Blossom's Inn
Blossom's Inn was a tavern which stood in Lawrence Lane in the City of London from the 14th century until 1855.[1] It became a substantial coaching inn and was used as a staging post by carriers of goods. In the 19th century, the lease was bought and it became the parcel depot of the Great Eastern Railway. Its name was used for a major property development at the end of the 20th century and the site is now part of the large complex of 30 Gresham Street.
Signage
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It was named after its inn sign which showed Saint Lawrence and was bordered with the hawthorn blossoms, which were a traditional adornment for such signs.[2][3] The name was spelt in various other ways such as Bosom's Inn. These names were either a corruption of "blossom" or, perhaps, a fanciful alternative meaning as Deloney's Thomas of Reading says "Our jolly clothiers kept up their courage and went to Bosom's Inn, so called from a greasy old fellow who always went nudging with his head in his bosom..."[4] Ben Jonson used this spelling in Christmas, His Masque with the lines, "But now comes Tom of Bosom's Inn, and he presenteth Misrule".[4]
Carriers
[edit]When the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, visited Henry VIII in 1522, the inn was recorded as having twenty beds and stabling for sixty horses.[4] The inn became a staging post for carriers in the sixteenth century and was, until 1756, the London departure point for James Pickford, of the Pickfords family business.[1] Thomas Nashe's Have with You to Saffron-Walden alludes to this, saying "Yet have I naturally cherisht and hugt it in my bosome, even as a carrier at Bosome's Inn doth a cheese under his arms".[4]
In 1835, an aged porter at the inn, John Neat, had hanged himself for the third time. He was taken to Barts where he seemed to be quite dead. His treatment included a blister, brandy, a draught of ammonia with camphor, friction over the heart, heating of the feet, letting of four pounds of blood and a turpentine enema. After a day of this, he was said to be "much better" but "still somewhat maniacal".[5]
Later history
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The site became a parcels depot for the Great Eastern Railway in the nineteenth century before being renamed Blossom's Inn again in the twentieth century.[7] Today, the site of Blossom's Inn is entirely covered by an office building of 386,000 square feet (35,900 m2)[8] known as 30 Gresham Street that was developed by Land Securities in 2002–03 and was described at the time as "the biggest speculative office development in the capital".[9]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b Weinreb, Ben; Hibbert, Christopher; Keay, John; Keay, Julia (2008), The London Encyclopaedia (2nd ed.), Pan Macmillan, p. 476, ISBN 978-1-405-04924-5
- ^ Pennant, Thomas (1813), Some Account of London, vol. 2, J. Faulder, p. 552
- ^ "Thorns and Thistles, and their Companions", Dublin University Magazine, 43, W. Curry, Jun., and Company: 443, 1854
- ^ a b c d Larwood, Jacob; Hotten, John Camden (1875), The History of Signboards, Piccadilly: Chatto and Windus, pp. 297–298
- ^ "St. Bartholomew's Hospital", The Lancet, 24 (628): 793–794, 12 September 1835, doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(02)98016-5
- ^ Ordnance Survey map of London, 1916, 2nd revision. Digimap. Retrieved 10 January 2018. (subscription required)
- ^ Multiple Ordnance Survey maps, Digimap. Retrieved 6 January 2017. (subscription required)
- ^ "Buildings going up despite City glut", Jenny Davey, The Times, 20 October 2003, p. 25.
- ^ "Gamble on Gresham St." The Times, 22 May 2003, p. 35.
