A HISTORY OF THE 
 
 SMITHFIELD GATE. 
 
 &i(Uefc&/ 
 
 Rtfrtdncei by pertnistwn of" Th< BmtUer."
 
 5 
 
 Si i Wf 
 
 A HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE SMITHFIELD GATE 
 
 OJ the Parish of St. Bartholomew the Great, B.C. 
 BY 
 
 E. A. WEBB, F.S.A.. 
 
 Churchwarden, and Honorary Secretary to the Restoration Committee. 
 
 In the south-east corner of West Smithfield, where the 
 street, formerly known as Duck Lane, then as Duke 
 Street and now as Little Britain begins, is an 
 ancient gateway. It leads to St. Bartholomew the 
 Great church or, by turning to the right, to Bartholomew 
 Close. 
 
 This fragment is all that remains of the west facade of 
 the church of the great Augustinian monastery of St. 
 Bartholomew, West Smithfield. 
 
 It is a beautiful arch, and dates from the early 13th 
 century. It exhibits the mouldings and the dog tooth 
 ornament of that period, together with the corbels from 
 which the mouldings spring, but those on the south side 
 are hidden by the shelves of a stationer's shop. 
 
 It is probable that above the arch originally rose the 
 south-west flanking tower of the west front of the church ; 
 as the arch is over six feet in thickness, and must have 
 been so built to support a considerable superstructure : 
 we shall see later on additional evidence of this.
 
 The first part of the priory church to be built was the 
 choir and Lady Chapel, in the year 1 123. On the death 
 of Rahere the founder in 11 44, his successor, Prior 
 Thomas, continued the work and added the transepts, 
 the crossing and one bay of the nave. About the year 
 1 1 90 the nave was gradually continued westward, until 
 it reached into Smithfield, where the present archway 
 stands. Hitherto it has been supposed that the west 
 front of the Priory Church stood where the present 
 churchyard gates now stand, but in July 1905, the 
 writer, by tunnelling under the pavement, was able to 
 trace the south wall of the nave from the churchyard 
 gates to the Smithfield archway, thus proving that the 
 nave did extend to Smithfield. The exact date of the 
 completion of the nave is not known. 
 
 Smithfield, which still retains its Anglo-Saxon name 
 of " Smethfeld," the Smooth field, was the King's market, 
 and a horse market was held here as early as the year 
 1 1 74, and probably long before. We may suppose that 
 stray horses and cattle had a way of wandering or 
 bolting into the church through this archway (as being 
 the side entrance, it would have been always open), for 
 a low-walled enclosure was built outside the west 
 front of the church, with an opening in the centre, the 
 opening being protected by a chain. This low protect- 
 ing wall is well seen in Agas' Map of London, made in 
 the time of Queen Elizabeth. It is also referred to as 
 'Me cheyne" in the bounds of the parish, which were 
 minutely described in 1544 in the particulars for the 
 grant by Henry VIII. to Sir Richard Rich. 
 
 On the suppression of the monastery by the king in 
 October, 1539, the nave was entirely destroyed and the 
 stories carted away to some of the many buildings which
 
 the king then had on hand. The west front of the 
 nave went with the rest, save this one side portal. The 
 reason for its escape from the general destruction no 
 doubt was that it made a convenient gateway to the 
 church, and, by the destruction of the guest house of the 
 monastery, to the priory close still known as Bartholo- 
 mew Close. Every entrance through the monastic 
 walls, which form the present bounds of the parish of 
 St. Bartholomew the Great, was guarded by gates (and 
 with few exceptions, those gates and their attendant 
 watchmen still remain), so that this old arched doorway 
 formed a convenient place in which to hang one set of 
 the parochial gates. 
 
 When, in 1544, Henry VIII. sold the whole parish to 
 Sir Richard Rich, there were two rooms, one over the 
 other, above the archway — rooms no doubt in the tower, 
 and from that time the history of the archway can be 
 fairly well traced. 
 
 THE OWNERSHIP OF THE PROPERTY OVER AND 
 BESIDE THE ARCH. 
 
