Gracechurch Street points north from London Bridge, through the city towards Shoreditch. It is an ancient road following the Roman Road, Ermine Street, along Gracechurch Street becoming Bishopsgate and then the Kingsland Road ( also known as the A10)through Shoreditch eventually going north towards Lincoln by way of the A1. The Roman road continued to York. It linked these two key Roman towns and strongholds. Today it still follows a somewhat similar route to the same places.
Mr and Mrs Gardiner.
Among the characters in Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice that exert a strong influence, are the Gardiners. Mr Gardiner is Mrs Bennett’s brother. They are the Bennett girls uncle and aunt.
“Mr Gardiner was a sensible gentleman like man . Greatly superior to his sister as well by nature as education.”
However, the Bingley sisters discuss the possibility of the Bennet sisters making a good match.
“ But with such a father and mother, and such low connections, I am afraid there is no chance of it.”
“I think I have heard you say, that their uncle is an attorney in Meryton.”
“Yes, and they have another, who lives somewhere near Cheapside.”
“That is capital,” added her sister, and they both laughed heartily.
‘If they had uncles enough to fill all Cheapside,”cried Bingley, “ it would not make them one l jot less agreeable.”
It is important to note that their brother ,Charles Bingley and also Fitzwilliam Darcy do not join in the mocking commentary. They do not share their sisters viewpoint. They appear more reserved about the Bennet sisters connections. Perhaps they know the real worth of that part of London. They are men of wealth and business.
East India Company warehouses near Gracechurch Street.
The Gardiners, Austens fictional characters,live in Gracechurch Street which meets Eastcheap at its southerly extremity. Why should there be such snobbishness shown by the Bingley Sisters? We need to consider where the wealth of Britain came from in the 18th and 19th centuries. Who made the wealth? How was Britain developing as an economic power? The Bingley sisters are offering a very narrow view of Britain. They are elitist, wealthy, ignorant. The gentry and the aristocracy’s power and influence was on the wane. Britain was modernising. The Industrial Revolution and Britain’s vast trade links around the world were the real driving forces.
So where did Gracechurch Street, the City, and its power come from?
An artists impression of Roman London showing Ermine Street going north. The Forum is shown.
Roman London
The Romans invaded Britain first n 55BCE when Julius Caesar landed in Kent but he went away again. Trading connections with the Romans were a continuous occurrence however and some British tribal leaders or kings had strong trading links with Roman Europe. The Emperor Claudius in 47CE decided to invade with more serious intent, again landing in Kent. This was the closest land to France and was the shortest route for a large invading army.. The grain supplies and minerals and metals that Britain could provide was too much of a draw to rely merely on trading agreements. The Romans reached the River Thames and attempted to find a crossing so that they could infiltrate further north. The Thames River was surrounded by extensive marshland and finding a crossing to build a bridge was a difficult enterprise. Eventually gravel deposits either side of the river provided a geology and firm foundations that enabled a wooden bridge to be built .From there the Romans had access to the rest of Britain. The site of this first crossing became a Roman settlement called Londinium. It became a powerful trading hub and also a road hub that spread out across these islands.
The road system included Ermine Street which lead north; Watling Street which went south east to Canterbury,;Stane Street which went south west to Chichester , a tribal capital that was not only friendly with the Romans but was a military landing and embarkation point for the army and a port for trade, Portway which lead towards another crossing of the Thames at Staines and lead to the West Country and the Roman town of Ilchester. The site is located in Hampshire north of Basingstoke. Watling Street went north west to Verulamium nowadays St Albans and an important Roman town.
Ermine Street is the one I am concerned with. It was a direct route from London Bridge and the trading wharfs beside The Thames that lead directly north to Lincoln and eventually York which both became powerful military and trading centres under the Romans.
Ermine Street beside the Thames became Fish Steet, which merged into Gracechurch Street ( it had various iterations over the centuries , Garscherchestrete, Gres-church, and Grascherche). It reaches Leadenhall Market and Bishopsgate before it leaves The City boundaries and becomes The Kingsland Road , nowadays the A10, leading on to the A1 and the north. Today it still leads to Lincoln and York.
The main roads the Romans built leading from London opened up the whole of Britain. They didn’t extend into Scotland and only into parts of Wales. But infrastructure such as good roads, and the Romans were the best at building roads, were integral to moving armies around swiftly to keep control and to conquer but they were equally important for trade and the creation of wealth.
So Gracechurch Street follows Ermine Street that was once filled with Roman merchants and troops moving north and coming south. Gracechurch Street passes through the middle of what was the Roman Forum. Excavations have shown that London’s Roman Forum consisted of the Basilica which served as a centre for political, judicial and commercial activities. This is where trading went on, laws were administered, and political decisions were made. It was the heart of London.
