The Sir Paul Pindar, Bishopsgate Street, ca.1878

From: A.& J. Bool

RA Collection: Art

"Since the photograph was taken, the house on the spectator's left, marked as the site of a new hospital, has been destroyed. It contained a superb ceiling, which, on representations made by this Society, was secured by the South Kensington Museum. The style of this ceiling, exactly corresponding with one in the public house next door, seems to leave no doubt - though the question has been raised - that this house also formed part of the magnificent mansion erected in the reign of James I. by Sir Paul Pindar, one of the greatest and wealthiest merchant princes of his day. One of his achievements was the introduction into this country of the method of making allum, or allom as it was then spelt, which had before his time been imported from abroad. It is impossible in our limits to give either any account of his career, or to describe his splendid house. Those who wish for information on these heads are referred to Wilkinson's Londina Illustrata; Smith's (J.T.) Ancient Topography of London; European Magazine for 1787, and Gentleman's Magazine for the same year; Archer's Vestiges of Old London ; and lastly, an admirable paper by the Rev. Thomas Hugo, in the Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archælogical Society for 1857. The "Sir Paul Pindar" will not long survive the fate of the house formerly adjoining it on the south, as it has also been purchased for the Metropolitan Free Hospital."

The above description, by Alfred Marks, was taken from the letterpress which accompanies the photographs. By the late eighteenth century, the building shown in A&J Bool's photograph had become a public house which was demolished in 1890, not to make way for the Metropolitan Free Hospital but as part of the expansion of Liverpool Street Station. After the Great Fire, wooden facades were considered to be fire hazards, so it is fortunate that a section of the 'Sir Paul Pindar' facade has survived and is now in the collection of the Victorian and Albert Museum having been presented to the Museum by The Great Eastern Railway Company.