Westminster | Page 8

Pye, member for Westminster in the time of Charles I., who married a daughter of John Hampden. St. Matthew Street was Duck Lane until 1864, and was a very malodorous quarter. Swift says it was renowned for second-hand bookshops. The Westminster Bluecoat School was first founded here.
St. Ann's Street and Lane are poor and wretched quarters. The name is derived from a chapel which formerly stood on the spot (see p. 37). Herrick lodged in the street when, ejected from his living in the country in 1647, he returned with anything but reluctance to his beloved London. He had resumed lay dress, but was restored to his living in 1662 in reward for his devoted loyalty to the Stuarts. The great musician, Henry Purcell, was born in St. Ann's Lane. Seymour, writing in 1735, says: "Great St. Ann's Lane, a pretty, handsome, well-built and well-inhabited place." St. Matthew's Church and Schools were built by Sir G. A. Scott in 1849-57.
Great Peter Street is a dirty thoroughfare with some very old houses. On one is a stone slab with the words, "This is Sant Peter Street, 1624. R [a heart] W." This and its neighbour, Little Peter Street, obviously derive their names from the patron saint of the Abbey. Strype describes Great Peter Street pithily as "very long and indifferent broad." Great Peter Street runs at its west end into Strutton Ground, a quaint place which recalls bygone days by other things than its name, which is a corruption of Stourton, from Stourton House. The street is thickly lined by costers' barrows, and on Saturday nights there is no room to pass in the roadway.
Before examining in detail the part that may be called the core and centre of Westminster, that part lying around the Abbey and Houses of Parliament, it is advisable to begin once more at the west end of Victoria Street, and, traversing the part of the parish on the north side, gather there what we may of history and romance.


PART II
NORTH OF VICTORIA STREET.
The United Westminster Schools, constituted 1873, stand on the east side of Palace Street. These comprise Emanuel Hospital, Greencoat School (St. Margaret's), Palmer's (Blackcoat School), and Hill's Grammar School. The building in Palace Street stands back from the road behind a space of green grass. Over one doorway are medallions of Palmer and Hill, and over the other the Royal arms, and the structure is devoid of any architectural attractiveness. The beauty which belonged to the older buildings has not been revived, but replaced by a hideous utilitarianism. Watney's Brewery occupies the ground opposite to the school. The schools of St. Andrew are in this street, and beyond is the Roman Catholic Church of St. Peter and St. Edward. Stafford Place is called after Viscount Stafford, on the site of whose garden wall it is said to have been built. This wall formed the parish boundary, and a boy was annually whipped upon it to impress the bounds upon his memory.
Tart Hall, built 1638, stood at the north end of James Street. It was the residence of Viscount Stafford, to whom it had come from his mother Alethea, daughter and heiress of the seventh Earl of Shrewsbury. Lord Stafford was the fifth son of the Earl of Arundel and Surrey, and was made first a Baron and then a Viscount by Charles I. He was condemned for high treason on the manufactured evidence of Oates and Turberville, in the reign of Charles II., and was beheaded on Tower Hill, December 29, 1680. After his execution the house was turned into a museum and place of public entertainment. The gateway under which he passed to his death was never again opened after that event, but it was left standing until 1737. Among the notable residents in the street were Dr. White Kennet, Bishop of Peterborough, an indefatigable collector of MSS., and Glover, the poet.
The present street contains many pleasant, picturesque houses, especially at the northern end. At the corner of Castle Lane is the Westminster Chapel, the largest Independent place of worship in the Metropolis excepting Spurgeon's Tabernacle. It seats 2,500, and has two galleries, one above the other, running round the whole interior. It was opened in 1865 to replace a smaller chapel which had previously stood on the same site.
Emanuel Hospital was a charming old building which stood south of the chapel on the same side of the street. It was founded in 1594 by Lady Dacre "for the relief of aged people and the bringing up of children in virtue and good and laudable arts, whereby they might the better live in time to come by their honest labour." The low range of buildings running round a quadrangle had tall chimneys, and the central house was decorated by a cupola and clock.