After the Romans left in 410CELondon was left to fall into ruins and was not effectively used again until the Angles, Saxons and Jutes appeared from 500CE onwards. The City and Gracechurch Street resumed business. Its easy access to The Thames, London bridge and the trading wharfs next to the river ensured it became as important as ever.
Saxon London
The Saxon period of London dates from the end of Roman period to the beginning of the Norman period after 1066. The Saxons first set up a settlement called Lundenwic to the west of the Roman city, The ,"wic ," part meaning, trading town. It is recalled today by the area known as Aldwych (Old Wic).Viking Armies tried to attack and take Lundenwic at various times. Alfred the Great reestablished Saxon control in 886. It was now named Lundenburgh. Burgh, referring to a fortified town.The Vikings under Cnut the Great took control in 1016. However Edward the Confessor was in control by 1042. The Normans invaded in 1066 after Edwards death and William the Conqueror eventually made London the capital after intitially making Winchester his capital. He built The White Tower to the south east of the old city next to the Thames to keep military control.
Medieval London
Medieval London was a vibrant trading port with connections all over Europe. The Tudors continued expanding its power, influence and wealth. The slave trade began in 1562 during the Tudor, Queen Elizabeth Ist’s reign.by creating the slave trade with West Africa providing slaves for the plantations in the colonies in the West Indies and North America. The Royal African Company was set up.
East India Company ships known as East Indiamen.
The Stuarts
Charles Ist, the second Stuart King, began The East India Company in 1600.
The East India Company was a British Stock Company. It was owned by British shareholders and it was listed on the British Stock exchange. It was based in the East End of London. It should be remembered that The East India Company used slaves from Africa in its factories in India and China. That is sometimes forgotten in our more overt interest in the triangular trade that traded slaves from West Africa with the colonies in the Caribbean and the Southern States of America. The East India Company had armies in India and China that were larger than the Britsh Army at the time. They progressed through India and China rapaciously conquering and ruling large parts of the subcontinent to create vast wealth for Britain and the British.
The 1799 Horwood map showing part of The City including Gracechurch Street.
The Georgians
The Georgians continued to develop the slave trade and The East India Company expanded across India and into China bringing enormous wealth to Britain.
Its headquarters ,East India House ,was located in Leadenhall Street just to the north of the market.
The main front was in Leadenhall Street but many warehouses were built behind it covering a large area that included Lime Street to the east.
Many wealthy people , including the aristocracy and the gentry invested in the company. Members of the twelve livery companies of The City of London including the Ironmongers , the Mercers, the Fishmongers, the Grocers and others, also invested in the company and made great wealth from it. The livery companies also traded and invested in The Royal African Company too.
The East India Company headquarters in Leadenhall Street just off Gracechurch Street
The East India Company
Warehouses and homes of East India Company officials were on or near Gracechurch Street.
The primary location of the East India Company warehouses, though not directly on Gracechurch Street, included Devonshire Square, Billiter Lane, and Sugar Loaf Court, all located near the Company's Leadenhall Street headquarters in close proximity to Gracechurch Street. The warehouses at these sites stored various imports, like tea, spices, and silks, and formed the complex known as the Cutler Street Complex as trade expanded.
DEVONSHIRE SQUARE
The "Old Bengal Warehouse" was built here by the East India Company in the late 1700s to store goods like tobacco, port, and spices.
BILLITER LANE. A warehouse was constructed on this private trade road to store and process goods like tea.
SUGAR LOAF COURT
Warehouses were also located here, contributing to the vast storage and trade operations of the Company.
HAYDON SQUARE and COOPER’S ROW
These were built to handle the increasing volume of tea and drugs, especially after the Company acquired revenue rights in India in 1765.
CUTLER STREET COMPLEX
As the East India Company's trade grew, these various warehouse sites, including the ones on Billiter Lane and in the surrounding areas, were consolidated to form what was known as the Cutler Street Complex.
These warehouses were crucial for storing and processing imported goods such as wine, cigars, spices, and silks.
PROXIMITY TO GRACECURCH STREET
The warehouses were strategically located near the East India Company's headquarters on Leadenhall Street, which is just a short distance from Gracechurch Street.
This clustering of warehouses and the headquarters in the heart of the City of London facilitated the Company's massive trade operations. Jane Austen's Gardiner family were living amongst this.
