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Hummer Limousine
HE GOLDEN AGE OF LONDON either gave them to close
supporters or sold them. Cardinal
The Tudor and Stuart Wolsey's house was added to an
monarchs presided over a cultural expanding palace in Whitehall.
renaissance, but it was fire that Hyde Park and St James's were
changed the face of London enclosed as deer parks.
forever.
When foreign visitors commented
The much married and celebrated on the depressing ruins of the
divorce of Henry VIII (1491-1547) churches and monasteries, the
almost qualifies as the "father" areas were redeveloped. The City
of modern London, though the took on the church's humanitarian
changes he brought about were the work, buying St Thomas's to care
accidental outcome of a bid for for the sick and elderly,
personal freedom from the power Greyfriars for orphans, Bridewell
of the Church. for criminals and beggars, and
Bethlehem (which later became
In 1536, after the Pope had corrupted to "Bedlam") to house
refused to annul his marriage to lunatics.
Catherine of Aragon so that he
could marry Anne Boleyn, Henry Convent (now Covent) Garden and
decided to cut all ties with Clerkenwell, Stepney and
Roman Catholicism. He pronounced Shoreditch, Kennington and
himself head of the Church of Lambeth all expanded, taking
England, persuading Parliament to London's population from 50,000
authorize the dissolution of the in 1500 to 200,000 by the end of
monasteries. the century. Today, little
survives of Tudor London's
Their property and revenues were typically wood-framed houses with
granted to the Crown, and Henry their oversailing upper storeys.
A fair idea of the character of Thames, an area notorious for
the old street scene however, was bear pits, brothels and prisons.
preserved in the Old Curiosity
Shop at 13 Portsmouth Street, Being childless, the "Virgin
near Lincoln's Inn. A lasting Queen" Elizabeth chose James VI
monument to the era is Henry of Scotland to succeed her as
VIII's Hampton Court Palace, James I of England, thus
southwest of London. launching the Stuart dynasty.
Religious conflict continued, and
Henry's daughter, Elizabeth I, a Catholic faction attempted to
whose mother, Anne Boleyn, had blow up Parliament in the
been beheaded for supposed infamous "Gunpowder Plot". On 5
adultery, came to the throne in November 1605, Guy (Guido) Fawkes
1558. She was truly London's was caught about to ignite
queen and the "Golden Age" began, barrels of gunpowder in the
not only in a commercial sense, cellars beneath the House. Fawkes
but also in education and the was executed, but 5 November, Guy
arts. She presided over the Fawkes Day, is still marked with
English Renaissance and her court fireworks, and his effigy is
was enlivened by music and dance. burned.
William Shakespeare, a Londoner Against a background of conflict
by adoption, was far from between King James and
adulated by the authorities. When Parliament, London responded to a
the Lord Mayor banned theatrical new influence: the Italian
performances from London, architecture of Palladio as seen
Shakespeare and his fellow through the work of Inigo Jones.
playwright Ben Jonson moved The purity of Jones's style is
outside his jurisdiction to new best seen in the Queen's House at
sites on the south bank of the Greenwich, begun in 1613. Six
years later came the Banqueting fishmongers to prevent waste.
House in Whitehall, the first
time Portland stone was used in By 1600 a source of pure water
London. Throwing gothic to the was vital, and for one man, Hugh
winds, he designed the Myddleton, an obsession. A
little-known Queen's Chapel at St Welshman, goldsmith and banker,
James's Palace. he conceived the idea of bringing
a "New River" to London from
His most significant contribution springs near Hertford. At his own
to the new city was his work on expense he started work on the
the old Convent Garden for the man-made river in 1609 and
Duke of Bedford. The great Piazza brought it as far as Enfield
he created there was the before his money ran out. He
prototype for the most loved and turned to a former customer,
typical feature of the city, the James I, who became his partner
London square. On the east side, with a half-share in the profits.
behind a massive portico is "the By 1613 the New River Head in
handsomest barn in England": his Finsbury, just north of the City,
St Paul's church. was reached.
At the beginning of the 17th Great tragedies lay ahead for
century, London's rapidly London. In 1665 the still
expanding population began to inadequate water supply and lack
make demands on water supplies of sanitation brought the dreaded
that the city could no longer plague to the overcrowded city,
satisfy. Private, though and before it ran its course
necessarily self-interested, 100,000 inhabitants died. The
benefactors set up conduits in Great Fire, less than a year
various streets and restrictions later, came as if to cleanse the
were put on brewers and stricken city. From a baker's
shop on Pudding Lane, Eastcheap,
the flames raged for five days, Christopher Wren, Surveyor
reaching as far west as the General to the Crown, returned
Temple. from Paris, his mind filled with
new ideas. London, too, he
Miraculously, only half a dozen thought, should have rond-points,
people died. The disaster was vistas and streets laid out in a
chronicled by Samuel Pepys grid pattern. But people wanted
(1633-1703), an Admiralty homes quickly and traders wanted
official and the most famous to carry on their businesses, so
diarist of his time. He watched Wren's best ideas were never
from the attic of his house in realised. Expediency dictated
Seething Lane near the Tower as, that the new should rise on the
under the Lord Mayor's direction, sites of the old, with one
houses were pulled down to stop prudent difference: new buildings
the fire spreading. Most people were made of brick, not wood.
busied themselves removing their Wren turned his inventive powers
belongings to the stone churches to rebuilding 50 of the City's
or to boats on the river. damaged churches. His
achievements lie in the
Pepys dug a pit in his garden to individuality of their soaring
save his wine and "parmazan" towers and steeples which rise
cheese. He saw "St Paul's church above the rooftops.
with all the roof fallen", and
watched the fire crossing the In 1675 work began on his
Bridge to Southwark. After the masterpiece, a new St. Paul's
fire, 13,000 houses and 87 parish Cathedral. People sensed that St
churches lay in ruins, but Paul's had a symbolic importance
rebuilding was immediately to the City which Samuel Pepys
planned. movingly described in his diary.
There is a story that, when Wren site, the man brought a fragment
asked a workman to fetch him a of an old tombstone. On it was
stone in order to mark the inscribed the single word
precise centre of the cleared Resurgam, "I will arise again".
Dev Patel runs London's oldest Superstretch Limo Hire company since 1988 and offers Hummer Limo Hire tours and Hummer Limousine Hire transfers in London and beyond on 07956 224 399. http://www.hirelimolondon.co.uk/index.html
Published At: www.Isnare.com
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