St. George's Fields

St. George’s fields, a large space between Lambeth and Southwark, where have been found many Roman coins, chequered pavements, and bricks, it being the center of three Roman ways. Since the building of Westminster bridge, a new road has been made across these fields, which leading into the Borough forms a communication between the two bridges.

George's (St.) Fields, was an open space of great extent, on the Surrey side of the Thames, lying between Southwark and Lambeth, and so called from the adjoining church or St George the Martyr in Southwark. It is now entirely built over. Roman ways met here, and pottery, coins, and other remains have been, and are still found along these lines of road. It has been said that remains of Canute's famous trench have been found near the "Elephant and Castle."

     Falstaff. I am glad to see you, by my troth, Master Shallow.
     Shallow. O, Sir John, do you remember since we lay all night in the windmill in St. George's Fields?
     Falstaff. No more of that, good master Shallow ; no more of that.
     Shallow. Ha, it was a merry night.
Shakespeare, Second part of Henry VI., Act iii. Sc. I.

 

     York. Then, Buckingham, I do dismiss my powers:—
Soldiers, I thank you all; disperse yourselves
Meet me to-morrow in St George's Field.
Shakespeare, Second part of Henry VI., Act v. Sc. I.

 

1415. —Also this yere came the Emperor of Almen into Englond with viij C hors to Sent Georges feld.—Greyfriars Chronicle, p. 14.

Here Gerard came to collect specimens for his Herbal. "Of water violets," he says, "I have not found such plenty in any one place as in the water ditches adjoining to Saint George his fielde, near London."¹

Here herbs did grow.
 &nbsp: And flowers sweet;
But now 'tis called
 &nbsp: Saint George's Street
Inscription on a stone let into the front of Finch's Grotto Gardens. Engraved in Wilkinson's Londina lllustrata.

Pennant's description of St George's Fields in 1790 reads curiously now:—

To the south are St George's Fields, now the wonder of foreigners approaching by this rood to our capital, through avenues of lamps, of magnificent breadth and goodness. I have heard that a foreign ambassador, who happened to make his entry at night, imagined that these illuminations were in honour of his arrival, and as he modestly expressed, more than he could have expected. On this spot have been found remains of tessellated pavements, coins, and an urn full of bones, possibly the site of a summer camp of the Romans. It was too wet for a residentiary station. Its neighbour, Lambeth Marsh, was, in the last century, overflown with water: but St. Goerge's Fields might, from their distance from the river, admit of a temporary encampment.—Pennant's London, p. 33.

While unenclosed St George's Fields was one of the favourite Sunday resorts of the Londoners. The inhabitants of the district had, from time immemorial, right of common and pasturage over St George's Fields, which was extinguished by Act of Parliament in 1768. Puttenham wrote in 1589:—

I crost the Thames to take the cheerfull aire.
In open fields, the wether was so faire.

Our common people are very observant of that part of the Commandment which enjoins them to do no manner of work on that day; and which they also seem to understand as a licence to devote it to pleasure. They take this opportunity of thrusting their heads into the pillory at Georgia, being sworn at Highgate, and rolling down Flamsteed Hill in the park at Greenwich. As they all aim at going into the country, nothing can be a greater misfortune to the meaner part of the inhabitants of London and Westminister than a rainy Sunday.—Connoiseur, No. 26, July 25, 1754.

So much free and open space near to London was naturally used for large gatherings of people, for the formal meeting and receiving of notables in state, as Katherine of Aragon, Charles II., and William of Orange among others, of musters of soldiers, volunteers and train bands, for the gathering of trades, and the discussion of grievances. Laud, in his History of his Troubles, records the setting up of libels in different parts of the City, animating and calling together apprentices and others "to meet in Saint George's Fields, for the hunting of William the Fox for the breach of the Parliament;" and here assembled Colonel Thompson and his thousands "for King Jesus" in 1666, the Friends of the people and the Corresponding Society in 1792–1793, Lewis and his mob in 1795, Gale Jones in 1811, and before that, June 2, 1780, the "No Popery" rioters under Lord George Gordon, on the spot where is now St George's Roman Catholic Cathedral. Martyrs were burnt in St George's Fields, and it was a common place for executions.

The villas are few now and yearly becoming fewer. Many of the streets are poor and squalid, and some disreputable. In Sussex Place, St George's Fields, died (1835) in great poverty William Henry Ireland, the Shakespeare forger.

Saint George's fields are fields no more;
 &nbsp: The trowel supersedes the plough;
Swamps, huge and inundate of yore,
 &nbsp: Are changed to civic villas now.—James Smith.

[See Bethlehem Hospital]

The Dog and Duck Tavern was in existence in 1642, and it was famous for its wells as early as 1695. It was long a favourite Sunday House, but in its later years it had a very bad reputation.¹ It was pulled down in 1812, and in 1816 the place was the subject of a play at the new Royal Circus.

St. George's Fields, with taste and fashion struck.
Display Arcadia at the Dog and Duck;
And Drury Misses here, in tawdry pride.
Are there "Pastoras" by the fountain side;
To frowsy bowers they reel through midnight damps,
With Fawns half drunk, and Dryads breaking lamps.
Garrick, Prologue to the Maid of the Oaks, 1774.

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¹ Gerard's Herba, fol. 1597, p. 679.

¹ The rude stone sign is now let into the garden wall of Bedlam Hospital very near to the spot where the house stood. A woodcut of this sign is given in Rendle and Norman's Inns of Old Southwark, 1888, p. 369. There is a full account of the Dog and Duck in this valuable book. The sign represents a dog squatting on its haunches with a duck in its mouth, and has the date 1716.