The East India Company traded mostly from the London Docks but Southampton , on the south coast was an important secondary port . Many ships belonging to The East India Company were built on The River Itchen. Wealthy members of The East India company also built grand houses and created extensive estates around the Southampton area including the Lance family and the Middleton families at Chiswell(now Bitterne) overlooking The River Itchen. Middenbury to the north of the town was another area where East India Company administrators grand houses were built. These Included Bittern Grove House which is one of the few remaining grand houses from the 18th century that still exists in the area. James Dott a retired East India Company surgeon lived there. I mention Southampton’s links because Jane Austen while she lived in Southampton between 1806 and 1809 met and associated with the wives of The East India Company merchants. Her brother, Francis Austen was a naval commander who helped protect the East India Company trade routes. He knew many connected with The East India company. Charles Austen, Jane’s other naval brother also had links with the East India Company. These connections and interest may well have influenced Jane in her choice of where the Gardiners lived in her novel.
The East India Docks in The City of London ,opened in 1803 by Joseph Cotton of The East India Company. is located, beside the Thames east of Gracechurch Street. The area is still called The East India Docks today,
As an aside, Austen fans are often engaged and exercised in proving Jane’s anti slavery beliefs even though there is no clear evidence one way or the other. Mansfield Park is often sited as her slavery novel where anti slavery sentiment is alluded to but not blatantly stated. The slave trade is actually mentioned in one scene. Others go further and describe that the whole novel references slavery through imagery and the use of vocabulary. Whether she was anti, specifically the West Indian Slave trade or not they forget that she condoned, the Austens as a family condoned, The East India Company.
The Victorians.
The British Crown took over the East India Company with The Government of India Act in 1858. This formed what was termed the British Indian Empire. It suffered recurring problems with its finances and the company was dissolved in 1874. The Victorians continued to develop London’s Docklands within a short distance of Gracechurch Street.
Leadenhall Market
Leadenhall Market, that dates form the 14th century, whose entrance is in Gracechurch Street , covering the site of the Roman Forum where trade and politics had originally developed in London is too part of this mix.
The interior of Leadenhall Market (2025).
Virtually covering half the site of the Roman Forum, with its entrance in Gracechurch Street,is Leadenhall Market.
The Romans established the first basilica and forum covering Gracechurch Street.Later they built a larger basilica and forum between Fenchurch Street and Fenchurch Street aligned with Gracechurch Street. The Roman Road plan is still evident with Bishopsgate, Cheapside and Leadenhall Street following the ancient Roman plan. In the 2nd century the forum and basilica were rebuilt under the Emperor Vespasian. The city was at its most prosperous. This is reflected in the enlargement of its civic centre There are the remains of a Roman pier base in the basement of number 90 Gracechurch Street The forum and basilica were mostly for civic administration but it was also used as a market place originating the sites use which continues today. After the Romans left in 410CE there is little evidence for its use until the. Saxon and Norman periods in the tenth and eleventh centuries that activity returned. The early medieval street patterns still mostly survive today.
By 1270 Lime Street, Fenchurch Street and Cornhill had sprung from Gracechruch Street along the original Roman Road. Fenchurch could be a reference to faenum(hay) or from the fen like area by the banks fo the River Langbourn.
Four churches were built in the area by in the 11th and 12th centuries.St Peter Cornhill, still survives today. St Dionis Backchurch was rebuilt in 1674 by Sir Christopher Wren after The Great ire but it was eventually demolished in 1878. St Gabriel Fenchurch stood on an island in the middle of Fenchurch Street. It was destroyed in The Great Fire.It was rebuilt but eventually demolished in 1860s.
Leadenhall was one of the most important medieval markets. It took precedence over Smithfield for meat and poultry. Untill the 19th century Smithfield was primarily a livestock market.. Markets at East Cheap were for meat, Cheapside, poultry, Woolchurch, wool, meat and fish, Newgate Street meat and Billingsgate was specifically for fish. The Leadenhall originates from the 13th century. A market was recorded there in 1321.Traders from outside the city began to operate stalls at Leadenhall. Traders were given additional rights to sell cheese and butter. The poultry market at Cheapside was wound up by the 16th century.The City Corporation acquired the lordship of the manor in 1411 and proceeded to develop the property as a grain store The new market was declared a general market for poultry, victuals, grain, eggs butter cheese and many other items.
Leadenhall Market in the 18th century.
