The Wards of Old London: Portsoken - St Katharine's Hospital & Docks

This is the second of two posts on Portsoken Ward. The earlier one having dealt with its Saxon history, we come now to the Medieval and Modern eras. The somewhat mysterious "Knighten Guilde," established under King Edgar the Peaceable, did not long survive the Norman Conquest. There were only thirteen "knights," some of whom probably died at Stamford Bridge, and others at Hastings. Those who remained, and their heirs and successors, almost certainly lost their right to bear arms. The Guild continued in name only and, in 1115, its members gifted their land to the Augustinian Priory of Holy Trinity Within Aldgate.

In 1147, Queen Matilda, the consort of King Stephen, established a hospital dedicated to Saint Katharine at the southern end of Portsoken Ward, to the east of the Tower of London. That she did this with the support and assistance of the Augustinian Prior, who had a close relationship with the Royal Family, is almost certain.

The east end of the hospital church (image is in the Public Domain).

The hospital, London's second (after Barts), had a master, three brothers, three sisters, and a bedeswoman (an almswoman whose role was to pray for the benefactors). Whilst its medical facilities are likely to have been limited (one can, perhaps, imagine novices running between the city's various monastic houses in search of herbs), it played an important role, over almost eight centuries, in providing what we might today call "palliative care," for people severely disabled, or otherwise unable to care for themselves. By 1442, it had twenty-three acres of land, with its own prison, officers and court, all operating outside the ecclesiastical and civil jurisdiction of the City of London.

Saint Katharine by the Tower (image is in the Public Domain).

Like London's other religious houses, it was dissolved at the time of the Reformation, but was almost immediately re-established as a Protestant institution under Henry VIII. By this time, it had a brewery, and more than a thousand homes: a magnet for craftsmen who were not members of the City Guilds; for seamen and rivermen; but also for prostitutes (who were not allowed to operate within the City); and for those evading justice. The street-names tell their own stories: Dark Entry; Cat's Hole; Shovel Alley; Rookery; Pillory Lane.

The Brothers' House of the hospital in 1781 (image is in the Public Domain).

The rivermen who lived within this expanding, and increasingly insanitary and lawless, village to the east of the city used their boats to unload cargoes from ships that sailed directly into, and berthed in, the Pool of London (the stretch of river between the Tower and London Bridge). As Britain's mercantile economy grew, this expanse of water became more and more crowded with ships.

The London docks in 1757 (image is in the Public Domain).

Detail from the Rhinebeek Panorama of 1806, Museum of London (image is in the Public Domain).

In 1825, an Act of Parliament provided for the creation of a new enclosed dock, to be built by the engineer, Thomas Telford. The Medieval hospital buildings were razed to the ground, and, with them, around 1250 homes, 11,300 people forced to move northwards, into the already overcrowded slums of Stepney and Whitechapel.

The plan for Saint Katharine's Docks (image is in the Public Domain).

Saint Katharine's Docks under construction, by William Ranwell (image is in the Public Domain).

The opening of Saint Katharine's Docks in 1828, by W.J. Huggins (image is in the Public Domain).

Saint Katharine's Docks were never a commercial success. Even as they were created, ships were being built, only a few miles downstream, that would be too large to enter them. Ivory, sugar, marble, rubber, carpets, spices, perfumes and indigo, were unloaded at Saint Katharine's for a period of decades only, before shifting to newer, and much larger, docks to the east.

Saint Katharine's Docks: Photo: Metropolitan Police, NPAS.

Saint Katharine's Docks. Photo: Matthias v.d. Elbe (licensed under CCA).

The docks themselves survive (now a marina for pleasure-boats, surrounded by hotels, restaurants and luxury apartments), and with them the dedication to Saint Katherine, which, for most visitors today, is only a name.

Post-Script: I recently learned that a series of misericords and other Fourteenth Century wooden sculptures from Saint Katherine have survived, and may be viewed by arrangement at the Royal Foundation of Saint Katharine in Limehouse. Further information may be found here.

Mark Patton's novels, Undreamed Shores, An Accidental King, and Omphalos, are published by Crooked Cat Publications, and can be purchased from Amazon. He is currently working on The Cheapside Tales, a London-based trilogy of historical novels.

The Wards of Old London: Portsoken - Wargames and Wayfarers

We have now completed our tour of the intramural wards of the City of London, and should now turn our attention to the extramural wards. We begin at Aldgate, the main eastward-facing gate of the city, and we will follow, once again, the course of the Roman and Medieval walls, but this time in a northerly and westerly direction, and on the outside, rather than the inside of the walls. Some of these wards will merit more than one post, being larger than many of the intramural wards, and having more complex histories. Portsoken Ward lies immediately beyond Aldgate.

1870 map of London Wards. Image: Doc77can (licensed under CCA).

