Barbican

Barbican

East from Aldersgate Street at No. 77 to Redcross Street and Golden Lane (P.O. Directory).

In Aldersgate Ward Without and Cripplegate Ward Without.

The first definite mention of the street occurs: "Barbecanstret," 1348 (Ct. H. W. I. 525).

Other forms: "la Barbycanstret," 1378 (ib. II. 201). Street called "Barbican," 1385–6 (ib. 252). Street called "le Barbican," 1408 (ib. 379).

Stow suggests that the street was formerly called Houndsditch (pp. 71 and 433), but gives no authority for the statement, which is not confirmed by any of the records.

The street seems to have derived its name from a tower which at one time stood on the north side of it, fronting Redcross Street.

First mention: "Barbekan," 1294–5 (Ct. H.W. I. 119).

Stow says this tower was pulled down by Henry III. in 1267, when he occupied the city after the war with the Barons (p. 71). If so, it would appear to have been rebuilt. The site was given by Edward III. to Robert Earl of Suffolk in 1336 by the name of his manor of Base Court, commonly called Barbican (ib.). The Earl of Suffolk's hostel there is mentioned in 1378 (Ct. H.W. II. 201).

In 1375–6 a gate was to be made at "la Barbekane" without Aldersgate (Cal. L. Bk. H. p. 26). According to Strype the site was occupied by the Watch Tower, shown on Rocque's map, 1746, but in the O.S. 1875, the site is shown further to the north-west, on the north side of "Barbican" between Princes Street and Golden Lane.

The N.E.D. says the word is of uncertain origin, perhaps from Arabic or Persian words meaning the "House on the wall." It came into English through the O.F. "barbacane, "Low Latin," barbarcana," an outwork.

It is defined as (1) an outer fortification or defence to a city, a watch-tower. (2) a wooden tower or bulwark. (3) A loophole in the wall, out of which missiles could be hurled.

See Bas Court, Cripplegate.

Barbican, a considerable Street betn Aldersgate str. Wly and Red Cross str. Ely L. 235 Yds, and from P C. Nd. 800 Yds. This, Stow says, was so called from a Beacon, (or Watch Tower) formerly here, which in some Language is called a Barbican.

Barbican, a good broad Street, well inhabited by Tradesmen, especially Salesmen for Apparel, both new and old. It comes out of Aldersgatestreet, against Long lane, and falls into Redcross street; but the part in this Ward, goeth but to the City Posts. And fronting Redcross street, is the Watch house, where formerly stood a Watch Tower, called Burghkenning, i.e. Barbican, for the security of the City in those parts.

Barbican, Aldersgate street, so called from a high watch tower which stood there, from which a view might be taken of the whole city. Barbican, according to Camden, being an Arabic word signifying a watch tower.

Barbican,—extends from 77, Aldersgate-street, op. Long-lane, to Redcross-street, and Golden-lane, it is continued E. by Beech-street, and Chiswell-st. to Finsbury-sq.

Barbican, is a street so named that turns off on the right hand of Aldersgate-street at No. 77, nearly opposite Long-lane, West-Smithfield, and continues eastward to the corner of Red-cross-street, Cripplegate, and Golden-lane. It is continued eastward by Beech-street and Chiswell-street into Finsbury-square. It received its name from being the site of a barbican, which Camden says is an Arabic word, signifying a watchtower. It was the advanced post of Cripplegate, and like the others that surrounded the city, as always intrusted to the custody of some person of consequence in the state. This tower was granted by Edward III. to the Earl of Suffolk; he made it his town residence. Since the removal of the city gates, all vestiges of this barbican except its name are destroyed, and it is now a spacious thoroughfare, connecting Finsbury-square with Aldersgate-street.

Barbican, that portion of the main line of street leading from Smithfield to Finsbury Square, which lies between Aldersgate Street and Red Cross Street and Golden Lane. The name was derived from a watch-tower or barbican of the ancient City wall which stood there, forming an outwork, such as may still be seen at York.

