The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England (6 page)

Turn east. In the distance you can see the city. If you make this journey on the day of Elizabeth I’s accession, 17 November 1558, you will hear the church bells of all the parishes in the city and the surrounding villages ringing out across the fields. The road from here into London is more or less straight, leading from Tyburn to Newgate, about 2¾ miles away. In the distance, towering above the city, stands the immensely tall medieval spire of St Paul’s Cathedral, more than 500ft high. If you stand here three years later, on 3 June 1561, you might see a bolt of lightning strike the cathedral spire and set light to the roof. The spire collapses, taking with it the bells and the lead of the roof, leaving just the tower.
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One of the glories of the medieval cathedral builders is left like a smile with a broken tooth. The church itself is re-roofed, but the spire is never rebuilt: a visible symbol to Londoners and visitors of the uncertainty of the times.

The road along which you are travelling is bordered by fields on both sides until the crossroads with St Martin’s Lane and Tottenham Court Road. Beyond this junction, behind a large copse of trees, is the church of St Giles in the Fields. Further on the road turns into a street, with about a dozen houses on each side. The next turning on the right is Drury Lane, which leads between the fields to the Aldwych and Fleet Street. If you don’t take this, but keep on going straight, a moated building called Southampton House appears on your left. The road turns slightly and enters the village of Holborn. From here to the city walls the street is lined with houses on both sides. This is where several of the Inns of Court are situated – Gray’s Inn, Bath Inn and Furnival’s Inn on your left; Clement’s Inn, Lincoln’s Inn, Staple Inn, Barnard’s Inn and Thavie’s Inn on your right. In these places law students live and study in close proximity to Chancery
Lane. The parish church of St Andrew’s Holborn is next, on the right, and facing it is the imposing medieval residence of the bishop of Ely. After that you pass the turning into Shoe Lane, cross the bridge over the Fleet River (Holborn Bridge) and find yourself in the sprawling mass of houses that have erupted from the city. Still you have not reached the city wall, although you can see it ahead: 18ft high, with the crenellated gatehouse of Newgate guarding the entrance. But you are already within the jurisdiction of the lord mayor and sheriffs of London.

Return this way at the end of the reign and you will see the city has spread even further west. Although the queen has it proclaimed in 1580 that there should be no development of the suburbs, London carries on expanding. In 1593 the government passes an Act prohibiting any new housing within three miles of the city; this too only slightly slows development. In 1602 the queen issues orders that all unauthorised developments in the suburbs are to be removed, but the spread of housing cannot be stopped: the houses on either side of the main road through St Giles and Holborn are one continuous stretch by 1603.
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Within twenty years of Elizabeth’s death, Drury Lane will have been entirely developed, with 897 houses along it.

Suppose you do not rush straight into London this way. Let us assume that, at Tyburn, you turn right along the country lane that leads south, alongside the queen’s private hunting ground, called Hyde Park. This brings you down to a junction with a road to the city known by Londoners as ‘the Way to Reading’. One day, in the next century, this will be Piccadilly, lined with aristocratic houses. For now, though, it is a unmade track between the fields. If you come this way on a fine day, you will see washerwomen laying out clothes, bed linen and tablecloths on the grass to dry. But it is not to see the washerwomen that you should come this way: rather it is to admire the palaces. If you turn off and follow the track that will later become Haymarket, this leads you down to the tall medieval cross at Charing Cross. From here you will see the sparkling Thames straight ahead and, along its bank to your right, the royal palaces of Whitehall and Westminster.

