X. THE NEW EXCHANGE IN THE STRAND.

In reopening what to many readers may be a long-forgotten chapter in London’s commercial history, I wish to call attention to a beautiful little drawing from the Smithson Collection which has already been published⁠[22] but has not been identified with any known building. It is apparently the original plan and half elevation (to a larger scale) of the New Exchange which the first Earl of Salisbury built in the Strand in 1608 as a rival to the Royal Exchange in the City. The fine drawing and delicate detail of the design will speak for themselves as an illustration of the work of the period, and its value is increased in that the later drawings of the Exchange bear out its general accuracy. The presence of the Cecil arms reminds us of that indefatigable builder Sir Robert or “Mr. Secretary” Cecil, whose activities were not exhausted by his work at Chelsea, Hatfield, and at his neighbouring house in the Strand.

I shall not pretend to bring any new information, beyond the plan, to the wonderfully interesting history of this building, for a most exhaustive paper from the pen of Dr. T. N. Brushfield appeared as recently as 1903, and was published in the Journal of the British Archæological Association under the title of “Britain’s Burse or the New Exchange,” wherein the reader will find a very large amount of entertainment and instruction. It may, however, be of interest to recall one or two of the historical facts regarding the site and its surroundings, and to examine the available topographical material.

Sir Robert Cecil, who built his new house in the Strand in 1602 (where now stands the hotel named after him), was naturally interested in the adjoining property to the west—that occupied by the ancient courtyards of Durham House. The Bishops of Durham had lived in this house for many centuries until they were dispossessed by Henry VIII. Stow says that the house was built by Thomas Hatfield, Bishop of Durham (from 1345 to 1381); but we know that Otho, the papal legate, lived here in 1238, and in the following passage the topographer Norden traces it back to the famous thirteenth-century bishop who built and fortified the manor-house of Eltham, afterwards the royal palace: “This howse, called Durham or Dunelme House ... was buylded in the time of Henry 3 by one Anthony Becke, Bishop of Durham. It is a howse of 300 years antiquitie, the hall whereof is stately and high, supported with lofty marble pillars. It standeth upon the Thamese veriye pleasantly.” Norden wrote in 1593, and he thus places the date of the aisled hall as the latter part of the thirteenth-century, a period which would agree with his reference to Purbeck marble shafts, and with the character of the windows indicated on a sketch-plan of 1626, which we shall consider later on.

The Bishops of Durham returned to the house for a brief period under Mary, and were finally reinstated by James I., after which they continued there until 1640. From 1584 to 1603, however, the house was tenanted by Sir Walter Raleigh, who, says Aubrey, “lived there after he came to his greatness.” He adds, “I well remember his study, which was on a little turret that looked into and over the Thames, and had the prospect which is as pleasant perhaps as any in the world.” During this period, in 1600, the buildings of the outer courtyard facing the Strand were destroyed by fire, and it was these ruins which Cecil replaced by his New Exchange when he purchased the frontage in the first years of the reign of King James.

Fig. 64.—DURHAM HOUSE AND SALISBURY HOUSE.

Drawn by

Hollar. (Pepysian Library, Cambridge.)

Fig. 65.—DURHAM HOUSE.

Map by

Faithorne.

Fig. 66.—WEST CENTRAL LONDON.

Map by

Hollar.

The principal apartments of Durham House lay right on the river bank and occupied the position of the present Adelphi Terrace. The relative position of this Gothic building and Salisbury House is well shown in one of Hollar’s charming little riverside views, a facsimile of which we reproduce here with the kind permission of the Trustees of the Pepysian Library, Cambridge. The drawing shows the gables of the New Exchange appearing over the top of the older buildings. Another drawing of Hollar’s—that beautifully executed map of the west-central part of London—gives us in its extreme south-west corner a good idea of Salisbury House, and the three buildings are shown with less care in Faithorne’s valuable panoramic map of London. A plan in Strype’s Stow (ed. 1720) gives miniature drawings of the buildings of the Exchange and Cecil’s house, and shows also the tower-shaped river gateway which stood in the garden of the latter, and of which particulars are preserved in the Record Office under date 1610, being a “Specification of a plan by a Mr. Osborne, for making a portico at the south end of the Earl of Salisbury’s garden in the Strand.”⁠[23]

Fig. 67.—MS. PLAN OF DURHAM HOUSE AND THE NEW EXCHANGE (1626).

Much, however, as we are helped by the skill of Hollar and Faithorne to feel some little of the atmosphere of this historic site on the river bank, we were fain to have some more detailed knowledge of the homes of Sir Robert Cecil and Sir Walter Raleigh. Some fortunate chance may perhaps yet bring more information in the course of further research. Dr. Brushfield indeed has been able to take us one step in this direction in his discovery of a curious sketch-plan of Durham House and the New Exchange, made in 1626, and preserved in the State Paper Office. “It was apparently made,” he says, “to assist the enquiry into some tumultuary proceedings that took place on February 26th of that year at Durham House, then the residence of the French Ambassador, incident to the attempted arrest of some English Roman Catholics who had attended service in the Ambassador’s private chapel there.” As will be seen by the simplified tracing which is reproduced with this article, it is of the rather tantalising form which combines elevations with the plan, and which scarcely gives us accurate details of the arrangements. We can see, however, that it was once a noble house with two large courtyards and imposing gateways. Its great hall and lofty range of apartments towards the east are clearly indicated, and the position of the chapel is well shown, a building which we are just able to distinguish in Norden’s well-known view of Westminster. This plan of 1626, moreover, in giving us an idea of the fine thirteenth or fourteenth-century windows of the great hall, enables us to understand Hollar’s sketch of the river front more clearly. The arches, which Wilkinson, in his interpretation of Hollar in Londina Illustrata , took to be corbelled supports for the battlements, are clearly the windows of the hall which appear over the low curtain wall against the water’s edge. Wyngaerde’s view of London shows the river front⁠[24] and also the Great Gatehouse.