 In the early chancery proceedings in the time of 
 Queen Elizabeth at the Record Office (an imperfectly 
 explored mine of wealth of local history), the writer was 
 fortunate enough to alight on the pleadings of two cases 
 in chancery in the years 1590 and 1596, whereby the 
 litigious rector of that time, David Dee, sought to show 
 that a certain house in the Close had been granted to 
 the rectors by Sir Richard Rich as a parsonage house 
 and others as glebe houses, in addition to those which 
 Rich had actually so granted under his settlement with 
 the king. This caused one Philip Scudamore, an 
 inhabitant of the parish, and who is commemorated by a
 
 tablet in the north aisle of the church, to give a detailed 
 description of his title to the rooms over the arch. He 
 showed that, in 1544, the two rooms over the Smithfield 
 Gate, one over the other, were at that time the freehold 
 property of Sir Richard Rich by grant from the king, 
 one John Smith then being the tenant ; that on the 28th 
 May in the same year he enfeoffed this John Smith as 
 freeholder. In his will, dated 12th June, 1550, John 
 Smith bequeathed the rooms to Margaret Miller, his 
 sister, for her life, and after her death to her son 
 John Miller. John Miller left the rooms at his death in 
 1571 to his second son, Richard Miller, who, on the 
 22nd July in the 36th year of Queen Elizabeth, enfeoffed 
 Philip Scudamore, the defendant in the case, who then 
 entered into possession, and was in possession of the 
 property at the time of the suit. He, the vandal as we 
 should now call him, in the next year, 1595, proceeded to 
 pull down "the old decayed and ruyned edifices," as he 
 styles them, one over the other, and to build new ones in 
 their place. But we must be thankful to Scudamore 
 for so carefully reciting his title as he has done, and 
 for leaving us the following description of what he pulled 
 down (it is upon this description and the thickness of 
 the arch that the writer relies for the statement that 
 there was a south-west tower with two rooms in it over 
 the present gateway). Scudamore thus describes the 
 rooms :- — " Certaine chambers or rooms one over another, 
 anncyently edified, builded, or standinge over and upon 
 the same gate, on an arch of stone and two great mayne 
 pillers of stone beringe upp the saide arche, chambers 
 and rooms, and adjoyninge to the saide messuage (i.e., the 
 house adjoining, which had been part and parcel of the 
 same property) and thereunto annexed." The arch of
 
 stone, with one of the pillars corbled from the wall, can 
 still be seen ; the other is hidden by the stationer's shop. 
 
 From the above evidence it is clear that the rooms 
 over the arch were never the property of the parish, as 
 some people suppose. 
 
 The parish was the owner of the arch and the east 
 side of the passage, for on the i8th September, 1690, 
 we find William Crosfeild, churchwarden of the parish, 
 granting by direction of the parishioners, a lease for 
 13 years to George Webb, a citizen and merchant 
 taylor, of " all that shop or shed lying on the east side 
 of the passage (south side must be intended, as the 
 passage had no east side), together with the room or 
 chamber lying over the gateway leading to the parish 
 church of St. Bartholomew the Great, in or near West 
 Smithfield," for the consideration of 20s. paid down and 
 a yearly rent of 30s. for the use of the poor. 
 
 And on the 20th June, 1704, the two Churchwardens, 
 with consent of the Vestry, granted a lease for six years 
 to John Mitchell, citizen and pewterer, of " all that out- 
 house or stable, together with the vault thereunto 
 adjoining, situate and being on the south side of Webb's 
 Coffee House, at the side of the passage or breeke 
 leading from West Smithfield to Bartholomew Close, as 
 also the room or closet over the said passage," at a 
 yearly rent of £$. 
 
 On the 25th March, 17 13, the two churchwardens, by 
 order of the vestry, granted a lease of 20 years to 
 William Mawhood of " all that piece of ground lying 
 and being in a passage leading from the church into 
 Smithfield near Duck Lane end (now Little Britain), and 
 adjoining to the house wherein the said William 
 Mawhood now liveth, containing in length from east to
 
 8 
 
 west 22 ft. 8 in., and in breadth 1 4 ft. 4 in., upon which 
 there now standeth a deal shed, and was late in the 
 occupation of John Mitchell, deceased, and also all that 
 room or chamber which is now built under the upper 
 cavity of the arch of the old gate or arch of the entring 
 into the said passage from Smithfield," at a yearly rent 
 of 40s. 
 
