Chances are you understand London’s most well-known architecturally important buildings such because the Shard, the Gherkin, and The Houses of Parliament.
But what concerning the capital’s lesser-known buildings?
Rife with historical past and architectural curiosity, some of London’s most fascinating buildings are hidden in plain sight, unbeknown to the 1000’s of individuals who cross them by day-after-day.
One such building is Canonbury Tower, a Tudor building in Islington, North London.
It is the oldest building in Islington and essentially the most substantial remaining half of what was Canonbury House, erected for the Canons of St Bartholomew’s Priory between 1509 and 1532.
It is a Grade II listed building and is positioned in Canonbury Place, 100 metres (330 ft) east of Canonbury Square, and, in accordance with the Telegraph, “was like a skyscraper of its time.”
Once lockdown is over, Londoners will have the ability to entry the tower and its view, because the building opened to the general public in 2016.
The tower has been occupied by many historic figures, together with Sir Francis Bacon and Oliver Goldsmith.
When Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, St Bartholomew’s and its appendages have been among the many final to be taken.
Prior Robert Fuller surrendered the Priory and its lands to the Crown on 25 October 1539.
(Image: Julian Osley/Creative Commons)
Henry VIII bestowed the manor of Canonbury on his Chief Minister for the Dissolution, Thomas Cromwell, solely a yr earlier than his execution on 28 July 1540.
From 1616 to 1625, the home was leased to Sir Francis Bacon, thinker and statesman, who was at first Attorney General and the yr after Lord Keeper of the Great Seal.
There is a custom that Bacon planted the mulberry tree that also prospers within the courtyard subsequent to the tower to encourage the house manufacturing of silk.
During the 18th century, the buildings have been let, half of them in separate rooms.
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At Christmas 1762, the novelist, playwright and poet Oliver Goldsmith took a room in the home he occupied for about eighteen months, allegedly usually utilizing it to cover from his collectors.
It is unsure whether or not any of his novel The Vicar of Wakefield was written in Canonbury Tower, the place custom has it that Goldsmith occupied the Spencer Room.
On Sunday, 26 June 1763, James Boswell notes in his London Journal: “I then walked out to Islington to Canonbury House, a curious outdated monastic building now set free in lodgings the place Dr Goldsmith stays.
“I took tea with him and located him very chatty.”
Which lesser-known buildings deserve our consideration in London? Let us know within the feedback under.