Page:The Victoria History of the County of Surrey Volume 3.djvu/650

 A HISTORY OF SURREY

��bowl. Near this is a passage preserving the name of tie Bishop's Hall, once the property of the Bishop* of Winchester. Probably it first came into their hands in 1202, when Bishop Godfrey paid 14*. to Osbert Horo for three messuages, retain- ing two and letting the other to Osbert. 53 The Bishop'i Hall was soon deserted and was leased to tenants, certainly from 1392"; as Leland put it, ' now it i turned into a commune Dwelling House of a Tounisch man. Sum Bishop, wery of it, did neglect the House and began to build at Asher near the Tamise side 2 or 3 miles above Kingston.'" In the time of William of Wykeham it was described as between a lane leading to the Thames on the south, a tenement on the north, and the river on the west.' " In 1533 the master of the chapel of St. Mary Magda- lene leased a toft and garden abutting on 'le Byshoppe Hawe ' on the north, the Thames on the west, and the tenement of Richard Benson on the east " ; this last was described as situated between the highway and Bishop's Hall. 48 These descriptions prove that the hall faced the river and can have had no fron- tage to Thames Street. Sold to Henry VIII with other lands of the see, it was granted in 1544 as a garden and lands to Richard Borole, barber-surgeon, and John Howe, grocer, of London," but in 1567 Mr. Starr paid 3/. \d. to the bailiffs and freemen for ' Bisshopes Hall,' 6 * and in 1670 Robert Viall paid 8s. for a tenement so called. By 1804 no traces of the build- ing remained," and the site is now occupied by stables and yards. Probably Thames Street has always been one of the chief shopping districts ; in 1430-1 John Cheeseman was accused of making an encroachment on Thames Street by putting out there a porch and butt or movable counter." At the south end of the street a turn brings the market-place into view. Standing here it is difficult to believe that the turmoil of London is but 1 2 miles away ; only a few modern shop-fronts proclaim this present century, and even they do not hide the high-pitched roofs which show above the stucco of the walls and assert their age. A map ascribed to the 17th century suggests that the market- place originally extended to the Horse Fair as one open space with the church in the midst. Purprestures seem to hare brought the town to its present state at an early period, for the houses round the market- place and churchyard were held in burgage. Prob- ably here, as elsewhere, each trade had a particular pitch for its booths, which it retained when the stalls were replaced by houses, and hence the Butchery, Cook Row, in the market-place, and the Apple Market, an excellent example of the results of encroachment. Close to the town hall from at least the I7th to the 1 9th century stood a small octagonal building 61 of red brick with a high roof covered with tiles and sup- ported on pillars, which thus formed an open space beneath. Its purpose is forgotten, but it may be suggested that it was to this that reference was made in 1685 when the toll of the Oat Market was leased at a rent of 4 a year ' to the use of the chamber and

��of the Maior for the repairing, supporting, maintain- ing and amending the house over the said toll of the said Gate-Market called ye pillory-house.' M The Malt Market also is mentioned in 1670" and points to a trade very prosperous here in this and the following century ; the Wool and Leather Markets paid rent to the bailiffs and freemen in 1417-18, and the Cheese Market is also mentioned.

One of the oldest houses in Kingston is a butcher's shop at the corner of the passage leading to the Apple Market. It is a house of three stories, the ground floor converted into the shop, the first floor over- hanging and the top gabled ; these are all cemented and have modern windows. On the side to the alley the upper stories also overhang and are cemented. In the wall are remains of a 15th-century wood window with a cinquefoiled ogee arch and a traceried head ; the window head probably dates the whole building. An inn on the other side of the passage, in the Apple Market, may have been as old, but has been almost completely modernized. No. 5 Market Place, just opposite (now belonging to Messrs. Hide & Co. furniture dealers, etc.), formerly the Castle Inn men- tioned in 1537," retains an early 17th-century staircase from the ground to the second floor ; the heavy square newels have carved and panelled sides and ball tops, the carriages or sloping strings are carved as laurel wreaths. The handrails are heavy, and the space between the strings and handrails is filled in with heavy foliage, roses, and other subjects; at the head of the first flight are three tuns, and on the first floor is a Bacchus seated on a tun and holding up a cup, and there are other human figures worked in with the foliage. Various initials, evidently original, are scattered over the work ; on one newel head IORPGVP, on another newel CB EB SB AB ; in a true lover's knot N B S ; on a human face in a third newel FV and HB ; on a fourth TS, TI, and another GD. The building has been modernized in front, but the back towards a courtyard is un- altered ; it is of narrow bricks with moulded eaves, cornices, &c. Some of the bricks have initial letters in relief, like the stairs ; among others SB and AB appear again, and the dates 1651 and 1656 (? 1636). The 1 8th-century outside gallery of the inn is also retained. In 1769 it paid \i. loJ. quit-rent, 08 and remained in use as an inn until converted into dwelling- houses in the middle of the I gth century. Backing on to the south-east of the church is another row of three old houses converted into shops ; they are of timber plastered over, and have overhanging second floors above which are four gabled heads.

The town hall was built in 1838-40; in 1837 the proposal that a new site should be chosen was fiercely opposed by the townsfolk, 69 who finally had their way. The old town hall, red brick and gabled, probably dated from the i6th century, and had beneath it an open market-stead extended on the south by a sort of shed ; in 1670 Benjamin Woodfall paid l for his shop under the Court Hall, 70 or

��M Feet of F. Surr. 4 John, no. 493 j cf. Cott. MS. Clerp. C. vii, foL 9*. 67.

6-1 Manning and Bray, Surr. i, 345.

w Leland, I fin. vi, fol. 25.

M Manning and Bray, Surr. i, 345.

w Add. Chart. 23531.

48 Chan. Inq. p.n>. (Ser. 2), Ixixvii, 89.

L. and P. Hen. VIII xix (i), g. 1035 (25).

��60 Doc. of Corp. Chamberlain's Accts. 1567, 1670.

61 Manning and Bray, Surr. i, 345. Doc. of Corp. Ch. Bks.

88 Shown in a sketch by Rowlandson in the Municipal Art Gallery and Museum.

84 Doc. of Corp. Ct. of AsstmMy Bk. 28 Oct. 1685; cl. Chamberlain's Accts. 1670, 1679.

490

��s Doc. of Corp. Chamberlain's AccU. 1670.

Lansd. MS. zz6, fol. 64-9*. ' fahr Eccl. (Rec. Com.), ii, 36.

88 Doc. of Corp. Quit Rent Bk. 1769.

89 Doc. of Corp. Ct. of Assembly Bk. i Mar. 1837.

70 Doc. of Corp. Chamberlain's Accts. 1670.

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