Misplaced Pages

#523476

61-528: The Fleet Market was a London market erected in 1736 on the newly culverted River Fleet . The market was located approximately where the modern Farringdon Street stands today, to the west of the Smithfield livestock market. Work began in 1734 to arch over the River Fleet, as it had become an open sewer; and to remove the considerable expense of clearing the river of rubbish and filth. The course of

122-643: A Roman colonia for retired soldiers. A Roman temple had been erected there to Claudius, at great expense to the local population. Combined with brutal treatment of the Britons by the veterans, this had caused resentment towards the Romans. The Iceni and the Trinovantes comprised an army of 120,000 men. Dio claimed that Boudica called upon the British goddess of victory Andraste to aid her army. Once

183-523: A grating in Ray Street, Clerkenwell in front of The Coach pub (formerly the Coach and Horses), just off Farringdon Road . The position of the river can still be seen in the surrounding streetscape with Ray Street and its continuation, Warner Street, lying in a valley where the river once flowed. It can also be heard through a grid in the centre of Charterhouse Street , where it joins Farringdon Road (on

244-612: A highway to the north and the Metropolitan Railway , while the final upper section of the river was covered when Hampstead was expanded in the 1870s. The history of the River Fleet was documented by the 19th-century artist and historian Anthony Crosby . His sketches and notes are held in the Crosby Collection at The London Archives . The archive has been used extensively by researchers, historians and publishers to provide images and contemporary descriptions of

305-522: A line approximating to Charterhouse Street and Charterhouse Square . In 1603, the historian John Stow described its demise: Fagges Well, neare unto Smithfield by the Charterhouse , now lately dammed up. A part of the course close to Charterhouse Square was excavated as part of the Crossrail project. The Fleet, which is now a sewer that follows its route, can be seen and heard through

366-571: A national heroine. Alfred, Lord Tennyson 's poem Boädicéa (written in 1859, and published in 1864) drew on Cowper's poem. Depicting the Iceni queen as a violent and bloodthirsty warrior, the poem also forecasted the rise of British imperialism. Tennyson's image of Boudica was taken from the engraving produced in 1812 by Stothard. Another work, the poem "Boadicea" (1859) by Francis Barker, contained strongly patriotic and Christian themes. A range of Victorian children's books mentioned Boudica; Beric

427-677: A popular patriotic song in Britain during the 18th and 19th centuries. During the late 18th century, Boudica was used to develop ideas of English nationhood. Illustrations of Boudica during this period—such as in Edward Barnard's New, Complete and Authentic History of England (1790) and the drawing by Thomas Stothard of the queen as a classical heroine—lacked historical accuracy. The illustration of Boudica by Robert Havell in Charles Hamilton Smith 's The Costume of

488-462: A speech Cassius Dio gives Boudica The Romans' next actions were described by Tacitus, who detailed pillaging of the countryside, the ransacking of the king's household, and the brutal treatment of Boudica and her daughters. According to Tacitus, Boudica was flogged and her daughters were raped . These abuses are not mentioned in Dio's account, who instead cites three different causes for the rebellion:

549-609: A story about a British heroine he called 'Bunduca'. A variation of this name was used in the Jacobean play Bonduca (1612), a tragicomedy that most scholars agree was written by John Fletcher , in which one of the characters was Boudica. A version of that play called Bonduca, or the British Heroine was set to music by the English composer Henry Purcell in 1695. One of the choruses, " Britons, Strike Home! ", became

610-527: A substantial body of water, joining the Thames through a marshy tidal basin over 100 yards (91 m) wide at the mouth of the Fleet Valley. Many wells were built along its banks, and some on springs (Bagnigge Wells, Clerkenwell ) and St Bride's Well, were reputed to have healing qualities; in the 13th century, the river was called River of Wells. The small lane at the south-west end of New Bridge Street

