Tyburn: London's Fatal Tree (30 page)

We are now at Holborn Circus. Causing something of an obstacle to the free flow of traffic at this busy intersection is an equestrian statue of Prince Albert in bronze, erected in 1874. This has wittily been described as ‘the most polite statue in London’ because, rather curiously, it is doffing its hat towards the City of London. Hatton Garden can be seen on the north where at no. 57d there is a GLC plaque to Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim (1840–1916). American-born, he was living in Hatton Garden when, in 1883, he designed the machine gun with which he will always be associated. At 5 Hatton Garden is a privately sponsored plaque to Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–72). He was an Italian nationalist whose love for Britain meant that he spent much time in the country and it was here that he formulated his plans for bringing about unity and democracy in the country of his birth. Hatton Garden has acquired international fame as the headquarters of the London diamond traders and takes its name from Sir Christopher Hatton (
c.
1540–91) who was a statesman and survivor in the shifting sands that were the politics of Elizabethan England.

Along Holborn on the north side the headquarters of the Prudential Assurance Company come into view. This was built on part of the site of Furnival’s Inn, one of the Inns of Chancery, and was originally designed by Alfred Waterhouse in something of a Gothic Revival style. Its use of red brick and red terracotta became a house style for the Prudential. The original building came into use in 1879 but what can be seen today is a reconstruction which has been added to ever since. The Prudential Building displays a City of London plaque mentioning the site of Furnival’s Inn. Charles Dickens began writing the
Pickwick Papers
while he lived there between 1834 and 1837 and there is a plaque to that effect in the courtyard. In the middle of the street stands a memorial to those members of the Royal Fusiliers who lost their lives in the two world wars. On the south side of Holborn can be seen the Melton Mowbray pub which looks like a traditional London tavern but which was only opened in recent years.

Brook Street is the last road on the north side of Holborn before Gray’s Inn Road. This takes its name from Fulke Greville who became Lord Brooke in 1620 and built a long-since demolished mansion here which he modestly named after himself. A short distance up Brook Street is a blue plaque on no. 39 indicating that Thomas Chatterton (1752–70) died there. He was the tragic young man who, fascinated, even obsessed, by the medieval world, claimed to have discovered a mass of verse produced by a fifteenth-century monk, Thomas Rowley. This poetry, which was not without merit, was written by Chatterton himself. It created something of a sensation and on the strength of this, he moved from his native Bristol to London to try to make a living as a writer. When success did not come as quickly as he had hoped, he grew increasingly depressed and committed suicide by taking arsenic in a garret at no. 39. His short unfulfilled life has caught the imagination ever since and inspired poets such as Wordsworth and Keats to write about him and the PreRaphaelite Henry Wallis to paint the
Death of Chatterton
in 1856. At no. 20, William Friese-Greene (1855–1921) had a photographic laboratory where, in 1889, he gave the first ever demonstration of moving pictures. These were of local street scenes and his audience consisted of one rather bemused policeman whom he dragged off the street to witness this historic occasion.

At the junction of Holborn with Gray’s Inn Road the picturesque Staple Inn can be seen on the south side. Although this has been rebuilt on a number of occasions, it provides a very good idea of how many of the timber-framed buildings of Tudor London would have looked. It was of course one of the Inns of Chancery and not a hostelry catering for travellers and others. In 1886 the government bought part of Staple Inn to provide an extension to the Patent Office. Another part was sold to the Prudential Assurance Company. Alfred Waterhouse did much restoration work on the houses and the hall which was built in 1581. The hall boasts a splendid hammer-beam roof, and fine stained glass. Close by is a charming garden, a real oasis from the hurly-burly of Holborn. There is a quaint notice in the entrance gateway forbidding horses to enter or children to play in the precincts. Staple Inn includes, at no. 337, the former premises of John Brumfit who opened his tobacconist’s shop there in 1933. It became immortalised when its image appeared on packets of Old Holborn tobacco.

