LON 
nued' ; to the pvefent time. It is a reftory, and one of the 
thirteen peculiars, in London, belonging to the fee of 
Canterbury.—The prefent edifice was finiftied in 1683. 
It was planned by fir Chriltopher Wren, hut not executed 
with the fame accuracy that was defigned. It is eighty- 
feven feet long, fixty feet broad, and thirty-three feet 
high, to the roof, built of (lone, ftrong and folid. The 
walls are plain and maffy, the ornaments few and fimple, 
and the windows very large. The tower is plain, fquare, 
and. divided into five (rages, terminating fquare and plain, 
without fpire, turret, or pinnacle. The cornice is fup- 
ported by fcrolls; and over thefe rifes a baluftrade, of fo¬ 
lid conilrnction, fuitable to the reft of the building. 
Allhallows the Lefs, which was alfo called Allhallows 
on the Cellars, becaufe it ftood over vaults let out for cel¬ 
lars, was alfo a rectory, tbeadvowfon of which was in the 
bifhbp of V/inchefter, until the college of St. Lawrence 
Pounteney was founded, when fir John Pounteney pur- 
chafed it, and rebuilt the church, which he appropriated 
to his college; by which means it became a donative, or 
curacy. At the general fuppreflion of religious houfes by 
Henry VII!. this church came to the crown ; and, in the 
year 1577, queen Elizabeth granted it to William Vfcrle 
for a term of twenty-one years. Her fucceffor James I. in 
the fecond year of his reign, fold it to Richard Blake, 
and others, and their heirs'or afiigns, in free fbccage, 
for ever; iince which time it has remained in private 
hands; 
Two houfes below the church has been lately built a fmall 
but neat watch houfe, between a public boufe and the pa¬ 
rochial cemetery. It con lifts of two compartments divided 
by three pilaflers with fl it Itones at top, and under each a 
final! bas-relief of a lion’s head ; a little lower is a neat orna¬ 
mental frieze ofroles in fquares, and below the infcr'iDtions; 
A water-tablet in the Gothic ityle over a-fort of pointed 
window mark? the door on one fide as well as on the other; 
but a blank wall, which might have been made in imitation 
of a door, fpoil.s the effect of the whole.. It is an odd 
Compound of divers orders of architeff ure; and yet it has 
a plealing appearance when (haded by the church-yard trees 
waving majeltically over this little fanum-like edifice. We 
have therefore copied it on theannexed Plareof Fragments, 
fig. 1.—The infcriptiojis are as follows: “ Duwgate Ward 
Watch-houfe, erected 1807.”—“George Scholey, efq. al¬ 
derman. James Saunders, efq. deputy.” 
At a fhorr diftance from Allhallows church is the Steel¬ 
yard, the wharf originally allotted to-the Hanfeatic mer¬ 
chants, for landing and ftoring up their goods; and fo 
called from a large Roman balance, or fleet yard, ufed, as 
in many other places, to weigh bales and other unwieldy 
loads of merchandife. This was the great repcfitory of the 
wheat and other grain, the cables, malts, tar, hemp, flax, 
linen cloth, wax, (teel, and other merchandife, imported by 
the Eafterlings; and on this fpot ftood the Guildkalda Teu- 
tom'corum, or Guildhall of the Germans. They called it Sta- 
plt-hoff, or Houfe of General Trade ; and the importance of 
tilt it' commerce was fuchas to procure them great privileges ; 
among others, the being free from all fubfidies to the king, 
and alfo of having an alderman of London to be their judge 
in cafe of difputes. But, as the ineftimable advantages 
of commerce became better underftood, the impolicy of 
fuffering foreigners to command our markets was too 
itriking to be overlooked ; and, on the one hand, the pri¬ 
vileges enjoyed by thefe people' were gradually abridged, 
while, on the other, every facility was given to the for¬ 
mation of commercial focieties of natives, by which means 
the .profits of their trade were, in time, diverted into En~ 
glifh bands ; and, confequently, Englifhmen became the 
holders of the provillons and naval (tores which had com¬ 
pelled our dependence upon them. At length, in 1597, 
their houfe was finally (hnt up, and its inhabitants ex¬ 
pelled the kingdom. The Steel-yard is now the great re- 
pofitory of the imported bar-iron, which fupplies our me¬ 
tropolis with that neceffary article; and the yards and 
warehoufes are filled with imaienfe quantities of it, 
Vol. XIII. No. 917. 
