Cripplegate Ward

TAKES its name from one of the City gates so called, which is of very great antiquity. The name is said to have been bestowed on it, in consequence of several cripples being restored to the use of their limbs, when the body of king Edmund the Martyr was brought through it to London; but this is more than doubtful, and in this enlightened age such a tale will be totally disbelieved. It is more probable, that as places, situations, and streets, in early days took their names from local circumstances or peculiarities, this gate might be a resting or lounging place for the beggars and cripples, who might be on their way to obtain alms of the crowds who assembled in the Moor-fields to practise archery, and other manly sports; or, there might have been some famous mineral springs, which the cripples frequented in the hope of being cured. Be this as it may, we can but speculate on the origin; that this name was bestowed at an early period, and has continued to the present time, is alone certain. The church of St. Giles was not founded till about A. D. 1090; and John Lydgate did not live till many years after Alfune, the founder and first builder of this church he might therefore, with propriety, have called the gate Cripplegate in his time. St. Giles the abbot, amongst his other excellencies, was a physician, and wrote a Treatise on the Palsy, and it is not wonderful if he were implored by cripples to aid and cure them; and this also explains the common vulgar application of 'Hopping Giles.' Several religious foundations for lepers, cripples, &c. were dedicated to this saint; and hence, no doubt, the original name, as a reasonable cause can be assigned with which miracle does not interfere.

This Ward is divided into two parts,Within and Without. Cripplegate Within consists of nine precincts,-St. Lawrence; St. Mary Magdalen Milk-street; St. Peter; St. Michael's Wood Street; St. John Zachary; St. Alban's Wood-street; St. Olave, Silverstreet; St. Alphage; and Aldermanbury. Cripplegate Without is comprised in four precincts,-Red Cross-street; White Crossstreet; Fore-street; and Grub-street. It is governed by an alderman and twelve common council-men, who have under them thirteen constables, thirty-four inquest-men, and two beadles. William Staines was an alderman of this ward.

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It is bounded on the north by Cripplegate parish without the Freedom; on the west by Aldersgate Ward; on the south by the Ward of Cheap; and on the East by part of Cheap, and Colemanstreet and Bassishaw Wards.

The extreme north western point of the Ward is Bridgewater street; running south-easterly, it intersecte Barbican, Jewin-street, and about half-way down each (the remainder being in Aldersgate Ward); thence onwards to the corner of Maiden-lane, and continues to the southern extremity of Wood-street, its boundary in that direction; half-way between Milk-street and Honey-lane Market, in a right line drawn directly north, passing Cateatonstreet on the west side of St. Lawrence Jewry (King-street) church, to the end of Aldermanbury; it then diverges to the east, down London Wall, including the whole of Fore-street to the corner of Back-street, Little Moorfields, the west side of which is in this Ward: it then includes the south side of Rope-maker's-street, and continuing, with a slight deviation from a right line, to the corner of Back-lane, it proceeds in a due north-easterly direction to Angel alley, and our boundary line then terminates at Bridgewater-street. The principal streets are, Wood-street, Aldermanbury, LondonWall, Fore-street, Grub-street, Golden-lane, Barbican, Redcross street, Whitecross-street, Addle-street, &c.

There are five parish churches in this Ward,-St. Michael Wood-street; St. Alban Wood-street; St. Giles without Cripplegate; St. Alphage; and St. Mary Aldermanbury.

Stow gives us the following account of the Postern of

or Creplegate, which stood at the north-western extremity of London Wall Street. "It was so called long before the Conquest (as far back certainly as 1010). For I read in the History of Edmond, king of the East Angles, written by Abba Floriacensis, and by Burchard, some time secretary to Offa, king of Mercia; but since then, by John Lidgate, monke of Bury, that in the yeere 1010, the Danes spoiling the kingdome of the East Angles, Alwyne, bishop

of Holmeham, caused the body of king Edmund the martyr to bee brought from Bedisworth (now called Bury St. Edmunds) through the kingdome of East Saxons, and so to London on to Creplegate. (Here Stow falls into the fable we have alluded to.) A place, saith mine author, so called of cripples begging there; and at which gate (it was said) the body entring, miracles were wrought, and some of the lame to goe upright, praising God. The body of king Edmund rested for the space of three yeers in the parish church of St. Gregory, neere unto the cathedral church of Saint Paul.

"Moreover, the Charter of William the Conqueror, confirming the foundation of the College in Loudon, called St. Martin the Great, hath these words :

« I doe give and grant to the same church and canons serving God therein, all the lands and the Moore without the postern, which is called Creplegate, on either side of the postern.

"More I read, that Alfune builded the parish church of St. Giles nigh a gate of the citie, called porta contractorum, in Cripplesgate, about the yeere 1090.

، This postern was sometime a prison, whereunto such citizens, and others as were arrested for debt, or common trespassers, were committed, as they be now to the compters, as appeareth by writ of Edward I. This gate was builded new by the Brewers of London in the year 1244.

"Edmund Shew, goldsmith, maior in the year 1483, at his decease appointed by his testament his executors, with the cost of 400 marks, and the stuff of the old gate called Cripplegate, to build the same gate anew, which was done in 1491.”

Under this gate the old Roman road passed. After many alterations and mutations of appearance and use, this gate was pulled down in the reign of George II. and the materials were sold for £91.

At the corner of Huggin-lane is the parish-church of St. Michael Wood-street, which we find by the London register was bequeathed in the 33rd year of Edward III. A.D. 1359, by the last will and testament of Richard de Basingstoke, who bestowed