There had been a royal palace at Westminster since King Cnut in the early 11^th century but a disastrous fire in 1512 led Henry VIII to abandon it as a royal residence. The fall from grace of Cardinal Wolsey, and the creation of St. James’s Park as a new hunting ground, gave Henry the opportunity to establish a new royal palace close by.

The great hall at Westminster was built by William II, son of the Conqueror, and completed in 1099 and during the following 400 years various monarchs made changes and additions. Although other royal palaces were established, and monarchs moved between them, the Royal Exchequer settled at Westminster. It therefore became the principal royal palace of English monarchs and home of the royal administrators. But in 1512 the royal residence was largely destroyed by fire and Henry VIII found himself as the first monarch since Saxon times without a palace at Westminster.

During the time of King John and the early reign of Henry III one of the most powerful men in the country was Hubert de Burgh. It was important for him to have a residence close to Westminster. In 1221 he married the sister of the King of Scotland. Shortly after purchased from Westminster Abbey a complex of houses at Westminster on King Street, which ran parallel with the Thames, north from Westminster to the hamlet of Charing. Hubert then acquired additional adjoining properties.

De Burgh eventually fell from grace and in 1241 his property at Westminster was sold to Walter de Gray, Archbishop of York. In 1245 it was given to Walter’s successors as archbishops, who used it thereafter while attending the royal court, and it became known as York Place.

Thomas Wolsey, the son of an Ipswich butcher was a local priest who rose to become Henry VIII’s almoner. He achieved prominence amongst Henry’s ministers by supporting the King’s war against France and became Henry’s trusted advisor. In 1514 he was made Archbishop of York. In the following year the Pope appointed him as a cardinal, and Henry promoted him to Lord Chancellor.

During the fifteen years of his tenure, Wolsey transformed York Place into a magnificent palace, rivalled only in the London area by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lambeth Palace. Its walls were hung with cloth of gold and silver. He employed a large staff and entertained lavishly, with sumptuous banquets and elaborate masques. One occasion of note was on All Hallows Day in 1527 when Wolsey hosted a banquet for King Henry and the French ambassadors. It was attended by eighty dignitaries, following a mass as St. Paul’s Cathedral to solemnise the peace treaty between England and France that Wolsey had negotiated.

A Great Hall, the Long Gallery, the Great Chamber with a wine cellar below, and a chapel, were all added by Wolsey, as well as an orchard. York Place was enlarged when Wolsey purchased neighbouring tenements. That included Scotland Yard to the north of York Place, where Scottish kings had lodged during the Middle Ages when paying homage to the English monarch. (The original headquarters of the Metropolitan Police was located at Scotland Yard in the early 19^th century).

By 1525 Henry looked for ways to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon so he could marry Anne Boleyn. Wolsey failed to obtain approval for the annulment from the Pope and in 1529 was stripped of his government office and properties.

For the time being Wolsey remained Archbishop of York and for the first time visited Yorkshire. While there in 1530 he was accused of treason, for which punishment would be execution, and ordered back to London. During the journey he died at Leicester.

Henry had been a frequent guest of Wolsey at York Place. Since the fire at the Palace of Westminster he had most frequently stayed and entertained at Greenwich Palace. With the Cardinal’s fall from grace the nearby York Place would make an ideal replacement for his former palace at Westminster. Thomas Cromwell undertook a complex series of transactions that transferred the majority of Westminster to the King. Despite being the property of the See of York, rather than the personal property of Wolsey, York House was acquired by Henry in February 1530. He renamed it Whitehall Palace, a common name in the past for stately buildings.

To the west of Whitehall Palace was land belonging to the St. James’s leper hospice, and beyond that Westminster Abbey’s Manor of Hide stretching away to Kensington. In 1536, during the Dissolution of Monasteries, Henry confiscated those extensive lands to form an enormous hunting park adjoining the palace.

The area immediately to the west of the palace was then used to create a tilt yard for jousting (which in a later time would become Horse Guards Parade), tennis courts, and a bowling alley. Cockfighting was an entertainment until the reign of Charles I in the 17^th century. An octagonal cockpit was created, surrounded by a ring of seats, with specific seats for the King and Queen.

Despite the extensive rebuilding under Wolsey, Henry found Whitehall insufficient for his needs and set about enlarging and rebuilding the palace. Work on the first phase of the reconstruction began immediately so that it could be completed in time for Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn. Various parts of the former York Place, as well as some neighbouring houses, were demolished. Building materials were brought from the Cardinal’s college at Ipswich. Royal apartments along the riverside were centred around the Long Gallery, also known as the Privy Gallery. It was formed by bringing a new timber-framed gallery that had been built for Wolsey at Esher. Henry commissioned Holbein to paint a fresco on its walls to commemorate the achievements of the Tudor dynasty.

Buckingham Palace is the official London residence of British monarchs. Yet it has only been so since the beginning of the reign of Queen Victoria in 1837 making it the most recent of the great European royal palaces. Nevertheless, it can trace its history back to the 17^th century when it began as a relatively modest country house.

Throughout the Middle Ages the leper hospice of St. James the Less stood a short distance to the north-west of Westminster. It was surrounded by its own land of marshy meadows where pigs could roam. To its west was the Manor of Hide, held by the monks of Westminster Abbey. In the 1530s Henry VIII seized both the manor, and the leper hospice and its lands, to form what then became large hunting grounds consisting of Hyde Park to the west and St. James’s Park to the east.

Until then the principle residents of English monarchs in the London area had for centuries been the Palace of Westminster, what evolved into the Houses of Parliament. It was largely destroyed by fire during the reign of Henry VIII, however, and in 1530 he appropriated the nearby riverside York Place from Cardinal Wolsey, who had fallen from grace. Renamed Whitehall, it remained a royal palace during the reigns of subsequent kings and queens, with the royal hunting grounds immediately to its west. Henry had a red-brick hunting lodge built where the hospice had stood, the future St. James’s Palace, which he used as a retreat from the formalities of Whitehall Palace.

James I had St. James’s Park drained and landscaped in which invited people could stroll. He leased part of the west side of the park, close to an area of water called Rosamond’s Pond, to William Stallinge who created a mulberry orchard in an attempt to grow silkworms. The park went into decline after the death of James and the experiment to produce silkworms was abandoned.

In 1633 Lord Goring, son of the Earl of Norwich, had a modest house built on a site adjacent to the mulberry orchard, facing to the south. In 1665 it was let to Secretary of State, the Earl of Arlington. A decade later the building was destroyed by fire, with the loss of valuable paintings, furniture, wall hangings, and plates. In 1677 Lord Arlington purchased the lease and had a new house built. It was in an Anglo-Dutch style and the diarist John Evelyn described it as “a very fine, noble place”. By then, St. James’s Park had been remodelled in a French style for Charles II and Arlington’s house was built to face east towards the park. Arlington died in 1685 and the house was inherited by his daughter, the Duke of Grafton.

