Westminster | Page 4

Palmer founded almshouses in Palmer's Passage for six poor old
men and six poor old women Anno Domini 1856; re-erected here,
1881"; and a further record: "Mr. Nicholas Butler founded the
almshouses in Little Chapel Street, near Palmer's Passage, for two of
the most ancient couples of the best repute, Anno Domini 1675;
re-erected here 1881." These are the Westminster United Almshouses.
They were consolidated by an order of the Charity Commission, dated
July 11, 1879. The Grenadier Guards Hospital is further down the row
on the same side.
Vincent Square is the Westminster School playground. This space, of
about ten acres of land, has been the subject of much dispute between
the Dean and Chapter and the parish. It was first marked out as a
playground in 1810, but not enclosed by railings until 1842. Dr.

Vincent, Headmaster of the school and formerly Dean of Westminster,
took the lead in the matter, and the enclosure is therefore named after
him. The ground is now levelled, and forms magnificent playing-fields;
from the south end there is a fine view of many-towered Westminster.
The hospital of the Coldstream Guards is in one corner of the Square,
and next to it the Westminster Police Court. St. Mary's Church and
Schools are on the south side. The Grosvenor Hospital for Women and
Children is in Douglas Street close by. This originated in a dispensary
in 1865.
The ground in the parish already traversed corresponds roughly with
that occupied by the once well-known Tothill Fields. Older writers call
this indifferently Tuthill, Totehill, Tootehill, but more generally Tuttle.
In Timbs' "London and Westminster" we read: "The name of Tot is the
old British word Tent (the German Tulsio), god of wayfarers and
merchants.... Sacred stones were set up on heights, hence called
Tothills." If ever there were a hill at Tothill Fields, it must have been a
very slight one, and in this case it may have been carted away to raise
the level elsewhere. We know that St. John's burial-ground was twice
covered with three feet of soil, and in the parish accounts we read of
gravel being carted from Tothill. The greater part of the ground in any
case can have been only low-lying, for large marshy pools remained
until comparatively recent times, one of which was known as the
Scholars' Pond. Dean Stanley has aptly termed these fields the
Smithfield of West London. Here everything took place which required
an open space--combats, tournaments, and fairs.
In a map of the middle of the eighteenth century we see a few scattered
houses lying to the south of Horseferry Road just below the bend, and
Rochester Row stretching like an arm out into the open ground. Two of
the great marshy pools are also marked. If all accounts are to be
believed, this spot was noted for its fertility and the beauty of its
wild-flowers. From Strype's Survey we learn that the fields supplied
London and Westminster with "asparagus, artichokes, cauliflowers and
musk melons." The author of "Parochial Memorials" says that the
names of Orchard Street, Pear Street and Vine Street are reminiscent of
the cultivation of fruit in Westminster, but these names more probably

have reference to the Abbot's garden. Walcott says that Tothill Fields,
before the Statute of Restraints, was considered to be within the limits
of the sanctuary of the Abbey. Stow gives a long and minute account of
a trial by battle held here. One of the earliest recorded tournaments held
in these fields was at the coronation of Queen Eleanor in 1226.
A great fair held in the fields in 1248 was a failure. All the shops and
places of merchandise were shut during the fifteen days that it lasted,
by the King's command, but the wind and rain ruined the project.
In 1256 John Mansell, the King's Counsellor and a priest, entertained
the Kings and Queens of England and Scotland and so many Dukes,
Lords, and Barons, at Westminster that he had not room for them in his
own house, but set up tents and pavilions in Tothill.
In 1441 "was the fighting at the Tothill between two thefes, a pelour
and a defendant; the pelour hadde the field, and victory of the
defendour withinne three strokes."
Both the armies of the Royalists and the Commonwealth were at
different times paraded in these fields; of the latter, 14,000 men were
here at one time. During 1851-52 Scottish prisoners were brought to
Tothill, and many died there, as the churchwardens' accounts show. In
the latter year we read the entry: "Paid to Thomas Wright for 67 load of
soyle laid on the graves in Tuthill Fields wherein 1,200 Scotch
prisoners (taken at the fight at Worcester) were buried."
It was fifteen years later, in the time of the Great Plague, that