Motley Talk & Walk around Holborn & Hatton Garden
A fascinating history of gardens, a dancing chancellor, tragedy and diamonds. Who would have thought dull Holborn could hide so much?
Dear Friends, I decided to visit Hatton Garden, the diamond district of London. Although the area seems modern, utilitarian and dull, it has a fascinating history. I arrived at Holborn tube station and immediately turned away from the everyday noise and pollution of city life, to the peaceful gardens of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, just a short walk away.
Lincoln’s Inn Fields is the largest public square in London. When it was first developed it was a very fashionable part of London with correspondingly grand houses. Overlooking the gardens is the remarkable and quite unique Sir John Soane’s museum. Soane (1753 - 1857) was a neoclassical architect and collector of the most astonishing amount of stuff (40,000 objects!), in his extraordinary house, all displayed as it was when he lived there. I love this museum – it is full of delicate, interesting objects, though I don’t understand how Victorian women in their full skirts managed to navigate through the rooms! Amongst it all is the Egyptian sarcophagus of King Seti I, carved out of a single piece of Egyptian alabaster.
In 1824, after Soane bought the sarcophagus, he held a party to celebrate, for 1000 people (in that cramped space!), that lasted three days! The museum is free.
Walking past the museum and up to busy Chancery Lane, I turned into the unprepossessing Brooke Street (not to be confused with Brook Street in Mayfair), the scene of two infamous tragedies. I closed my eyes shutting out the view of this ordinary street with its modern buildings, and imagined the large, luxurious Elizabethan house of Sir Fluke Grenville (1554 to 1628). His house was outside the City of London and surrounded by gardens. Grenville was a poet, dramatist, and statesman. Brooke Street and Grenville Street are named after him.
As Agatha Christie noted in A Caribbean Mystery, it is a bad idea to disclose the contents of your will. In 1628 Ralph Haywood, who was was one of Grenville’s servants, believed he had been left out of his elderly master’s will – so he stabbed Grenville, then killed himself. Luckily Grenville did not die, but his doctors treated his wounds by filling them with pig fat. The pig fat turned rancid and infected the wounds, and Grenville died in agony four weeks after the attack.
In my imagination I then moved forward nearly 150 years. Grenville’s house and gardens (roughly at the beginning of Brooke Street) had been demolished. Lodging in one of the run-down houses now on Brooke Street was 17-year-old Thomas Chatterton, who had come to London seeking fame & fortune as a poet.
The reality was, though Chatterton’s talent was recognised after his death, his hopes & dreams had come to nothing. He was starving and had no money to support himself, let alone his dependant grandmother, mother and sister at home in Bristol. So, on a hot August evening in 1770, the despairing teenager tore up all his poems, drank arsenic and died in his small attic room.
A few days later Dr Thomas Fry came to London with the intention of giving Chatterton financial support.
I walked on towards Hatton Garden through small streets surrounded by mostly modern buildings. But, as the name Hatton Garden suggests, this area was once full of gardens.
In medieval times Bishops had considerable power & influence and lived like aristocracy. They had to attend court at Westminster, and therefore most Bishops had a London residence. The medieval bishops of Ely had a palace, gardens (famous for their strawberries) and orchards (around 60 acres) in an area that was called Holborn Hill. All that remains of Ely Palace is the chapel of St Etheldreda's.
So how was the name changed to Hatton Garden? The area received its present name courtesy of Christopher Hatton (1540-1591), who was tall, good looking and a very graceful dancer, and who became a favourite of Queen Elizabeth 1. He rose rapidly in her court, was knighted and became Lord Chancellor. Though Sir Christopher was always looking for ways to advance his position, he remained loyal to the Queen all his life. He never married.
When Sir Christopher decided that he needed a house worthy of his new station, he thought the area of Holborn Hill looked nice. After the Queen put a little pressure on the Bishop of Ely, Sir Christopher was allowed to rent the gatehouse of the palace and 14 acres, for 21 years. Sir Christopher immediately began to improve the property, spending a large amount of money that he borrowed from the Queen.
Then Sir Christopher asked the Queen to give him the whole palace and gardens, and the Queen wrote to the Bishop of Ely requesting that the lands should be given to her, until the Bishop could pay back Sir Christopher for his expenditure on the estate. The Bishop could not raise the cash, and so palace and lands were made over to the Queen, who gave them to Sir Christopher.
When a later Bishop of Ely decided to renege on the agreement the Queen sent a stern message, “Proud Prelate! I understand you are backward in complying with your agreement: but I would have you know that I, who made you what you are, can unmake you; and if you do not forthwith fulfil your engagement, by [date] I will immediately unfrock you. Elizabeth R."
Queen Elizabeth rarely lent money and after a while she demanded Sir Christopher repay his debt, which he was unable to do. This caused a rift, though in 1591 when he lay dying in Ely Palace, the Queen visited him.
I had arrived at Hatton Garden (the street). The diamond district of Hatton Garden revolves around the street of the same name. At the end of the 19th Century De Beers, who had a monopoly on diamonds, decided to sell all of its stones through London, in Hatton Garden, and the trade was mostly run by Orthodox Jews.
Trade in Hatton Garden was wholesale, with perhaps an occasional private sale. There were no retail shops. In her excellent book about her family in Hatton Garden, Rachel Lichtenstein writes, “Until the Second World War, business [diamond trading] was conducted on the street, or in one of several kosher cafes. Prices were agreed with a handshake and a cry of 'Mazel'.' The first jewellery shops in the area opened in the 1960s.
Nowadays the cutting, polishing and trading of diamonds still goes on in Hatton Garden but to a lesser degree and behind locked doors with heavy security, either in top floor rooms, or in the warren of workrooms and strong rooms under the buildings. But that did not stop a burglary at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd, at 88-90 Hatton Garden; a small underground vault with impressive security.
Over the Easter weekend in 2015 the gang entered the premises through a lift shaft and drilled through the 50 cm thick vault walls. Then they took the equivalent of £16 million in diamonds and jewellery. All but one of the thieves was caught and imprisoned, but only a portion of the diamonds & jewellery was ever recovered. The gang were professional thieves, but all were getting on in years. The leader was 76 years old and the average age of the six men in the gang was 63! Click here to watch the trailer for the film ‘Hatton Garden, the heist’.
At the end of my walk I went to Ye Old Mitre pub for a drink and a sandwich. The pub is in a tiny alleyway off the bottom of Hatton Garden, and well worth a visit.