What will you make of the nearer palace, Whitehall? None of the buildings will be known to you; the only one standing in modern times (the Banqueting House) has not yet been built, so it will appear as an unintelligible mass of houses and roofs. It lacks all harmony or
structural unity. Although the full scale of the 23½ acres of building that will one day come to be known as ‘the largest and ugliest palace in Europe’ has not yet materialised, it will probably leave you with that same impression. If you walk towards the great gatehouse you will see the tiltyard on your right: a narrow enclosure with a barrier down the middle for ceremonial jousts. Next to it is the royal tennis court. On your left are the apartments and great hall of the original building, York House, which forms the nucleus of this so-called palace. Do not get me wrong: these buildings are lavish in the extreme, with great care and attention spent on their construction and no expense spared on their internal decoration. But the whole palace is just ‘a heap of houses’, as one French visitor later puts it.
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Go on under the arch of the great gatehouse and into King’s Street. On your left is the queen’s privy garden: a large square courtyard with formal flowerbeds. The stately-looking apartments on the far side, which overlook the river, are where she spends much of her time. Carry on, under the King’s Street gatehouse, and go past all the houses of Whitehall. Ahead there is the gatehouse of the old Palace of Westminster. Here, beside the great abbey church, is the old hall of William II. That is now used by the offices of Chancery. The other buildings of the medieval royal palace that were not destroyed in the fire of 1512 have similarly been transformed into bureaucratic offices or halls of government. The great royal chapel of St Stephen is now the place where the House of Commons meets. Members of the House of Lords convene in the old Queen’s Chamber. However, as Elizabeth only summons ten parliaments, and these only sit for a total of about two-and-a-half years of her forty-five-year reign, these huge rooms are normally left cold and empty. That is true of most of the royal palaces in Elizabeth’s reign. If you go upriver and visit Hampton Court Palace, you will find that the walls are bare whitewashed plaster with empty wooden frames, for the tapestries are taken down when the queen is not in residence. Rather than servants scurrying about, carrying food for a feast or logs for a hearth, you will see dust blowing across the empty courtyards.

The Strand is the great street that connects Westminster and Whitehall to the city of London itself. You will see hundreds of lawyers and clerks walking along it from the city every morning and returning in the evening. But it is much more than just a street: it is where many of the most magnificent houses in London are
situated. At the Whitehall end, just north of Charing Cross, is the royal mews, where the queen’s hunting falcons and her horses and carriages are kept. Beyond, backing on to the river, are Hungerford House, York Place, Durham Place, the Savoy Palace and Arundel Place – substantial mansions that are the homes of statesmen and bishops. The greatest lords have always preferred this area because it is quieter than the city itself, the air cleaner, there is plenty of space for the servants’ quarters and, most of all, the houses have river access. From here the lords and their guests can simply take a barge to their destination; they do not have to travel by road or risk the attention of the mob. Most of these great houses are built round a quadrangle, with the private residential parts overlooking the large garden leading down to the river. On the north side of the Strand there are smaller gentlemen’s houses. About halfway along is Cecil House, the grand London residence of Sir William Cecil (later Lord Burghley), the queen’s principal secretary. The house is far enough advanced in 1561 for him to entertain Elizabeth here in person. Beyond its garden, and running behind all the houses along this north side of the Strand, are the undeveloped fields of Long Acre and Covent Garden, which previously belonged to the monks of Westminster Abbey and are now the property of the earl of Bedford. The developers will start to move into the area in the next reign, when Drury Lane has been built up.

At the heart of London is the Thames. It is a major asset to those who live here. As the alleys and lanes of the city are so dank, dark and dangerous, and the streets so congested, many people cut through between the houses to the stairs down to the river, where they hire a wherry to take them upstream or down. Upstream from London Bridge you’ll find the wharf at Vintry, next to Queenhithe, with three cranes (Three Cranes Wharf) for lifting cargo that needs to be transported upriver, such as tuns of wine and timber. You will see hundreds of boats moored here of an evening. But far more important is the main port of London. This is made up of the twenty or so quays and wharves on the north bank of the river between London Bridge and the Tower of London, where deep-water ships can draw up and where cranes are able to hoist the goods ashore. Galley Quay, nearest the Tower, is a general lading place, but most of the others have designated purposes. Old Wool Quay is for wool and fells. Beare Quay is for traders coming from and going to Portugal. Sabbes Quay
is for traders of pitch, tar and soap. Gibson’s Quay is for lead and tin. Somers Quay is for Flemish merchants. And so on. So many vessels are moored here that the Elizabethan writer and schoolmaster William Camden compares the wharves to wooded groves, ‘shaded with masts and sails’. In 1599 Thomas Platter notes that there is one large boat nose-to-stern all the way from St Katherine’s Wharf (just to the east of the Tower of London) to London Bridge: one hundred vessels in all.
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Although the majority of visitors to the city remark on the large numbers of swans on the Thames, you will probably be more impressed by the number of boats. These range from dung-boats to thousands of wherries and one glass boat: the royal barge. The river itself is wider and shallower than in modern times, with no high embankments. But one thing goes for all visitors:
everyone
talks about London Bridge. This magnificent ancient structure of twenty arches – more than 800ft long, 60ft feet high and almost 30ft wide – towers above the water. It is built on huge ‘starlings’: low flat pillars of stone, which are shaped like boats. These serve as both foundations and cutwaters; they also impede the flow of tidal water under the bridge. When the tide is going out it is impossible to row upstream. Similarly, it is dangerous to ‘shoot the bridge’ and risk yourself in the turbulent water when heading downstream. The starlings also act collectively as a form of weir, slowing the flow of the river, so that it sometimes freezes in very cold weather. In the winter of 1564–5 the ice is thick enough for some boys to play a football match on it. Everyone enjoys that occasion, even the queen, who leads her courtiers out on to the frozen river to shoot arrows for sport.