 And further, the churchwardens [leased to Mawhood 
 " all that piece of ground, nine inches in breadth and 
 fifteen feet in length, the same being parish ground, 
 whereon the wall on the north side of the house, wherein 
 the said Wm. Mawhood now liveth, standeth, the same 
 adjoining the shed hereinbefore described," for twenty 
 years at a yearly rent of 20s. 
 
 The "room and chamber over the gateway' in the 
 lease of 1690, and the "room or closet over the passage'' 
 in the lease of 1704, cannot be either of Scudamore's 
 rooms over the arch, as they were never parish property. 
 The description in the lease of 17 13 is probably the 
 correct one, a " room or chamber which is now built 
 under the upper cavity of the arch of the old gate," 
 which fairly describes the closet or cupboard which is 
 still in the passage and entered by the first door shown 
 on the engraving. 
 
 The lease of 1713 expired in 1733, but Mawhood con- 
 tinued in possession as an annual tenant until 1741, 
 when the Vestry ordered that the shed be fitted up as 
 a watch-house and cage. 
 
 On the 10th July, 1822, it was resolved by the Vestry 
 to sell the shed to Sir William Rawlins for ,£50, and 
 with the proceeds defray the cost of a special plan of the 
 parish then nearly completed.
 
 The parish also owned the tenement which is now that 
 portion of the stationer's shop which blocks the 
 south side of the arch. We first hear of it in 1705, 
 when by order of the Vestry, on June 12th, the church- 
 wardens, in consideration of ^"10, demised to Ralph 
 Living "all that shed or tenement which was lately a 
 schrivener's shop, situate at the end of Duck Lane, 
 adjoining the ' Cock ' public house, containing 6 ft. 9 in. 
 north towards the gateway and 4 ft. ijin. east to a stone 
 wall belonging to the said gateway, and south to a 
 tenement in possesssion of the said Ralph Living, for 
 15 years at the yearly rent of £2 10 o," Living coven- 
 anting to divide the premises from his own with a 
 substantial partition and door. The lease expired in 
 1720, and in 1725 the Vestry ordered "that Mr. Wm. 
 Mawhood (who was then the proprietor of Living's 
 house) be obliged to take a lease of that part fronting 
 Smithfield which he holds of the parish, or quit the same 
 at Midsummer next." In 1727 Mawhood took a lease 
 for 15 years on the same terms as Ralph Living in 
 1705. 
 
 On the expiration of this lease in 1742, Mawhood 
 continued to hold as an annual tenant until 1783, when, 
 on the 10th March, the Churchwardens, by order of the 
 Vestry, granted him another lease for 30 years at a 
 yearly rental of £3, otherwise the terms were the same 
 as before. 
 
 On the expiration of this lease in 1 8 1 2, Chas. Mawhood, 
 the then lessee, was offered a new 30 years' lease at a 
 rental of ,£8. On his refusal he was called upon to 
 separate the tenement from the dwelling-house ; but this 
 was not easy to do, for during the lease Mawhood's 
 dwelling-house had been apparently brought forward and
 
 IO 
 
 built above the tenement. A lease of it at ^10 a year 
 was next offered to Sir William Rawlins, who was then 
 the owner of Mawhood's dwelling-house, and on his 
 refusal, the Vestry decided to submit for counsel's opinion 
 the question as to the best way to preserve the interests 
 of the parish in the tenement. Counsel advised that the 
 tenement be sold, and as Sir Wm. Rawlins, the owner 
 of the rest of the house, had offered ^180 for it, this was 
 accepted, and the conveyance signed nth October, 1814. 
 At that time the church clock had been made to strike 
 the quarters, and a larger bell had been provided for the 
 purpose, at a cost of ^"189. The Vestry, in February, 
 1 81 5, thereupon decided that as the clock and bell were 
 not only for the present, but also for the future inha- 
 bitants of the parish, the money received for the tenement 
 should be appropriated for the payment of the clock and 
 bell. 
 
 It is to be regretted that the parish thus sold both the 
 shed and corner shop or tenement on the south side of 
 the arch, but they seem to have acted with deliberation, 
 and to the best of their knowledge at the time in the 
 interest of the parish. 
 
