Benbridges Inn
Benbridges Inn was a large house on
the northwest corner of Lime Street.
The Inn appears to be named after Ricardus de Pembrugge, a Knight and owner
of a large piece of land in Lime Street
Ward in 1376 (Harben; BHO). In 1454 the draper Ralph Holland bestowed the large
messuage to the Master and Wardens of the Fraternity of Tailors and Linen
Armourers of St John the Baptist (Harben; BHO). Soon thereafter they set up
a fayre large frame of timberfor a large house and built three other tenement buildings adjoining it (Stow; BHO).
Though Stow mentions little about the building itself, he is adamant that the
Tudor landlords were good people. He notes that when Alderman Kirton gave
the Inn and tenement houses, along with his daughter Grisild’s hand in
marriage, to Nicholas Woodroffe during the reign of Edward VI, a period of
excellent tenant-landlord relations prevailed:
This worshipfull man, and the Gentlewoman his widow after him, kept those houses downe Limestreet in good reparations, neuer put out but one tennant, tooke no fines, nor raysed rents of them, which was ten shillings the peece yerely(Stow; BHO). Stow goes on to mention gravely, however, that when Grisild died, the benevolent approach went with her, much to the dismay of the tenants (Stow; BHO).
In 1799, over a century after the above episode, the site of the Inn was
incorporated into the lands of East India
House (see Blome 1720 for location) (Harben; BHO). The Inn is neither named nor featured on the Agas
map.
References
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Citation
Harben, Henry A. A Dictionary of London. London: Herbert Jenkins, 1918.This item is cited in the following documents:
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Citation
Stow, John. A Survey of London. Reprinted from the Text of 1603. Ed. Charles Lethbridge Kingsford. 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1908. Remediated by British History Online. [Kingsford edition, courtesy of The Centre for Metropolitan History. Articles written 2011 or later cite from this searchable transcription.]This item is cited in the following documents: