58. The Blakeney's Head Public-house, 35, Bartholomew Close, 1887 (Black and white).
A sign derived from a famous commander, like that mentioned in the note to No. 56, was the Blakeney's Head, 35, Bartholomew Close—a memorial of the man who so bravely defended Minorca against the French in 1756. In the year 1890 the house was untenanted. It remained closed and in a dilapidated condition for some time, but about 1895 was done up and re-christened the Rahere, after the founder of St. Bartholomew's Priory and Hospital. In June, 1900, having changed its name a second time, it was again closed, and was destroyed soon afterwards.
59. The Green Man and Still, Cow Cross Street, Clerkenwell, 1886 (Black and white).
This picturesque little ale-house had absolutely no history as far as the writer could discover, but it must have dated from the latter part of the seventeenth century. It was rebuilt about 1889. Stow says:—"On the left-hand side of St. John Street lieth a lane called Cow Cross, of a cross some time standing there, which lane turneth to another lane called Turnmill Street."
60. Chimney-piece in the Baptist's Head Public-house, St. John's Lane, Clerkenwell, 1889 (Black and white).
On the eastern side of St. John's Lane, Clerkenwell, near the old Priory Gate, a stuccoed public-house with the above sign stood until about the year 1895. Though outwardly modern and commonplace, a fragment of it had once formed part of a mansion which, early in the sixteenth century, belonged to Sir Thomas Forster, a judge of the Common Pleas, who died in 1612. The chimney-piece, here portrayed, was in the taproom. It is of fine Reigate stone, the frieze being ornamented with fruit and flowers. In the centre are arms, and on each side a crest, thus heraldically described by Cromwell in his History of Clerkenwell:—"The arms are quarterly; first and fourth argent; a chevron vert between three bugle-horns sable, for the family of Radclyffe with which that of Forster intermarried, the crescent being introduced as the filial distinction of a second house. The Buck at one end was the original crest of the Forsters; the Talbot's head at the other, with the crescent, might be that of this branch of the Radclyffe's." The frieze was supported by pilasters in the same style, and one side of the room had panelling of the linen pattern. This was apparently all that remained of the original house, which, in the days of its splendour, must have covered a good deal of ground, for it had another frontage in St. John Street; it was then ornamented by grotesque carvings, and had bay windows with painted glass. The sign may have been selected out of compliment to Sir Baptist Hicks, afterwards Lord Campden, who built a Sessions-house hard by. In the 18th century the Baptist's Head was doubtless resorted to by some of the literary men who worked for Cave; it also afforded solace to a very different class, as we learn from a print in the "Malefactor's Register," which represents prisoners, on their way to Newgate, halting here for refreshment; the view of the old house is interesting. For further information on the subject of this chimney-piece and of the Forster family, see Archer's "Vestiges of Old London (1851)," where it is also figured. It has now found its way into an upper room of St. John's Gate, which is occupied by the St. John's Ambulance Association.