 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(November 2024) |
80 Coleman Street is an Edwardian building in the Moorgate area of the City of London, not far from the Guildhall. It was used for the offices of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology from 1999, [1] until the Institute moved to the Aldgate area.
Coleman Street is thought to have been the headquarters of the charcoal-burners or coalmen, at about the time of the Norman Conquest. Before coal became plentiful, charcoal was widely used as fuel. It had to be prepared by slow combustion in special hearths, the skill being handed down in families from generation to generation.
The "Woodcut" map of London of c.1561 shows the site of 80 Coleman Street as being occupied by some part of two small houses immediately adjacent to the ancient, tumble-down Armourers' Hall. One of these houses is thought to have been the London residence of Dr William Cuningham ('Keningham' in some records), the physician, astrologer and engraver, who in 1563 was appointed Public Lecturer at Surgeons' Hall. As a physician, Cuningham would have considered himself greatly superior to those he tutored. From the Middle Ages, physicians such as Cuningham were required to embark on formal university training to gain a degree in medicine before they could practice. Possession of this doctorate entitled them to call themselves Doctor of Medicine. Until the mid-19th century surgeons didn't have to obtain a university degree, but served an apprenticeship to a surgeon and took an examination, conducted in London by the Company of Barber-Surgeons until 1745 and after 1800 by the Royal College of Surgeons. They were awarded a diploma, not a degree, and couldn't call themselves 'Doctor'. Although all medical practitioners now require a degree, the traditional title of 'Mr' had continued to apply to surgeons as a quaint anachronism.
In the early years of the seventeenth century, on or close to the site of 80 Coleman Street, lived the attorney-at-law, Augustine Garland. His son, of the same name, was one of the regicides who in 1649 signed the death warrant of Charles I. Coleman Street was a Puritan stronghold. Oliver Cromwell is said to have lived here for a time; and in 1642 the five Members of Parliaments whom Charles I had tried to arrest in the House of Commons hid in a house in this street.
Augustine Garland the younger followed his father into the law, becoming a member of Lincoln's Inn on leaving Cambridge University. On the death of his father in 1637 he succeeded to property at Hornchurch in Essex and at Queenborough on the Isle of Sheppey. In the account which he subsequently gave of himself at his trial, he said: 'I lived in Essex at the beginning of these troubles, and I was enforced to forsake my habitation. I came from thence to London where I behaved myself fairly in my way.' On 26 May 1648 Garland was elected to parliament as the member for Queenborough. He was appointed one of the King's judges and sat as Chairman of the Committee selected to consider the method of the King's trial. At his own trial, he pleaded: 'I could not shrink for fear of my own destruction. I did not know which way to be safe in anything - without doors was misery, within doors was mischief.' He attended twelve out of sixteen meetings of the court, was present when sentence of death was pronounced, and signed the death-warrant.
Garland continued to sit in the Long Parliament until its expulsion by Cromwell. He took no part in public affairs under the Protectorate. On 9 May 1660 he was called before the Lord Mayor of London and claimed the benefit of Charles II's declaration of pardon. Nevertheless, he was 'put on his trial' and on 16 October 1660 condemned to death. Beside his share in the trial of Charles I he was accused of having spat in the King's face as he was led from Westminster Hall after being sentenced. This Garland strenuously denied, saying: 'If I was guilty of this inhumanity I desire no favour from God Almighty.' Garland's property was confiscated but the death sentence was not put into execution. He was kept a prisoner in the Tower. On 31 March 1664 a warrant was issued for his transportation to Tangier. Whether this was ever executed is not known.
