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Whitefriars, London

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33-595: Whitefriars is an area in the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. Until 1540, it was the site of a Carmelite monastery, from which it gets its name. The area takes its name from the medieval Carmelite religious house, known as the White Friars, that lay here between about 1247 and 1538. Only a crypt remains today of what was once a late 14th century priory belonging to a Carmelite order popularly known as

66-457: A Member of Parliament and expelled from Parliament for "outlawry"; essentially for what was considered at the time "obscene and malicious libel" against, no less than, King George III . Later, Wilkes was elected Lord Mayor of London (1774–75). Other famous Aldermen include scions of the Child , Hoare and Gosling banking families. Typefounder Vincent Figgins was a Common Councilman for

99-581: A certain respectability; for here, with his supposed wife, the Dowager Countess of Kent , Selden lived and studied. Farringdon Without Farringdon Without is the most westerly ward of the City of London , England. Its suffix Without reflects its origin as lying beyond the City's former defensive walls . It was first established in 1394 to administer the suburbs west of Ludgate and Newgate , including West Smithfield and Temple . This

132-516: Is one of 25 wards in the City of London, each electing an Alderman to the Court of Aldermen and Commoners (the City equivalent of a Councillor ) to the Court of Common Council of the City of London Corporation . On 27 January 1769, the radical MP John Wilkes was elected Alderman for this ward, while a prisoner in Newgate Prison . This was after he had repeatedly been elected as

165-602: The Daily Mail . The News of the World had its offices at No. 30 until its move to Wapping in the mid-1980s. Bouverie Street was also the location of the offices of Punch magazine until the 1990s, and for some decades of those of the Lutterworth Press , one of Britain's oldest independent publishers, celebrated for The Boy's Own Paper and its sister The Girl's Own Paper . The street's name comes from

198-600: The Fagswell Brook which formed the boundary before it was culverted over). Although the Smithfield Bars are lost, the ward still has Dragon boundary marks at Temple Bar , Farringdon Street and High Holborn . The wards of London appear to have taken shape in the eleventh century, before the Norman Conquest . Their administrative, judicial and military purpose made them equivalent to Hundreds in

231-512: The Fagswell Brook , which ran east to west along a line approximating to Charterhouse Street , before joining the Fleet which runs north to south under Farringdon Road and Farringdon Street. The ward includes a part of Holborn ; the church of St Andrew Holborn and the part of its parish known as St Andrew below the Bars – with the part known as St Andrew above the Bars outside the city (in

264-536: The River Fleet ) and in the fourteenth Fleet Street Ward . In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it was common practice was to refer to wards by the name of their aldermen . In 1246 the part of the undivided Farringdon ward outside the wall is referred to as the ward of Henry of Frowyk without . and in 1276 the area was carried the name of another Alderman, as the Ward of Anketill de Auvergne , Farringdon

297-630: The 1720s abolished sanctuary in The Mint and Stepney . In the reign of Edward I ., a certain Sir Robert Gray , moved by qualms of conscience or honest impulse, founded on the bank of the Thames, east of the well-guarded Temple, a Carmelite convent, with broad gardens, where the white friars might stroll, and with shady nooks where they might con their missals. Bouverie Street and Ram Alley were then part of their domain, and there they watched

330-560: The City of London are eligible to stand for election . Bouverie Street Bouverie Street is a street in the City of London , off Fleet Street , which once was the home of some of Britain's most widely circulated newspapers as well as the Whitefriars Priory. The offices of the News Chronicle , a British daily paper, were based there until it ceased publication on 17 October 1960 after being absorbed into

363-512: The Fleet became little more than an open sewer, and the locality was given over to slums due to undesirable odours. The modern Farringdon Street was built over it, with the Fleet Market opening for the sale of meat, fish and vegetables in 1737. Charles Dickens described the market, in unflattering terms, in his novel Barnaby Rudge , set in 1780: "Fleet Market, at that time, was a long irregular row of wooden sheds and penthouses, occupying

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396-573: The White Friars because of the white mantles they wore on formal occasions. During its heyday, the priory sprawled the area from Fleet Street to the Thames . At its western end was the Temple and to its east was Water Lane (now called Whitefriars Street). A church, cloisters, garden and cemetery were housed in the ground. The roots of the Carmelite order go back to its founding on Mount Carmel , which