In 1689 William and Mary came to the throne following the overthrow of James II in the Glorious Revolution. William suffered from asthma and Whitehall’s riverside location, not to mention pollution from the many coal fires that then heated the many buildings, was bad for his health. William and Mary therefore created a new palace on the western side of Hyde Park at the village of Kensington, in what was then a rural area. In January 1698 Whitehall Palace was consumed by fire but Kensington Palace continued as a royal residence during the reigns of Queen Anne, George I and George II.

Whitehall or Kensington were never the sole residence of the monarchs, however: at various times Greenwich, Windsor, Hampton Court, Kew, and St. James’s Palace were favoured, or used for specific purposes.

The Duke of Grafton died after receiving a wound at the Siege of Cork in 1690 and the house then passed to their son. In 1698 it was let to John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave. He was appointed Lord Privy Seal during the reign of Queen Anne and in 1703 created Duke of Buckingham. Despite it being only thirty years old, the duke had Arlington House demolished and a new, grander house built slightly to the north.

Buckingham House was surrounded by parkland and appeared like a country house. The duke had it orientated in such a way as to give the impression that the entire St. James’s Park was included in the property. A new avenue had been created across the park by Charles II named the Mall in which fashionable and aristocratic people promenaded and the duke’s new house was centred along the tree-lined avenue.

London and Westminster were close enough that from the upper floors of Buckingham House Westminster Abbey would have been clearly visible, as well as the City of London with the dome of Wren’s new St. Paul’s Cathedral in the distance. Yet to further ensure the location remained rural Buckingham purchased Crow Fields to the north-west.

Buckingham House was designed by William Talman, Comptroller of the Office of Works, and Captain William Winde, inspired by the work of the Italian Andrea Palladio. The main structure was built by John Fitch at a cost of seven thousand pounds. The interior contained a hall paved with marble, a grand staircase, and painted decorations by artists from Venice and Versailles. Either side of the main building stood flanking pavilions, forming a forecourt. In the centre of the forecourt, which protruded into the park, was an elaborate fountain with statues of Neptune and tritons. Iron railings by Jean Tijou divided the forecourt from St. James’s Park. The roof was adorned with figures from classical mythology. A formal garden by the royal gardener Henry Wise and a bowling green were laid out behind the house.

For over 70 years Kensington Palace was the London residence of successive kings and queens, from William and Mary until George II. It has continued to be the London home of many members of the royal family until today. It was where Diana, Princess of Wales lived, and where thousands of people came to lay flowers and other marks of sympathy following her death.

William III and his wife Mary jointly gained the throne when James II was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. After 1512, when a fire destroyed part of Westminster Palace, the Royal Court had been based at Whitehall. William suffered from asthma, however, so he looked for a new residence away from the damp air of the Thames-side location at Whitehall. He considered Holland House, previously known as Cope Castle, at Kensington. William and Mary stayed there for several weeks in 1689.

A short distance away from Holland House, on the west of Hyde Park, was the suburban villa of Nottingham House with 26 acres of grounds. It had been built as a two-storey mansion in 1605 and from 1619 was in the ownership of the 1^st Earl of Nottingham. It was inherited by his son, the 2^nd Earl, who by 1689 was Secretary of State for the Northern Office (the foreign office minister for Northern Europe). Kensington was then a small village, quite remote from London. Nottingham House was more conveniently closer to the government ministers at Westminster and Whitehall than Holland House so that summer William and Mary agreed to buy it for £18,000 as their new permanent home. It was re-named Kensington Palace. The dryness of the air from the nearby gravel-pits was ideal for the asthmatic King.

From then until 1727 Kensington Palace grew to become an important royal residence. Furthermore, it attracted members of the royal court to the surrounding area, making the village of Kensington a highly desirable and fashionable neighbourhood.

In February 1691 the diarist John Evelyn wrote:

I went to Kensington, which King William has bought of Lord Nottingham, and altered, but was yet a patched-up building, but with gardens, however, it is a very neat villa.

Mary enthusiastically took charge of transforming the house and gardens. Sir Christopher Wren, Surveyor of the King’s Works, was instructed to enlarge the building. He added new wings, an additional floor, and re-orientated the building to face west, with £60,000 spent in the first year. A series of grand State Apartments were added, as were a chapel, accommodation for courtiers, kitchens, and stables. The work included the construction of a barracks building at the front of the palace, on Palace Green to the west of the main building. It was used to house soldiers who guarded the palace and survived until 1845.

Mary pressured the workmen to finish but with consequences. During one of her site visits a wall collapsed. A workman was killed and others injured, which gave her a tremendous shock. “I was truly humbled” she wrote to William. Progress was also delayed when a fire broke out, destroying a whole wing.

Work had progressed sufficiently that William and Mary could move into the unfinished Kensington Palace on Christmas Eve 1689. The King and Queen used the impressive palace halls to hold Drawing Rooms once or twice each week for distinguished guests such as ambassadors and foreign princes, as well as magnificent all-night balls for a thousand guests.

George London and Henry Wise from Brompton Nurseries were appointed to create formal gardens in the Dutch style to the south of the palace, with straight cut solitary lawns, gravelled walks, and flower beds at right-angles. Clipped hedges represented fortifications.

To keep royal messengers in contact with Westminster and Whitehall a road was laid out across the gardens, continuing through Hyde Park, Green Park and St. James’s Park. In winter the highway was illuminated with 300 lanterns to protect against highwaymen who lurked in Hyde Park, the first artificially-lit road in England. The track was named Route du Roi (King’s Road) but became anglicized to the current name of Rotten Row. (As late as 1749 the MP Horace Walpole was robbed by the highwayman James MacLaine in Rotten Row).

Mary was a keen collector of oriental porcelain and built an impressive collection, some of which remain within the palace. Work on the building was mostly complete in 1692 but just two years later she died of smallpox in her bedchamber in the palace. William lost his enthusiasm for lavish events. Nevertheless, after Mary’s death a section was created overlooking the south that housed a picture gallery, with private apartments below.

Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, visited London in January 1698 to study Britain’s ship-building expertise. During his visit he regularly dined with William at the palace. Peter took little interest in William’s picture collection but was fascinated by his wind-dial. By February William was beginning to enquire as to when Peter might be departing after previous hints had been ignored. The Tsar finally left in April, having trashed his accommodation at John Evelyn’s property at Deptford.

Hammersmith Bridge was the first suspension bridge over the Thames and the longest suspension crossing in the world at the time of its opening. Unlike many other London toll bridges it proved to be profitable for its investors. Its existence provided a stimulus for the growth of Hammersmith into a more important town to the west side of London.

At the turn of the 19^th century Hammersmith was a growing, pleasant, and fashionable riverside village to the west of London. Queen Caroline, estranged wife of King George IV, set up home there until her death in the house in 1821.

The idea of creating a bridge over the Thames at Hammersmith, and thus a roadway that would link to the villages of Barnes, Richmond and Mortlake on the opposite bank, went back until at least the early 18^th century. In the 1720s Daniel Defoe wrote:

In the village of Hammersmith…they design to obtain the grant of a market…and some talk also of building a fine stone bridge over the Thames; but these things are yet but in embryo, though it is not unlikely but they may be both accomplished in time.

It seems to have remained as “some talk” for the following century until Ralph Dodd took up the idea. Dodd was an energetic promoter and minor engineer of canals, tunnels and bridges. At the end of the 18th century he had made an unsuccessful attempt to create a tunnel under the Thames from Tilbury to Gravesend. He had more success with the creation of the Surrey Grand Canal at around the same time. He then turned his attention to the making of a crossing over the river between the City and Lambeth, that eventually opened as Waterloo Bridge.

In the early 19^th century the need for a bridge between Hammersmith and the Surrey side of the river was becoming ever-more necessary. A dry crossing would save a detour of five miles via Fulham or Kew bridges for those wishing to pass between Hammersmith and Barnes. In 1817 Dodd promoted a parliamentary bill to build a privately-owned toll-crossing at Hammersmith. As is normal with the early Thames bridges there was opposition, in this case from the owners of the Fulham toll bridge (the predecessor of Putney Bridge), about a mile downstream. Dodd’s plan relied on the purchase of land owned by the banker Henry Hugh Hoare to create an approach road from the south but Hoare refused to sell, so the idea remained in limbo for a few more years.

A new petition was made in 1824, promoted by the local waterworks company, and this time Hoare agreed to sell. Despite opposition from the owners of Kew and Fulham bridges, an Act of Parliament was passed. The Hammersmith Bridge Company was formed and £80,000 raised. The engineer for the work was to be William Tierney Clark. He had been apprenticed as a millwright, then worked at the Coalbrookdale Ironworks in Shropshire. John Rennie was impressed with his work there and employed him at his Albion Works in London. Rennie then recommended him for a position at the West Middlesex Waterworks Company where Clark created an engine-house to pump water to Hammersmith from reservoirs at Barnes. He continued to live locally for the rest of his life.

London, home to a tenth of the country’s population in the 18^th century living in quite a small area, and with overcrowded pockets of squalor, faced unique social problems. Crime was rampant, yet there was little effective organisation to combat it. Each of the separate and overlapping authorities responsible for the governance of the metropolis had different structures for dealing with the problem, with almost no co-ordination between them.

In 18^th century London there was increasing wealth for some but also a growing number of poor and unemployed. The old social orders of earlier times were breaking down. The metropolis was a magnet for immigrants from other parts of the nation, seeking employment but often without success. Thousands of men were discharged from the armed forces in 1748 after the end of the War of Austrian Succession, many without a chance of employment. Without a settled home in the city people were excluded from financial support from a parish. Poverty and crime were also fueled by the craze for drinking gin. Those who could not or did not want to support themselves lawfully turned to crime, of which there was little control. Pickpockets and footpads operated throughout the metropolis and highwaymen took advantage of those travelling on the roads to and from London.

Magistrates had the power of summary jurisdiction to punish those found guilty for a specified list of minor offences, with a fine, whipping, or commitment to a house of correction. The number of these specific offences grew throughout the century as new laws were passed by Parliament. Those suspected of more serious crimes were sent to prison to await trial by jury at the Old Bailey criminal court. Offences for which a magistrate could convict included various types of vice, drunkenness and different kinds of disorderly conduct, selling ale without a licence, working on Sunday, swearing, vagrancy, disobedience by servants, some types of petty theft, assault, and vagrancy.

It was the responsibility of constables and night watchmen to apprehend criminals. The latter were often elderly and decrepit, armed only with a staff and lamp. The majority of constables were known to be corrupt.

Covent Garden in particular had a reputation for high levels of crime. The district had been created in the 17^th century on the land of the Duke of Bedford to the west of the City of London as a new suburb for the affluent classes. A century later those of wealth had moved on to the new and more fashionable suburbs of St. James’s and Mayfair. As the aristocracy moved out the area became a place of both legal and illegal pleasures. Thieves and con men hung around Covent Garden’s two theatres to prey on unsuspecting theatre-goers. The area was notorious for its brothels and prostitutes on the street. A number of illegal clubs for homosexuals – ‘mollies’ – also operated in the area, as did illegal gambling houses. Around 30,000 of the city’s poorest people lived in the nearby slums of St. Giles, a large number of whom had no means of supporting themselves except through begging or criminal activity.

Without any effective crime-detection the best way to retrieve stolen goods was to place advertisements in newspapers giving descriptions of perpetrators and goods and offering rewards. Money was paid to informants and from the end of the 17^th century this became institutionalized in the role of ‘thief-takers’. They were individuals who theoretically earned a living from solving crimes but were often little more than criminals themselves. The smartest of them simply stole goods in order to claim back the reward for their return. The main motivation for thief-takers was to obtain the reward, not whether the accused was innocent or guilty, and many false and malicious prosecutions took place. The most famous thief-taker was Jonathan Wild, who became known as the ‘Thief-Taker General’. If your property was stolen there was a strong chance Wild could find it for a reward and he ensured that any thief who did not cooperate with him went to the gallows. His scheming was eventually uncovered and he was hanged at Tyburn in 1725. Despite Wild’s corruption he was at least keeping some control of London’s criminal network. After his execution there was for several years a gap in crime detection.

Crime increased in 18^th century London as the population grew and the old social orders changed. There was little infrastructure to prevent crime or fight against it. What existed had been created at the time when the metropolis was smaller and the population lower. Multiple, fragmented bodies were responsible in bringing criminals to justice. Many were distrustful of each other and themselves corrupt in many cases.

The population of the metropolis approached one million in the early 18^th century, living in a relatively confined area. Old social orders that had existed in London during the Middle Ages when the number of people was much smaller, and there was less migration, had largely broken down. As the population increased, and with a wide gap between wealthy and poor, there was greater criminal activity. Undoubtedly the major reason was poverty, which in itself was caused by a number of factors. The Poor Laws that had initially been introduced in the 16^th century were no longer able to cope with the numerous people residing in the capital who were unable to legitimately support themselves.

Those who could not or did not want to lawfully support themselves turned to crime, of which there was little control. Pickpockets and footpads operated throughout the metropolis and highwaymen took advantage of those travelling to and from London. Prostitution was rampant, with many brothels, and numerous prostitutes on the streets, especially at Covent Garden. A number of illegal clubs for homosexuals – ‘mollies’ – also operated in that area.

