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Number One Prescot Street

HISTORY

Opened in 1932 as the London Headquarters of the Co-Operative Wholesale Society (CWS), Number One Prescot Street is a stunning example of Art Deco architecture of a quality rarely found in London.

Designed by CWS architect LG Ekins; Number One Prescot Street was once the focus of an impressive trading complex.

As can be seen today, Number One Prescot Street is a striking building.  The Ekins design features two tiers of dormer windows; other exterior features are coloured bands running through substantial dark brown brickworks, patterned brickwork and parapets, and has reliefs of human figures.

Number One Prescot Street’s architectural importance means it is protected as a Grade II listed building.

Goodman Fields

Bounded by Mansell Street, Great Ayline (now Alie) Street, Leman Street and (Great) Prescot Street. The area was shown on a map of 1792 as an enclosed square called Goodman’s Fields.

The fields were a ‘tender’ Ground. They were used for the once common occupation of stretching out newly woven or dyed cloth to dry on frames fitted with bent nails.

The Fields, with Goodman’s Stile, at the end of Alie Street, and Goodman’s Yard and Court, diagonally opposite here, were named after Roland Goodman. He farmed here in 1535, and supplied provisions to the nuns of St Clare’s Abby, the sorores minories (Latin for ‘little sisters’) – hence the nearby street name ‘Minories’.

In 1741, the great actor/manager David Garrick made a sensational stage debut at the Goodman’s Fields Theatre, in the title role of Shakespeare’s Richard III. The theatre closed soon afterwards as a result of lobbying by rival establishments jealous of its success. A later Garrick Theatre opened in nearby Leman Street in the 1830’s, but closed again in 1881.

The Tower of London

Around the corner is the Tower of London. At its heart is the White Tower, built on the orders of William the Conqueror. Begun in 1077, it was finished twenty years later. The two outer defensive rings were built in the reigns of Henry III and Edward I.

The Tower subsequently served as garrison, armoury, prison, palace, mint, and observatory, and, until 1834, also housed a menagerie. Amongst the eminent people gaoled in the Tower were three queens of England – Anne Boleyn, Jane Grey and Elizabeth I. Henry VIII’s Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, and the explorer, courtier and poet Sir Walter Raleigh, spent their last days here.

The Crown Jewels housed in the Tower include the ancient Ampulla and Spoon, used to anoint the new sovereign. Other major items are the swords of State, Mercy and Justice, the Orb and Sceptre, the Spurs, Rod, Staff, and Coronation Ring, and several Crowns.

Nearby Tower Hill was once a place of public hanging and executions. Most of the victims had previously been held in the Tower of London. The last executions on Tower Hill took place in 1747, when three supporters of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s rebellion – the Lords Balmerino, Kilmarnock, and Lovat – were put to death.

Aldgate (The Old Gate)

The area of Aldgate takes its name from the huge stone gatehouse which once stood about a quarter-mile from Number One Prescot Street.  It may have been one of the six gates built by the Romans in the walls which protected the city of London.

From 1374, the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages, Geoffrey Chaucer, rented rooms in the Aldgate, which had been rebuilt in the 12th century. Chaucer had just been appointed Controller of Customs and Subsidy of Woods, Skins, and Tanned Hides for the Port of London, and needed a residence near his work. However, he would already have been known to the area, as his father – a vintner and tavern-keeper, and deputy butler to King Edward III – owned many shops in Whitechapel.

The Aldgate was again rebuilt in the early 17th century but was demolished in 1761 as an obstruction to traffic. The areas of Aldgate and the neighbouring Whitechapel grew up as shanty-towns outside the City wall catering for travellers on the roads to the east. The original White Chapel stood a half-mile north-east of here, by White Church Lane. It was replaced by St Mary’s Church, several times rebuilt, but finally destroyed in the Blitz.

St Mary’s Churchyard was the burial-place Richard Brandon, who lived near here in what is now Royal Mint Street. Brandon was the executioner of King Charles I.