Paternoster Row was a street in the City of London that was a centre of the London publishing trade,[1][2] with booksellers operating from the street.[3] Paternoster Row was described as "almost synonymous" with the book trade.[4] It was part of an area called St Paul's Churchyard.
As far back as the 12th century, the road was known as Paternoster Row, as it was the main place in London where Paternoster beads were made by skilled craftsmen. The beads were popular with illiterate monks and friars at the time, who prayed 30 Paternoster prayers (Latin for "Our Father") three times a day as a substitute for the 150 psalms recited a day by literate monks.[5]
Name
The street is supposed to have received its name from the fact that, when the monks and clergy of St Paul's Cathedral would go in procession chanting the great litany, they would recite the Lord's Prayer (Pater Noster being its opening line in Latin) in the litany along this part of the route. The prayers said at these processions may have also given the names to nearby Ave Maria Lane and Amen Corner.
An alternative etymology is the early traders, who sold a type of prayer bead known as a "pater noster".[citation needed]
History
The name of the street dates back at least to the 16th century.
Gentleman Henry (Robert) Gunnell, Esq. (1724–1794) of Millbank, a senior officer in the House of Commons and House of Lords who worked the Tax Acts for the American Colonies with Prime Minister George Grenville and also Lord North, bought No.8 Paternoster Row in 1778 as one of his portfolio of properties and soon after gave it to his eldest son John Gunnell (1750–1796), a Westminster gentleman. John though seldom stayed at the house, as he lived mainly at Margate, Kent, and it was instead used as a literary venue by his father Henry (Robert) and his friends, where among other notable members, Jane Timbury would attend. Her stance as a novelist and poet later inspired Jane Austen in her career. Henry (Robert) Gunnell's fashion icon wife, Anne Rozea (1723–1795) of Duke's Court, St. Martin's Lane (situated where now the National Gallery cafe is located) was known for her attendance, reciting moving French poetry dressed in an exquisite mantua with ornate jubilee hat. Johann Christian Bach (1735–1782) and Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) were also known to have attended on occasion. Henry (Robert) had bought No.8 Paternoster Row from Philanthropist Sylvanus Hall, a successful London currier and leather goods craftsman (Guildhall Library) and also governor of both St. Thomas and Bridewell Hospitals, who owned two other houses on Paternoster Row and had earlier worked with the beautiful Anne Rozea at "Gunnell's Hat Warehouse" a fashion store at No.54 Chandois Street (next door to the Mercers Coventry Cross), Covent Garden, from the mid-1760s. There he oversaw the manufacture of fashionable hats, cloaks and silk garments and later married Henry (Robert) Gunnell and Anne Rozea's daughter, Ann Gunnell (1746–1804), at the church of St.Augustine, Watling Street, (02.Feb.1769) just east of St. Paul's cathedral. They lived at No.8 Paternoster Row for nine years, until her father bought it for his son John as part of his inheritance as mentioned in 1778. Ann and Sylvanus Hall then moved to a house on Golden Square, Soho. On 21 February 1776, at the Old Bailey, Jeremiah Pope was indicted for stealing 'six hundred pounds weight of lead piping' from the three properties (Nos. 8, 9, and 10) of Sylvanus Hall on Paternoster Row. Another well-known visitor to No.8 was Thomas Vanhagen, whose famous pastry shop was located beside Pauls Alley, St. Paul's Churchyard, facing the North Entrance and where many Londoners took their refreshment. Various caricatures of Vanhagen (British Museum) were published over the years. His daughter Charlotte married Henry (Robert) and Anne's son Henry Gunnell (1754–1823), also of the House of Commons, (10.Jul.1779) at the parish of St. Gregory by St. Paul's. The Gunnells eventually sold No.8 Paternoster Row in 1794. [citation needed]
It was reported that Charlotte Brontë and Anne Brontë stayed at the Chapter Coffeehouse on the street when visiting London in 1847. They were in the city to meet their publisher regarding Jane Eyre.[8]
A fire broke out at number 20 Paternoster Row on 6 February 1890. Occupied by music publisher Fredrick Pitman, the first floor was found to be on fire by a police officer at 21:30. The fire alarm was sounded at St. Martin's-le-Grand and fire crews extinguished the flames in half an hour. The floor was badly damaged, with smoke, heat and water impacting the rest of the building.[9]
This blaze was followed later the same year on 5 October by 'an alarming fire'. At 00:30 a fire was discovered at W. Hawtin and Sons, based in numbers 24 and 25. The wholesale stationers' warehouse was badly damaged by the blaze.[10]
On 21 November 1894, police raided an alleged gambling club which was based on the first floor of 59 Paternoster Row. The club known both as the 'City Billiard Club' and the 'Junior Gresham Club' had been there barely three weeks at the time of the raid. Forty-five arrests were made, including club owner Albert Cohen.[11]
On 4 November 1939, a large-scale civil defence exercise was held in the City of London. One of the simulated seats of fire was in Paternoster Row.[12]
Trübner & Co. was one of the publishing companies on Paternoster Row.