By the 17th and 18th centurys Leadenhall was one of the main places in the city. Oversees visitors came to visit it. The success of the market created a demand for space. The Great Fire in 1666 only consumed part of the market. The buildings were reconstructed giving the market more order. The City Corporation laid out the market around three large courtyards. The first courtyard became the beef market where leather wool and raw hides were sold. The second was for veal.mutton and lamb. Fishmongers, poulteresr and cheese makers were located here too. The third courtyard was for fruit and vegetables.Towards the end of the 18th century the poultry market grew at the expense of the meat martket.Between 1794 and 1812 most of the market had been demolished to make way for new buildings. These were roofed buildings. The narrow entrances from Lime Street and Gracechurch Street remained.The market retained its importance into the 19th century. Eventually the hide and meat markets were abandoned because of the city merchants and the financiers in the area who disapproved of the inappropriateness as they saw it of a meat market being central. From the 1860s the meat market moved to Smithfield.In 1881 Sir Horace Jones, the city surveyor redesigned the market once more. He kept the medieval street pattern but he placed over it an ornate glass roofed market which remains today. It ecame a smarter more regulated area designed on a cruciform plan. It became also a throughfare for passersby.
During the interwar years most of its wholesale activities moved to Smithfield. By the late 20th century and now in the 21st century it is famous for restaurants, bars and shops. It remains one of the main areas of retail activity in the city.
A Huguenot House in Fournier Street just off BrickLane north of Gracechurch Street.
Multiculturalism including different religions, near The City and its effect.
The Area nearby.
The area around Gracechurch Street, Cornhill , at the northern end of Gracechurch Street, Lombard Street to the south west and East Cheap running along the south of Gracechurch Street put it centrally within the banking, trading , political melting pot of the city. Coffee Houses proliferated after Pasque Rosee an Italian immigrant set up the first coffee house in 1652 in St Michaels Alley just off Cornhill. The coffee houses were the places where banking began and trade was done and where the institutions such as The Bank of England and the Royal Exchange trading hub that we have today started. It was within a growing multicultural area too. Huguenots , Protestant French who had been expelled from France, moved into the area north of Gracechurch Street in Shoreditch and Hoxton. A large Jewish community grew up in the area of Brick Lane just to the north east.TheQuakers also based themselves in Gracechurch Street itself. This brought about a diverse community of different religious understanding and beliefs. There were of course Church of England Protestants within the community as well. Jewish synagogues and French Huguenot churches and chapels, Church of England Churches and Quaker Meeting houses were all located on Gracechurch Street.
HUGUENOTS
The Huguenots were French Calvinist who were formed by the Frenchman Calvin as part of the Reformation in Europe.Calvinist believed in the Bibles authority, Gods sovereignty and predestination. Many Christians did not agree with mnay Calvinist views because of its religious interpretation. They also believed in a hard work ethic and developing their individual skills.
They were persecuted cruelly at different times in France. The first Huguenots to escaped to England from France in 1534. Edward VI the Tudort heir of Henry VIII welcomed Huguenots. A Huguenot Church was established at Austin Friars and a chapel was created in Thredaneedle Street in the City. Aftre the St Bartholemews massacre in France in 1572, even more Huguenots escaped across the channel. This was a dangerous thng to undertake. Theywere forbidden form leaving Frnace. Although at different times the Huguenots were granted freedoms in France , persecution returned.. Huguenots came here with various skills that benefitted the economy of England. By 1700 five percent of the total population were Hueguenots. They were skilled artisans, craftsmen, farmers, doctors, schoolmasters. merchants, shipwrights, gunmakers, goldsmiths silk cloth weavers. Some were aristocrats. They influenced the whole of society and in the city some were bankers, one set up an influencial coffee shop in the city.. Samuel Pepys wife , Elizabeth de St Michel was a Huguenot.
THE JEWISH COMMUNITY
There has been a Jewish community in London since the eleventh century after the Norman Conquest of Britain in 1066. They were not always welcome. In 1190 a group of Jews were massacres in Cliffords Tower in York. Economic problems and the fact that the Jews were able to deal with banking and lending which many Christians were not allowed to do on religious grounds, caused hatred in York. In 1290 they were banished completely from England in the reign of Edward Ist . However, in the 17th century, after the Civil War Oliver Cromwell allowed Jews to return to England, especially the Sephardic Jews who wanted to escape the Spanish Inquisition. These settlers moved to Houndsditch just outside of the City of London to the north east and west of Leadenhall Market and Gracechurch Street. They set up a synagogue in “Creechurch Street,” near Leadenhall which later in 1701 moved to the Bevis Marks site still close to Leadenhall.
By the end of the 17th century they were contributing to London’s economy There were Jews who became traders on the Royal Exchange. In the late 19th century many Jews arrived from Eastern Europe fleeing religious persecution and economic hardship.. They settled in London’s East End around Whitechapel and Spitalfields.