John Rocque's map of 1746 shows the site of No. 80 Coleman Street covered by a short cul-de-sac known as Bell Lane. This led to 'a tenement brew-house known as the Bell', one of many taverns then situated in Coleman Street. As Dorothy Davis had pointed out in A History of Shopping: 'anyone with a little capital could turn his house into a tavern by putting an ivy bush over his door and getting a few barrels of wine from a merchant and buying a licence for the wine from the commissioners who were only too anxious to sell.'[ citation needed ]
Richard Horwood's map of 1792–99, updated by William Faden in 1818, shows No. 80 Coleman Street separated from Armourers' Hall by the same small alley which had formerly led to the Bell tavern. This now gave access to a square courtyard which occupied the land to the rear of both buildings. Although records are very ambiguous, there are some grounds for thinking that this courtyard may have been occupied by a succession of coach-makers. Coach-building was a complex art which required many skills. Consequently, the master coach-builder employed a host of craftsmen - a skilled carpenter to design and fashion the body, a wheelwright to make the spokes and wooden rim, an upholsterer for the interior, embroiderers for the cushions, a man to varnish, another to paint the coat-of-arms on the door panel, a leather-worker to make the harness and a blacksmith to cap the wheels and to make the handles for the doors.
By about 1812, No. 80 Coleman Street was occupied by the chandler's shop of John West. Most chandlers dealt in candles and soap, although many were general dealers, also. By 1842 no.80 was in use as a mourning warehouse. This sold every item associated with the business of bereavement from black-feathered plumes for hearses to crepe arm bands, from black-bordered visiting cards to wreaths of immortelles. It would have carried an enormous range of black fabric from which bereaved ladies, or their dressmakers, would have made their mourning wardrobes. The fact that whole businesses were devoted to the trappings of bereavement demonstrates how large a part death played in the everyday lives of Victorians.
By 1844, No. 80 was accommodating more than twenty commercial concerns, among them the Floyd Cab Company, a firm of 'jobmasters', who may well have utilised the yard which had stood at the rear of the property since at least the 1730s for storing their vehicles and stabling their horses. The centre of London was as choked by traffic in the Victorian era as it is today, although generally speaking the streets were then much narrower. Cabbies were expected to manoeuvre their horse-drawn vehicles through these congested thoroughfares at high speed. Brakes were at best rudimentary and the only real safe-guard against mishap was the skill of the driver. Few cabbies owned their vehicles. Most were hired daily from jobmasters like the Floyd Cab Company for 'yard money'. This was so extortionate that it took most men at least half a day to earn it and the greatest insult one cabby could serve another was to call out: 'Ain't yer got yer yard money yet?'
No. 80 seems to have been again rebuilt, or very substantially refurbished, circa 1900. Among the more unusual businesses which it has housed since that date are the United Cigarette Machine Company (1914); the head office of the Beach Hotel at Worthing (1925); the vermin exterminators, Ratinol (1927); and Blakey's Boot Protectors (1930).
From August 1999 to August 2011 this ancient and historic site provided offices for the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST) which moved there from The Memorial Building at No.76 Mark Lane, now demolished. As of August 2011, The Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology has since moved to the Aldgate area.
Aldgate was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London.
The Burke and Hare murders were a series of sixteen murders committed over a period of about ten months in 1828 in Edinburgh, Scotland. They were undertaken by William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses to Robert Knox for dissection at his anatomy lectures.
John "Jack" Sheppard, or "Honest Jack", was a notorious English thief and prison escapee of early 18th-century London.
Jonathan Wild, also spelled Wilde, was an English thief-taker and a major figure in London's criminal underworld, notable for operating on both sides of the law, posing as a public-spirited vigilante entitled the "Thief-Taker General". He simultaneously ran a significant criminal empire, and used his crimefighting role to remove rivals and launder the proceeds of his own crimes.
The "Black" Donnellys were an Irish Catholic immigrant family who settled in Biddulph township, Upper Canada, about 25 km northwest of London, in the 1840s. The family settled on a concession road which became known as the Roman Line due to its high concentration of Irish Catholic immigrants in the predominantly Protestant area. Many Irish Canadians arrived in the 19th century, many fleeing the Great Famine of Ireland (1845-52). The Donnellys' ongoing feuds with local residents culminated in an attack on the family's homestead by a vigilante mob on 4 February 1880, leaving five of the family dead and their farm burned to the ground. No one was convicted of the murders, despite two trials and a reliable eyewitness.
