Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/398

 324 NOTES AND QUERIES. O, 1022. condition of the old premises, and that j No. 138 calls for notice because of a Messrs. Praed did not come into occupation marked change of owners and occupiers. until a later date. It was in 1896 that the I Now an extension of the office of a daily Machinery Trust, Ltd., removed here from newspaper, it was from 1826 in the occupa- Serjeant's Inn, and at a later date sub-let tion of Messrs. Troughton and Simms. the ground floor to the London City and i Edward Troughton came into Fleet Street Midland Bank. in 1770, and was working here the founder No. 190, Fleet Street, is less interesting, of the famous firm while Johnson was at but its demolition apparently involved No. 7, Johnson's Court. Its passing is Soane's adjoining structure, and some of regretted because this firm were the last, and his stonework or pilasters fell or had to be ; worthy, representatives of the several Fleet taken down. Of quite plain exterior, this Street scientific opticians that were famous four-floor brick erection was built apparently in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. in the nineteenth century, replacing the i Troughton' s sextants were long in almost building partly shown in N. Smith's illus- j exclusive use ; his precision of method gave tration of No. 189. Prior to the street- a world-wide reputation to his instruments. numbering period there are many identi- Of the man and his scientific honours much fications that could be attributed to this or might be written. He is recorded in the near-by sites, but nothing definite seems ' D.N.B.,' and the late Miss Agnes Clerke to be available. has provided a biographical sketch of some No. 188 a pretentious building of ornate interest (vide ' Fleet Street in Seven appearance is illustrated and described in Centuries,' p. 463). The Illustrated London News for Jan. 27, Nos. 72 to 81. The whole of this coii- 1866. It had just been completed from the ' siderable area has been cleared to provide designs of Mr. T. N. Dearie for the Crown a site for the temporary office of The Daily Insurance Co., who had to remove from Chronicle and the re-alignment of their No. 33, New Bridge Street. Here they ! former building. Future historians may remained until 1892, w T hen the company care to identify this as extending from Crown was amalgamated with the Law Union and j Court to Salisbury Court. What was Rock Insurance Co. This same building perhaps the most interesting site No. 79 had long association with the publishing was long associated with T. C. Noble and house of Sampson Low, Marston, and Co., i his father, Theophilus Noble; the son as of whom the late Mr. E. E. Marston has so an industrious writer and author of the frequently discoursed. The last insurance familiar ' Memorials of Temple Bar,' con- company to be here was the Star Life, tinued for many years the bookselling busi- located in 1892. In 1896 it was possessed ness established by his father, who was a and partly occupied by the Linotype neighbour of Douglas Jerrold, in life when Co., who have only recently vacated the | the latter edited Lloyd's News, and in death premises, leaving the record previously when they were both buried at Norwood named and many pleasant interests in i Cemetery. No. 76 afforded a back entrance their locations. from Fleet Street to Samuel Richardson's Nos. 64 and 63. The Bolt-in-Tun parcels printing office in Salisbury Square. In view office near the corner of Bouverie Street ! of its convenience it is probable that he and has been cleared, and on the neighbouring his assistant, Oliver Goldsmith, frequently site of No. 63 a building has been erected for made use of it, to the lasting glory of its The Scotsman. Thus there- has been lost site. the memory of an old coaching house, for Nos. 121 and 122, nearly opposite, between although the spacious yard from which the, Shoe Lane and Racquet Court, is the site of coaches had started was long ago lost, there ; this building long offered for sale by the remained the coach office and the gateway, j trustees of the local parish estates. The The name is a punning rebus upon that of ' fact that this was in their possession seems Prior Bolton, last Abbot of St. Bartholo- to identify it as the pre -Reformat! on endow - mew the Great. It is fruitless to record the ment of a lay brotherhood of St. Bride's many periodicals that had their birth and Church. Of this comparatively small site more or less existence in the offices of this much could be written, even its remains and the next building (No. 63), now also carry an interesting suggestion, for the demolished, but the weekly journal Black wooden beam remaining presumably in and White had quite a lengthy tenure of it. situ has, above the door, some early