 The archway had more than one narrow escape of 
 being itself removed. Thus on August 5th, 1741, the 
 question was put to the Vestry " whether a convenient 
 coachway be made at the church gate leading from 
 Smithfield to the Close," but it is to the credit of the 
 Vestry that they unanimously decided in the negative. 
 Again in 1814 counsel's opinion was taken as to whether, 
 " in the event of its being found necessary to remove the 
 arch because of decay or for any other reason," the 
 liability to support the building above would fall upon 
 the parishioners. Fortunately Mr. J. A. Park's opinion
 
 1 1 
 
 East 
 
 The Shop. 
 Shed 
 
 Outhouse 
 
 Or Ground 
 
 in Leases 
 
 1690.1704 17/2 
 
 Fitted as a 
 Watch -hous 
 3nd Caye 
 in 174' 
 
 
 Sold to Rawlins 
 in 1822 
 
 T'le Chamber 
 tinder the 
 upper cavity 
 of the arch.. 
 
 J; Stone wall belonqirxj 
 to Gateway m Lease i 
 1705. 1727 & 1783 
 
 Q ' ql? _ _ J: 
 
 x Tenement late^^s 
 § a Scnvenem Shop<£ 
 S m Lease -1705 112 f. 
 
 N)|n Sold toRawlms^ 
 
 W"Mawhoods House, 
 and subsequently thatcf 
 Sir Wtllicim Rawlins 
 
 XL 
 
 - - 6 8t* 
 
 Duke Street 
 
 . .Now Little Bnttairv 
 West 
 
 Plan or Parish Property. % 
 
 On South Side of Gateway 6r Passage.
 
 12 
 
 was that the parishioners would be liable, to which 
 opinion we may perhaps attribute the retention of the 
 arch. 
 
 HISTORICAL. 
 
 The gateway as we see it to-day is traversed by a 
 busy throng, always passing to and fro. It was so when 
 first erected, and has been so ever since. Fitz-Stephan, 
 writing about the year 1174, gives a very graphic 
 account of the horse market and horse racing which took 
 place in Smithfield in his day, and has been thus trans- 
 lated from the Latin : — 
 
 " Here every Friday, unless it should happen to be 
 one of the more solemn festivals, there is a celebrated 
 rendesvouz of fine horses brought thither to be sold. 
 Thither come, either to look or to buy, a great number 
 of persons resident in the City, Earls, Barons, Knights, 
 and a swarm of citizens. 'Tis a pleasing sight to see 
 the ambling nags so smoothly moving by raising and 
 putting down, alternately, their two side feet together. 
 In one part there are horses better adapted to Esquires, 
 whose motion is rougher but yet expeditious ; these lift 
 up and lay down the two opposite fore and hind feet 
 together .... When a race is to be run a shout 
 is immediately raised, and the common horses are 
 ordered to withdraw out of the way .... The 
 grand point is to prevent a competitor from getting 
 before them. The horses on their part are not with- 
 out emulation. They tremble, are impatient and con- 
 tinually in motion ; and at last, the signal once given, 
 they strike, devour the course, hurrying along with 
 unremitting velocity. The jockeys clap spurs to the 
 willing horses, brandish their whips, and cheer them
 
 13 
 
 with their cries. You would think that all things were 
 
 in motion." 
 
 Bartholomew Fair, granted by Henry I. to the monas- 
 tery in the year 1 133, was held originally within the 
 parish on the north side of the Church, in what is now 
 called Cloth Fair ; it soon overflowed into Smithfield 
 and eventually became a veritable pandemonium. It 
 was suppressed in 1853. A live cattle market as well 
 as the Friday horse market was held here until the 
 middle of the 19th century (1855). There were, on 
 occasions, as many as 4,000 beasts and 30,000 sheep 
 gathered together in Smithfield in one day. 
 
 In the Middle Ages, especially during the reigns of 
 Edward III., Richard II., Henry IV. and Henry V., 
 great jousts and tournaments were held in Smithfield 
 with much ceremony and splendour, attracting the whole 
 City to the spot. The approach from Newgate is still 
 called Gilt-spur Street in commemoration of these jousts. 
 
 People from all parts found hospitality in the guest- 
 house of the priory, and many would have passed thereto 
 through this door of the church. Pope Alexander V., 
 in his grant of indulgences dated the 27th August, 1409, 
 '' to all who on certain days visited and gave alms for the 
 repair and upkeep of the monastery," gave as one of the 
 reasons why money was required " that the monastery, 
 being situate in a very famous place of the realm, very 
 many resort thither from the realm and from divers 
 other regions, to its grave burden." 
 