Gray’s Inn Road lies at the eastern boundary of Gray’s Inn, which is one of the four great Inns of Court. Its gardens were laid out in the 1580s by Francis Bacon who is commemorated by a statue in the South Square. One of the alumni of Gray’s Inn was William Cecil, Lord Burghley (1520–98), the highly able and wily servant who proved so invaluable to Queen Elizabeth. The story is told that Cecil, while a young man resident in Gray’s Inn, incurred a huge gambling debt to a fellow student whose bedroom was adjacent to his own. He is reputed to have drilled a hole through the partition between the bedrooms and with a roll of paper acting as a voice tube, whispered in sepulchral tones to his colleague that he risked perdition if he did not abjure gambling. The student is said to have been so shaken by what he took to be the divinely inspired advice that next morning he knocked on Cecil’s door and humbly begged him to accept the discharge of the debt.

At 22 High Holborn stands the Cittie of York pub. There has been a drinking house on this site since 1430. A rebuilding in 1695 produced Gray’s Inn Coffee Shop but what can be seen today is the result of a further rebuilding in the 1890s. The name recalls a drinking place of the same name which was once part of Staple Inn. For many years it was known as Henekey’s Long Bar. The interior is unique. The bar is certainly one of the longest in Britain and on a high gallery can be seen a number of enormous vats which Henekey’s used for housing their wines and spirits. There is a high, arched ceiling of almost cathedral-like appearance. Other curiosities of this pub are a number of cubicles with swing doors where lawyers could hold private meetings with clients over a drink or meal. Perhaps strangest of all is a stove dating from 1815 from which the smoke escapes by means of a vent under the floor. Holborn and High Holborn once had a very large number of hostelries, many of them taverns and coaching inns, the latter mostly succumbing to the competition of the railways from the late 1830s. At no. 119, a blue plaque may be seen commemorating the work of the horologist Thomas Earnshaw (1749–1829). For many years he had his workshop on this site. His greatest fame probably lies with the improvements he made to the marine chronometer.

High Holborn is the continuation of Holborn to Shaftesbury Avenue. On the south side at no. 208 stands the Princess Louise. This pub, named after Queen Victoria’s fourth daughter, was built in 1872. What distinguishes this magnificent pub are its interior decor and fittings. There is a riot of etched and decorative glass, superb pictorial tiling, polished woodwork and gold embossed mirrors. The stonework in the gentlemens’ toilet is so splendid that it is the subject of a preservation order. The Princess Louise is a superb example of Victorian pub design and architecture and should on no account be missed by pub aficionados. At no. 270 formerly stood the George and Blue Boar Inn, a major coaching inn in which Cromwell and Ireton in 1645 managed to intercept correspondence between Charles I to his wife Henrietta Maria. This made it clear that the King was prepared to negotiate with the Parliamentarians, whom he thought of as rebels, while also being engaged in other negotiations which he hoped would bring a French army to support him. This treasonable item had been hidden away in the saddle of one of the King’s messengers. The house was one of the watering holes which catered for those going in procession to Tyburn and it is referred to in Jonathan Swift’s poem, the best-known part of which runs as follows:

As clever Tom Clinch, when the rabble was bawling,
Rode stately through London to die of his calling,
He stopped at the George for a bottle of sack
And promised to pay for it when he came back.

Also on the south side is a newish pub by the name of Pendrell’s Oak. This recalls the Pendrell family who owned Boscobel House in Shropshire. They were devoted supporters of the Royalist cause in the Civil War and it was to Boscobel that Charles II fled after the battle of Worcester on 3 September 1651. The Pendrells sheltered the King and helped him to escape and were richly rewarded by the grateful Charles after the Restoration. One branch of the family moved to London and William Pendrell, who died in 1671, is buried in St Giles’s churchyard. The pub is close to Pendrell House where the Meteorological Office’s London Weather Centre is located. On the left is the alley known as Little Turnstile. This probably recalls the revolving stiles that were placed at the four corners of Lincoln’s Inn Fields to prevent cattle grazing there from escaping. The stiles may also have helped to ensure that other animals being driven through the area to Smithfield did not stray into these hallowed grounds. Little Turnstile gives access to Lincoln’s Inn Fields where at nos 59–60 an LCC plaque commemorates the fact that Spencer Perceval (1762–1812) lived there. He was Prime Minister when he was assassinated by a bankrupt businessman who blamed him for his financial misfortunes.