Destruction during World War II
The street was devastated by aerial bombardment during the Blitz of World War II, suffering particularly heavy damage in the night raid of 29–30 December 1940, later characterised as the Second Great Fire of London, during which an estimated 5 million books were lost in the fires caused by tens of thousands of incendiary bombs.[13]
After the raid a letter was written to The Times describing:
'...a passage leading through "Simpkins" [which] has a mantle of stone which has survived the melancholy ruins around it. On this stone is the Latin inscription that seems to embody all that we are fighting for:- VERBUM DOMINI MANET IN AETERNUM' [The word of God remains forever].[14]
Another correspondent with the newspaper, Ernest W. Larby, described his experience of 25 years working on Paternoster Row:[15]
…had he [Lord Quickswood] worked for 25 years, as I did, in Paternoster Row, he would not have quite so much enthusiasm for those narrow ways into whose buildings the sun never penetrated… What these dirty, narrow ways of the greatest city in the world really stood for from the people's viewpoint are things we had better bury.
—Ernest W. Larby
The ruins of Paternoster Row were visited by Wendell Willkie in January 1941. He said, "I thought that the burning of Paternoster Row, the street where the books are published, was rather symbolic. They [the Germans] have destroyed the place where the truth is told".[16]
Printers, publishers and booksellers based in Paternoster Row
Title page of An Essay on the Management of the Present War with Spain printed for T. Cooper at The Globe
Note: Before about 1762, premises in London had signs rather than numbers.
The Brazen Serpent (1627–1650) – Robert Dawlman (1627–1635, 1635–1638, died 1659), Luke Fawne (1635–1638, 1639–1641), Samuel Gellibrand (1639–1641, 1641–1650)
The Golden Ball/Ball (1650–1675) – Samuel Gellibrand (1654, 1655, 1656, 1661, 1667, 1669, 1673) (died 1675), two of his sons Edward Gellibrand (1676, 1678, 1679, 1680, 1681, 1685), John Gellibrand (1679–1685),[19] F.? Gellibrand (1683)
No. 60 – Friendly Female Society, "for indigent widows and single women of good character, entirely under the management of ladies."[36]
In popular culture
The Siege of Paternoster Row was an anonymous 1826 booklet in verse, attacking the reliability of bankers.[60]
The Paternoster Gang are a trio of Victorian detectives aligned with the Doctor in the television series Doctor Who, so named because they are based in Paternoster Row.
In the episode "Young England" of the 2016 television series Victoria, a stalker of Queen Victoria indicates that he lives on Paternoster Row. (Coincidentally, the actress playing Victoria in the series, Jenna Coleman, had appeared in several episodes of Doctor Who that featured the aforementioned Paternoster Gang.)
The novel, The Last Bookshop in London, makes numerous references to Paternoster Row, and it mentions the destruction of the street during World War II.
Longman, also known as Pearson Longman, is a publishing company founded in London, England, in 1724 and is owned by Pearson PLC.
Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke and 5th Earl of Montgomery,, styled The Honourable Thomas Herbert until 1683, was an English and later British statesman during the reigns of William III and Anne.
John Somerset Pakington, 1st Baron Hampton,, known as Sir John Pakington, Bt, from 1846 to 1874, was a British Conservative politician.
Paternoster Square is an urban development, owned by the Mitsubishi Estate, next to St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London. The area, which takes its name from Paternoster Row, once centre of the London publishing trade, was devastated by aerial bombardment in The Blitz during World War II. It is now the location of the London Stock Exchange which relocated there from Threadneedle Street in 2004. It is also the location of investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, Merrill and Nomura Securities, and of fund manager Fidelity Investments. The square itself, i.e. the plaza, is privately owned public space. In 2004, Christopher Wren's 1669 Temple Bar Gate was re-erected here as an entrance way to the plaza.
Holy Sepulchre London, formerly and in some official uses Saint Sepulchre-without-Newgate, is the largest Anglican parish church in the City of London. It stands on the north side of Holborn Viaduct across a crossroads from the Old Bailey, and its parish takes in Smithfield Market. During medieval times, the site lay outside ("without") the city wall, west of the Newgate.
Sir William Fairbairn, 1st Baronet of Ardwick was a Scottish civil engineer, structural engineer and shipbuilder. In 1854 he succeeded George Stephenson and Robert Stephenson to become the third president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Adam Clarke was a British Methodist theologian who served three times as President of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference. A biblical scholar, he published an influential Bible commentary among other works. He was a Wesleyan.
