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Billingsgate Ward

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Introduction

Billingsgate Ward is west of Tower Street Ward. The ward is named after Billingsgate, a water-gate and harbour on the Thames.

Links to Chapters in the Survey of London

Watercolour painting of the alderman and deputy in charge of Billingsgate Ward by Hugh Alley. Image courtesy of the Folger Digital Image Collection.
Watercolour painting of the alderman and deputy in charge of Billingsgate Ward by Hugh Alley. Image courtesy of the Folger Digital Image Collection.

1603 Description of Ward Boundaries

The following diplomatic transcription of the opening paragraph(s) of the 1603 chapter on this ward will eventually be subsumed into the MoEML edition of the 1603 Survey.1 Each ward chapter opens with a narrative circumnavigation of the ward—a verbal beating of the bounds that MoEML first transcribed in 2004 and later used to facilitate the drawing of approximate ward boundaries on our edition of the Agas map. Source: John Stow, A Survey of London (London, 1603; STC #23343).
BIllingſgate Ward, beginneth at the weſt ende of Towerſtreete warde in Thames ſtreete about Smarts key, and runneth downe along that ſtreete on the ſouthſide, to ſaint Magnus Church at the Bridge foote, and on the North ſide of the ſaide Thames ſtreet, frō ouer againſt Smarts key, till ouer againſt the north weſt corner of ſaint Magnus Church aforeſayd: on this north ſide of Thames ſtreete is ſaint Marie Hil lane, up to ſaint Margarets Church, and then part of ſaint Margarets Pattents ſtreete, at the ende of ſaint Marie hill lane: Next out of Thames ſtreete is Lucas lane, and then Buttolph lane, and at the North end thereof Philpot lane, then is Rotherlane, of olde time ſo called, and thwart the ſame lane is little Eaſtcheape, and theſe be the bounds of Billinſgate warde.

Note on Ward boundaries on Agas Map

The boundaries of Billingsgate Ward, as drawn on the Agas map, are approximate. See MoEML’s page on ward boundaries.

Notes

  1. The 1603 Survey is widely available in reprints of C.L. Kingsford’s two-volume 1908 edition (Kingsford) and also in the British History Online transcription of the Kingsford edition (BHO). MoEML is completing its editions of all four texts in the following order: 1598, 1633, 1618, and 1603. (JJ)↑

References