Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1780 Gordon Riots, it was rebuilt as “a veritable Hell, worthy of the imagination of
Dante”, as one of its more famous inmates, Casanova, put it. Earlier well-known
temporary residents included Thomas Malory, who wrote
Le Morte d'Arthur
while
imprisoned here for murder (among other things); Daniel Defoe, who was put inside
for his
The Shortest Way with Dissenters
; Ben Jonson, who served time for murder; and
Christopher Marlowe, who was on a charge of atheism.
Smithfield
The ground was covered, nearly ankle-deep with filth and mire; a thick steam perpetually rising from the
reeking bodies of the cattle, and mingling with the fog.
Oliver Twist
, Charles Dickens
Originally open ground outside the City walls,
Smithfield
is a corruption of “Smooth
Field”. It was used as a horse fair in Norman times, and later became the site for
Bartholomew Fair
, established in 1133 by Rahere, prior and founder of St
Bartholomew's priory and hospice to raise funds. Rahere himself used to perform
juggling tricks, while Pepys reports seeing a horse counting sixpences and, more
reliably, a puppet show of Ben Jonson's play
Bartholomew Fair
. Predictably enough, it
was the Victorians who closed it down to protect public morals.
he meat
market
, with which Smithfield is now synonymous, grew up as a kind of
adjunct to the fair. Live cattle continued to be herded into Smithfield until 1852, when
the fair was suppressed and the abattoirs moved out to Islington. A new covered market
hall was erected in 1868, along with the “Winkle”, a spiral ramp at the centre of West
Smithfield, linked to the market's very own (now defunct) tube station. Smithfield
subsequently tripled in size and remains London's main meat market - the action starts
around 4am and is all over by noon.
11
St Bartholomew's Hospital
West Smithfield •
Museum Tues-Fri 10am-4pm • Free • Guided tours Fri 2pm; £5 •
T
020 3465 5798 •
W
www.bartsandthelondon
.nhs.uk •
!
St Paul's
St Bartholomew's Hospital
- affectionately known as Bart's - is the oldest hospital in
London. It began as an Augustinian priory and hospice in 1123, founded by Rahere,
courtier, clerk and even court jester to Henry I, on the orders of St Bartholomew, who
appeared to him in a vision while he was in malarial delirium on a pilgrimage to Rome.
The priory was dissolved by Henry VIII, but in 1546, with just two weeks left to live,
the king agreed to re-found the hospital.
he
Henry VIII Gate
, built in 1702, features a statue of the king, with a lame man on
the right and a diseased man on the left lounging on the broken pediment above.
BLOOD AND GUTS AT SMITHFIELD
Blood was spilled at
Smithfield
long before the meat market was legally sanctioned here in
the seventeenth century. The Scottish hero, William Wallace, was dragged behind a horse from
the Tower, then hanged, drawn and quartered here in 1305. Most famously, during the 1381
Peasants' Revolt, the poll-tax rebels under
Wat Tyler
assembled here to negotiate with the
boy-king Richard II. At the meeting, Lord Mayor Walworth pulled Tyler from his horse and
stabbed him, after which he was bustled into St Bartholomew's for treatment, only to be
dragged out by the king's men and beheaded.
Smithfield subsequently became a regular venue for
public executions
. The Bishop of
Rochester's cook was boiled alive in 1531, after being found guilty of poisoning, but the local
speciality was
burnings
. These reached a peak during the reign of “Bloody” Mary in the 1550s,
when hundreds of Protestants were burnt at the stake for their beliefs, in revenge for the
Catholics who had suffered a similar fate under Henry VIII and Edward VI; a plaque on the side
of Bart's commemorates some of those who died.