Barbican, a good broad street, well inhabited by tradesmen, especially salesmen, for apparel both new and old; and fronting Red Cross Street is the Watchhouse, where formerly stood a watchtower, called burgh-kenning, i.e. Barbican.—R.B., in Strype, B. iii. p. 93.

Here Dryden has laid the scene of his Mac Flecknoe:

A watch-tower once; but now, so fate ordains,
Of all the pile an empty name remains;
From its old ruins brothel-houses rise,
Scenes of lewd loves and of polluted joys.

The place is referred to by Massinger (Works, vol. iv. p. 34) and by Carew (Verses to A.T., see Dyce's Beaumont and Fletcher, vol. i. p. 17). Nor is it overlooked by the Messrs. Smith, in their excellent imitation of Sir Walter Scott:—

And lo! where Catherine Street extends,
A fiery tail its lustre lends
   To every window-pane;
Blushes each spout in Martlet Court,
And Barbican, moth-eaten fort, etc.

Rejected Addresses.

The mansion of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, passed to the Bertie family by the marriage of his widow, Catherine, with Richard Bertie, the ancestor of the Dukes ot Ancaster. The Duchess, in her own right Baroness Willoughby de Eresby, was noted for her zeal for the reformed doctrines, and in the reign of Edward VI. had incurred the enmity of Bishop Gardiner, who, shortly after the accession ot Mary, sent for Bertie, and questioning him about his religion, inquired "whether the Lady, his wife, was now as ready to set up mass as she had been to pull it down, when in her progress she caused a dog in a rochet to be carried and called by his (Gardiner's) name." Bertie obtained the Queen's license to travel, and withdrew to the Continent. The Duchess remained behind, but finding she was closely watched and in danger, she determined, though on the eve of her confinement, to make an effort to join him. Accordingly, "very early in the morning of the first day of January next ensuing (1545) ... she departed her house called the Barbican, betwixt 4 and 5 of the clocke, with her company and baggage." But as she was leaving, one Atkinson, a herald, keeper of the house, came out with a torch. "Being amazed" she left her baggage, "the necessaries for her younger daughter, and a milk-pot with milk "at the gate-house, and went onwards; but perceiving she was followed by the herald, she bade her servants to hasten onwards to Lyon Key, where she proposed to embark, and taking with her only two servants and her child, her steps still dogged by the herald, "she stept in at Garter House hard by."¹ She afterwards escaped disguised to Leigh, in Essex, there took ship, and happily joined her husband in Flanders. The child born shortly afterwards was named Peregrine, in reference to the place and circumstances of his birth, and the name was long continued in the family. Barbican House was afterwards, and as long as it existed, known as Willoughby House.

Garter House stood on the north side of Barbican, "next adjoining" to Barbican or Willoughby House.

[It was] sometime builded by Sir Thomas Writhe, or Wriothesley, Kt., alias Garter, principal king of arms; second son of Sir John Writhe, Kt., alias Garter; and was uncle to the first Thomas, Earl of Southampton, Knight of the Garter, and Chancellor of England. He built this house, and in the top thereof a chapel, which he dedicated by the name of S. Trinitatis in Alto.—Strype, B. iii. p. 89.

The site of Garter House was marked by Garter Court, a little west of Golden Lane, a wretched place which the Corporation swept away under the powers of the Artizans' Dwellings Improvement Act of 1875. Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, Henry VIII.'s Lord Chancellor, was born here. In the 16th and early part of the 17th century the house of the Spanish Ambassador was in the Barbican. Here resided the celebrated Count Gondomar. Archbishop Abbot wrote to James I. just after the death of Robert Cecil, when James was his own Secretary of State:—

August 3, 1612.—Zuniga has removed to the house of the Lieger Ambassador, Alonso de Velasquez, in the Barbican, that he may more freely transact his secret business. Velasquez has been more free with his masses, having a bell rung, and holding several in the day.—Cal. State Pap., James I., 1611–1618, p. 140.

