Charing Cross

Charing Cross, the most noted place near the Center of the West part of London, if divided into 3 parts; from which I therefore reckon the bearing and distance to other places, viz. from the Statue of King Charles I. on Horsback, the space betn the meeting of the Hay Market, with the Pall Mall W. from the Statue, and Scotland Yard Gate Sd therefrom, is commonly called Cha+ [Charing Cross]. This str. is so called from a Cross here made of Stone, by order of Edw. I. in Memory of his Queen Eleanor, (see Cheapside,) it is very broad, and in L. 390 Yds, see Statues in the 8th Sect. of this Book.

Charing Cross, a large open Place, fronting the Strand, the Hay Market, and Whitehall, in a triangular Manner: In the Midst of this Place is a curious Statue of King Charles the First on Horseback, bigger than the Life, done on Brass, standing on a high Pedestal of white Marble, curiously adorned with warlike Trophies, all encircled with Iron Bars, or Rails: Which said Statue was made by that famous Statuary Laseur, who made that curious Brass Monument of the Duke of Buckingham in the Chapel of Henry the Seventh, at Westminster. And in the Place where this Statue stands, there was formerly a stately Cross of Marble, adorned with divers Figures about it, and called Charing Cross; which was erected by K. Edward the First, in Honour of his Queen Eleanor; which said Cross, as likewise that in Cheapside, by the said King erected for that Purpose, was pulled down and destroyed by the Zealots of the long Parliament, Anno 1643. This Statue of King Charles the First, was made for the Earl of Arundell; and to prevent demolishing, was purchased, and concealed by one Mr. John Revet, in Holborn, a Brazier. Who, upon the Restauration of King Charles the Second, presented it to his Majesty, who caused it to be erected at Charing Cross, upon an oval Pedestal of Freestone, as aforesaid.

Here at Charing Cross is the Mewse, used for the King's Horses to stable in; having Rows of Buildings for Stables, Coach-houses,

Charing Cross, opposite the west end of the Strand, is so denominated from a village called Charing, in which Edward I. caused a magnificent cross to be erected in commemoration of his beloved Queen Eleanor, part of which continued till the civil wars in the reign of Charles I. when it was entirely destroyed by the populace, as a monument of popish superstition. Stow. However, after the restoration an equestrian statue of King Charles I. was erected on the spot where this cross stood, which is still, tho' very improperly called Charing Cross. This statue has the advantage of being well placed; the pedestal is finely elevated, and the horse full of fire and spirit; but the man is not perhaps equally well executed: so that upon the whole it can neither be generally condemned, nor universally admired.* Its situation is shewn in the view of Northumberland House.

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* It is said that Oliver Cromwell after King Charles I. was beheaded, ordered this statue to be taken down and sold to a founder to melt, but that a royalist contrived to get it, and kept it concealed till the restoration, when it was again set up.

Charing-Cross,—the W. continuation of the Strand from St. Martin's lane to the King's mews, also towards Westminster, as far as the Admiralty and Great Scotland-yard.

Charing-Cross, is the west continuation of the Strand from St. Martin's-lane to the King's-mews, also towards Westminster as far as the Admiralty and Scotland-yard. It derives its name from the ancient village of Charing, in which Edward I. caused a magnificent cross to be erected in commemoration of his beloved Queen Eleanor. A portion of this structure remained till the civil wars in the reign of Charles I., when it was destroyed by the Puritans as a monument of Popish superstition. After the restoration of Charles II., the equestrian statue of his ill-advised and unfortunate father, that had been taken down by order of Oliver Cromwell, and concealed during the whole of his protectorate, was erected on the site of the ancient cross, and thus the name of Charing-cross is still retained. This statue, by the celebrated Lu Sueur, is one of the finest equestrian statues of any age or country; and has also the advantage of being in a very commanding situation.

