Whitehall Stairs

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Introduction

Whitehall Stairs was a historically significant site, providing access to the Thames from Whitehall Palace. While the stairs are not labelled on the Agas map, they were a part of everyday life in London. Few mentions of the Whitehall Stairs can be found in early modern literature; however, they are memorialized in a number of accounts of life in London, from legal records to personal diaries.

Royalty

The Whitehall Stairs were not the only stairs leading to the Thames near Whitehall Palace. According to Cox and Norman, from the beginning there were two sets of river stairs at Whitehall, the public Whitehall Stairs, and the Privy Stairs (Cox and Norman). As to why there were two sets of stairs, there may have been a public thoroughfare next to York Place, with a public landing on the Thames. If this public thoroughfare existed, then public rights had to be considered even by Henry VIII when he acquired York Place and transformed it and the surrounding area into the Palace of Whitehall (Cox and Norman). Accordingly, the Privy Stairs were for the private use of the royals and favoured nobles dwelling at Whitehall, while Whitehall Stairs were intended for public use.

Nevertheless, royalty did on occasion use the public Whitehall Stairs. Queen Elizabeth was known to use the stairs during royal processions on the river.For more information about royal processions, see MoEML’s critical introduction to The Queen’s Majesty’s Passage. Other royals used Whitehall Stairs for matters of state. The record keeper for the corporation of Rye discusses plans for the coronation of King James I and Queen Anne, noting that The King and Queen would be crowned on the 25th of this month [July], and that two canopies were in making, yet the coronation would be private and their Majesties would take barge at Whitehall staires and thence be landed at the Parliament house stairs, where the canopies should be ready to receive them (The Corporation of Rye). Peter Heylyn mentions that the stairs were also used to receive foreign ambassadors, who if they came to London by Water, were met at Gravesent by the Lord Mayor, the Aldermen, and Companies in their severall Barges, and in that solemn sort conducted unto White Hall stairs (Heylyn 109).

Literary References

Brief references to Whitehall Stairs occur often in early modern texts. Anna Trapnel, a prophetess in England mentions the Whitehall Stairs in Anna Trapnel’s Report and Plea. Trapnel recounts her travels to Cornwall, where she was arrested and taken before the magistrates for disturbing the peace. When she began this ill-fated journey, she and her traveling companions went by water from Southwark to White-Hall-stairs, where [she] landed, and went to the Inne where [they] took Coach; and many friends came to bid [them] farewell (Trapnel 7). Trapnel escaped conviction, but she did not indicate whether or not she returned by the same stairs. In Timothy Touchstone’s Reply to Sir Anonymous, Timothy Touchstone, a pen name, reports that a man at Two of the Clock in the Afternoon that day took Water from Whitehall Stairs with him upon the request of a brewer (Touchstone 2). This reference suggests that Whitehall Stairs was a popular place from which to draw water, particularly for breweries. In the penny pamphlet The Character of Those Two Protestants in Masquerade: Heraclitus and the Observator, an anonymous writer ridicules the genre of the penny pamphlet, writing, Take but a Pair of Oars from Black-friars to Whitehall Stairs, and the Academy will furnish you with as much Matter as will complete a dozen of these Pamphlets, with a great deal of Applause after the Publication (Heraclitus and the Observator). The author mocks the simple ideas and the silly gossip printed in penny pamphlets, and the use of Blackfriars to Whitehall Stairs may signify that this was a common path on the river, upon which one would encounter many common people.For more information on gossip and gossips in early modern London, see Gossip and Gossips.

The Fire and Beyond

Samuel Pepys regularly used Whitehall Stairs to access the Thames, often flagging Whitehall Stairs as a meeting place or point of departure. Pepys writes that he met with Lord Montagu and his retinue on 2 January 1661 to conduct business at White Hall stairs (Pepys). On 4 May 1663, Pepys met his wife who called [him] at Whitehall Stairs (where [he] went before by land to know whether there was any play at Court to-night) before he joined her for the evening (Pepys).To see a full list of tagged references to Whitehall Stairs in Pepys’ diary, see <ref target="#PEPY4" type="bibl">The Diary of Samuel Pepys</ref>’s encyclopedia article on Whitehall Stairs.

As Pepys’ diary indicates, Whitehall Stairs survived the Great Fire of London in 1666. Pepys records a meeting with Sir W. Batten on 22 May 1667, six months after the fire, writing that they saw at White Hall stairs a fisher-boat, with a sturgeon that he had newly catched in the River (Pepys). Whitehall Stairs remained an important riverside feature in London until the late 1860s, when it was demolished to make way for the Victorian Embankment.

Wenceslaus Hollar, View of Lambeth from Whitehall Stairs. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.