The Ratcliff Highway murders were two attacks on two separate families – the Marr and Williamson families – that resulted in seven fatalities. The two attacks occurred twelve days apart in December 1811, in homes located half a mile apart near the London Docklands district of Wapping, London, England, United Kingdom. The main suspect in the slayings, John Williams, killed himself before he could be put on trial.
Gregory Clement (1594–1660) was an English Member of Parliament (MP) and one of Charles I's regicides, who was tried, found guilty and hanged, drawn and quartered in October 1660.
On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Shot in the head as he watched the play, Lincoln died of his wounds the following day at 7:22 am in the Petersen House opposite the theater. He was the first U.S. president to be assassinated. His funeral and burial were marked by an extended period of national mourning.
Lisle's Tennis Court was a building off Portugal Street in Lincoln's Inn Fields in London. Originally built as a real tennis court, it was used as a playhouse during two periods, 1661–1674 and 1695–1705. During the early period, the theatre was called Lincoln's Inn Fields Playhouse, also known as The Duke's Playhouse, The New Theatre or The Opera. The building was rebuilt in 1714, and used again as a theatre for a third period, 1714–1732. The tennis court theatre was the first public playhouse in London to feature the moveable scenery that would become a standard feature of Restoration theatres.
Joseph "Blueskin" Blake was an 18th-century English highwayman and prison escapee.
Sarah Pridden, commonly known as Sally Salisbury, was a celebrated prostitute in early 18th-century London. She was the lover of many notable members of society, and socialised with many others.
Channon Gail Christian, aged 21, and Hugh Christopher Newsom Jr., aged 23, were from Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. They were kidnapped on the evening of January 6, 2007, when Christian's vehicle was carjacked. The couple were taken to a rental house. Both of them were raped, tortured, and murdered. Four males and one female were arrested, charged, and convicted in the case. In 2007, a grand jury indicted Letalvis Darnell Cobbins, Lemaricus Devall Davidson, George Geovonni Thomas, and Vanessa Lynn Coleman on counts of kidnapping, robbery, rape, and murder. Also in 2007, Eric DeWayne Boyd was indicted by a federal grand jury of being an accessory to a carjacking, resulting in serious bodily injury to another person and misprision of a felony. In 2018, Boyd was indicted on state-level charges of kidnapping, robbery, rape, and murder.
George Bagster Phillips was, from 1865, the Police Surgeon for the Metropolitan Police's 'H' Division, which covered London's Whitechapel district. He came to prominence during the murders of Jack the Ripper when he conducted or attended autopsies on the bodies of four of the victims, namely Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Jane Kelly. He was called by the police to the murder scenes of three of them: Chapman, Stride and Kelly.
James Hackman, briefly Rector of Wiveton in Norfolk, was the man who murdered Martha Ray, singer and mistress of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich.
East Smithfield is a small locality in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, east London, and also a short street, a part of the A1203 road. Once broader in scope, the name came to apply to the part of the ancient parish of St Botolph without Aldgate that was outside of the City of London.
Saint Aldate was a bishop of Gloucester, venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church with the feast day of 4 February. Aldate's life is not detailed historically, but he was probably a Briton killed by the Anglo-Saxons at Deorham.
David Cunningham of Auchenharvie was a Scottish courtier and landowner. An absentee owner of Auchenharvie Castle, in London he was an administrator of royal rents to Charles I of England. A large number of his letters are preserved in the National Records of Scotland.
Augustine Garland was an English lawyer, and one of the Regicides of King Charles I of England.
Henry Scudder was an English minister of presbyterian views, known as a devotional writer, and member of the Westminster Assembly.
William Cuningham, also known as Kenningham, was a 16th-century English physician, astrologer, and engraver. He practised at Norwich around 1559. Cunningham published his work The Cosmographical Glasse that year. It contains many woodcuts and an aerial view map of Norwich.