Charing Cross, a triangular opening at the junction of the Strand, Whitehall, and Cockspur Street, and so called from the cross of stone erected, 1291–1294, to Eleanor, Queen of Edward I., being the last stage at which the Queen's body stopped previous to its interment in Westminster Abbey. The origin of the word Charing has not been satisfactorily explained.²

There is an absurd and vulgar tradition, that Charing Cross was so named because the body of Edward's "chere reine" rested there: does Peele allude to it here:—

Erect a rich and stately carved cross,
Whereon her stature shall with glory shine,
And henceforth see you call it Charing Cross;
For why, the chariest and the choicest queen,
That ever did delight my royal eyes,
There dwells in darkness.
Rev. A. Dyce, King Edward I., Peele's Works, vol. i. p. 200.

The Eleanor Crosses, twelve in number, were erected in the following places: Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington near Kettering, Northampton, Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St. Albans, Waltham, Cheap, and Charing.³ Three remain, Northampton, Geddington, and Waltham. Charing Cross, from the money laid out upon it, would appear to have been by far the most sumptuous. It was begun by Master Richard de Crundale, "cementarius;" but he died while the work was in progress, and it proceeded under the direction of another of the same name, called Roger de Crundale. Richard received from the executors of Queen Eleanor, out of funds provided by the Queen for the purpose, about £500 for work, exclusive of materials supplied by him, and Roger £90: 7: 5. The stone was brought from Caen, and the marble for the steps from Corfe in Dorsetshire.⁴

I am made all of white marble (which is not perceived of every one) and so cemented with mortar made of the purest lime, Callis sand, whites of eggs and the strongest wort, that I defie all hatchets and hammers whatsoever. In King Henry the Eighth's daies I was begged, and should have been degraded for that I had. Then in Edward the Sixt, when Somerset House was building, I was in danger; after that in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, one of her footmen had like to have run away with me; but the greatest danger of all I was in, when I quak'd for fear, was in the time of King James, for I was eight times begged: part of me was bespoken to make a kitchen chimney for a chiefe constable in Shoreditch; an innkeeper in Holborne had bargained for as much of me as would make two troughes, one to stand under a pumpe to water his guests' horses, and the other to give his swine their meat in; the rest of my poore carcase should have been carried I know not whither to the repaire of a decayed stonebridge (as I was told) on the top of Harrow Hill. Our royall forefather and founder, King Edward the First you know, built our sister crosses, Lincolne, Granthame, Woburne, Northampton, Stonie-Stratford, Dunstable, Saint Albanes, and ourselves here in London in the 21st yeare of his raigne, in the yeare 1289.—Henry Peacham's Dialogue between the Crosse in Cheap and Charing Cross, 1641.

"Cheapside Cross and other crosses were voted down" by the Long Parliament, May 3, 1643¹ but this vote, it appears, was not put in execution with regard to Charing Cross till four years after. It was apparently in a very decayed condition.² A pamphlet, entitled "The last Will and Testament of Charing Cross, very usefull for the Wits of the Time," was printed in 1646.

Charing Cross, we know, was pulled down, 1647, in June, July, and August. Part of the stones [were] converted to pave before Whitehall. I have seen knife-hafts made of some of the stones, which, being well polished, looked like marble.—Lilly's Observations on the Life, etc. of King Charles, 12mo, 1715, p. 81.

Undone, undone, the lawyers are,
   They wander about the towne,
Nor can find the way to Westminster
   Now Charing Cross is downe;
At the end of the Strand, they make a stand,
   Swearing they are at a loss,
And chaffing say, that's not the way,
   They must go by Charing Cross.
The Downfall of Charing Cross (Percy's Reliques, vol. ii. B. 3); and see Donne, Satyre IV. p. 135, ed. 1669.

There are several views of the Cross, but not one of much architectural value.³ John Carter made a sketch from a delineation of the Cross on an old silver salver. Usher witnessed the execution of Charles I. from the leads of Lady Peterborough's house near Charing Cross.⁴ The site of the Cross was made the scene of the execution of several of the regicides. Major-General Harrison was executed, October 13, 1660, "at the railed place where Charing Cross stood."⁵ Wood, who tells us this, adds that he was executed "with his face towards the Banqueting House at Whitehall." Four days after Thomas Scot, Gregory Clement, John Jones, and Robert Scrope were executed on the same spot, and men like Evelyn looked at the execution with satisfaction.