The Quaker meeting house on Gracechurch Street.
QUAKERS
The Quakers, under Geoge Fox, their founder, opened a meeting house in 1666 after The Great Fire, in what was termed at the time, “Gracious Street,” or Gracechurch Street. It was located on the corner of Gracechurch Street and Lombard Street . Quakerism was founded on the principles of integrity, peace, equality simplicity and truth.The Quaker belief of equality for all lead to the anti slavery movement. . All humankind was equal in the sight of God according to the Quakers. George Fox died in a house next to the meeting house in Gracechurch Street on the 13th January 1691. Some 4000 people accompanied his body to Bunhill Fields, the non conformist burial ground just south of Old Street and north of Gracechurch Street. The Quakers had acquired a piece of land next to the Bunhill Fields. where other famous noncomformists were buried. John Bunyan, William Blake, Isaac Watts and Daniel Defoe are all buried here. The cemetery is opposite the methodist chapel where the Methodist Museum is now located and where John Wesley is buried. Wesley lived in a house next door to the chapel.
By the 18th century 25% of the population of the city of London were Quakers. In Lombard street just off Cracechurch Street the Quakers had many businesses until the mid 19th century. In 1691,Thomas Freame and Thomas Gould established themselves as goldsmiths and bankers. They held the main funds of all Quakers and helped finance the setting up of the Pennsylvania Land Company. Barclays bank links its ancestry back to these two goldsmith bankers.
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND
The City of London covers just over a square mile. It is often referred to as, “ The Square Mile.” Within its bounds it has many non comformist churches. Jewish synagogues, Huguenot (Calvinist), Methodist, Roman Catholic Quaker,The Brethren Church and a Mormon chapel. However, before the Great Fire in 1666 there were about one hundred Church of England Churches, the established church in England. After the Great Fire, Sir Christopher Wren designed and rebuilt seventy five churches. Some of these churches were merely a few hundred yards apart. The City was crammed full of places of worship.It shows the importance of religion, to community, way of life and often ethnicity in the past and certainly in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries and before.
St Clements Church in Clements Lane.
ST CLEMENTS CHURCH
At the southern extremity of Gracechurch Street at the junction with King Willam Street and London Bridge and in a small street called Clements Lane is located St Clements Church. It is within the Candlewick Ward of The City and is one of the churches designed and rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren after The Great Fire.
The church is dedicated to the Roman patron saint of sailors. The church was destroyed in The Great fire of London in 1666 and was rebuilt by Christopher Wren. In the parish accounts one record shows, “ to one third of a hogshead of wine, given to Sir Christopher Wren £4 2s (shillings.)In 1840 there was a movement to reduce the number of city churches. St Clements was saved from that . St Dyonis Church near St Clements in Eastcheap was demolished . Sir Robert Geoffrey a previous Lord Mayor of London and Master of the Ironmongers and his wife Priscilla who were buried there, had their bodies removed by the Ironmongers and reburied in a small cemetery next to the Geoffrey Almshouses built on The Kngsland Road. Sir Robert Geoffrey had left most of hs fortune for the building of amshouses.
There is a small cemetery at the rear of St Clements.
Visiting St Clements recently I saw how narrow Clements Lane is and the church feels hidden away in a cramped space . A narrow alleyway along the north side of the church leads to a small, overlooked cemetery. It has tall buildings all around it. It has a dark atmosphere. Unfortunately I could not see inside of the church because it was locked.
In modern times the whole area of London, just outside the City and to the north still has a rich diverse religious history and history of multiculturalism. Noncomformist Christian, Jewish and nowadays the Bangladeshis, who live around Brick Lane and who follow the Muslim religion, live here now .There are a number of mosques in the area.
BOOK PUBLISHERS
There were book publishers in Gracechurch Street in the 18th and 19th centuries.
William Darton, a Quaker, began a publishing company in 1787 in White Lion Alley off Birchin Lane which extends south from Cornhill right through the area full of coffee houses. In 1788 he moved his publishing company to 55 Gracechurch Street. He was an engraver ,as indeed the famous William Blake was, a stationer and a printer. He formed a partnership with Joseph Harvey, who was also a Quaker and his own son, Samuel joined them too. His company was first called Darton &Co later changed to Darton & Harvey. He published children’s books, games and educational aids. Children’s books became very popular in the 18th century. William Blake’s own efforts to appeal to this market included Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Over the next 60 years, his firm printed over 1,000 books for young people. In 1804, a separate firm of Darton was founded by William's oldest son. They published over 1,600 children's titles.
Dartons publishers on Gracechurch Street.
