India House, lately
magnificently built, with a stone front to the street; but the front
being very narrow, does not make an appearance answerable to the
grandeur of the house within, which stands upon a great deal of
ground, the offices and storehouses admirably well contrived, and
the public hall and the committee room scarce inferior to anything
of the like nature in the City.
There is not one church in this ward at present. The officers of
the ward are, an alderman, his deputy, four common-council men, four
constables, two scavengers, sixteen for the wardmote inquest, and a
beadle.
5. Bishopsgate Ward is divided into two parts, one within
Bishopsgate, and the other without.
The streets and places in this ward, within the gate, are, all
Bishopsgate Street, part of Gracechurch Street, all Great and Little
St. Helen's, all Crosby Square, all Camomile Street, and a small
part of Wormwood Street, with several courts and alleys that fall
into them.
That part of this ward that lies without Bishopsgate extends
northwards as far as the bars, being the bounds of the City freedom
on this side.
The principal streets and places in this ward, without the gate,
are, Bishopsgate Street, Petty France, Bethlem Court and Lane, and
Devonshire Square; besides which, there are little courts and alleys
without number between Bishopsgate Street and Moorfields.
The public buildings in this ward are Leather-sellers' Hall, Gresham
College, the churches of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, St. Ethelburga,
and St. Helen.
London Workhouse, for the poor of the City of London, also stands in
this ward, just without Bishopsgate, being a long brick edifice four
hundred feet in length, consisting of several work-rooms and lodging
rooms for the vagrants and parish children brought thither, who are
employed in spinning wool and flax, in sewing, knitting, or winding
silk, or making their clothes or shoes, and are taught to write,
read, and cast accounts. The grown vagrants brought here for a time
only are employed in washing, beating hemp, and picking oakum, and
have no more to keep them than they earn, unless they are sick; and
the boys are put out apprentices to seafaring men or artificers, at
a certain age, and in the meantime have their diet, clothes, physic,
and other necessaries provided for them by the house, which is
supported by private charities, by sums raised annually by the City,
or by the labour of the children, which last article produces seven
or eight hundred pounds per annum.
6. Broad Street Ward contains part of Threadneedle Street,
Bartholomew Lane, part of Prince's Street, part of Lothbury, part of
Throgmorton Street, great part of Broad Street, Winchester Street,
Austinfriars, part of Wormwood Street, and part of London Wall
Street, with the courts and lanes running into them.
The public buildings in this ward are Carpenters' Hall, Drapers'
Hall, Merchant Taylors' Hall, the South Sea House, the Pay Office,
Allhallows on the Wall, St. Peter's Poor, the Dutch Church, St.
Martin's, St. Bennet's, St. Bartholomew's, St. Christopher's, and
the French Church.
The most magnificent and beautiful edifice of the kind in this ward,
and indeed in the City of London, is the South Sea House, lately
erected at the north-east corner of Threadneedle Street, near
Bishopsgate Street, and over against the church of St. Martin
Outwich. It is built of stone and brick.
The several offices for transacting the business of this great
company are admirably well disposed; and the great hall for sales is
nowhere to be paralleled, either in its dimensions or ornaments, any
more than the dining-room, galleries, and chambers above.
7. Cornhill Ward comprehends little more than the street of the
same name, and some little lanes and alleys that fall into it, as
Castle Alley, Sweeting's or Swithin's Alley, Freeman's Yard, part of
Finch Lane, Weigh House Yard, Star Court, the north end of Birching
Lane, St. Michael's Alley, Pope's Head Alley, and Exchange Alley.
Cornhill Street may, in many respects, be looked upon as the
principal street of the City of London; for here almost all affairs
relating to navigation and commerce are transacted; and here all the
business relating to the great companies and the Bank are
negotiated. This street also is situated near the centre of the
City, and some say, upon the highest ground in it. It is spacious,
and well built with lofty houses, four or five storeys high,
inhabited by linendrapers and other considerable tradesmen, who deal
by wholesale as well as retail, and adorned with the principal gate
and front of the Royal Exchange. Here also it is said the
metropolitan church was situated, when London was an archbishopric.
Exchange Alley, so denominated from its being situated on the south
side of this street, over against the Royal Exchange, has long been
famous for the great concourse of merchants and commanders of ships,
and the bargains and contracts made there and in the two celebrated
coffee-houses in it, which go under the respective names of
"Jonathan's" and "Garraway's," where land, stocks, debentures, and
merchandise, and everything that has an existence in Nature, is
bought, sold, and transferred from one to another; and many things
contracted for, that subsists only in the imagination of the
parties.
The public buildings in this ward are, the Royal Exchange, and the
churches of St. Peter and St. Michael.
The Royal Exchange is situated on the north side of Cornhill, about
the middle of the street, forming an oblong open square, the inside
whereof is a hundred and forty-four feet in length from east to
west, and a hundred and seventeen in breadth from north to south;
the area sixty-one square poles, on every side whereof is a noble
piazza or cloister, consisting of twenty-eight columns and arches
that support the galleries above.
