SHOPS IN A CHURCH PORCH

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXI, 4 August 1928, Page 3

SHOPS IN A CHURCH PORCH

■ <gg3— In the porch of the Church of St. Ethelburga, Bishopsgate, the smallest church, in the ..City of London, there are two little shops which date back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It is thought that the shops originated as booths shortly after the Reformation. The first, which is so small that a man standing in the middle of it with outstretched arms can almost touch the walls, was erected in 1570, and has for centuries been known as "the ' little shop." The second, known as "the great shop," was built-in 1614. Until 1891, when they came into possession of the City Parochial Charity Commission, the shops were owned by the church, which used the rents for parish purposes. • • Ted (who had just.had a wireless installed) : "I say, Bill, would you believe it? I was listening-in last night and I heard a fellow singing in America, and ours is only a crystal set." Bill: "That's nothing. Why, this afternoon I heard my wife stirring her tea in china, and ours is only a tea set." ".'