429-464: The centre of what is now called Farringdon Street. They were jumbled together in a most unsightly fashion, in the middle of the road; to the great obstruction of the thoroughfare and the annoyance of passengers, who were fain to make their way, as they best could, among carts, baskets, barrows, trucks, casks, bulks, and benches, and to jostle with porters, hucksters, waggoners, and a motley crowd of buyers, sellers, pick–pockets, vagrants, and idlers. The air

462-467: The countryside. The primary purpose of wards like Farringdon, which included a gate, appears to be the defence of the gate, as gates were the weakest points in any fortification. Farringdon was a very large ward and had two gates, Ludgate and Newgate (previously called Chamberlains Gate after an area of land called the Chamberlain's Soke , lying just outside the gate). Early charters show that

495-595: The growth, west of the wall of its first ' West End ' was well underway in the twelfth century. This early 'West End' suburb, heavily influenced by the proximity of the seat of government in Westminster , was based around large houses spread along the Thames, the Strand and the Holborn road. Early names for the undivided ward included the Ward of Ludgate and Newgate , and in the thirteenth century Flete Ward (after

528-467: The land beyond the city's former western gates , including the Middle Temple , Inner Temple , Smithfield and St Bartholomew's Hospital . Since the boundary changes to the City of London in 1994, the ward now extends further west to meet the City of Westminster at Chancery Lane . It includes land on both sides of the (now buried) River Fleet and part of its northern boundary was formed by

561-606: The landlords of the area, the Pleydell-Bouveries , Earls of Radnor . The Planet News Press Photo Agency was based at 8 Bouverie Street until the WWII Blitz forced them to relocate to no. 3 Johnson's Court, just across Fleet Street . The surviving glass plate negative collection is owned by TopFoto. 51°30′48″N 0°06′29″W  /  51.51345°N 0.10796°W  / 51.51345; -0.10796 This London road or road transport-related article

594-565: The largest of the City's 25 wards. Its resident population is 1,099 (2011). Farringdon Without and Farringdon Within are unconnected to the Farringdon area to the north, outside the city, in the London Borough of Islington . The area is sometimes referred to as Farringdon due to the presence of Farringdon Station , which was named after Farringdon Street and originally named Farringdon Street Station . The ward administers

627-822: The law. The execution of a warrant in Alsatia, if at any time practicable, was attended with great danger, as all united in a maintenance in common of the immunity of the place. It was one of the last places of sanctuary used in England , abolished by Act of Parliament named The Escape from Prison Act in 1697. Aside from whitefriars, eleven other places in London were named in the Act: The Minories , The Mint , Salisbury Court , Fulwoods Rents , Mitre Court , Baldwins Gardens , The Savoy , The Clink , Deadmans Place , Montague Close , and Ram Alley. Further acts in

660-402: The medieval friary survives under the modern 65 Fleet Street building. The 14th-century cellar was probably part of the White Friars prior's mansion. The medieval remains were lifted up on a crane during the construction of the modern building in 1991 and then replaced (in a slightly altered location); the cellar or 'crypt' can be viewed from Magpie Alley to the south of Fleet Street. Whitefriars

693-472: The modern London Borough of Camden ). The term Bars refers to the historic boundary marks the city established when its rights or jurisdiction came to extend beyond the walls. Ornamental boundary markers known as West Smithfield Bars , first documented in 1170 and 1197, once marked the city's northern boundary. These stood close to the Charterhouse Street junction with St John Street (at

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726-649: The north-west side of the Strand used to be called the Caribbee Islands, from its countless straits and intricate thieves' passages. The outskirts of the Carmelite monastery had no doubt become disreputable at an early time, for even in Edward III .'s reign the holy friars had complained of the gross temptations of Lombard Street (an alley near Bouverie Street ). Sirens and Dulcineas of all descriptions were ever apt to gather round monasteries. Whitefriars, however, even as late as Cromwell 's reign, preserved

