Vintners' Hall is situated on the south side of Thames Street, between Queen Street and Garlick Hill, being built on three sides of a quadrangle fronting the street.The rooms are large, finely wainscoted and carved, particularly the magnificent screen at the east end of the great hall, which is adorned with two columns, their entablature and pediment; and on acroters are placed the figure of Bacchus between several Fames, with other embellishments; and they have a garden backwards towards the Thames.
15.Cordwainers' Street Ward, so called from the cordwainers (shoemakers), curriers, and other dealers in leather, that inhabited that part of the town anciently, includes Bow Lane, New Queen Street, Budge Row, Tower Royal Street, Little St.Thomas Apostle's, Pancras Lane, a small part of Watling Street, a little part of Basing Lane, and St.Sythe's Lane.
The public buildings in this ward are the church of St.Anthony, St.
Mary Aldermary, and St.Mary-le-Bow.
16.Cheap Ward.The principal streets and places in this ward are Cheapside, the Poultry, part of Honey Lane Market, part of the Old Jewry, part of Bucklersbury, part of Pancras Lane, part of Queen Street, all Ironmonger Lane, King Street, and St.Lawrence Lane, and part of Cateaton Street, part of Bow Lane, and all Guildhall.
The public buildings in this ward are, Guildhall, Mercers' Chapel and Hall, Grocers' Hall, the Poultry Compter, the churches of St.
Mildred, Poultry, and St.Lawrence Jewry.
Guildhall, the town house of this great City, stands at the north end of King Street, and is a large handsome structure, built with stone, anno 1666, the old hall having been destroyed by the Fire in 1666.By a large portico on the south side we enter the principal room, properly called the hall, being 153 feet in length, 48 in breadth, and 55 in height.On the right hand, at the upper end, is the ancient court of the hustings; at the other end of the hall opposite to it are the Sheriff's Courts.The roof of the inside is flat, divided into panels; the walls on the north and south sides adorned with four demy pillars of the Gothic order, painted white, and veined with blue, the capitals gilt with gold, and the arms finely depicted in their proper colour, viz., at the east the arms of St.Edward the Confessor, and of the Kings of England the shield and cross of St.George.At the west end the arms of the Confessor, those of England and France quarterly, and the arms of England.On the fourteen demy pillars (above the capital) are the king's arms, the arms of London, and the arms of the twelve companies.At the east end are the King's arms carved between the portraits of the late Queen, at the foot of an arabathram, under a rich canopy northward, and those of King William and Queen Mary southward, painted at full length.The inter-columns are painted in imitation of porphyry, and embellished with the portraitures, painted in full proportion, of eighteen judges, which were there put up by the City, in gratitude for their signal service done in determining differences between landlord and tenant (without the expense of lawsuits) in rebuilding this City, pursuant to an Act of Parliament, after the Fire, in 1666.
Those on the south side are, Sir Heneage Finch, Sir Orlando Bridgeman, Sir Matthew Hale, Sir Richard Rainsford, Sir Edward Turner, Sir Thomas Tyrrel, Sir John Archer, Sir William Morton.
On the north side are, Sir Robert Atkins, Sir John Vaughan, Sir Francis North, Sir Thomas Twisden, Sir Christopher Turner, Sir William Wild, Sir Hugh Windham.
At the west end, Sir William Ellis, Sir Edward Thurland, Sir Timothy Littleton.
And in the Lord Mayor's Court (which is adorned with fleak stone and other painting and gilding, and also the figures of the four cardinal virtues) are the portraits of Sir Samuel Brown, Sir John Kelynge, Sir Edward Atkins, and Sir William Windham, all (as those above) painted in full proportion in their scarlet robes as judges.
The late Queen Anne, in December, 1706, gave the City 26 standards, and 63 colours, to be put up in this hall, that were taken from the French and Bavarians at the battle of Ramillies the preceding summer; but there was found room only for 46 colours, 19 standards, and the trophy of a kettle-drum of the Elector of Bavaria's.The colours over the Queen's picture are most esteemed, on account of their being taken from the first battalion of French guards.
From the hall we ascend by nine stone steps to the Mayor's Court, Council Chamber, and the rest of the apartments of the house, which, notwithstanding it may not be equal to the grandeur of the City, is very well adapted to the ends it was designed for, namely, for holding the City courts, for the election of sheriffs and other officers, and for the entertainment of princes, ministers of State, and foreign ambassadors, on their grand festivals.
17.Coleman Street Ward.The principal streets in this ward are the Old Jewry, part of Lothbury, Coleman Street, part of London Wall, and all the lower part of Moorfields without the walls.
The public buildings are Bethlem or Bedlam Hospital, Founders' Hall, Armourers' Hall, the churches of St.Olave Jewry, St.Margaret, Lothbury, and St.Stephen, Coleman Street.
New Bethlem, or Bedlam, is situated at the south end of Moorfields, just without the wall, the ground being formerly part of the town ditch, and granted by the City to the governors of the hospital of Old Bethlem, which had been appropriated for the reception of lunatics, but was found too strait to contain the people brought thither, and the building in a decaying condition.
