47. Deanery of St. Paul's, 1891 (Black and white).
This house was built by Wren, after the Great Fire, on the site of the former Deanery, but shorn of the chief part of its garden stretching down to the river, which was portioned off in building leases to defray the cost of the new structure. In our drawing the high gates almost concealed the porch, which is ornamented with carved festoons of flowers. There is also a handsome staircase. Many years ago rooks used to build in the plane-trees in front. The drawing was taken from the steps of No. 5 Dean's Court, now destroyed, where was the Vicar-General's Office for Marriage Licences.
48. Dean's Court, St. Paul's Churchyard, 1894 (Water-colour).
The Deanery stands in Dean's Court, and the wall enclosing it is here shown on the left, the artist's standpoint being very close to that in No. 47. In 1894 great changes took place at this spot, which had before been singularly quiet and old-fashioned. The entrance from St. Paul's Churchyard was, before, through an archway, under a house dating from immediately after the Great Fire, which was said traditionally to have been used by Wren as an office during the rebuilding of St. Paul's. This house appears in course of demolition, while the ground on the right lies vacant, and we are thus enabled to have a glimpse of the cathedral, soon afterwards again quite concealed. The buildings to the east, facing St. Paul's Churchyard, together with the Vicar-General's office and other houses on the same side of Dean's Court, were cleared away to enable Messrs. Pawson and Co. to extend their warehouses, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners having granted them a building lease for that purpose. Dean's Court did not actually form part of the precincts of Doctors' Commons (finally cleared away in 1867), but was associated with it and in its immediate neighbourhood. Sam Weller, in "Pickwick," thus humourously refers to the entrance:—"St. Paul's Churchyard—low archway on the carriage side, bookseller's at one corner, hotel on the other, and two porters in the middle as touts for licences." It was here that his father was inveigled into matrimony.
49. St. Paul's Churchyard, laid out as a Garden (Black and white).