671-493: A tribe who inhabited what is now the English county of Norfolk and parts of the neighbouring counties of Cambridgeshire , Suffolk and Lincolnshire . The Iceni produced some of the earliest known British coins. They had revolted against the Romans in 47 when the Roman governor Publius Ostorius Scapula planned to disarm all the peoples of Britain under Roman control. The Romans allowed the kingdom to retain its independence once

SECTION 10

#1732776527524

732-519: A work whose impact resulted in Boudica's reinvention as a British imperialistic champion. One of the earliest possible mentions of Boudica (excluding Tacitus' and Dio's accounts) was the 6th century work De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae by the British monk Gildas . In it, he demonstrates his knowledge of a female leader whom he describes as a "treacherous lioness" who "butchered the governors who had been left to give fuller voice and strength to

793-403: A yearly tribute for our very bodies? How much better it would be to have been sold to masters once for all than, possessing empty titles of freedom, to have to ransom ourselves every year! How much better to have been slain and to have perished than to go about with a tax on our heads!... Among the rest of mankind death frees even those who are in slavery to others; only in the case of the Romans do

854-437: Is called Watergate because it was the river entrance to Bridewell Palace . As London grew, the river became increasingly a sewer . The area came to be characterised by poor-quality housing and prisons: Bridewell Palace itself was converted into a prison; Newgate , Fleet and Ludgate prisons were all built in that area. In 1728 Alexander Pope wrote in his Dunciad , "To where Fleet-ditch with disemboguing streams / Rolls

915-492: Is the largest of London's subterranean rivers , all of which today contain foul water for treatment. It has been used as a culverted sewer since the development of Joseph Bazalgette 's London sewer system in the mid-19th century with the water being treated at Beckton Sewage Treatment Works . Its headwaters are two streams on Hampstead Heath , each of which was dammed into a series of ponds—the Hampstead Ponds and

976-460: Is thought that her words were never recorded during her life. Although imaginary, these speeches, designed to provide a comparison for readers of the antagonists' demands and approaches to war, and to portray the Romans as morally superior to their enemy, helped create an image of patriotism that turned Boudica into a legendary figure. Boudica was the consort of Prasutagus , king of the Iceni ,

1037-634: The Anglo-Saxon flēot "tidal inlet ". In Anglo-Saxon times, the Fleet served as a dock for shipping . The lower reaches of the river were known as the Holbourne (or Oldbourne), from which Holborn derived its name. The river gives its name to Fleet Street which runs from Ludgate Circus to Temple Bar at the Strand . In the 1970s, a London Underground tube line was planned to lie under

1098-684: The Florentine scholar Petruccio Ubaldini in The Lives of the Noble Ladies of the Kingdom of England and Scotland (1591) includes two female characters, 'Voadicia' and 'Bunduica', both based on Boudica. From the 1570s to the 1590s, when Elizabeth I 's England was at war with Spain, Boudica proved to be a valuable asset for the English. The English poet Edmund Spenser used the story of Boudica in his poem The Ruines of Time , involving

1159-533: The Highgate Ponds —in the 18th century. At the southern edge of Hampstead Heath these descend underground as sewers and join in Camden Town . The waters flow 4 miles (6 km) from the ponds. The river gives its name to Fleet Street , the eastern end of which is at what was the crossing over the river known as Fleet Bridge, and is now the site of Ludgate Circus . The river's name is derived from

1220-471: The Legio IX Hispana , attempted to relieve Camulodunum, but suffered an overwhelming defeat. The infantry with him were all killed and only the commander and some of his cavalry escaped. After this disaster, Catus Decianus, whose behaviour had provoked the rebellion, fled abroad to Gaul . Suetonius was leading a campaign against the island of Mona , off the coast of North Wales. On hearing

1281-757: The Roman Empire is referred to in four works from classical antiquity written by three Roman historians: the Agricola ( c.  98 ) and Annals ( c.  110s ) by Tacitus ; a mention of the uprising by Suetonius in his Lives of the Caesars (121); and the longest account, a detailed description of the revolt contained within Cassius Dio 's history of the Empire ( c.  202  – c.  235 ). Tacitus wrote some years after