At times, the poor, casual workers and criminal classes formed large and uncontrollable groups. In the 1690s such unruly gatherings began to be called ‘mobs’ from the Latin mobile vulgaris, meaning excitable and mobile crowd. During the early part of the 18^th century the word was increasingly used in newspaper reports of disorder in London as such cases became more frequent. In 1752 Henry Fielding wrote in his newspaper the Covent Garden Journal that the London mob – meaning all members of the lower classes – was so powerful that they controlled who could walk the streets. He worried they would come to control the government.

Law enforcement within the City of London had not changed much since the system of wards was set up in 1285, except that it had moved from being a defence force to a policing role. The most senior post responsible for law enforcement in the City was the City Marshal, a paid officer who served under the Lord Mayor, with a staff of an under-marshal and six other men.

City wards appointed night watchmen to patrol their ward, examining all suspicious characters, arresting any suspected offenders and taking them to the watch-house to be examined by a Justice of the Peace in the morning. It was unpaid work for the appointees, to be undertaken in addition to their normal occupation. Those who could afford to do so paid a deputy to take their place, typically given a shilling per night. Many watchmen were old and decrepit and armed only with a staff and a lamp. It was often dangerous work, with numerous accounts of watchmen being murdered.

Watchmen were overseen by constables who reported to Justices of the Peace. Constables had the power of arrest but in general waited for a report of a crime or an instruction from a JP before acting. There were also beadles, whose responsibilities to a large extent duplicated those of the City marshals, constables and watchmen, arresting anyone who broke the laws. Beadles were generally employed by the City wards but some by individual institutions.

There was no local government that unified the whole of the London metropolis and therefore no coordination of law and order between different areas. Outside of the City, Westminster operated under its own rules, as did the county of Middlesex (in those areas north of the Thames outside of the City and Westminster), and Surrey south of the river.

The Tudor period, from the coronation of Henry VII to the funeral of Elizabeth I, was a tumultuous time for religion in England, and particularly so for Westminster Abbey. It began with the addition of a magnificent new chapel that remains one of the highlights of the abbey. It continued with a roller-coaster period during which the institution lurched from being an abbey, to a cathedral, and finally to a collegiate church.

Henry VII was crowned at Westminster Abbey in October 1485 and the new Tudor royal dynasty began. Two years later, his wife, Elizabeth of York, was crowned Queen in the abbey. Her mother, Elizabeth Woodville, widow of Edward IV, took a lease on a house in the grounds of Westminster. It was in the same house, while taking refuge, where she had given birth to the future Edward V, who as a child was then murdered in the Tower of London with his younger brother, what is known as ‘the two princes in the tower’.

Henry had a very weak and dubious claim to the throne, which he had gained in battle, so he looked for ways to legitimise his title. There had been reports of miracles occurring around the grave of Henry’s uncle, Henry VI, who had been deposed in 1461, murdered ten years later in the Tower, buried at Chertsey, and later moved to Windsor. The new King therefore decided to exploit this cult by creating a major shrine of pilgrimage at Westminster Abbey and seeking to have his uncle canonized. There could be nothing better to legitimize his position and increase prestige than being descended from a saint.

Henry commissioned the architect-mason brothers Robert and William Vertue to build a new Lady Chapel to house the shrine of Henry VI. The 13^th century Lady Chapel was demolished and the first stone of Henry’s chapel laid in 1503. A vast sum of money was spent, paid for by the King and his mother. Stone was brought from Kent, Reigate, Yorkshire and Caen and in 1509 enough of the chapel had been completed for its consecration to take place.

Henry’s chapel was a work of great beauty in a synthesis of northern Gothic and Italian Renaissance. It is part of a group of royal chapels built in the Perpendicular style around the same period: Eton College chapel; King’s College chapel, Cambridge; and St. George’s chapel, Windsor Castle. Of particular note is the spectacular ornate fan-vaulted and pendant-vaulted ceiling. One hundred and seven figures of saints looked down in judgement, with Henry’s favourite English and Welsh saints in dominant positions. The windows were originally glazed with splendid stained-glass windows by Bernard Flower from the Low Countries, with scenes from the Bible, which served as models for those at King’s College Cambridge. They were later destroyed during the Long Parliament of the 1640s and plain glass is now mostly in its place.

In a sequence of events reminiscent those of 1065, when Edward the Confessor never lived long enough to see the completion of his first great Romanesque Westminster Abbey, Henry died just as the work was completed. A magnificent funeral ceremony took place through the streets of London, stopping for one night at St. Paul’s Cathedral. The idea of the canonization of his uncle died with Henry, thwarted by an unaffordable price from the Pope, and Henry VI’s grave remained at Windsor. In the end it was Henry VII himself who was buried in the chapel, together with his wife Elizabeth of York, in a tomb designed by the Italian Pietro Torrigiani, commissioned by their son, Henry VIII.

The construction of much of the abbey of today had begun under Henry III in the mid-13^th century. It was left incomplete at his death and only continued in fits and spurts thereafter. Much of the work was completed in the early 16^th century under Abbot John Islip, almost three centuries after it started. It was under him that work on the western towers began. Whereas most of the rebuilding had been continued in the Gothic style of nearly three centuries earlier, the towers were to be of a design of the early 16^th century. Work had only reached roof-level when it halted due to the great political and religious convulsions that were to occur in the Reformation. The towers would remain incomplete until the early 18^th century.

Islip was a great friend of Thomas Wolsey, a favourite of Henry VIII. When Wolsey was elevated to become a cardinal in 1515 his cardinal’s hat was paraded from Blackheath to Westminster where it rested on the high altar. The following Sunday the service of confirmation of his high dignity took place in the abbey with great ceremony. His failure to persuade the Pope to annul Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon, however, angered the King and was Wolsey’s downfall.

His friendship with the disgraced cardinal undermined Abbot Islip’s position. The abbey was forced to pay an annual bribe to Henry’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, and the King appropriated some of the abbey’s land to extend the palace he had confiscated from Wolsey at Whitehall. The abbey’s bell-tower contained a bell of enormous size that was rung at coronations. Henry had it confiscated and remade into cannons. Yet when John Islip died in May 1532 his body was carried from his manor at Neyte (otherwise known as Eye) to the abbey, as crowds lined the road from Chelsea to Westminster. He was the only abbot of Westminster who had prepared for the afterlife by building his own chantry chapel, the Jesus Chapel, and he was buried there. The images of the interior of the abbey in his Funeral Roll are the earliest on record.

