THE OLDEST HOUSE IN THE CITY OF LONDON

41-42 Cloth Fair (pictured second to left) is perhaps the oldest private home in the City of London, but its exterior gives scarce clues to its intriguing and ancient heritage. There looks to be nothing notable about the four-bedroom house, but incredibly it was built over four hundred years ago in 1614, making it the oldest house in the City of London.

Built between 1597 and 1614, the Tudor structure of 41-42 Cloth Fair was constructed on land that became accessible after the dissolution of the monasteries. Finished in 1614, the house was bounded by Bartholomew Fair, a yearly street market of fabric dealers, which was set up in 1133 to raise money for the nearby St Bartholomew’s hospital. The house was constructed by Henry Rich and originally let out as one house. The first occupant was William Chapman, a prosperous businessman, who obtained a thirty-one-year lease in December 1614. Chapman soon converted the ground floor and its basements into an alehouse called The Eagle & Child.

When Rich built the house, the fair had fallen into a festival of wickedness and corruption. The luck of Henry Rich then took a bad turn. After King Charles I was executed in 1649. Rich, who likewise was a royalist, would undergo the same fate three months later. When he was cruelly beheaded in 1649 during the English Civil War for betraying his loyalties.

Over the centuries, 41-42 Cloth Fair and its residents have seen many events that formed Britain into the country it is today. Including, plague, Fire, civil war, financial crises, religious strife, revolutions and the Blitz.

Most people are unaware of its existence. It hides in plain sight at 41-42 Cloth Fair, a narrow street crammed amongst the magnificence of Smithfield Market and the walls of Bart’s Hospital. This extraordinary house is the only residential survivor of the expansion of the grounds of St. Bartholomew-the-Great. The residence stands on an early part of the development known as the Square in Launders Green. It’s depicted in a survey of 1616 as encompassing 11 houses with a court in the centre. Of these 11 houses, only 41 to 42 Cloth Fair survives today. The construction is virtually untouched since 1614.

Its fine gabled projections and leaded windows hint at a history that stretches way back into time. It’s not only palaces and mansions that have astonishing histories. Houses built for everyday people can be likewise captivating. It’s up to us to preserve the buildings we love by exploring their past and exposing their mysteries to others.

Whilst Methodism thrived, anti-Catholic sentiment persisted and came to a violent head in 1780 with the Gordon Riots. Damage to 41-42 Cloth Fair through the riots is thought to have led to the conversion of the house into two individual dwellings. By then, the properties in the street were over one hundred and fifty years old with many run down. Three of the properties had actually collapsed. Many houses were demolished but amazingly 41-42 escaped the demolition.

Possibly the golden age for the property came in 1927 when two architects, John Seely and Paul Paget, renovated 41-42 Cloth Fair to its past glory. The properties fortune changed again in 1995 when it was refurbished with the help of English Heritage, the City of London Corporation and The Royal Commission of Historic Monuments. Becoming a private home, it remains today.

When people enter the property, they are astonished, maybe even disappointed, that it’s not grander. The rooms, while a decent size, are not as vast as the front of the property might indicate. However, it is somewhat like a maze and takes you a little bit of time to get used to it.