SECTION 20

#1732776527524

1342-460: The Roman emperor in his will . When he died, his will was ignored, and the kingdom was annexed and his property taken. According to the Roman historian Tacitus , Boudica was flogged and her daughters raped . The historian Cassius Dio wrote that previous imperial donations to influential Britons were confiscated and the Roman financier and philosopher Seneca called in the loans he had forced on

1403-604: The Scala Theatre , London, in November 1909 before a national tour, and she was described in a 1909 pamphlet as "the eternal feminine... the guardian of the hearth, the avenger of its wrongs upon the defacer and the despoiler". A "vocal minority" has claimed Boudica as a Celtic Welsh heroine. A statue of Boudica in the Marble Hall at Cardiff City Hall was among those unveiled by David Lloyd George in 1916, though

1464-495: The Smithfield side of the junction). In wet weather (when the sewer system is overloaded), and on a very low tide, the murky Fleet can be seen gushing into the Thames from the Thameswalk exit of Blackfriars station , immediately under Blackfriars bridge . (The tunnel exit shown in the picture can be seen much more clearly from directly above.) The former mayor of London , Boris Johnson , proposed opening short sections of

1525-454: The wharves that used to line this canal, especially used by the coastal coal trade from the north-east of England . (An adjacent narrow road, Seacoal Lane, also existed until the late 20th century, when the present building fronting onto Farringdon Street was built, perhaps suggesting that a new wharf had been built near the old one.) The upper canal, unpopular and unused, was from 1737 enclosed between Holborn and Ludgate Circus to form

1586-540: The " Fleet Market ". The lower part, the section from Ludgate Circus to the Thames, had been covered by 1769 for the opening of the new Blackfriars Bridge and was consequently named "New Bridge Street". The development of the Regent's Canal and urban growth covered the river in King's Cross and Camden from 1812. The Fleet Market was closed during the 1860s with the construction of Farringdon Road and Farringdon Street as

1647-785: The 19th-century Fleet during the period when it was undergoing significant change. Sweepings from Butchers Stalls, Dung, Guts and Blood, Drown'd Puppies, stinking Sprats, all drench'd in Mud, Dead Cats and Turnip-Tops come tumbling down the Flood. Boudica Boudica or Boudicca ( / ˈ b uː d ɪ k ə , b oʊ ˈ d ɪ k ə / , from Brythonic * boudi 'victory, win' + * -kā 'having' suffix, i.e. 'Victorious Woman', known in Latin chronicles as Boadicea or Boudicea , and in Welsh as Buddug , pronounced [ˈbɨðɨɡ] )

1708-507: The Briton (1893), a novel by G. A. Henty , with illustrations by William Parkinson, had a text based on the accounts of Tacitus and Dio. Boadicea and Her Daughters , a statue of the queen in her war chariot , complete with anachronistic scythes on the wheel axles, was executed by the sculptor Thomas Thornycroft . He was encouraged by Prince Albert , who lent his horses for use as models. The statue, Thornycroft's most ambitious work,

1769-555: The Britons. Boudica died, by suicide or illness, shortly afterwards. The crisis of 60/61 caused Nero to consider withdrawing all his imperial forces from Britain, but Suetonius's victory over Boudica confirmed Roman control of the province. Interest in these events was revived in the English Renaissance and led to Boudica's fame in the Victorian era and as a cultural symbol in Britain. The Boudican revolt against

1830-530: The Fleet and other rivers for ornamental purposes, although the Environment Agency – which manages the project – is pessimistic that the Fleet can be among those uncovered. In Roman times, the Fleet was a major river, with its estuary possibly containing the oldest tidal mill in the world. The river secured the western flank of the Roman City. In Anglo-Saxon times, the Fleet was still

1891-492: The Fleet near Mount Pleasant . This was later utilised to feed Lamb's Conduit . The line of the original brook formed Holborn 's boundary with St Pancras to the north. The sweeping curve of Roger Street is part of that boundary line. The Fagswell Brook (also spelled Faggeswell ) was a tributary that joined the Fleet from the east and partially formed the northern boundary of the City of London. The brook flowed east to west on