They published Quaker works but also, following the path charted by pioneer children's book publisher John Newbery, made a specialty of books for children, written by Quakers and others, and by the early 1800s the family firm was the established leader in the field.
Among writers who were published by them included Anne Knight (1786-1862) a radical reformer and Quaker, Lindley Murray (1745-1826) a grammarian. Pricilla Wakefield (1751-1826) who was also a Quaker and children’s author and Catherine Parr Strickland (1802-1899) a Canadian author.
The company changed names at various times when new members of the families, Darton and Harvey joined before it was closed in 1852.
Different publishers in the 18th century were based in various parts of the growing metropolis of London. Jane Austen’s own publishers, Thomas Egerton was in Whitehall opposite the old Admiralty buildings and John Murray was located north of St James’s Palace in Albemarle Street. Interestingly the Bronte sisters publishers, Smith Elder &Co was located at the eastern end of Cornhill close to the junction with Gracechurch Street. A number of publishers and the heart of publishing in the 18th century was in St Paul’s Churchyard next to St Paul’s Cathedral. The printing of books took place mostly in Fleet Street and alleys and courts connected to Fleet Street.
COFFEE SHOPS
One type of establishment brought many elements of this cosmopolitan, area of traders and different religious groups, under a loosely formed homogeneity. That was the emergence of coffee houses. Coffee houses began in Oxford, in 1650, by a Turkish Jew named Jacob who opened a coffee house called the Angel. Two years later in 1652 a coffee house was opened in St Michael’s Alley off Cornhill , a short walk from Gracechurch Street. The coffee was imported by Daniel Edwards who traded with Turkey through the Levant Company. It was managed by Edward’s servant Pasque Rosee. The coffee shop was known as Rosee’s Head. It was later called the Jamica Coffee House and nowadays on the same site is the Jamaica Wine Bar which you can visit and drink a variety of wines and beers and enjoy a good meal. A plaque on the wall outside recalls its first iteration as Pasquee Rosees Coffee House. Within the same small area off Cornhill in the various alleyways other coffee houses grew up. By 1663 there were over eighty coffee houses in London. Coffee houses took a little getting used to. In 1657 James Farr, the owner of the Rainbow Coffee House at Temple Gate was prosecuted for making ,”evil smells,” caused by the roasting and brewing of coffee.
Near St James’s Palace the coffee shops were places for politicians. Whites , made famous in The Rakes Progress by William Hogarth, was located just north of St James Palace in St James Street at the junction with Albemarle Street. On the corner of Albemarle Street was located John Murrays publishing house where Jane Austen had four of her novels published. Her brother Henry actually went to Whites Coffee House on the opposite corner of the junction.
Man’s coffee House at Charing Cross was the place for stockjobbers, (a person who bought and sold securities). Will’s Coffee House was one the best known and it was located near Covent Garden.Garraways in Exchange Alley opposite the Royal Exchange off Cornhill, not far from Gracechurch Street. Just off Cornhill in St Michaels Alley was of course “Pasquee Rosee’s coffee house,” Rosees Head,” which dealt in the West Indian trade. Slaves were probably bought and sold here. Many coffee houses were burnt down in 1666 during The Great Fire especially those located in the city. They were generally rebuilt after the fire.
Coffee Houses became the commercial , artistic and financial centres of London and the Empire. Lloyds of London the great insurance company had its roots in Lloyds Coffee House in Lombard Street. It was around Cornhill and the alleyways south of The Royal Exchange a great number of coffee houses grew up. There was of course Pasqua Rosees in St Michaels Alleyway but also within yards of each other, located within the web of alleyways coffee houses included: Exchange Alley; Jonathan’s, Garraways, Sam’s. Lombard Street: Lloyd’s, Coles. On Cornhill Itself: Union, Tom’s, Batson’s. Rainbow, New York. Castle Court: Jerusalem, Elford’s, Marine. Birchin Lane: Pennsylvania, Bowman’s Sword Blade. All of these places of commercial and social engagement were within close proximity of Gracechurch street. With the headquarters of The East India Company nearby in Leadenhall Street and some of the employees and traders of The East India Company living in Gracechurch Street, their warehouses full of goods nearby, we can surmise that these merchants did a lot of their business in the coffee houses including Mr Gardener perhaps.
Jamaica Wine House the site of Pasquee Rosee's Coffee shop in St Michaels Alleyway.