Nor are the suggestions regarding the way in which the rest of the site had been disposed less interesting. “Britain’s Burse” or the New Exchange fills that part of the frontage to the Strand which lies between “the Great Street Gate” and the boundary of the York House property on the west, while the “Common Passage from the Water’s Side” which passed along the rear of the Exchange and down the boundary to the Thames is plainly if not accurately indicated. This passage, shown also on the Smithson plan, led to the river stairs which Hollar places beneath the western tower of Durham House.

Sir Robert Cotton’s house presents at first sight a difficulty. It is shown on the plan of 1626 as lying westward of the boundary within the York House property, but this appears to be a draughtsman’s error. Dr. Brushfield cites the lease (1608–9) “to Thomas Wilson of the Strand” of what is evidently this plot of land “lyeinge and beinge on the south side of the new buildinge lately erected and new builte by the Lorde Treasuror where Durham Stables did stande towardes the west ende of the same new buildinge next to the wall which divideth Yorke garden from Durham Yarde.” The plot measured 8 yards from the New Exchange southwards, and 7 yards from the York garden wall eastwards towards Durham Yard, and Wilson covenants not to build within 6 ft. of any window of the new building. Wilson built his house on this diminutive plot, and in 1618 he sold it for £374, the conveyance, as quoted by Dr. Brushfield, giving further evidence of its exact position, thus: “All that messuage or tenement with a garden ... together with one little yard lying upon the west syde of Durham House ... abuttinge on Brittaine Burse there on the North, the garden of the capital messuage called York House on the part of the West and on the passage leadinge from Brittaine’s Burse to the Ryver of Thames on the parte of the East and South.” The last words show that the passage skirted Wilson’s garden on two sides, and this is borne out by the break in the wall of Durham Court shown in the Smithson plan, the site having evidently been enlarged by purchase since the date of that plan at the expense of the area of the outer courtyard. In the 1626 plan, Sir Thomas Wilson, who was in the service of Cecil and was the first manager of the Exchange, is shown as occupying another house near Durham House Chapel. He seems to have built it before he disposed of his first house, which, as we have seen, was occupied in 1626 by Sir Robert Cotton.

Fig. 68.—PLAN OF NEW EXCHANGE (c. 1610).

Drawn by

Smithson.

Fig. 69.—THE NEW EXCHANGE.

Drawn by

T. Hosmer Shepherd.

Fig. 70.—PLAN OF SITE OF DURHAM HOUSE (Stow’s Survey Ed. 1720).

As regards the fabric of the New Exchange itself, we can see by the Smithson drawing that it was originally intended to be of two storeys in height, with elaborate central and end gables (apparently having false windows) and two small intermediate gables. The elevation to the Strand was skilfully designed, the building having two open arcades of six round arches on the ground floor placed between the end and middle blocks. The front was decorated with two orders of pilasters, superimposed, and the windows of the first floor were circular-headed where they appeared over the arches below, but were square below the gables. Entrances were arranged through the eastern and western arch of the arcade and through a similar archway in the centre.

That this design was carried out is evident from the careful water-colour drawing of T. Hosmer Shepherd, which, though drawn many years after the destruction of the building, must have been based on an actual view. The Exchange is here shown with an attic storey, and the Jacobean gables have disappeared in the general remodelling of the upper part, which, with its long cornice and dormer pediments, suggests the early part of the eighteenth century. An intermediate stage is represented in an engraving reproduced by Dr. Brushfield, where the attic storey is also shown, but the first-floor windows are still with circular heads, and the little medallions of the Smithson plan still appear. The pilasters, however, are lacking above the arcade, and it is possible that these were omitted from the first.

The internal arrangements of the Exchange show an inner and outer walk which was repeated on both floors, each walk being occupied with small booths or shops, the space allowed for the latter being 8½ ft. and for the walk 10 ft. A large number of small traders, such as jewellers and milliners, took advantage of this method of showing their wares, which was already in vogue at the Royal Exchange, and James I. followed Elizabeth’s precedent in regard to the latter building by opening it in person, naming it at the same time “Britain’s Burse.” At one time, notably at the Restoration, the place became very fashionable, and the trade was extremely brisk. A basement (the steps to which are shown at the back of the building in the 1626 plan, and are marked “the alehouse where the priest was taken”) was let as a tavern, and here, too, it seems that Pepys went for his daily glass of whey when that drink was in fashion. The “taverne underneath” is referred to in a series of verses entitled “The Burse of Reformation” (1658), written in alternate praise and depreciation of both the old (Royal) and the New Exchanges. The slope of the bank towards the river would probably raise this basement largely above ground and give the Exchange the appearance of an extra storey towards the south.

The New Exchange undoubtedly proved a great success, and its principle of including many shops under one roof has been often imitated down to our own day, although the great Stores are now doing the same thing more completely under one ownership. We are told that it fell in popularity after the accession of George I., and in 1737, after an existence of 128 years, it was taken down. As one of the well-known resorts of fashion of the seventeenth century it has an important place in the contemporary dramatic and periodical literature, and several books bear the imprint of publishers who hung out their signs at Britain’s Burse. The Smithson drawings are therefore a welcome addition to our information, and are interesting in giving us the architect’s own draft of a Jacobean building of somewhat singular requirements.

—W. H. G.

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM, CLERKENWELL

Fig. 71.—THE MONASTIC BUILDINGS.

Drawn by

Hollar.