Fleet Market - Misplaced Pages Continue

1952-456: The Fleet. In turn John Nelson in his The History, Topography, and Antiquities of the Parish of St. Mary Islington of 1811 linked a supposed Roman army camp found under some nearby brick fields with the site of Boudica 's final battle, based only on his comparison of the local topography with the scant description of the battlefield supplied by the near-contemporary historian Tacitus . The name

2013-689: The Original Inhabitants of the British Islands from the Earliest Periods to the Sixth Century (1815) was an early attempt to depict her in an historically accurate way. Cowper's 1782 poem Boadicea: An Ode was the most notable literary work to champion the resistance of the Britons, and helped to project British ideas of imperial expansion. It caused Boudica to become a British cultural icon and be perceived as

2074-442: The accompaniment of sacrifices, banquets, and wanton behaviour" in sacred places, particularly the groves of Andraste. Suetonius regrouped his forces. He amassed an army of almost 10,000 men at an unidentified location, and took a stand in a defile with a wood behind. The Romans used the terrain to their advantage, launching javelins at the Britons before advancing in a wedge-shaped formation and deploying cavalry. The Roman army

2135-408: The blame upon herself for not expelling the Romans as they had done when Julius Caesar invaded. The willingness of those seen as barbarians to sacrifice a higher quality of living under the Romans in exchange for their freedom and personal liberty was an important part of what Dio considered to be motivation for the rebellions. The first target of the rebels was Camulodunum (modern Colchester ),

2196-569: The eastern boundary of St Pancras . In this way it continues to form part of the boundary of the modern London Boroughs of Camden and Islington . At Farringdon Street the valley broadens out and straightens to join the Thames beneath Blackfriars Bridge . In the lower reaches, the valley slopes in the surrounding streets which explains the presence of three viaduct bridges (at Holborn Viaduct across Farringdon Street, another over Shoe Lane, and another on Rosebery Avenue where it crosses Warner Street). A small tributary flowed west to east to join

2257-555: The endeavours of Roman rule." Both Bede 's Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731) and the 9th century work Historia Brittonum by the Welsh monk Nennius include references to the uprising of 60/61—but do not mention Boudica. No contemporary description of Boudica exists. Dio, writing more than a century after her death, provided a detailed description of the Iceni queen (translated in 1925): "In stature she

2318-406: The extent of its destruction is unclear. Dio and Tacitus both reported that around 80,000 people were said to have been killed by the rebels. According to Tacitus, the Britons had no interest in taking the Roman population as prisoners, only in slaughter by " gibbet , fire, or cross". Dio adds that the noblest women were impaled on spikes and had their breasts cut off and sewn to their mouths, "to

2379-578: The large tribute of dead dogs to Thames / The king of dykes! than whom no sluice of mud / with deeper sable blots the silver flood". Following the Great Fire of London in 1666, architect Christopher Wren 's proposal for widening the river was rejected. Rather, the Fleet was converted into the New Canal, completed in 1680 under the supervision of Robert Hooke . Newcastle Close and Old Seacoal Lane (now just short alleyways off Farringdon Street) recall

2440-689: The line of Fleet Street, provisionally named the Fleet line . However, it was renamed the Jubilee line in 1977, and plans for the part of the route through the City of London were subsequently abandoned The Fleet rises on Hampstead Heath as two sources, which flow on the surface as the Hampstead Ponds and the Highgate Ponds . They then go underground, pass under Kentish Town , join in Camden Town , and flow onwards towards St Pancras Old Church , which

2501-528: The name by which she was known during most of her life is unknown. The English linguist and translator Kenneth Jackson concluded that the name Boudica —based on later developments in Welsh ( Buddug ) and Irish ( Buaidheach )—derives from the Proto-Celtic feminine adjective * boudīkā 'victorious', which in turn is derived from the Celtic word * boudā 'victory', and that the correct spelling of