Within hours of Islip’s death the Submission of the Clergy passed into law, the first step in the convulsions that were to afflict England during the next quarter century. Both that and the Act of Supremacy, which made Henry head of the Church in England, were passed by Parliament in the abbey’s Chapter House. Islip was succeeded by William Boston from Peterborough, the first outsider to be Abbot of Westminster in over 300 years. But by then England’s monasteries were already being dissolved and every monk, nun and friar evicted. William was to be the last to hold that position at Westminster. It was under his custody that in April 1534 Sir Thomas More was initially imprisoned in the gatehouse of Westminster Abbey before being sent to the Tower of London for refusing to swear to the King’s supremacy. Boston seems a pragmatic man who adapted to each stage of the great changes during his 16 years at Westminster. Not only was he the last abbot of Catholic Westminster but also the first Protestant dean.

The Benedictine monastery of St. Peter, what we know as Westminster Abbey, has been the venue for coronations of English monarchs since 1066. Work to transform the abbey into a Gothic masterpiece began in the 13^th century and continued for over two hundred years. Unlike most cathedrals, it answered directly to the popes.

The earliest coronation at Westminster for which we have a detailed account is that of Richard II in 1377. The eleven-year-old processed through the streets from the Tower of London to Westminster, a custom that continued until Charles II in the 17^th century. The ceremony was of such great length that at its end the young king had to be carried from the abbey on the shoulders of his tutor. Passing through the jostling crowd, one of Richard’s slippers, part of the sacred regalia, was lost. The painting of Richard that still hangs in the abbey, in his coronation robes and sitting in the coronation chair, is the earliest surviving portrait of an English monarch.

The Peasants’ Revolt took place in 1377, when the rebellious mob undertook massacre and much damage in and around London. Simon Sudbury, who had officiated at Richard’s coronation as Archbishop of Canterbury, was dragged to Tower Hill and beheaded. Richard Imworth, Steward of the Marshalsea Prison sought refuge at the shrine of Edward the Confessor in the abbey, but the mob dragged him away and he too was beheaded. King Richard visited Edward’s shrine later that day and prayed. The royal party then rode to Smithfield where the rebel leader, Wat Tyler, was killed.

A violent struggle took place in the abbey in 1378. During the campaigns of Edward, the Black Prince, two knights had taken an important prisoner, a friend of John of Gaunt. When they refused to free their valuable hostage John had them imprisoned in the Tower of London. They escaped and headed to the abbey to seek sanctuary. The Constable of the Tower pursued them with 50 men. A fight erupted during the middle of mass and one of the knights, Frank de Haule, his servant, and a monk, were left dead. The sanctuary of the abbey had been violated. De Haule was regarded as a martyr and buried in the south transept, perhaps the first to be buried there. The abbey was closed for months and Parliament suspended.

Richard’s wife, Anne of Bohemia, died of a plague in 1394. Richard summoned all the nobles to attend a procession and funeral mass at the abbey. The Earl of Arundel angered the King by arriving late and asking to be excused to deal with urgent matters. Richard seized a mace and struck Arundel, who fell to the floor. The service was then suspended due to Richard’s act of sacrilege.

Richard was not a successful king and eventually deposed, imprisoned by Henry Bolingbroke, and either murdered or starved to death. Bolingbroke was crowned at Westminster on St. Edward’s Feast Day 1399 as Henry IV. He created the Order of the Bath as recognition for those knights who formed the coronation procession from the Tower of London to the abbey. Richard was buried in Hertfordshire.

After Richard’s deposition the clergy were fearful of the loss of their pious royal patron and there was a plot to assassinate Henry IV. Monks of Westminster were incriminated and imprisoned at Ludgate but later released. Geoffrey Chaucer, author of the Canterbury Tales, was a royal servant and administrator during the reigns of Edward III, Richard II and Henry IV. As Collector of Customs and Clerk of Works to the Palace of Westminster he was favoured by Henry and granted a lease on a house in the abbey precincts, possibly to keep watch on the disaffected monks. Geoffrey died shortly after in 1400, however, and was buried in what was to become the Poets’ Corner of the abbey.

Henry was taken ill in 1413 at St. Edward’s shrine in the abbey while praying for safety on the eve of a crusade to the Holy Land. He died in the Jerusalem Chamber of the Abbots House. There are legends surrounding his death. One is that it fulfilled an earlier prophecy he would die in Jerusalem. Another, dramatized by William Shakespeare in King Henry IV, Part II, is that the future Henry V snatched the crown from his apparently dead father’s head in the Abbot’s House, only for the King to regain consciousness and say to his son “I commit all to God, and remember you to do well” before passing away. As a devotee of Thomas á Becket Henry chose to be buried at Canterbury Cathedral instead of Westminster, the only monarch to be buried there.

It was the ambition of Henry III that Westminster Abbey be rebuilt as a magnificent church to honour the shrine of his predecessor, Edward the Confessor. Work began in 1245. The construction of the new building was only partly completed by the time of his death. Finance and enthusiasm became exhausted during the reign of his son, Edward I, and the abbey’s renewal was to last for many generations. Simon Langham, an abbot of Westminster who rose to great office and died in 1376, left a fortune in his will towards the work. Richard II was also a major sponsor and during his reign the magnificent Jerusalem Chamber, the state apartment of the abbot, was completed in 1380. The royal mason Henry Yevele, who carried out work on the Palace of Westminster and Tower of London, oversaw work in the 1390s and built the nave arcade.

Westminster Abbey had been transformed in the 11^th century from a minor Benedictine monastery into a major Romanesque building, of the type observed by Edward the Confessor in France. Two centuries later Henry III was to begin yet another transformation of the abbey based on the then fashionable style. It has left us with a unique mixture of French and English Gothic.

The Benedictine abbey of St. Peter was probably founded by Dunstan in around 960 on an island formed where two branches of the River Tyburn flowed into the Thames, about a mile west of London. King Cnut built a small palace on the island beside the monastery. The abbey became known as the ‘west minster’, and the royal palace as the Palace of Westminster. King Edward transformed the small abbey into a great Romanesque building, where he was buried in January 1066. The following day the first coronation to take place in the abbey was that of Harold II, followed at the end of that year by William the Conqueror. Since then, every coronation of an English monarch has taken place in Westminster Abbey.

A notable abbot at Westminster during the early medieval period was Gilbert Crispin. He originated in Bec in Normandy, where his parents were devoted to that abbey. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Lefranc, who will have known the parents from his time at Bec, brought Gilbert to England in about 1080. Gilbert was elevated to become the Abbot of Westminster in 1085, where he remained until his death in 1117 at a considerable age. He came to England at around the same time as the Jewish community of Rouen who settled in London and one of his famous writings is his Dialogue between a Christian and a Jew based on a discussion Gilbert had with a learned Jew. At a time when Jews were being persecuted based on perceived instructions from the Pope, Gilbert showed a kindly attitude to his Jewish friend.