August 10, 1612.—Particulars of the seizure and examination of Blackman, the Jesuit, who came at night out of the Spanish Ambassador's house in the Barbican, and who was confessor of the English College at Rome and Valladolid.... The private intercourse between Zuniga and the French Lieger was because public intercourse was forbidden.—Ibid., p. 142.

In July 1618, Sir George Bowles, the Lord Mayor, describes to the Council the circumstances of a tumult at "the Spanish Ambassador's House in the Barbican," in consequence of one of his gentlemen having ridden over a child. The mob broke the windows and smashed in the door, and would have done further damage had not the Lord Chief-Justice and Lord Mayor arrived. The King ordered the Lord Mayor to ask Gondomar's pardon. Several lads were punished with six months' imprisonment and a fine of £500 each. Sauchez, Secretary to the Embassy, begged off the offenders; and James issued a proclamation warning the apprentices not to take the law into their own hands.—See Index to Remembrancia, 1878, pp. 452, 453. About 1622 the office of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports was removed here from Philips's Lane. North of the Barbican was Bridgwater House, the magnificent seat of the Earl of Bridgwater.¹ The house was destroyed by fire in April 1687, when unhappily the Earl's two eldest sons, Charles, Viscount Brackley (b. 1675), and Thomas Egerton (b. 1679) were, with their tutor, burned in their beds. The site of the house and gardens is marked by Bridgwater Square and Bridgwater Gardens. Eminent Inhabitants. Sir Henry Spelman, the antiquary, who died at the house of his son-in-law, Sir Ralph Whitfield, in 1641. He was buried in Westminster Abbey on October 24, 1641. John Milton.

It was at length concluded that she (Milton's wife) should remain at a friend's house till such time as he was settled in his new house at Barbican, and all things for his reception in order—Philips's Life of Milton, 12mo, 1694, p. 27.

Milton's father-in-law (Richard Powell) died here January 1646–1647.—Papers relating to Milton, Camden Society, p. 50. The house, No. 17, on the north side of the street, was that which tradition assigned to him. "John Milton, scrivener," the father of the poet, died at his house in the Barbican, 1647, and was buried in Cripplegate Church.

Taylor the Water Poet says of Barbican:—

There's as good beer and ale as ever twanged,
And in that street kind No-body is hanged.

TAYLOR, Penniless Pilgrimage.

"No-body" was the sign of John Trundle, one of the best known of the Elizabethan booksellers and printers. He dealt chiefly in ballads. Ben Jonson makes Edward Knowell say he will "troll ballads for Master John Trundle yonder."² But he also published Green's Westward for Smelts, one at least of Jonson's plays, and other popular pieces. Trundle accompanied Taylor on his "Penniless Pilgrimage" as far as the Saracen's Head, Wheatstone, and on the way "freely spent his chink" on his penniless comrade—"The Barbican-Cheat detected, or Injustice Arraigned; being a brief and sober disquisition of the procedure of the Ana-Baptists' late-erected judication in Barbican, London, the 28th of the month called August, 1674.... By Thomas Rudyard." Printed in the year 1674.

Barbican Chapel, on the south side, at the corner of Jacob's Well Passage, was for a long series of years a Dissenting meeting-house of high standing. Pope's "modest Foster" was ordained pastor in 1724, and continued there twenty years, as appears by his epitaph in Bunhill Fields.¹ The building was transformed into a warehouse about 1866.

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¹ Foxe, Acts and Monuments, ed. 1597, p. 1885; Holinshed, p. 1142.

¹ July 4, 1673.—Licence to the Duke of Bridgwater to build, or rebuild, his house in Barbican.—Williamson Corr., vol. i. p. 89.
² Every Man in his Humour, Act. i. Sc. 2.

¹ Gentleman's Magazine, June 1754, p. 289.