Fleet Market - Misplaced Pages Continue

2562-741: The name in Common Brittonic (the British Celtic language) is Boudica , pronounced [boʊˈdiːkaː] . Variations on the historically correct Boudica include Boudicca , Bonduca , Boadicea , and Buduica . The Gaulish version of her name is attested in inscriptions as Boudiga in Bordeaux , Boudica in Lusitania , and Bodicca in Algeria. Boudica's name was spelt incorrectly by Dio, who used Buduica . Her name

2623-475: The news of the Iceni uprising, he left a garrison on Mona and returned to deal with Boudica. He moved quickly with a force of men through hostile territory to Londinium, which he reached before the arrival of Boudica's army but, outnumbered, he decided to abandon the town to the rebels, who burned it down after torturing and killing everyone who had remained. The rebels also sacked the municipium of Verulamium (modern St Albans ), north-west of London, though

2684-598: The rebellion, but his father-in-law Gnaeus Julius Agricola was an eyewitness to the events, having served in Britain as a tribune under Suetonius Paulinus during this period. Cassius Dio began his history of Rome and its empire about 140 years after Boudica's death. Much is lost and his account of Boudica survives only in the epitome of an 11th-century Byzantine monk , John Xiphilinus . He provides greater and more lurid detail than Tacitus, but in general his details are often fictitious. Both Tacitus and Dio give an account of battle-speeches given by Boudica, though it

2745-533: The recalling of loans that were given to the Britons by Seneca ; Decianus Catus's confiscation of money formerly loaned to the Britons by the Emperor Claudius ; and Boudica's own entreaties. The loans were thought by the Iceni to have been repaid by gift exchange. Dio gives Boudica a speech to her people and their allies reminding them that life was much better before the Roman occupation, stressing that wealth cannot be enjoyed under slavery and placing

2806-497: The reluctant Britons. In 60/61, Boudica led the Iceni and other British tribes in revolt. They destroyed Camulodunum (modern Colchester ), earlier the capital of the Trinovantes , but at that time a colonia for discharged Roman soldiers. Upon hearing of the revolt, the Roman governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus hurried from the island of Mona (modern Anglesey) to Londinium , the 20-year-old commercial settlement that

2867-524: The revolt had begun, the only Roman troops available to provide assistance, aside from the few within the colony, were 200 auxiliaries located in London, who were not equipped to fight Boudica's army. Camulodunum was captured by the rebels; those inhabitants who survived the initial attack took refuge in the Temple of Claudius for two days before they were killed. Quintus Petillius Cerialis , then commanding

2928-542: The river was covered between Holborn Bridge and Fleet Bridge (now Ludgate Circus ). The market, consisting of two rows of open one–storey shops linked by a covered walkway, opened on 30 September 1737. The market replaced the Old Stocks Market that itself had been cleared for the construction of the Mansion House . To the north of the market, vegetables were sold in an open-air market. The centre

2989-468: The south facade, sculpted by L J Watts in 1902; another depiction of her is in a stained glass window by Clayton and Bell in the council chamber. Boudica was adopted by the suffragettes as one of the symbols of the campaign for women's suffrage . In 1908, a "Boadicea Banner" was carried in several National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies marches. She appears as a character in A Pageant of Great Women written by Cicely Hamilton , which opened at

3050-648: The uprising was suppressed. On his death in AD 60/61, Prasutagus made his two daughters as well as the Roman Emperor Nero his heirs. The Romans ignored the will, and the kingdom was absorbed into the province of Britannia . Catus Decianus , procurator of Britain, was sent to secure the Iceni kingdom for Rome. "Have we not been robbed entirely of most of our possessions, and those the greatest, while for those that remain we pay taxes? Besides pasturing and tilling for them all our other possessions, do we not pay

3111-441: The very dead remain alive for their profit. Why is it that, though none of us has any money (how, indeed, could we, or where would we get it?), we are stripped and despoiled like a murderer's victims? And why should the Romans be expected to display moderation as time goes on, when they have behaved toward us in this fashion at the very outset, when all men show consideration even for the beasts they have newly captured?" —Part of