Benjamin Hick was an English civil and mechanical engineer, art collector and patron whose improvements to the steam engine and invention of scientific tools were held in high esteem by the engineering profession; some of Hick's improvements became public property without claiming the patent rights he was entitled to or without their source being known.
Henry Colburn was a British publisher.
William Miller was a Scottish Quaker line engraver and watercolourist from Edinburgh.
John Gellibrand Hubbard, 1st Baron Addington PC, was a City of London financier and a Conservative Party politician.
Thomas Cholmondeley, 1st Baron Delamere, was a British peer and Member of Parliament.
St Botolph's Aldgate is a Church of England parish church in the City of London and also, as it lies outside the line of the city's former eastern walls, a part of the East End of London. The church served the ancient parish of St Botolph without Aldgate which included the extramural Portsoken Ward of the City of London, as well as East Smithfield which is outside the City.
Sampson Low was a bookseller and publisher in London in the 19th century.
St Faith under St Paul's in Castle Baynard Ward was an unusual parish within the City of London. It originally had its own building to the east of St Paul's Cathedral, serving as a parish church for the residents of St Paul's Churchyard and Paternoster Row, but this was removed in 1256 to allow for the eastern expansion of the Cathedral. The parishioners were instead given a space to worship within the cathedral crypt.
Anthony Hammond (1668–1738), of Somersham Place, Somersham, Huntingdonshire and Lidlington, Bedfordshire, was an English official and Tory politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1695 and 1708. He was also known as a poet and pamphleteer.
The Artists' Benevolent Fund was instituted in 1810 and incorporated by royal charter on 2 August 1827. It has also been referred to as the Artists' Fund and the Artists' Joint Stock Fund.
The Leeward Islands Station originally known as the Commander-in-Chief at Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands was a formation or command of the Kingdom of Great Britain and then the United Kingdom's Royal Navy stationed at English Harbour, Antigua, Leeward Islands. It existed from 1743 to 1821.
William Gellibrand (1765–1840) was a nonconformist preacher in England who left the United Kingdom at the end of 1823 for Van Diemen's Land. He settled there, with family including his son Joseph Tice Gellibrand, and ran a successful farm and commercial business.
1 2 3 4 5 Smith, Sydney; Jeffrey, Francis Jeffrey; Empson, William; Napier, Macvey; Lewis, George Cornewall; Reeve, Henry; Elliot, Arthur Ralph Douglas; Cox, Harold (1817). The Edinburgh Review: Or Critical Journal. Vol.28. A. Constable.
↑ Various editions published during this period, including Morris, F. O. (1857) [1851]. A History of British Birds (six volumes).
↑ Church of England Temperance Tracts, no. 19, 1876
↑ John Erskine Clarke (1871). Chatterbox, ed. by J.E. Clarke. pp.title page, 412.
↑ The Secret History of the Court of England from the Commencement of 1750 to the Reign of William the Fourth. W. Brittain. 1840. p.frontispiece.
↑ The London catalogue of periodicals, newspapers and transactions of various societies with a list of metropolitan printing societies and clubs. Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans. 1856. p.3, of wrapper.
↑ Wall, J. Charles (1908). Ancient Earthworks. London: Talbot.
↑ Practical CARPENTRY, JOINERY and CABINET MAKING. Thomas Kelly. 1840-07-01.
↑ The World's Paper Trade Review, 1904-05-13, p. 38
↑ Plain truth: or, an impartial account of the proceedings at Paris during the last nine months. Containing, Among other interesting Anecdotes, a particular statement of the memorable tenth of August, and third of September. By an eye witness. 1792.
↑ "front page". The Electrical Review. Vol.40, no.1022. London. 1897-06-25.
↑ Fox, William; Raikes, the Younger, Robert (1831). Ivimey, Joseph (ed.). Memoir of W. Fox, Esq., founder of the Sunday-School Society: comprising the history of the origin … of that … institution, with correspondence … between W. Fox, Esq. and R. Raikes, etc. George Wightman. (See also: Sunday School Society)
↑ Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (January 1872). Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. p.1.
↑ Richmondshire Churches, H. B. McCall, Eliot Stock, London, 1910
↑ Grey, Zachary (1740). A Vindication of the Government, Doctrine, and Worship, of the Church of England: Established in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth. Paternoster Row, London: C. Davis.
↑ Master, Trimmer (1826-08-12). The siege of Paternoster Row: a moral satire, unfolding in heroic metre, certain secrets concerning literary trading … funds … the exchequer … and … other subjects. G. Richards. OL20352160M.
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