JAMAICA WINE HOUSE ( Pasquee Rosee’s Coffee Shop)
The Jamaica Wine House is located in St Michaels Alley off Cornhill.It is part of a web of alleyways, narrow and dark, that give a sense of the London of post 1666 when London was rebuilt after The Great Fire. Some of the buildings originate still from that time including The Jamica Wine Bar. A blue plaque relates that this was the site fo Pasquee Rosee’s Coffee shop. When you walk inside it is wood panelled with small rooms flowing off each other. Sitting here with a pint or glass of wine you can get a real sense of being inside an 18th century coffee shop. At lunchtimes and evenings it is always full of people who work in the insurance, banking and trading world. Things have not changed. In the 18th century it would have been used as a place to trade and buy and sell.
Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese off Fleet Street.
YE OLDE CHESHIRE CHEESE
Off Fleet Street, set back in another narrow alleyway, Wine Office Court, is the entrance to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese. This was a pub rebuilt also after The Great Fire of London. A pub has been on this site since 1538. Everybody who was anybody has visited Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese over the centuries. Oliver Goldsmith, Charles Dickens, (a scene in A Tale of Two Cities occurs here. Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton meet), Mark Twain, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Conan Doyle, Chesterton, and Samuel Johnson. Samuel Johnsonson lived very close by at 17 Gough Square which you can visit too. It was where Johnson created his famous dictionary. Johnson is renowned for many things but one of them was the frequenting of pubs and coffee houses. This pub is as it was in the 18th century. It still consists of different wood panelled rooms which were originally hired out to groups of friends. Johnson, along with the artist Joshua Reynolds founded, The Club , a talking and discussion group. That mostly met at the Turks Head tavern in SOHO. Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is however set up and designed as a typical 18th century establishment of this sort. Johnson most definitely met friends here. Perhaps even Joshua Reynolds, the philosopher Edmund Burke and his biographer James Boswell. Being so close to Gough Square perhaps he met publishers to discuss his dictionary? In a similar way as visiting the Jamaica Wine House you too get a sense of entering a world exclusive to the 18th century. Much of what went on at the Cheshire Cheese would have been very similar to what went on in a coffee house. Coffee may well have been served as well as wines and beers. In recent years plaster ceiling mouldings from the top floor of the Cheshire Cheese have been discovered. They are of a salacious and lewd variety. It is assumed that the pub was used as a brothel. Many of the coffee houses also were used as brothels as a side line.
Schools in The City in the 18th century.
The traders and merchants living in Gracechurch Street including perhaps the fictional Gardeners,, the Quakers, the Jewish community, the Huguenots had families and children. They wanted their children to be educated. There is no evidence however for The East India Company setting up schools for the children of their members. The Gardiners had, two daughters and two sons. Jane Austen does not tell us their names. The way the Gardiners deal with their children is part of their appeal and their more modern view of the world. The boys no doubt went away to school. The girls would have been educated at home. The Gardiner’s were well educated and thoughtful so the girls would have been encouraged in their learning just like Jane Austen was herself at home with her brothers and sister. Their father George Austen was liberal minded about his daughters learning. Mr Gardiner I can imagine being equally liberal.
There were schools set up in the area in the area of Gracechurch Street by charites and other organisations.
Westminster French Protestant School
This girls' school, founded in 1747, was also known as the Blue Coat School. It provided education, feeding, and clothing for disadvantaged children of Huguenot descent. After moving to Shaftesbury Avenue in 1846, the school finally closed in 1924.
Threadneedle Street Church School:
This school was associated with the French Church of London, which was established to provide support for Huguenots, especially those in the Spitalfields area. There are records of its charity school, which operated from 1719 to 1802.
Merchant Taylors' School was founded in1561, in the City of London .
There were many charity schools in 18th century London including
Blewcoat School. The school was founded in Duck Lane in 1688 for the education of poor boys to teach them reading writing, religion and various trades. From 1714 it also admitted girls.
St Pauls school was set up next to St Pauls Cathedral by John Colet in 1509.
Charterhouse school was established first on the site of Charterhouse near Smithfield in 1611.
The School Room (1683 - 1687) One of Winchester College's many historic buildings.
Members of The East India Company sent their boys to be educated to the likes of Winchester College. Cheryl Butler in her book, "First Impressions, Jane Austen’s Southampton Circle 1780-1820, " describes the life at Winchester College when writing about the life of Milicent Cropp Ballard. The Ballards sent their ward John to Winchester College. The Ballards visted the Austens at Castle Square, Southampton, on occasions.