Gilbert’s successor at Westminster, Herbert, was less capable and the abbey began to fall on hard times. In medieval Europe nothing enhanced the prestige of a town or religious establishment as much as being the home to the remains of a saint. It was during Herbert’s time, in the 1120s, that Westminster’s clerks began forging ancient documents to enhance the abbey’s history and this practice continued under his successor, Gervase of Blois.

The deceits reached a peak in the mid-12^th century under the prior Osbert de Clare. To Osbert the abbey was the centre of the world, where God had chosen to dwell, surrounded by a Babylonian hell in the outside world. In seeking ways to increase the status and independence of the abbey he set about re-writing its early history, exaggerating King Edward’s piousness and creating new stories of miracles. Osbert’s principle aims were the canonisation of Edward, to ensure St. Peter’s remained as a grand royal chapel where coronations and the burial of monarchs would continue forevermore, and to be exempt from control of any bishops. It was necessary to convince the Pope and the King and to do so the Life of St Edward, a bogus biography, was produced in 1138. Forgers were also employed to create apparently ancient royal and papal proclamations detailing fictitious privileges from St. Dunstan, King Edgar and other popes and kings, this being fairly common practice by monasteries throughout Europe at the time.

For many years there had been stories of miracles surrounding the grave of Edward at Westminster Abbey. The pastoral staff of the Saxon Bishop of Worcester was said to have rooted in the stone of Edward’s tomb until the dead king assured him of his bishopric. A blind beggar and a hunchback were believed to have been cured. According to the later account by Osbert, in 1102 it was decided to open Edward’s tomb in the presence of King Henry I, Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester, and Abbot Crispin. When the slab was removed the body inside was found to be whole and intact, not decomposed.

Ironically, despite his duplicity, Osbert was never able to achieve his objective. He led a delegation to Rome in about 1138 but his request for canonisation was declined by Pope Innocent II. It was in the time of the more scrupulous and diplomatic abbot, Master Laurence, that events converged for Edward to be duly canonised. It was certainly in the interests of the monarch for that to take place because having a saint in the royal line would elevate the conception of kingship. Henry II had backed Alexander III as the new pope, and in return Alexander agreed to Henry’s request for Edward’s canonisation. A ceremony was held at the abbey in 1163 attended by the King and Archbishop Thomas á Becket. Edward’s body was lifted from its grave and placed in a new coffin, which was transferred to a tomb in the same position as before but above ground. That day, 13^th October was thereafter the Feast of St. Edward the Confessor.

Monasticism was an important part of medieval life in England and many monasteries and convents were founded in and around London. The modern-day Westminster Abbey building was largely the inspiration of King Henry III in the mid-13^th century but its origins go far back into Saxon times when Westminster was quite distant from London.

As the River Tyburn flowed towards the Thames to the west of London it divided into several parts. One branch flowed south into the Thames near where Vauxhall Bridge now stands. Another branched off eastwards at what is now Buckingham Palace, then sub-divided to form an island as it met the Thames at modern-day Westminster. During the Roman period there was perhaps a ford across the Thames at that point, and it is said a shrine to Apollo may have been built on the island. A Roman sarcophagus was discovered in 1869, and some Roman roof tiles have been found under Westminster Abbey’s Norman undercroft. In the centuries following the Romans the area was probably deserted and liable to flooding. During Saxon times the island was known as Thorn Ea, meaning ‘island of brambles’.

There are various accounts of the founding of a church at Thorn Ea. Some of these are certainly fictitious and originated in the 11^th or 12^th centuries at a time when the abbey’s resident monks were attempting to link its foundation to illustrious early Christians and saints. The Venerable Bede, writing in the 730s, wrote of St. Paul’s church in London but made no mention of a church at Thorn Ea. A charter to the monastery of St. Peter at Thorn Ea dated 785 during the reign of King Offa is now thought to be a forgery, but a small church may have been established at around that time. Even so, as an unprotected building, it is most likely to have suffered badly from Viking raids along the Thames during the 9^th century. It seems the church, if it existed, did not survive.

More certainly, Dunstan, either during his time as Bishop of London in around 960, or later as Archbishop of Canterbury, established a monastery on the site of ‘ruined chapels’ in the marshland of Thorn Ea, at what was then known as Bulinga Fen. To do so he brought twelve monks from Glastonbury. A charter drawn up by King Edgar in the mid-10^th century transferred a large area of land into the ownership of the monastery. Edgar’s gift of land stretched from the modern-day Farringdon Road on the western edge of the old city of London and included the present Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, Soho, parts of Mayfair, St. James’s Park, and down to the Thames. Broadly, this area of about 2,500 acres is what we now know as the City of Westminster. The abbey was to keep these holdings for almost 600 years.

The monastery observed the rules of the Order of St. Benedict, written by Benedict in about 530 for his own monastery at Monte Cassino. Over time, around 150 Benedictine monasteries were founded in England and it was typical for Benedictine monasteries to be sited in remote fenland such as Thorn Ea. The Benedictine ‘black monks’ were to live in an enclosed community, dependent on alms or income from their lands. The earliest abbots are recorded as Wulfsige, Aelfwig and Wulfnoth, the latter dying in 1049.

From its earliest time, the monastery enjoyed royal patronage. Edgar, Ethelred and Cnut all gave gifts of religious relics. Cnut was the first king to establish a royal palace beside the monastery there on Thorn Ea. Throughout the Middle Ages it developed as a royal and religious complex surrounded by water. To the east was the Thames while the River Tyburn formed a moat around the other three sides, with the precinct reached across one of several bridges and under gatehouses.

When Cnut died two of his sons, the half-brothers Harold Harefoot and Harthacnut both claimed to be his successor. Harold was in England at the time of his father’s death, but Harthacnut in Denmark, so Harold took the English throne. When he died, possibly murdered, in 1040 Harold I became the first monarch to be buried at the monastery. But Harthacnut swiftly travelled to England, had Harold’s body exhumed, beheaded, and the body thrown into the surrounding marsh.

Harthacnut reigned for only two years before he died while celebrating at a wedding. In 1042 he was succeeded by Edward, a surviving son of Cnut’s predecessor, King Aethelred Unraed, and Edward was crowned at Winchester. King Edward grew up in Normandy while his father was exiled there during Cnut’s reign.  According to Vita Ædwardi, written two years after his death, he had a special devotion to St. Peter. About a decade or so after Edward’s death Sulcard, a monk at Westminster, wrote that Edward had vowed during his time in Normandy that if he could have the English throne he would make a pilgrimage to St. Peter’s tomb in Rome. However, when the deaths of Harold and Hardicnut finally delivered him the Crown his advisors prevented him from making the dangerous journey. The delegation he sent in his place was told he would be released from his vow on the condition he founded a monastery dedicated to St. Peter. Whatever the truth, Edward chose Dunstan’s old monastery beside his palace as the location for a great new abbey and he appointed his friend Eadwine as Abbot, and Robert, Abbot of Jumièges in Normandy to be Bishop of London. Edward and Eadwine would transform a small and struggling religious community into a great royal abbey.

