A meat market has existed in Smithfield since the 10th century. In and of itself, that would not make the place interesting enough for a visit. But Smithfield is also where William Wallace and Wat Tyler were executed, the location of St Bartholomew the Great (the oldest intact church in London and where a pivotal scene took place in “Four Weddings & a Funeral”), the neighborhood of Cloth Fair (a group of houses that escaped the Great Fire of 1666), an area where legal brothels once thrived, and the location of the Old Bailey and the former Newgate Prison.
Newgate Prison was established in 1188 just south of Smithfield Market. It was a very notorious prison where people were held in a cramped, unsanitary and inhumane fashion. Prisoners were also charged for their food and bedding. The gallows were moved from near Marble Arch to just outside of the prison in 1783. Hangings were quite a spectacle for the public and continued until 1901, just three years before the prison was demolished.
Some of the more famous prisoners held at Newgate included Giacomo Casanova, author Daniel Defoe, playwright Ben Jonson, pirate William Kidd, and Pennsylvania founder William Penn.
In 1585, the Old Bailey (officially the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales) was established right next door to Newgate Prison. The current building was built in 1904 when the prison was torn down. Although people can watch trials, no cameras are allowed. You can’t even have one with you (so no mobile phones either). Since we had cameras with us, we weren’t allowed in. If I want to watch a trial in the future, I’ll just go over there on a day when that’s the only thing I plan to do and leave the camera (and phone) locked up back at the hotel. There are several shows that have had scenes shot at the Old Bailey. One of my favorites is “The Escape Artist”, which was shown in the US on PBS as a Masterpiece Mystery.
A very short distance north of Old Bailey is St Bartholomew’s Hospital, which was founded in 1123 by a monk named Thomas Rahere. He was a favorite of King Henry I and also founded the church of St Bartholomew the Great, which is right by the hospital.
St Barts is still very much a working hospital and has been rebuilt and remodeled several times over the centuries. It does still have the Henry VIII Gate, which dates to Tudor times and has the only statue of King Henry VIII in London. There is also a plaque on the outside of the hospital facing Smithfield Market (and the little round park) that mentions that William Wallace was executed in 1305 nearby. According to what I understand, he was hanged, drawn and quartered (a very gruesome and painful way to die) at the little round park. He had been found guilty of treason because he had led an army against the King of England (Edward I). The film, “Braveheart”, was a highly fictionalized representation of his life (he wasn’t even the person called Braveheart — Robert the Bruce was). But he truly was a great Scottish hero.
Wat Tyler, the leader of the Peasant Revolt in 1381, was also executed in the same area. Not certain if it was closer to the meat market or to the hospital. It was also more of a rushed deal. Tyler and King Richard II (who was about 14 at the time) met at Smithfield to discuss an end to the Peasant Revolt. The King’s men weren’t happy with the way Tyler was behaving and attacked him. He was fatally wounded. Then they decapitated him and placed his head on a pole. Despite this, Richard was credited with the successful suppression of the crisis.
Next to the hospital is another Tudor gate. This one is of the half-timbered variety. Passing through this gate takes you into the grounds of the church of St Bartholomew the Great. The reason why this is the oldest intact church in London is because most of the rest of them have had to be restored or rebuilt due to fires or World War II bombs or both. Even the Temple Church, which managed to survive the Great Fire of 1666 ended up with bomb damage from WWII. Benjamin Franklin worked inside the church for a year as a journeyman printer when he was living in London.
Rahere, the fella who founded both the hospital and the church, is buried in the church. He also reportedly haunts the church. It seems that, in the 17th century, while some repairs were being made to his tomb, someone removed a sandal from one of his feet. Eventually the sandal was returned to the church, but not replaced in his tomb on his foot. Apparently he is still peeved.
During the reign of Mary Tudor (Elizabeth I’s older sister), several executions of “heretics” took place in the environs of the church. They say that there are times when one can definitely smell the odor of burning flesh. I have been there on a couple of visits and have yet to encounter Rahere’s ghost or smell anything bad. Now that I’ve said that, I’ll probably get hit with them both on the next visit. The important “fourth wedding” in “Four Weddings & a Funeral” was filmed in St Barts as have scenes from several other films and TV shows.
Next door to the church, to the west, is Cloth Fair. In medieval times, merchants bought and sold cloth in the street during the Bartholomew Fair. The street contains the oldest house in London. Just as the church escaped the Great Fire, so did this little block of houses. A little bit of time traveling can be had here.
Nearby is Cock Lane. This was where, in medieval times, brothels were allowed to operate legally. The road is short and narrow as it was back then, but the buildings are not all original. So the only thing remaining from the medieval era is the street name.
After we were done exploring the area, we stopped off for some food at the Viaduct Tavern, across from the Old Bailey on Newgate Street. It is built over a portion of the Newgate Prison (roughly five cells in the cellar) and is supposedly quite haunted. If you ask nicely, you can go downstairs to see the cells from the prison. I did and found it pretty eerie down there. The person who worked there said they never go down there alone at night.
There are plans to move the Museum of London from its current location on the London Wall in the Barbican to Smithfield Market. The idea is to provide a much larger area for exhibits than what the current space contains without venturing too far from the current site.
