W. R. Macdonell 
195 
Lane. If this plan can be trusted, it was absolutely the first spot at which open 
fields could be reached from Aldgate. It was therefore the very spot most likely 
to be selected for a pest-field. Now for a short interval at the end of the l7th and 
beginning of the 18th century the Lane appears running north of "Marine Square" 
(Wellclose Square), and about half-way down the Lane* on the west side of it 
(towards what is now Gower's Walk) appears above the nick or bend a small 
enclosure with apparently two small buildings on it-f". This enclosure must have 
been just where Kinloch's now stands, it may have been a burial-ground or a pest- 
field with sheds for the pest-carts. It had no existence in the plans of Loudon 
before the. Great Plague ; it has disappeared in plans of 1740, while in 1760 we 
still find fields to the east but houses beginning to the west of the Lane. 
Finally in 1806 in a Plan of Cities of London and Westminste?- (Lambert's History 
of London) we note Gower's Walk first given by name and a vacant space between 
this and the houses in Backchurch Lane. Lambert Street, west of Gower's Walk, 
is given as " Lambe Street" as early as 1742. Thus up to the beginning of 1800 
there is no sign of any burial-ground between Backchurch Lane and Gower's Walk. 
There is, however, as I have already mentioned, a sign of some small enclosure 
existing in 1688 for a few years. This lasts for about 50 years from the time of 
the Great Plague (166.5-6). W^e must investigate tbis a little further. A scale of 
yards on the plan gives this enclosure between 190 and 200 yards from White Horse 
Lane — the modern Commercial Road. In other words there is practically not the 
shghtest doubt that Kinloch's is built on the site of this enclosure. If this enclo- 
sure had originally been a burial-ground or pest-field, it appears to have lost its 
* i.e. half-way from the then "White Horse Lane " (later Commercial Road) which led to "Hangman's 
Acre," west of Stepney. 
+ Jean Corvin and C. Mortier, 1688, first give this enclosure above the nick. Of maps between 1665 
and 1688, the most important survey, Ogilby's, 1677, stops at the Minories. .J. de Eam's Amsterdam 
map of 1680 gives Church Lane as a straight lane{!), and J. Sellar, 1680, is equally diagrammatic, 
they indicate fields to west. Later Dutch maps, Jacob de la Feuelle, 1690, Peter van der Aa, 1690, 
also give no " nick " and the diagrammatic Lane with fields to west. Of maps which show the enclosure 
I note the following :—B. Morden, P. Lea and C. Browne, 1690; Stridbeok, 1700; Houmann's, ?1700; 
Lea and Glynne, 1707. Overton's, 1706, shows first a house above nick and his editions give enclosure. 
John Stowe's map for his survey of 1720 gives this enclosure. I believe this is the last map we 
can trust for the continued existence of the enclosure. It has gone in Rocque's great map of 1735, 
houses and gardens appearing on the spot. But a whole series of later maps which copy Mortier 
or Morden and Lea still continue to show it, e.g. Overton, 1731 and 1739 ; Morden and Lea, 1732; 
T. Bowles, 1731; John Bowles, 1736; George Foster, 1788; Niirnberg map, 1736; Eliz. Foster, 1752; 
and even Sayer of 1765 ! But Eocque of course weighs heavily, as an actual new survey, against all this 
light material. It is not in T. Taylor, 1723; J. Smith, 172-1; or Pine and Tinney, 1744. The "New 
Survey, London Magazine," 1761, does not show it, but a chain of houses on the west side of Church 
Lane, and Kitchen and Parker, 1765, show houses beginning to extend round nick. M. Seutter, 1710, 
shows a triangular-shaped enclosure replacing the irregular quadrilateral of 1688. If correct this was 
the beginning of the end, but the change escaped John Stowe. Dicey, 1765, shows houses round nick. 
Marshall, 1782, shows houses at nick, but a gap where Kinloch's now stands ; Gower's Walk begins to 
be visible, looking like a field track. Maps of 1783-1797 show variable but increasing numbers of 
houses along Church Lane, until in Faden, 1803, we find a continuous belt. Thus between 1730 and 
1800 houses sprung up all along the present Backchurch Lane, but the actual site of the supposed pest- 
field was among the last to be built on. 