At 72 High Holborn stands the Old Red Lion. It is said that in 1661 after the Restoration it housed overnight the bodies of Cromwell, Ireton and Bradshaw which had been exhumed and tried for regicide at Westminster Hall. They were then allegedly hanged, drawn and decapitated and the bodies buried while the heads were exhibited at Westminster. There is confusion here because the place of execution is alternatively cited as Tyburn and what is now Red Lion Square, close to the pub. For many years there was an obelisk in the square said to mark the place where they were buried. The ghosts of the three men are seen from time to time, walking purposefully across the square and apparently engaged in earnest conversation, as well they might after all these years.

On the north side of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, which were laid out in the early 1640s, is the somewhat unsung Sir John Soane’s Museum. Soane lived from 1753 to 1837 and personified that rare phenom-enon, the rise from rags to riches. He was a bricklayer’s son who became the architect of the Bank of England. In no. 13 he accumulated an extraordinarily eclectic hoard of artistic and antiquarian items. There are Gothic fantasies, Egyptian sarcophagi plus innumerable other exhibits, many of them extremely odd, and paintings by Canaletto and Watteau. Perhaps most significant for those interested in London life in the eighteenth century, the museum contains Hogarth’s original eight engravings making up
The Rake’s Progress
dated 1735 and also
The Election
, four scenes completed in 1757.

On the south side of Lincoln’s Inn Fields is the Royal College of Surgeons which on its first floor contains the Hunterian Museum. This exhibits some of the enormous collection of anatomical specimens and body parts accumulated by the avid Scottish scientist, surgeon, physiologist and anatomist, John Hunter (1728–93). The most fascinating exhibit is probably the skeleton of the renowned Irish giant, Charles Byrne who was almost 8 feet tall. Hunter employed considerable skulduggery to obtain the skeleton given Byrne’s clearly expressed wishes that he should be buried at sea to avoid the attention of the anatomists. Placed next to Byrne’s mortal remains are those of a midget named Caroline Crachami, otherwise known as the ‘Sicilian Fairy’, who was only 23 inches tall when she died at the age of nine.

High Holborn is crossed at right angles by Kingsway and Southampton Row. Kingsway was part of a great Victorian scheme for improving the metropolitan road system. Opened in 1905, its name honoured King Edward VII. A feature seen when crossing Kingsway is the northern end of the tram subway that used to run to the Embankment. This subway, possibly unique in Britain, linked the north and south London tram systems and allowed trams to avoid road congestion by using a specially designed underpass. This subway even possessed its own stations at Aldwych and Holborn which provided easy interchange with the Underground system. The last tram to use the subway did so on 5 July 1952. As late as 1950 the subterranean Holborn tram station was lit by powerful gas lamps, the loud hissing of which added to its very distinctive atmosphere.

Close by, on the north side of High Holborn, once stood British Museum Underground station on what was originally the Central London Line. It was opened in 1900 and from the start irked passengers who wanted to change to the Northern Line at Holborn station because they had to emerge from the bowels of the earth and walk a short distance in the open. Proposals to improve interchange by closing British Museum and enlarging Holborn station eventually came to fruition and in 1933 the new Holborn station came into use and British Museum was closed. Before it had closed, however, stories circulated that the station was haunted by a spectre in the form of an Egyptian mummy that had escaped from the museum. Many people came forward claiming to have seen one or more ghastly apparitions, frequently mummies, running around the platforms and passages trailing the bandages in which they had been swathed. It was probably the flurry of excitement caused by these events which inspired the makers of the 1935 film
Bulldog Jack
to present much of the film’s action on an imaginary Underground station called ‘Bloomsbury’, which possessed a secret tunnel leading to a sarcophagus in the museum. Nothing can be seen of British Museum station at street level but the now grubby white tiled walls can just be discerned from Central Line trains running between Holborn (Kingsway) and Tottenham Court Road stations.

At 83 Southampton Row, Edgar Allan Poe arrived in 1815 at the age of six. His youthful years were somewhat dissipated and he ran away to join the army from which he was soon dishonourably discharged. This forced him to turn to writing. In 1838 he wrote
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
. This macabre story tells of three men and a cabin boy cast adrift in an open boat. They only survive by killing and eating the boy whose name was Richard Parker. Poe’s fame and literary success brought him neither financial security nor contentment. Many years later a merchant vessel sank in the Atlantic. Four crew members took to an open boat and three were picked up some time later. The other member of the crew was a cabin boy and he had been killed and eaten. His name? Richard Parker.