The impressive bulk of London Bridge is greatly enhanced by the shops and four-storey houses constructed along it. These are the homes of prosperous merchants, so the bridge has all the appearance of a fine street. Towards the north end is a gatehouse, the New Stone Gate. Six arches from the south end is the drawbridge. This originally had two purposes: one was to allow larger ships access to the river beyond the bridge; the other was the defence of the city. A second gatehouse stands just to the north of this drawbridge, emphasising the latter purpose. However, the drawbridge has not been raised for many years; nor will it ever be used again. In 1577 the dilapidated drawbridge tower is taken down and replaced by Nonsuch House: a magnificent four-storey timber-framed house
prefabricated in the Low Countries, shipped to London and erected in 1579. Built over the seventh and eighth arches, this magnificent brightly painted building straddles the entire bridge and enables traffic to pass through its centre by way of a great passageway. At the south end there is a third gatehouse, the Great Stone Gate, with drum towers of four storeys. After the drawbridge tower is removed, the Great Stone Gate is where traitors’ heads are displayed. Even after they have rotted, the skulls are left on spikes as a reminder of the fate that befalls those who dare oppose the monarch. At the end of the century, you can still see more than thirty skulls there. London Bridge is more than just a bridge: it is a symbol of London and a statement of royal authority.

There are many other landmarks to visit. The Tower dominates the eastern side of the city; you might be interested to see the medieval palace in the inner bailey, which still survives in Elizabeth’s reign. The fifteenth-century Guildhall is another important building that you might recognise: it houses the administration of the twenty-six wards of the city of London.
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Many locals will direct you to London Stone on your sightseeing journey: a large menhir standing in the middle of Candlewick Street (much larger than the fragment that survives in modern times in a nearby wall). For many people, this stone is the heart of London; they will tell you that it was erected by Brutus, the legendary founder of Britain. Here they swear oaths, agree deals and listen to official proclamations. Other sightseeing destinations will be completely unfamiliar to you, however. The cathedral, for example, was completed in the fourteenth century, and despite the loss of its dramatic spire, it is still worth visiting for its medieval antiquities, such as the Rose Window and the tomb of John of Gaunt. The medieval city walls are also intact, having been extensively repaired with brick in 1477.
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The ancient gates of Ludgate, Newgate, Cripplegate, Bishopsgate, Aldgate, Aldersgate and Moorgate similarly still stand. Baynard’s Castle is located at the western extreme of the ancient city walls, mirroring the Tower in the east. It is not a castle as such, but a palatial fifteenth-century house built round two large quadrangles, one with hexagonal towers at each corner. Another unfamiliar landmark is Paul’s Cross, the elevated octagonal preaching place with a lead roof in the north-east corner of the churchyard of St Paul’s Cathedral. Three days after Queen Elizabeth’s accession in November 1558, her chaplain preaches here. Sermons by him and other authorised
preachers over the subsequent months attract thousands of Londoners and visitors to the city, who gather eager to learn how the Church is being reformed by their new monarch. It can also be a place of rioting, when a preacher upsets his audience. On one occasion in the last reign a dagger was thrown at a bishop preaching here. It stuck, quivering, in the timber beside him.