While in town last Friday we walked past one of the oldest Tudor buildings in London (1500's), a survivor of the 1666 fire (one of only 18 pre-fire buildings still standing) it's the rather substantial gatehouse to St Bartholomew's church in Smithfield. The huge stone walls of the nearby priory protected this building (and some others opposite, see 41 Cloth Fair) from the flames of the fire and it survived until the Georgian era when a facade was built obscuring its true nature for the next two centuries. In 1917 a bomb from a German Zeppelin exploded nearby and exposed parts of the original frontage and it was fully restored in 1932, and we ask what the Germans ever did for us?
For completeness, here's a list of all the pre-1666 buildings that I know of,
The Olde Wine Shades (now a wine bar)
The Seven Stars
St Bartholomew's Gatehouse
41 Cloth Fair
The Staple Inn
The Guildhall
St Andrew Undershaft
St Giles-without-Cripplegate
St Helen's Bishopsgate
St Katherine Cree
Tower of London
74-75 Long Lane
The Hoop and Grapes
St Ethelredas Church
The Old Curiosity Shop
Prince Henry's Room
All Hallows-by-the-Tower
229 Strand
St Olave Hart Street
No comments:
Post a Comment