DON. 429 
Nearly at the weftern extremity of the ward, in a lane, 
formerly called Friars’-lane, but now Joiners’-hall-build- 
ings, is the hall of the Joiners’ Company. This building 
is remarkable fora magnificent (kreen at the entrance into 
the hall-room, having demi favages, and a variety of other 
enrichments, curioufiy carved in wainfcot. The great- 
parlour is beautifully pannelled with cedar. 
On the ealt of the Steel-yard, on the bank of the river, 
ftood Watermans’ Hall ; but this was removed to the 
weft fide of St. Mary Hill in 1786. It is a neat building, 
partly of (tone, and partly of brick. The principal en¬ 
trance, which is at the fouth end, is through a ruftic 
bafement (lory, above which rife four pilafters, of the Io¬ 
nic order, fupporting- a plain triangular pediment. Over 
the door are the arms of the company. 
Several halls belonging to city-companies have been 
erefte.l in this part of the city fince tile great fire, mod 
probably on account of their being near the Manfion-lioufe 
and the Guildhall. Two of tliele are nearly oppofite to 
each other in Elbow-lane. The firft (in Little Elbow- 
lane) is a neat building, ufed as a hall by the Dyers” 
Company, Their lull, which was formerly (ituated near 
Old S van - lane, in Thames-ltreet, being dcftroyed by the 
conflagration in 1666, and a number of warehoules erefled 
in its place, the company have converted this houfe into 
a hall to tranfact their affairs in. Over the arched door¬ 
way, which is (hut by an iron gate, is a perron, or double 
flight of fteps, of great height corifidering the narrownefs 
of the ltreet ; and over the main entrance at top are the 
arms of the company well carved in Itone. Seve'ral houfes 
in this neighbourhood have preferved, (luce the rebuild¬ 
ing of that part of the town, very curious pediments, and 
round pent-houles with bold and often elegant carvings 
in wood.—There are two very curious ones in Lawrence 
Potinteney-hill, one of which is dated 1707.—Nearly op¬ 
pofite to Dyers’ Hall (but in Great Elbow-lane) is the hall 
belonging to the Innholders’ Company : it has a well-de¬ 
corated front; with the arms of the company carved, we 
fuppofe, in wood, painted and gilt. 
On Dowgate-hili is Skinners’ Hall, a very liandfome 
edifice, bui.t with bricks of different colours ; tile ha 11 - 
room is elegantly wainfcotetl with oak, and the great par¬ 
lour pannelled with cedar. The entrance to this build¬ 
ing is through an arched door-way, in a modern lfone- 
fronted building, in which are the offices for the clerk 
and other perfons belonging to the company. In the be¬ 
ginning of the laft century, the Eaft-India Company had 
the ufe of this hall, for which they paid 300I. per annum. 
At a fmall diftance from this hall, but further to the 
north, (lands Tallow-chandlers’ Hall, a very liandfome 
and fpacious building, adorned with friezes-, formed with 
columns and arches of the Tufcan order. 
Oppofite to Skinners’ Hall is Chequer-yard, which runs 
into Bufh-lane. It is principally occupied with ware- 
houfes and (tables ; and at the norrh-eaft angle is Plumb¬ 
ers’ Hall, a fmall but convenient building. 
There is a fmall but neat recefs in Bufh-lane called 
Scott’s Yard, of which we mult take a tranfitory notice., 
on account of a piece of teffellated pavement, and the re¬ 
mains of a large hall, riifcovered there at the depth of 
twenty feet, when the ground was opened for tiie rebuild¬ 
ing of houfes after the dreadful havoc in 1666. The for¬ 
mer was believed to have been the pavement of the Ro¬ 
man governors’ palace, and the hall a Praetorians, or court 
of j u It ice, fuppofed to have been deitroyed in the great 
conflagration made by queen Boadicea. Thefe buddings 
feem to have heen (ituated clofe to the river, and near the 
trajedtus, or ferry; for without the fouth wall were four 
holes in the ground, full of charred wood, which might 
be the remains of the piles that had been placed there for 
the fupport of the city-wall. 
We now return to our deambulation by Old Swan-alley, 
which derived its name.from a public houfe juft by the 
(lairs vyhere boats and wherries ufe to ply ; in order to reach. 
Cannon-ftreet, in our way to the Tower, and enter Caodle*. 
.$ & wick. 