Londinium was established relatively late in the history of the Roman Empire. It continued to prosper while other parts of the empire came under attack and went into decline. As the more northerly Continental provinces were overrun by barbarians Londinium was unable to survive alone.

Roman civilisation reached its zenith during the mid-1^st century, at around the same time that London was being established. While London matured and grew on the western extreme of the empire through the 2^nd and 3^rd centuries it was protected, and occasionally prospered, from troubles in Rome and elsewhere.

In the latter 2^nd century a smallpox plague spread across the empire, killing between 10 and 25 percent of the population. With garrison towns decimated, the empire’s borders became vulnerable and barbarians invaded from the Germanic north. Greater resources required to provide military security necessitated higher taxes, which caused resentment. Divisions grew between the eastern Greek-speaking and Latin-speaking western provinces of the empire. There was much in-fighting and rebellion during the first half of the 3^rd century. In 260 the empire was over-run by Alamanni, Franks and Goths from the north, Moors from the south and Persians from the east. Only Rome, the Italian peninsular and Britannia remained untouched. The Romans fought back but large areas of the empire were lost forever.

Britannia was not entirely immune from attack. The Franks, based in the lower Rhineland areas, began making raids on the wealthy and vulnerable east of Britannia and the Thames estuary. Inland agricultural areas prospered, and large mansions were built or expanded, but people of wealth abandoned the areas around the coasts of East Anglia, the Thames Estuary, Kent, the south, and Severn Estuary where they were vulnerable from raids by the Franks or Irish. Long-distance shipping in and out of Londinium was unlikely to have been affected but coastal shipping was probably in greater danger. In the early 3^rd century, about 150 years after their arrival, the Romans replaced Londinium’s defensive mound with a wall over three kilometres long, six and a half metres high and enclosing an area of 326 acres.

Londinium expanded rapidly during the 1^st and 2^nd centuries when traders and financiers arrived to exploit the expanding new market of the province of Britannia. In the 120s Emperor Hadrian decreed that the borders of the empire should be fixed. Within the British Isles a wall was built across the province’s northern boundary and the empire never expanded to incorporate Scotland or Ireland. Without the momentum of expansion, and being a dead-end on the far western edge of civilised Europe, new merchants were thereafter less likely to come to Londinium. Instead they looked eastwards where there were distant markets with which to trade. The growth-rate of Londinium had slowed by the 3^rd century and a long, slow decline began.

Trade was not the only factor in the stagnation and decline of Londinium. Although there is no documented evidence, the empire’s plague of the 170s must have reached Londinium due to the constant ships arriving at the port. The town’s population level fell at the end of 2^nd century. By the beginning of the following century parts of the town that had previously been built on were being covered over for market gardening. The public bathhouse at Upper Thames Street was demolished, probably because it was no longer viable to keep it continually heated. There was clearly a serious and immediate threat in the late 3^rd century because the defensive wall, which had until then encircled only the landward sides, was hastily extended along the riverside.

In or around 286 Marcus Carausius, the admiral in charge of the Channel Fleet, rebelled, seizing Britannia and parts of Gaul and isolating them from Rome for the next decade. Without official Roman coinage a mint was established in Londinium, with a number of the rebel coins being found on a ship that was sunk around that time in the area of what is now County Hall. The Londinium mint continued in operation until the early 4^th century.

Augustus Maximian, head of the western part of the empire, appointed his deputy, Constantius, to organise a campaign of recovery of the provinces. In 293 he re-took the port of Boulogne, followed by the other parts of Gaul. As Constantius waited to re-take Britannia, Carausius was murdered by his finance minister Allectus, taking advantage of the political uncertainty, and declaring himself the new Emperor of Britannia. Finally, in 297 Constantius assembled two fleets of ships, one of which landed at Southampton and the other, sailing from the Rhine under his direct command, headed for Londinium. Allectus had enlisted large numbers of Franks but they were more interested in looting Londinium than in fighting. As the citizens of Londinium feared the destruction of the town at the hands of the Franks, Constantius’s ships arrived. The citizens watched from the city walls as the Roman forces slaughtered the barbarians. Constantius celebrated victory by minting gold coins depicting him arriving on horseback at Londinium’s walls to be greeted by one its inhabitants, accompanied by a ship of his fleet. The accompanying legend states in Latin “Restorer of Eternal Light”. Although only a simplified illustration, it is the oldest-surviving image of London.

Londinium had been saved from the barbarian looters but then faced the wrath of the emperor for their support of the rebels. The magnificent basilica and forum were destroyed. Britannia was divided into four provinces, with Londinium as capital of only one quarter of the province, most likely as punishment.

As towns and rural areas in the western Continental part of the empire came under threat and were increasingly abandoned, Britannia became ever more important for the supply of goods and foodstuffs. When the thick forests of northern Europe were lost to the barbarians Britannia’s timber became a new export, easily transportable by water from Londinium. The great oak forest around Middlesex began to be thinned during the 4^th century.

In 367 Britannia was invaded by an alliance of Picts, Irish, Franks and Saxons. Forces under the command of the Spanish Count Theodosius were sent by the Emperor Valentinian to restore order. He quickly recovered Londinium where he spent the winter months before regaining the rest of the country during the following Spring. New defences were added to Londinium’s wall in the form of bastions that held catapults.

In the 380s a Spanish Roman general in Britannia rebelled and declared independence from the empire. He led the army in Britannia to the Continent, where he took Gaul, Spain and much of Italy before his defeat in 388. The Roman army was never to return in force, although the provinces needed further temporary defence when the Irish, Picts and Saxons invaded once again at the very end of the 4^th century.

Londinium went into a long, slow decline during the 4^th century. It had become successful partly because it was the most convenient port from which to trade with the Rhineland and near Continent. As the Roman armies lost control of the northern Continental areas, and it became safer to ship goods to and from Boulogne, the ports on the south coast of Britannia became more convenient. By the end of the 4^th century Winchester had overtaken London as Britannia’s leading commercial centre.

During the 4^th and 5^th centuries sea levels throughout Europe rose, causing problems in all low-lying coastal areas. Londinium and the lower Lea valley became prone to flooding from time to time and Ermine Street, the main road leading directly north out of the town, occasionally became impassable.

Britannia was by then no longer governed directly from Rome and much of the government administration was either dealt with from Trier or devolved to capitals of the smaller provinces into which Britannia had been divided. The town’s population gradually dwindled, concentrated along the riverside. Many buildings were no longer occupied and earth was laid over derelict structures so that the land could be used for farming. Even into the Middle Ages half of the land within the city walls was still being farmed as fields, orchards and gardens.

