DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61669#0094
HOLBEIN’S “AMBASSADORS”
The palace stood a little back from the river, on the western angle
formed by the junction of the Fleet with the Thames. The correspond-
ing angle eastwards was occupied by the great monastery of the
Black Friars. The city wall, which inclosed the latter, here curved
abruptly to the north within the line of the Fleet, leaving that small
stream and the royal house of Bridewell without its precincts.
Bridewell Palace was of long and irregular shape. The southern
extremity, flanked by two corner towers, formed the main front towards
the Thames ; and was pierced by an entrance door abutting on the quay
which separated the house from the river. The buildings ran back
some distance along the western shore of the Fleet, and were divided
into various groups by courts and gardens. The latter were of consider-
able dimensions, filling the opening on the east front overlooking the
Fleet, and, on the other side, covering the whole space between the
palace and the next street westwards running down to the Thames.
The grounds had recently been greatly enlarged by a piece of land
acquired from the Knights Hospitallers, containing no less than fifteen
gardens, which were “thrown down and inclosed in the king’s great
messuage or manor, called Bridewell.”1
1 Letters and Papers, Henry VIIL, vol. v., 1531-1532, No. 627, Grant 18. Bridewell
Palace has fared badly compared with some other houses of the same date, for not only
has every trace of it disappeared, but few records or prints exist to give an idea of its
appearance in Tudor times. The early period at which it ceased to be a royal residence
probably accounts for this deficiency. Edward VI. converted it to benevolent purposes
as a kind of workhouse for vagrants; and this use, gradually approaching the functions of
a house of correction, was continued in the new buildings erected after the Great Fire
almost to the present day. Nearly all the engravings of Bridewell refer to its later history.
There are, however, one or two exceptions, on a small scale, and on these the above
description is founded. Perhaps the most accurate idea of the palace in Tudor times is
to be obtained from the “View of London and Southwark in 1543,” by Anthony Vanden
Wyngrerde (Oxford, Bodleian Library; a facsimile in pen-and-ink by N. Whittock may be
seen at the Guildhall, London). As certain details of this view agree with a later drawing
of about 1660, it is likely that it is more correct than the intermediate version by Ralph
Aggas, which shows variations not to be found either in the earlier or later engraving
mentioned (“ Civitas Londinum,” a map of London, Westminster and Southwark, surveyed
by Ralph Aggas about the year 1560, Guildhall Library). The view of 1660 may be seen
in “Bridewell Palace as it appeared about the year 1660” (Published for the Proprietors
by W. Herbert, Penlington Place, Lambeth, 1817). The same work gives a vignette
68
The palace stood a little back from the river, on the western angle
formed by the junction of the Fleet with the Thames. The correspond-
ing angle eastwards was occupied by the great monastery of the
Black Friars. The city wall, which inclosed the latter, here curved
abruptly to the north within the line of the Fleet, leaving that small
stream and the royal house of Bridewell without its precincts.
Bridewell Palace was of long and irregular shape. The southern
extremity, flanked by two corner towers, formed the main front towards
the Thames ; and was pierced by an entrance door abutting on the quay
which separated the house from the river. The buildings ran back
some distance along the western shore of the Fleet, and were divided
into various groups by courts and gardens. The latter were of consider-
able dimensions, filling the opening on the east front overlooking the
Fleet, and, on the other side, covering the whole space between the
palace and the next street westwards running down to the Thames.
The grounds had recently been greatly enlarged by a piece of land
acquired from the Knights Hospitallers, containing no less than fifteen
gardens, which were “thrown down and inclosed in the king’s great
messuage or manor, called Bridewell.”1
1 Letters and Papers, Henry VIIL, vol. v., 1531-1532, No. 627, Grant 18. Bridewell
Palace has fared badly compared with some other houses of the same date, for not only
has every trace of it disappeared, but few records or prints exist to give an idea of its
appearance in Tudor times. The early period at which it ceased to be a royal residence
probably accounts for this deficiency. Edward VI. converted it to benevolent purposes
as a kind of workhouse for vagrants; and this use, gradually approaching the functions of
a house of correction, was continued in the new buildings erected after the Great Fire
almost to the present day. Nearly all the engravings of Bridewell refer to its later history.
There are, however, one or two exceptions, on a small scale, and on these the above
description is founded. Perhaps the most accurate idea of the palace in Tudor times is
to be obtained from the “View of London and Southwark in 1543,” by Anthony Vanden
Wyngrerde (Oxford, Bodleian Library; a facsimile in pen-and-ink by N. Whittock may be
seen at the Guildhall, London). As certain details of this view agree with a later drawing
of about 1660, it is likely that it is more correct than the intermediate version by Ralph
Aggas, which shows variations not to be found either in the earlier or later engraving
mentioned (“ Civitas Londinum,” a map of London, Westminster and Southwark, surveyed
by Ralph Aggas about the year 1560, Guildhall Library). The view of 1660 may be seen
in “Bridewell Palace as it appeared about the year 1660” (Published for the Proprietors
by W. Herbert, Penlington Place, Lambeth, 1817). The same work gives a vignette
68