PASSING LANDMARKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20366, 21 September 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

PASSING LANDMARKS.

,THE INFAMOUS JEFFREYS.

CAPTURE BY THE MOB

OLD PUBLIC HOUSE REMOVED,

There are old men in tapping, London, quaint riverside characters steeped in riverside ]oie—who are opt to shake their heads regretfully at the passing of grimy landmarks familiar to their youth, and declare that before long they will scarcely be able to lind their way about their native borough. Oho such landmark, the demolition of which has taken place, recently in preparation foi ihts London County Council housing scheme just north of Wapping High iSli-ect, was tho old public house which stood for years at 11»<- corner of Green Bank and Red Linn Street. It was there, nearlv two centuries and a half ago, that the in famous Judge .Jeffreys, Lord Chief Justice of England, was captured by an infuriated mob, which " to it eternal honour" in tho words of Dickens, fell just short of tearing liiri in pieces. .Jeffreys had lied London on tho downfall and abdication ol his patron, James ][., .ind. disguised as a sailor, had hidden himself in tho obscure ale-house, hoping to escape by water. Il«> was recognised by a scrivener who had on< e appeared befoit' 1 hi 111 as a witness', and was subsequently dragged trotu Ihe cellar by the mob, unnierciiullv beaten, and taken afterwards to the lower, where be died. hio far a, is known, the original alebouse stood on tli" site of that w hi'"h has been pulled down, in what, was then Anchor-and-llope Alley but is now Red Lion Street. Under tho name of ' Jhe Bed Cow" it was familiar to every docker and sdiloniuu in tho district, most of whom were acquainted with the story of tho Judge. " The J led 06w" was flanked on one si do by Queens' Head Alley, a narrow passage consisting of Seventeenth Century houses, honeycombed deep cellars, which arc now a slum. 1 hese houses will shortly be demolished under the J/judoti County Council scheme. J here if. a local tradition that a tunnel runs from under Queen's Head Alley as far as tho Tower. Mrs. Holmes, a lesideut, who accompanied the writer recently 011 a tour "f inspection of the cellats, showed by Mumping heavily on the floot, that therfi war, undoubtedly a hollow spate beneath, which, s>lm said, had been blicked over in past times, since tlu: cellars were used a., living places. 'I ley arc in tact Mill in us v\ash houses. It seems not unlikelv that tho ecllai in which Jeffreys was finally taken was one. of tl'iesc with which waterside alehouses Mere sometimes equipped in tho good old d.iy.i for thf use of press-gangs, who thus rusiiy kidnapper the drunken men v 110 had been thrown into them and conveyed the,,, on board ship. Jl is stated that one RU'. li <-.•:) ■ 1 had lei ojit ly been excavated in the foundations "i an ancient publichouse in the neighbourhood. _ , An oU'eial <<f the Borough Surveyors Olli"e staled Ili.it. 1 hey were expecting to conic across features of great, interest to historians when the. work of demolition is begun.