October 17, 1660.—Scot, Scroop, Cook, and Jones suffered for reward of their iniquities at Charing Cross, in sight of the place where they put to death their natural prince, and in the presence of the King his son whom they also sought to kill. I saw not their execution, but met their quarters, mangled and cut and reeking as they were brought from the gallows in baskets on the hurdle. Oh the miraculous providence of God! Evelyn, Diary.

Proclamations were read here, hence the allusion in Swift:—

Where all that passes inter nos
May be proclaimed at Charing Cross.

Here, in the pillory (as in a public place), stood Edmund Curll, the notorious bookseller; and here (June 10, 1731) Japhet Crook, alias Sir Peter Stranger, the Japhet of Pope's "Essay on the Use of Riches," was punished, after standing an hour in the pillory, by having his ears cropped and his nostrils slit and seared by the common hangman.

What can they give? to dying Hopkins heirs?
To Chartres, vigour? Japhet, nose and ears?

He had forged the conveyance of an estate to himself and mortgaged it for £4500; and obtained about the same time possession of a second estate by the fraudulent acquisition of a will.

The statue of Charles I. on horseback, the work of Hubert Le Sœur, was bought and set up in 1674.¹

This noble equestrian statue, in which the commanding grace of the figure and the exquisite form of the horse are striking to the most unpractised eye, was cast in 1633 in a spot of ground near the church in Covent Garden, and not being erected before the commencement of the Civil War, it was sold by the Parliament to John Rivet,² a brazier living at the Dial, near Holborn Conduit, with strict orders to break it in pieces. But the man produced some fragments of old brass, and concealed the statue and horse under ground till the Restoration. They had been made at the expense of the family of Howard-Arundel, who have still receipts to show by whom and for whom they were cast. They were set up in their present situation at the expense of the Crown, about 1678 [1674], by an order from the Earl of Danby, afterwards Duke of Leeds. The pedestal was made by Grinling Gibbons.³—Walpole, ed. Dallaway, vol. ii. p. 319.

Waller's poem "On the Statue of King Charles I. at Charing Cross, in the year 1674," is well known:—

That the First Charles does here in triumph ride,
See his son reign where he a Martyr died;
And people pay that reverence as they pass,
(Which then he wanted) to the sacred brass, etc.

The statue was erected under the superintendence of Sir Christopher Wren, who made two designs for the pedestal, which are now among his papers at Oxford. One of these closely resembles the pedestal carved by Gibbons; the other has Tritons at the angles. The popular belief that the statue of Charles I. was made at the expense of the family of Howard-Arundel is unfounded, though Walpole asserts that the family have still receipts to show by whom and for whom the statue and horse were cast. In Carpenter's Van Dyck (p. 189) is the copy of an undated memorandum to a scrivener to prepare a draft of an agreement between the Lord Treasurer Weston, afterwards Earl of Portland, and Hubert Le Sœur, "for the casting of a horse in brasse, bigger than a great horse by a foot; and the figure of his Ma^y King Charles proportionable, full six foot." The statue was to be cast of the best yellow and red copper, and set up in the gardens of the Lord Treasurer, at Roehampton, in Surrey. In making the model, it was agreed that Le Sœur should take the advice of His Majesty's riders of great horses; that he should have "for the full finishing the same in copper, and setting [it] in the place where it is to stand, the soume of six hundred pounds;"—that is, £50 at the sealing of the contract; £100 more in three months, by which time the model was to be ready for the approval of His Majesty and the Lords; £200 more when the work "shall be ready to be cast in copper;" £150 more when it should appear to be perfectly cast; and the last remaining £100 when the work is fully and perfectly finished, and set at Roehampton. Le Sœur undertook to execute the work in eighteen months, the time commencing from the day the covenant was dated. This memorandum, the original of which is in the Record Office, would appear, from Gerbier's letters, to have been drawn up in 1630. But Mr. Carpenter throws no further light on the matter, nor would it appear to have occurred to him that the statue ordered for Roehampton and the statue long afterwards set up at Charing Cross were one and the same. There can be no doubt of this. In Kennett's Register, under May 17, 1660, is the following entry:—

Discovery of the brass Statue of Charles I. on Horseback, now at Charing Cross.

