Holborn and Bloomsbury | Page 4

Dyott (once George) Street, Church Lane,
Buckridge and Bainbridge, Charlotte and Plumtree, were among the
most notorious streets thus wholly or partially removed.
In 1844 many wretched houses were demolished, and in 1855
Shaftesbury Avenue drove another wedge into the slums to let in light
and air. There are poor and wretched courts in St. Giles's yet, but
civilization is making its softening influence felt even here, and though

cases of Hooliganism in broad daylight still occur, they are less and
less frequent.
So much for a brief history of the parish. Its soil was from very early
times damp and marshy. To the south of the hospital was a stretch of
ground called Marshlands, probably at one time a pond. Great ditches
and fosses cut up the ground. The most important of these was
Blemund's Ditch, which divided the parish from that of Bloomsbury.
This is supposed to have been an ancient line of fortification. Besides
this, a ditch traversed the marshlands above mentioned, another
encompassed the croft lying by the north gate of the hospital, and there
were several others of less importance.
The Hospital of St. Giles was the earliest foundation of its kind in
London, if we except St. James's Hospital. Stow sums it up thus: "St.
Giles-in-the-Fields was an hospital for leprous people out of the City of
London and shire of Middlesex, founded by Matilde the Queen, wife to
Henry I., and suppressed by King Henry VIII." The date of foundation
is given by Leland and Malcolm as 1101, though Stow and others give
1117, which was the year before the foundress died. Before this time
this part of London had apparently been included in the great estate of
Rugmere, which belonged to St. Paul's.
Matilda gave the ground, and endowed the hospital with the
magnificent sum of £3 per annum! Her foundation provided for forty
lepers, one chaplain, one clerk, and one servant. Henry II. confirmed all
privileges and gifts which had accrued to the hospital, and added to
them himself. Parton says, "His liberality ranks him as a second
founder." During succeeding reigns the hospital grew in wealth and
importance. In Henry III.'s reign Pope Alexander issued a confirmatory
Bull, but the charity had become a refuge for decayed hangers-on at
Court who were not lepers. This abuse was prohibited by the King's
decree. In Edward III.'s reign the first downward step was taken, for he
made the hospital a cell to Burton St. Lazar. The brethren apparently
rebelled, refusing to admit the visitation of the Archbishop of
Canterbury, and destroying many valuable documents and records
belonging to the hospital. Two centuries later King Henry VIII. desired

the lands and possessions of St. Giles's, and with him to desire was to
acquire.
The hospital was thus shorn of the greater part of its wealth, retaining
only the church (not the manor) at Feltham (one of its earliest gifts), the
hospital estates at Edmonton, in the City of London, and in the various
parishes in the suburbs; and in St. Giles's parish the actual ground it
stood on, the Pittance Croft, and a few minor places. But even this
remnant came into the possession of the rapacious King two years later,
at the dissolution of the monasteries, when Burton St. Lazar itself fell
into the tyrant's hands. Henry held these for six years, then granted both
to John Dudley, Viscount Lisle, Lord High Admiral. From the time of
the dissolution the hospital became a manor.
In the earliest charters the head of the hospital is styled Chaplain, but
not Master. The first Master mentioned is in 1212, and after this the
title was regularly used. The government was vested in the Master or
Warden and other officers, together with a certain number of sound
brethren and sisters--and in certain cases lepers themselves--who
formed a chapter. "They assembled in chapter, had a common seal, held
courts as lords of the manor."[1] There were also guardians or
custodians, who did not reside in the precincts of the hospital, and these
seem to have been chosen from the most eminent citizens; they formed
no part of the original scheme.
[1] "Some Account of the Hospital and Parish of St.
Giles-in-the-Fields," 1822, by John Parton.
[Illustration: SEAL OF ST. GILES'S HOSPITAL.]
The sisters appear to have been nurses, for there is no mention made of
any leprous sister. The chapel of the hospital appears from King Henry
II.'s charter to have been built on the site of some older parochial
church. The Bull of Pope Alexander mentions that the hospital wall
enclosed eight acres. Within this triangular space, which is at present
roughly bounded by the High Street, Charing Cross Road, and
Shaftesbury Avenue, was one central building or mansion for the lepers,
several subordinate buildings, the chapel, and