The Elizabethan chronicler, John Stow, who had access to documents that no longer exist, including records destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666, tells us that:

"This Portsoken, which soundeth the franchise at the gate, was sometime a guild, and had beginning in the days of King Edgar, more than six hundred years since. There were thirteen knights or soldiers, well-beloved to the king and realm, for service by them done, which requested to have a certain portion of land on the east part of the city, left desolate and forsaken by the inhabitants ... They besought the king to have this land, with the liberty of a guild for ever. The king granted to their request, with conditions following: that is that each of them should victoriously accomplish three combats, one above the ground, one under ground, and the third in the water; and after this, at a certain day in East Smithfield, they should run with spears against all comers; all of which was gloriously performed; and the same day the king named it Knighten Guild, and so bounded it, from Aldgate to the place where the bars now are, toward the east, on both sides of the street, and extended it towards Bishopsgate in the north ... "

The King Edgar referred to must surely be Edgar the Peaceable, who reigned from 959 to 975 AD. Smithfield was frequently used for jousting and tournaments in the High Middle Ages, but this was a tradition that emerged only after the Norman Conquest. For clues as to what may have been involved here, we must look, on the one hand, to archaeological evidence beyond London; and, on the other hand, to literary sources.

King Edgar the Peaceable, from the New Minster Charter (image is in the Public Domain).

The equipment of elite Anglo-Saxon warriors has been recovered from excavations on a number of sites, including Sutton Hoo, the City of York, Abingdon, and, most recently, the Staffordshire Hoard. The latter is, perhaps, the most surprising discovery: it had previously been assumed that a heavily embellished sword such as those found at Sutton Hoo and Abingdon, would be wielded only by a king, but the Eighth Century hoard includes the decorated pommels of more than seventy of these weapons. The "combats" above ground may simply have been display fights or non-lethal contests between these elite warriors, or they may have involved wrestling, and similar trials of strength.

The 9th Century Abingdon Sword. Photo: Geni (licensed under GNU).

A re-enactor wearing armour based on that found at Sutton Hoo. Photo: Ziko-C (licensed under GNU) 

A 12th Century font at Eardisley, Herefordshire, depicts knights in single combat. Although post-Conquest, the art-work is clearly suggestive of an earlier tradition. Photo: Poliphilo (licensed under CCA).

"Underground combats" are a little more difficult to explain (London is unlikely to have had many underground spaces in which such combats might take place), but I am reminded of the passage in Beowulf in which the eponymous hero enters an ancient burial mound to confront a dragon:

"Then the bold warrior stood up beside his shield, resolute beneath his helm. Wearing his grim mail he strode up to the stony cliffs, trusting in the strength of one man alone - such is no craven's feat! Then he who, with manly virtue, had passed through many a host of battles and a clash of war, when the ranks of men smote together, saw now at the mound's side a stone-arch standing from whence a stream came hurrying from the hill. The boiling water of that hill was hot with deadly fires; no man could long while endure unscorched that deep place nigh the hoard by reason of the dragon's flame .. " (translation by J.R.R. Tolkien).

The Anglo-Saxon helmet from Coppergate, York, 700-820 AD. Photo: York Museums Trust Online Collection (licensed under CCA).

No such mounds are to be found in the immediate vicinity of London, but might such fights have been staged around monuments such as Wayland's Smithy in Oxfordshire, or Coldrum long-barrow in Kent?

Wayland's Smithy, Oxfordshire. Photo: Msemmett (licensed under CCA).

Beowulf may, similarly, provide us with a clue as to the "combat" in water. As a young man, the hero had competed in swimming competitions, sometimes wearing armour. Members of the re-enactment society, Regia Anglorum, have tried this out, even swimming in mail-shirts: "The effect is to place your body in a more legs-down position in the water. This makes for tiresome swimming, and we found that the breast-stroke was the only really viable way to swim." Might such contests have been held in the Thames at slack water?

The running with spears at "all comers" may have provided an opportunity, using non-lethal weapons, for young men to test and prove their prowess, perhaps, in time, gaining admission to the Guild itself, on the death or retirement of older members.

Stow tells us that, in 1115, the descendants of these "knights" gifted the land to the Priory of Holy Trinity Within Aldgate. Among those named are some whose origins must surely have been Anglo-Saxon (Edward Hupcornehill, Blackstanus, Alwin, Wiso, the sons of Leafstanus the goldsmith); and others whose names are unambiguously Norman (Radulphus Fitalgod, Wilmarde le Deuereshe, Orgare le Prude, Hugh Fitzvulgar, Algare Secusme), presumably the descendants of the daughters of Anglo-Saxon "knights" who married Norman ones.

Within the ward is also a church dedicated to Saint Botolph, a Seventh Century East Anglian abbott. Whilst the present church dates to the Eighteenth Century, its origins are likely to be pre-conquest. It is one of four London churches dedicated to him, all of which stand (or stood) outside city gates on major route-ways (the others being St Botolph Billingsgate, St Botolph Aldersgate and St Botolph Bishopsgate). Saint Botolph was the patron saint of wayfarers and travelers, so these were churches at which outgoing travelers could pray for a safe journey, and incomers give thanks for one. One has to wonder whether these churches replaced earlier Pagan shrines to Janus, who played a similar role.

The Church of Saint Botolph, Aldgate. Photo: Superbfc (licensed under GNU).

Mark Patton's novels, Undreamed Shores, An Accidental King, and Omphalos, are published by Crooked Cat Publications, and can be purchased from Amazon. He is currently working on The Cheapside Tales, a London-based trilogy of historical novels.