759-487: The river and prayed for their patrons' souls. In 1350 Courtenay, Earl of Devon , rebuilt the Whitefriars Church , and in 1420 a Bishop of Hereford added a steeple. In time, greedy hands were laid roughly on cope and chalice, and Henry VIII ., seizing on the friars' domains, gave his physician—that Doctor Butts mentioned by Shakespeare —the chapter-house for a residence. Edward VI .—who, with all his promise,

792-532: The ward fell outside or within the London Wall — such designation also applied to the wards of Bridge Within and Without. As well as goldsmiths, in medieval times the Fleet Ditch attracted many tanners and curriers to the ward. As the City became more populous, these trades were banished to the suburbs and by the 18th century the River Fleet had been culverted and built over. In its later years,

825-432: The ward in the 1820s and 1830s, winning election against Henry Hunt in 1828. From 1901 to 1921 Carl Hentschel represented the ward. The ward is currently represented by Alderman Gregory Jones QC (elected February 2017, Common Councilman 2013–17) and 10 Common Councilman (elected March 2017). Alderman Gregory Jones QC has appointed John Absalom as Deputy (North) and Edward Lord OBE as Deputy (South). Freemen of

858-462: The western boundary of the City and Westminster was pushed back to approximately its current position in around 1000, though the area outside the walls is thought to have been sparsely populated, if at all, at this time. The boundary markers at West Smithfield Bars were mentioned in 1170 and 1197. London was one of the first cities in Europe to develop segregated quarters and extramural suburbs, and

891-455: Was achieved by splitting the very large, pre-existing Farringdon Ward into two parts, Farringdon Within (inside the wall) and Farringdon Without (outside the wall). The large and prosperous extramural suburb of Farringdon Without has been described as having been London's first West End . The ward was reduced in size considerably after a boundary review in 2003, and no longer corresponds closely to its historic extent, although it remains

924-578: Was as ready for such pillage as his tyrannical father—pulled down the church, and built noblemen's houses in its stead. The refectory of the convent, being preserved, afterwards became the Whitefriars Theatre . The mischievous right of sanctuary was preserved to the district, and confirmed by James I ., in whose reign the slum became jocosely known as Alsatia— from Alsace, that unhappy frontier then, and later, contended for by French and Germans—just as Chandos Street and that shy neighbourhood at

957-558: Was known as a red-light district in early modern England; and (under the name of Alsatia ) as a haunt of criminals, being a place of sanctuary until 1697. Alsatia was the name given to an area within Whitefriars that was once privileged as a sanctuary . It spanned from the Whitefriars monastery to the south of the west end of Fleet Street and adjacent to the Temple . Between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries it

990-564: Was later named after Sir Nicholas de Faringdon , who was appointed Lord Mayor of London for "as long as it shall please him" by King Edward II . The ward had been in the Faringdon family for 82 years at this time, his father, William de Faringdon preceding him as alderman in 1281, when he purchased the position. William de Faringdon was a sheriff of London in 1279–80. Farringdon Ward was split in two in 1394: Farringdon Without and Farringdon Within . "Without" and "Within" denote whether

1023-532: Was perfumed with the stench of rotten leaves and faded fruit; the refuse of the butchers' stalls, and offal and garbage of a hundred kinds. It was indispensable to most public conveniences in those days, that they should be public nuisances likewise; and Fleet Market maintained the principle to admiration." In 1829, it had become necessary to widen Farringdon Street, and the market was moved to new premises at Farringdon Market . This did not thrive, and its activities were moved to West Smithfield . Farringdon Without

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1056-602: Was proofed against all but a writ of the Lord Chief Justice or of the Lords of the Privy Council , becoming a refuge for perpetrators of every grade of crime. It was named after the ancient name for Alsace , a region outside legislative and juridical lines, and first appeared in print in a 1688 play by Thomas Shadwell , The Squire of Alsatia . To this day it remains used as a term depicting an area beyond

1089-519: Was situated in what is today Israel , in 1150. The order had to flee Mount Carmel to escape the wrath of the Saracens in 1238. Some members of the order found a sympathizer in Richard, Earl of Cornwall , and brother of King Henry III , who helped them travel to England, where they built a church on Fleet Street in 1253. A larger church supplanted this one a hundred years later. A vaulted cellar of

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