Upon information to the House of Lords, that the Earl of Portland [the son of the Lord Treasurer] having lately discovered where a brass Horse is, with his late Majesty's figure upon it, which in justice, he conceives belongs to him, and there being no Courts of Justice now open wherein he can sue for it, doth humbly desire the Lords to be pleased to order that it may not be removed from the place where it now is, nor defaced, etc.—Kennett's Register, p. 150.

And under July 19, 1660, we have the following entry:

A Replevin for the brass Statue of King Charles I. on Horseback now at Charing Cross

Upon complaint made, that one John Rivett, a Brazier, refuseth to deliver to the Earl of Portland a statue in Brass of the late King on Horseback, according to an order of this House, it is ordered that the said John Rivett shall permit and suffer the Sheriff of London to serve a Replevin upon the said Statue and Horse of Brass that are now in his custody.—Kennett's Register, p. 206.

Any further proceedings in the matter do not appear, but Rivett probably resisted, for the statue, as we have seen, was not set up at Charing Cross until 1674. Hubert Le Sœur was a Frenchman, and pupil of John of Bologna. He arrived in this country at least as early as 1630, and is supposed to have died here. The metal casting round the left fore-foot of the horse has inscribed on it "HVBER[T] LESEVR [FE]CIT, 1633." The metal ribbon contains the hole from which the George was hung. The King's sword was stolen from the statue when Queen Victoria was on her way to open the Royal Exchange, October 28, 1844.¹ Strype says that Rivett, the brazier, "presented" the statue to Charles II.² The King was more likely to accept the statue than to pay for it. Residents at Charing Cross.—Sir Harry Vane, the younger, next Northumberland House. Isaac Barrow, the divine, who, being on a visit to London, died "in mean lodgings at a sadler's, near Charing Cross; an old, low, ill-built house, which he had used for several years,"³ and still standing at the commencement of the present century. Rhodes, the bookseller, at the Ship at Charing Cross; he had been formerly wardrobe-keeper at the Blackfriars Theatre, and in 1659 opened the Cockpit Theatre in Drury Lane, and there Betterton, who, according to Cibber and Gildon,⁴ was Rhodes's apprentice, made his first essays in acting. Curran and Sir Jonah Barrington "were in the habit of frequenting the Cannon Coffee-house, Charing Cross," where they "had a box every day at the end of the room."⁵ In her British Synonymy (vol. ii. p. 50) Mrs. Piozzi mentions the sign of "The Hare running over the heads of Three Nuns, which used to stand at Charing Cross." Samuel Prior, uncle of Matthew Prior, kept the Rummer Tavern near Charing Cross in 1685, and here the Earl of Dorset found the young poet reading Horace. Thomas Campbell in 1833 lived at the Salopian with Telford, and calls Charing Cross "a roaring vortex," very unfriendly to study or composition.

When he [Sir Edward Seymour] was Speaker [temp. Charles II.], his coach broke at Charing Cross; and he ordered the beadles to stop the next gentleman's they met, and bring it to him. The gentleman in it was much surprised to be turned out of his own coach; but Sir Edward told him it was more proper for him to walk the streets than the Speaker of the House of Commons, and left him so to do without any further apology.—Lord Dartmouth, in Burnet, ed. 1823, vol. ii. p. 70.

You have lost nothing by missing yesterday at the Trials. Poor brave old Balmerino retracted his plea, asked pardon, and desired the Lords to intercede for mercy. As he returned to the Tower he stopped the coach at Charing Cross to buy "honey blobs," as the Scotch call gooseberries.—Walpole to Montague, August 2, 1746.

I talked of the cheerfulness of Fleet Street, owing to the quick succession of people which we perceive passing through it. Johnson. Why, sir, Fleet Street has a very animated appearance; but I think the full tide of human existence is at Charing Cross.—Boswell, by Croker, p. 443.

Charing Cross was a busy place long before Johnson's day.

So soon as the term begins, I'll change my lodging; it stands out o' the way: I'll lie about Charing Cross, for if there be any stirring, there we shall have them. —Westward Ho, 1607, 4to.