Barbarian attacks were becoming more threatening to Britannia and the population appealed to the Emperor Honorius for help. But Rome itself was under immediate threat from the Visigoths, who briefly entered the city in 410, carrying away much of its valuable possessions. After the Visigoths had already left Rome Honorius replied to the British that he was unable to help them at that moment and authorised them to take care of their own defences. No doubt he was optimistically expecting to send troops at a later time but in reality Britannia was no longer a province of the great empire to which it had been part for three and a half centuries.

Roman Londinium continued to be occupied but its population gradually dwindled until it gradually decayed and was eventually abandoned. In about 429 Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, visited the town and reported that life continued as normal. During the early part of the century tiles were still being produced and therefore houses maintained to some extent. At least one house was occupied in 440 and still receiving supplies from the Mediterranean. Yet by the end of that century Londinium seems to have been deserted, and remained so for over 400 years until re-established by the Saxon King Alfred of Wessex.

Sources include: John Morris ‘Londinium – London in the Roman Empire’; Simon Webb ‘Life in Roman London’; Dominic Perring ‘Roman London’; Gustav Milne ‘The Port of Roman London’; Peter Marsden ‘Ships of the Port of London, First to eleventh centuries AD’

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The population of London was increasing in the time of Queen Elizabeth I so it was necessary to look for new sources of water supply. An answer was found in the creation of the New River, bringing fresh water from springs in the Hertfordshire countryside, far to the north of the city. Over 400 years later it still supplies the capital with some of its fresh water.

During the Middle Ages the people of London relied on rivers, springs, conduits and public fountains for their water. In 1582 the Dutch engineer Peter Morice established an ingenious mechanism at London Bridge. It pumped river water into a system supplying premises in the immediate area to the north of the bridge. However, this only worked at high tide and provided water for a limited area.

About twenty years later one Captain Edmund Colthurst devised a plan to bring fresh water from springs in Hertfordshire to London by means of a six-feet wide canal. Queen Elizabeth gave her provisional consent but died before a charter could be issued. King James provided the necessary approval in 1604 and work began on Colthurst’s ‘river’. His route was to be through Broxbourne, Wormley, Cheshunt, Theobalds Park and Edmonton, down to Islington.

Three miles had been completed when the City of London Corporation started to take a greater interest in the advantages of the scheme. An alternative plan was drawn up for a wider channel but most likely along the same route. They ensured that an Act of Parliament was passed, effectively over-ruling the King’s Letter Patent of Colthurst’s scheme. In 1609 the Common Council of the City announced it had accepted the new plan by one of their inner-circle, Hugh Myddelton, to complete the work based on their Act.

Myddelton was the son of the governor of Denbigh Castle in Wales and derived his fortune from mines in Cardiganshire. More importantly in this respect, he was a member of London’s Goldsmiths’ Company. He raised money for the initial work by issuing thirty-six shares, some sold for £100 each and some kept by Myddelton himself. Clearly his scheme relied heavily on that of Colthurst who was given four shares and a salary in compensation.

Work recommenced in 1609. It was a massive and cleverly calculated undertaking for the time. Ten feet wide, and with a water depth of four feet, it gently sloped five and a half metres over its 60-kilometre journey, or just five inches every mile, allowing the contents to flow from Chadwell and Amwell near Ware in Hertfordshire at exactly the correct speed and volume.

Work suddenly ground to a halt when owners of land through which the canal had to pass objected to Parliament, which King James (for bigger political reasons) subsequently dissolved, leaving the matter unresolved. Myddleton’s solution was to approach the King who, perhaps seeing the potential for a scheme that was for the general good but also one from which profit could be made, agreed to fund half the cost in return for half the profit. It was Myddelton’s masterstroke. Not only had he raised further finance but now had a backer against whom no landowner dare complain. Indeed, the King commanded that no-one should object to the work “…upon paine of his majesties highe displeasure…”. Work resumed in early 1612 and by that summer as many as 300 men were employed on the undertaking.

Myddelton’s plan was to end his ‘New River’ just below the summit of Islington Hill, where an old duck pond was enlarged to become a reservoir at Sadler’s Wells, to be known as ‘New River Head’. There the ‘Water House’ was built, housing a workman controlling the flow of water into pipes, as well as being where money could be paid by customers who received their supply. Construction of the waterway was completed in September 1613, with an opening ceremony at New River Head attended by the then Mayor of London and many of the City aldermen, together with Myddelton’s brother Thomas (who that same day was named the new Mayor of London). A speech was given that ended with:

Now for the fruits then; flow forth precious spring
So long and dearly sought for, and now bring
Comfort to all that love thee; loudly sing,
And with thy chrystal murmurs strook together,
Bid all thy true well-wishers welcome hither.

 At that point the flood-gates were opened and “the streame ranne gallantly into the cistrene drummes and trumpets sounding in triumphall manner, and the brave peal of chambers [cannons] gave full issue”.

The top of Islington Hill, roughly where you will find the Angel tube station these days, then overlooked London below, across open meadows. The reservoir was located a short way down the hill, between what is now the Angel and Sadler’s Well’s theatre.

A system of pipes made from hollowed-out elm trees began to be constructed to take supplies from the reservoir, across the meadows and down through the streets of London. Each tree trunk was joined to the next by carving the end into a point that then fitted into a tapered hole in the next trunk. It was not the ideal system because the joints leaked, and the tree-trunks lasted only a few years before rotting away, requiring frequent replacement. The leaky joints also prevented pressurisation and wherever the route took it across low-lying ground the mains pipes had to be built up on trestles to create a gentle downward gradient. Pipes were laid underground within the city streets. London’s terrible congestion meant that it was impossible for work to be carried out during the day, so it was undertaken at night by candle and torchlight.

The first main pipe travelled as far as Smithfield and Newgate, then branched east to Cheapside and Aldgate and west to Temple Bar and Fleet Street. Smaller pipes branched off the main pipes. By the end of 1618 around 1,500 premises were connected and soon the entire City of London was covered except for the area already supplied by the competing waterworks at London Bridge.

The problem of leakage meant that the pipes could not be left permanently filled. A system of stopcocks controlled the flow, with each area supplied for an hour or two several times each week. Premises connected to the pipe network had their own water tanks that filled when water was flowing. Any premises that wanted to buy New River water was required to install a thin lead ‘quill’ up to the main supply to which the New River Company would solder a brass ferrule to be inserted into their pipe. Each building paid an initial fee (normally of £1 but up to £25 for owners of larger trade premises) and thereafter a quarterly ‘fine’ depending on the type of establishment.