SECTION 50

#1732776527524

3172-417: Was a queen of the ancient British Iceni tribe, who led a failed uprising against the conquering forces of the Roman Empire in AD 60 or 61. She is considered a British national heroine and a symbol of the struggle for justice and independence. Boudica's husband Prasutagus , with whom she had two daughters, ruled as a nominally independent ally of Rome. He left his kingdom jointly to his daughters and to

3233-483: Was also misspelled by Tacitus, who added a second 'c.' After the misspelling was copied by a medieval scribe , further variations began to appear. Along with the second 'c' becoming an 'e,' an 'a' appeared in place of the 'u', which produced the medieval (and most common) version of the name, Boadicea . The true spelling was totally obscured when Boadicea first appeared in around the 17th century. William Cowper used this spelling in his poem Boadicea, an Ode (1782),

3294-414: Was changed in the 19th century to refer to an unpopular statue of George IV erected in 1830 but, although it was replaced after only fifteen years, the name remains. From there, it heads down King's Cross Road and other streets, including Farringdon Road and Farringdon Street . The line of the former river marks the western boundary of Clerkenwell , the eastern boundary of Holborn and a small part of

3355-429: Was heavily outnumbered — according to Dio the rebels numbered 230,000 — but Boudica's army was crushed, and according to Tacitus, neither the women nor the animals were spared. Tacitus states that Boudica poisoned herself; Dio says she fell sick and died, after which she was given a lavish burial. It has been argued that these accounts are not mutually exclusive. Boudica may have been an honorific title, in which case

3416-586: Was interpreted by historians, poets and dramatists . Boudica appeared as 'Voadicia' in a history, Anglica Historia , by the Italian scholar Polydore Vergil , and in the Scottish historian Hector Boece 's The History and Chronicles of Scotland (1526) she is 'Voada'—the first appearance of Boudica in a British publication. Boudica was called 'Voadicia' in the English historian Raphael Holinshed 's Chronicles , published between 1577 and 1587. A narrative by

3477-533: Was marked by a clock tower; and the south was adjacent to the Fleet Prison . By 1829, the market was dilapidated and considered an obstacle to the increasing volume of traffic; and was cleared for the construction of Farringdon Road . Farringdon Market was constructed to replace it, but was never successful. 51°30′58″N 0°6′18″W  /  51.51611°N 0.10500°W  / 51.51611; -0.10500 River Fleet The River Fleet

3538-539: Was produced between 1856 and 1871, cast in 1896, and positioned on the Victoria Embankment next to Westminster Bridge in 1902. Boudica was once thought to have been buried at a place which lies now between platforms 9 and 10 in King's Cross station in London. There is no evidence for this and it is probably a post-World War II invention. At Colchester Town Hall , a life-sized statue of Boudica stands on

3599-567: Was sited on the river's banks. From there the river passed in a sinuous course which is responsible for the unusual building line adjacent to King's Cross station; the German Gymnasium faced the river banks, and the curve of the Great Northern Hotel follows that of the Fleet, which passes alongside it. King's Cross was originally named Battle Bridge , a corruption of Broad Ford Bridge referring to an older crossing of

3660-556: Was the rebels' next target. Unable to defend the settlement, he evacuated and abandoned it. Boudica's army defeated a detachment of the Legio IX Hispana , and burnt both Londinium and Verulamium . In all, an estimated 70,000–80,000 Romans and Britons were killed by Boudica's followers. Suetonius, meanwhile, regrouped his forces, possibly in the West Midlands , and despite being heavily outnumbered, he decisively defeated

3721-578: Was very tall, in appearance most terrifying, in the glance of her eye most fierce, and her voice was harsh; a great mass of the tawniest hair fell to her hips; around her neck was a large golden necklace; and she wore a tunic of divers colours over which a thick mantle was fastened with a brooch. This was her invariable attire." During the Renaissance the works of Tacitus and Cassius Dio became available in England, after which her status changed as it

SECTION 60

#1732776527524
#523476