“The Ballards’ ward, John, was sent to be educated in one of the best schools in the area, Winchester College, where he was a Commoner, at the age often and where he remained until the age of thirteen. It was not an easy existence. In 1770 a visitor noted: ‘No humane parent of moderate means would allow his son to undergo rough treatment to which the lower boys were subjected in the lower chamber,’
The teaching was classical, Cicero, Horace, Ovid, Virgil and was entirely in Latin. The school day began as early a 5am and until 1838, the only place for washing was in the open air conduit. Meals were mostly boiled beef or mutton accompanied by bread washed down with beer……….( it was a very low in alcohol beer. Beer was far more healthy than drinking water. Typhoid and cholera could be caught from untreated water.)
The boys lodged in unheated dormitories around a courtyard with a sick room and dining hall, described as a ‘strange and rambling bizarre old place’ not built for comfort. Grim as the facilities sounded they were better than those for boys who attended as scholars.”
They learned Greek and Latin which was important for the church and legal documents but they also learned to write poetry and lengthy documents. They learned oral skills of debate and speech giving. All the skills that they needed to be administrators and chairmen of companies. The education was elitist. The girls of East India Company families stayed at home and would learn music, dancing, reading and writing, and sewing.
Which St Clements did Lydia and Whickham get married in?
There is some argument over which St Clements Lydia and Whickham got married in. St Clement Danes near the Aldwych, is just that, St Clement Danes. The one close to Gracechurch Street is plain St Clements. Austen specifically calls the church St Clements. Local people, in and around Gracechurch Street would mostly not be aware or interested in what was going on in a church many in the area did not attend. The possibility of local gossip surely couldn’t be a reason for Austen not locating the marriage in Cheapside? Different people argue for one or the other.
The Spread Eagle Coaching Inn, Gracechurch Street.
COACHING INNS
In Gracechurch Street there were coaching inns. The Spread Eagle in Gracechurch Street in particular could have a connection with Lydia and Wickhams elopement. Coaches to and from The Spread Eagle went to: Bromley (Kent), Epsom, Gravesend, Harwich, Lewisham, Lincoln, Lowestoft, Peterborough, Rochester, Sleaford, Stilton, Stoke (Suffolk), Streatham, Tooting, Woodbridge.
The mention of Epsom fits the story. That was where Lydia and Wickham changed coaches to travel on to London. The question then arises, was a journey to Gracechurch Street planned by Wickham so that he could offload Lydia at her uncle and aunts house and escape the marriage which he tells Fitzwilliam Darcy he does not want? Fitzwilliam Darcy certainly lends a hand in getting him to do the right thing. The promise of money and a military positon is offerd as a bribe.
Mrs Gardiner in her letter to Elizabeth relates in some detail what is going on in London with Lydia and Wickham. Lydia is staying with her aunt and uncle until the wedding. Wickham visits every day. I can’t imagine Wickham traipsing right across London from lodgings near the area Mrs Young, his old colleague in misdemeanours, who he contacts. She lived, probably around The Aldwych. Living some distance from the Gardiners where Lydia is staying would have given him opportunity to escape. So I think he must have had lodgings near The Gardiners. This whole episode has its mysteries.
Pride and Prejudice ends with the following lines.
“With the Gardiners they were always on the most intimate of terms. Darcy, as well as Elizabeth, really loved them; and they were ever sensible of the warmest gratitude towards the persons who, by bringing her into Derbyshire, had been the means of uniting them. FINIS”
References:
Saxon London: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_London
Leadenhall Market:
https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/assets/Services-Environment/leadenhall-market-spd-conservation-area.pdf
Huguenots:
https://www.thehistoryoflondon.co.uk/huguenots/
Coffee Houses:
https://www.thehistoryoflondon.co.uk/coffee-houses/
The history of banking in London:
https://archives.history.ac.uk/ihrcms/cmh/projects/research/counting-house-to-office.html
The Quakers of Gracechurch Street:
https://digitalcollections.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/object/hc144065
https://bunhillquakers.org.uk/files/city_business_walk_guide_2.pdf
http://studymore.org.uk/quasharc.htm
Multiculturalism in the East End.
https://www.ideastore.co.uk/local-history/collections-and-digital-resources/user-guides/migration-and-communities-in-the-east-end
https://removalvanshoreditch.co.uk/blog/a-cultural-adventure-in-shoreditch-discovering-the-soul-of-east-london
https://www.google.com/search?q=history+of+jews+in+london
https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/jewish-east-end/
The Jewish Community: Creechurch Street off Leadenhall Street
https://www.pepysdiary.com/encyclopedia/6818/
Families of East India Company Men.
Butler Cheryl. First Impressions, Jane Austen’s Southampton Circle 1780-1820 , 2025 Hobnob Press.
Austen Jane: Pride and Prejudice (First published 1813) Penguin Classics reissued 2003
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