In the overseer's books of St. Martin's-in-the- Fields, and in the rhymes on the statue of Charles I., quoted below, we have the earliest notices of Punch in England.

1666. March 29.	Rec. of Punchinello ye Itallian popet player for his Booth at Charing Cross . . . .	£ s. d. 2 12 6
1667. June 12.	Rec. of Punchinello ye Itallian popet player for his Booth at Charing Cross . . . .	1 0 0
" Feb. 13.	Rec. from Punchinello . . . . .	1 7 6
" May 15.	Recd more from Punchinello . . . .	1 2 6

Under 1668–1669 occur four entries of payments, varying from £1 : 10s. to £1 : 15s. by "Mons. Devone for his Playhouse."

What can the Mistry be why Chareing Crosse
These five moneths continue still blinded with board,
Deare Wheeler impart, wee are all att a losse,
Unless Punchinello is to be restor'd.
Andrew Marvell, On King Charles the First his Statue. Why it is so long before it is put up at Chareing Crosse (Harl. MS. 7315). Marvell's Works, vol. i. p. xiii.

Alterations made at Charing Cross some thirty years ago gave rise to "An excellent New Ballad: Being entitled a Lamentation over the Golden Cross, Charing Cross," attributed to the lively pen of Dr. Maginn, but it hardly seems worth while to cite it in face of the far greater changes effected by the more recent demolition of Northumberland House and the formation of Northumberland Avenue and the construction of the Charing Cross Railway Station and Hotel. [See those headings: Golden Cross; Swan at Charing Cross; and Charing Cross Station.]

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¹ Scott, Personal and Professional Recollections, p. 285.
² There are one or two other Charings in England; one in Kent. Mr. Taylor (Words and Places, p. 502) thinks the name is derived from the Cerrings, a widely-spread Saxon family. Ing is the A.S. patronymic. A contributor to the Notes and Queries (1st S. vol. v. p. 486) quotes the following passage from Somner's notes on Lipsius, appended to Meric Casaubon's Commentatio de Quatuor Linguis: "Atque hinc, a viarum (scil.) et platearum diverticulis, ut in compitis, pluribus apud nostrates locis hoc nomen olim inditum, quod postea in Cerring mutatum, tandem transiit (ut nunc dierum) in Charing; quomodo quadrivium sive compitum illud nuncupatur in suburbiis Londinensibus, ab occidente, prope Westmonasterium, Charing Crosse, vulgo dictum." When the Cross was erected Charing was not even a village; fields surrounded the Cross both north and west.
³ "On the death of Eleanor of Castile, Consort of King Edward the First, and the honours paid to her memory. By the Rev. Joseph Hunter."—Archæologia, vol. xxix. pp. 167–191.
⁴ Turner's Household Expenses in the 13th and 15th Centuries.

¹ Whitelocke, ed. 1732, p. 69.
² Westward Ho (1607); Decker's Works, vol. ii. pp. 294, 295.
³ The drawing described by Pennant, and engraved by Wilkinson, is now in the Crowle Collection in the British Museum.
⁴ Life, p. 72.
⁵ Wood's Ath. Ox., vol. ii. p. 78, and Ludlow's Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 69.

¹ Burnet, ed. 1823, vol. ii. p. 53, and Waller's Poem on the Statue. Ogilby (1675) speaks of the statue as "now erecting."
² There was a Thomas Rivett in the Assay Office of the Mint in the reign of William III. (Mint Accounts).
³ The pedestal was really the work of Joshua Marshall.—Master Mason to King Charles II. See note by Peter Cunningham in Gentleman's Magazine, July 1851, p. 10. Hollar gives a representation of the equestrian figure mounted on a plain moulded and panelled pedestal, much lower than the present one.

¹ The sword had been loose previously. The sword, buckles and straps, fell from the equestrian statue of Charles I. at Charing Cross.—Annual Register, April 14, 1810.
² Strype, B. vi. p. 77.
³ Pope, Life of Seth Ward, p. 176.
⁴ Life of Thomas Betterton.
⁵ Harrington's Personal Sketches.