists pressed on towards London.  There were more parliamentary troops in a large open area, probably Turnham Green and Chiswick’s Common Field.  These green-coated men of John Hampden’s regiment of foot charged five times, holding the royalists back.  But with night coming and the royalists exhausted from fighting both sides disengaged.

The royalist soldiers who had captured Brentford ransacked the town ...

The Battle of Turnham Green took place the following day”.

John Gwyn, a royalist soldier, wrote:

“We beat them from one Brainford to the other, and from thence to the open field, with ... resolute and expeditious fighting, ...  push of pike and the butt-end of muskets, which proved so fatal to Holles’ butchers and dyers that day”.

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To book a place on any of our walks please either e-mail lostcityoflondon@sky.com 

or phone 020 8998 3051.

Further information is available on our website www.lostcityoflondon.co.uk

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A Voice from the Past

26th May - 

On this day in 1703 Samuel Pepys died. 

The following are selected extracts from the entries in his famous diary for the days of the Great Fire of London in 1666:

“September 2d .  ... Jane called us up about three in the morning, to tell us of a great fire ... in the City.  So I rose, and slipped on my night-gown, and went to her window; and thought it to be ... far enough off,   and so went to bed again ... .  ... By and by Jane comes and tells me that ... the fire ...  is now burning all down Fish Street, by London Bridge.  So I made myself ready presently, and walked to the Tower; and there got up upon one of the high places ... ; and ... did see ... an infinite great fire ... , ... a lamentable fire.  ... Every body endeavouring to remove their goods, and ...  bringing them into lighters that lay off; poor people staying in their houses as long as till the very fire touched them, and then running into boats, or clambering from one pair of stairs, by the waterside, to another.   ... Having staid, and in an hour’s time seen the fire rage every way ... ; I to White Hall, ... and did tell the King ... what I saw; and that, unless his Majesty did command houses to be pulled down, nothing could stop the fire”.

September 3d. (M)y Lady Batten sent me a cart to carry away all my money, and plate, and best things, .., which I did, riding ... in my night-gown, in the cart ... .

September 4^th.  ... (T)o the Tower Street, and there met the fire burning ... .  And ... Sir W. Pen and I did dig [a pit], and put our wine in it, and I my parmazan cheese ... .

September 5^th.  ... About two in the morning my wife ... tells me of new cryes of fire, it being come to Barking Church ... .    I up; and finding it so, resolved ...  to take her away, and did, and ... my gold ... ; but, Lord! what a sad sight it was by moone-light, to see the whole City almost on fire ... .  Home, and whereas I expected to have seen our house on fire, ... it was not.  ... (G)oing to the fire, I find, by the blowing up of houses ... by Sir W. Pen, there is a good stop given to it ... ; it having only burned the dyall of Barking Church, and part of the porch, and ... was there quenched.  I up to the top of Barking steeple, and there saw the saddest sight of desolation I ever saw... ”. 

Various localities of interest with regard to Pepys, including the aforementioned church of All Hallows Barking, are visited on our Friday morning “London Wall – A Story of Survival” and Friday afternoon “Tower to Temple – Heart of the City” walks.

All Hallows, Barking

Pepys Memorial, inside St Olave's Church Hart Street

Pepys Statue, Seething Lane (not currently on view,
due to redevelopment of the site)

Pre-booking is required for all our walks. To reserve a place, please email lostcityoflondon@sky.com or ring 020 8998 3051

Further information is available from our website www.lostcityoflondon.co.uk

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Civil War and Commonwealth

19th May - According to Peter de Loriol’s endlessly fascinating  “The London Book of Days”, on this day in 1649,  at what was effectively the end of the Civil War, “the Rump Parliament passed an Act ... which created all people of the realm and territories of England a Commonwealth and Free State where Parliament would constitute the officers and ministers of the people without any kings or lords”.  

The Civil War is covered on our Thursday morning walk “Aldgate, Bishopsgate and beyond – Priories and Play-Houses”.

Civil War Lines of Communication, Spital Square

(Photograph by Bob Jones)

To book a place on the Thursday morning walk, please email lostcityoflondon@sky.com 

or ring 020 8998 3051

Further information about this and other walks is available on our website www.lostcityoflondon.co.uk

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EVIL MAY DAY

The so-called “Evil May Day” riots, marked by attacks on foreigners and on their places of residence and of business, took place in the City of London on and around May Day 1517, following an inflammatory speech by a Dr Beal or Bell at St Paul’s Cross,  inciting the crowd “to cherish and defend themselves, and to hurt and grieve aliens for the common weal".  At the time there was considerable popular resentment towards foreigners in general and foreign merchants in particular, on account of their perceived preferential treatment by City authorities.

The riots were eventually broken up only after thousands of troops were called in and  hundreds of rioters taken prisoner.  The ring-leaders were then more or less immediately hanged, drawn and quartered, and their remains gibbeted.  The remainder, though, despite also facing the death penalty for the treason of “breaking the peace of Christendom”, were eventually pardoned by the king, Henry VIII, probably largely thanks to pleas for mercy made by his queen, Catherine of Aragon, and by Thomas Wolsey. At this, the prisoners "took the halters from their necks and danced and sang".

In the aftermath of the riots, the annual May Day celebrations that had taken place for hundreds of years were discontinued, and the May Pole that gave Undershaft its name was taken away.

St Paul’s Cross.  

The present cross was put up in 1910.  The previous one was put up on the same site,  where the Saxons had held their “folkmoot”, in around 1191, damaged in 1382, possibly by the earthquake of that year, repaired in 1387, rebuilt in 1449, and taken down by order of Parliament in 1643 (during the Civil War).

Plaque on St Paul's Cross

The wording on the Plaque reads as follows:

ON THIS PLOT OF GROUND

STOOD OF OLD "PAULS' CROSS" WHEREAT AMID SUCH

SCENES OF GOOD AND EVIL AS MAKE UP HUMAN AFFAIRS

THE CONSCIENCE OF CHURCH AND NATION THROUGH

FIVE CENTURIES FOUND PUBLIC UTTERANCE

THE FIRST RECORD OF IT IS IN 1191AD. IT WAS REBUILT

BY BISHOP KEMP IN 1449 AND WAS FINALLY REMOVED

BY ORDER OF THE LONG PARLIAMENT IN 1643

THIS CROSS WAS RE-ERECTED IN ITS PRESENT FORM

UNDER THE WILL OF H C RICHARDS

TO RECALL AND TO RENEW

THE ANCIENT MEMORIES

St Paul's  features on four of The Lost City of London Guided Walks - further details on our website www.lostcityoflondon.co.uk