 In the year 1321, when the Barons rose against the 
 Despensers, the favourites of Edward II., and marched 
 upon London under the Earl of Hereford, Lord Hugh 
 Audley and his followers were lodged at St. Bartholo- 
 mew's, and it was at the monastery, presumably in the
 
 14 
 
 great hall or guest-house there, that the meeting of tl 
 earls, barons and magnates took place. 
 
 In the year 1381 there was another rising, the gre 
 peasant revolt, under Wat Tyler. It was immediate 
 in front of this Smithfield gateway that King Richarc 
 men were drawn up, whilst Wat Tyler's were on tl 
 other side of Smithfield. It was after Wat Tyler h< 
 crossed the open space to this side to parley with tl 
 king, that he was struck down by Walworth, the mayc 
 and still living, his body was rudely dragged by his han 
 and feet, according to one chronicler, into the church 
 St. Bartholomew, and according to another into tl 
 hospital, where he was laid upon the master's bed. The 
 he probably died before again being brought out to I 
 decapitated. 
 
 Smithfield was the place of execution before Tybu: 
 was so used, and many sorry sights must have been se< 
 at the Elms on the other side of the square from th 
 door of the monastery : none perhaps more shockir 
 than the barbarous execution of Sir William Wallac 
 the Scotch patriot and hero, in the year 1305. 
 
 It was in front of this door that John Bradby w 
 burnt as a heretic in the year 1409. It was through 01 
 of the west doors of St. Bartholomew's that the Bless* 
 Sacrament was brought to him by Prior John Watfor 
 when the Prince of Wales, afterwards Henry V., pe 
 sonally pleaded with him to recant. 
 
 In the year 1546, after Henry VIII. had suppress* 
 the monastery and destroyed the nave of the church, 
 was immediately in front of this gateway that tl 
 corporation of the city erected a stage from whii 
 Wriothesly, the chancellor, and others might view tl 
 burning of Anne Askew.
 
 15 
 
 Nine years later and Queen Mary commenced to send 
 the martyrs of her time to the stake. According to 
 Strype, nine were burnt here in 1555, sixteen in 1556, 
 and ten in each of the two next years, or forty-five in all. 
 
 Other atrocities in ways of execution were enacted in 
 Smithfield, in front of this spot, upon which there is no 
 pleasure to dwell. 
 
 A more pleasant topic is what happened here in the 
 year of grace 1893. On June 5th, a guard of honour 
 was drawn up in Smithfield to receive the Prince and 
 Princess of Wales (our present King and Queen), accom- 
 panied by George, Duke of York (the present Prince of 
 Wales), the Princess Victoria, and the Princess Maude, 
 now the Queen of Norway. They and many other 
 notable people that day passed through this Smithfield 
 arch to testify their sympathy and approval of the great 
 work of restoration that had taken place in the church, 
 and to be present at the inauguration and dedication to 
 the service of Almighty God of the restored church by 
 Dr. Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Dr. Temple, 
 Bishop of London — a sympathy in the work and an 
 honour which will always be affectionately remembered 
 by all connected with it, and the more so because it was 
 the first occasion on which Oueen Alexandra had 
 appeared in public since the lamented death of the 
 prospective heir to the throne. 
 
 An effort is now being made to preserve in its present 
 picturesque condition this gateway of the parish, this 
 fragment of the monastery. It is the only example that 
 London possesses of an early thirteenth century door. 
 The owners of the property are trustees, and they ask 
 for the house above the arch and six feet by the south of 
 it, .£1,875, tne price fixed by their valuer. If acquired
 
 i6 
 
 it is proposed to preserve the house in its present 
 picturesque condition, and a further ^200 will be 
 necessary to put it into a habitable condition. 
 
 Those who are willing to help forward this work are 
 invited to send a contribution, large or small, to the 
 Rector of the parish, the Rev. W. F. G. Sandwith, 
 12A, Charterhouse Square, E.C. ; or to the Treasurer, 
 Sir F. D. Dixon-Hartland, Bt., M.P., at the London, 
 City and Midland Bank, West Smithfield ; or to E. A. 
 Webb, 60, Bartholomew Close, E.C. 
 
 1908. 
 
 Printed within the Parish by 
 W. H. & L. Collingridgk, Aldersgate Street, London, E.C. 
 
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