The chief streets and places comprehended in it, are part of
Whitechapel Street, the Minories, Houndsditch, and the west side of
Petticoat Lane.
Whitechapel is a handsome broad street, by which we enter the town
from the east. The south side, or great part of it, is taken up by
butchers who deal in the wholesale way, selling whole carcases of
veal, mutton, and lamb (which come chiefly out of Essex) to the town
butchers. On the north side are a great many good inns, and several
considerable tradesmen's houses, who serve the east part of England
with such goods and merchandise as London affords. On the south
side is a great market for hay three times a week.
Tower ward extends along the Thames from the Tower on the east
almost to Billingsgate on the west, and that part of the Tower
itself which lies to the westward of the White Tower is held by some
to be within this ward. The principal streets and places contained
in it are Great Tower Street, part of Little Tower Street and Tower
Hill, part of Thames Street, Mark Lane, Mincing Lane, Seething Lane,
St. Olave Hart Street, Idle Lane, St. Dunstan's Hill, Harp Lane,
Water Lane, and Bear Lane, with the courts and alleys that fall into
them.
Great Tower Hill lies on the outside of the Tower Ditch towards the
north-west.
Upon this hill is a scaffold erected, at the charge of the City, for
the execution of noble offenders imprisoned in the Tower (after
sentence passed upon them).
The names of the quays or wharves lying on the Thames side in this
ward between the Tower and Billingsgate, are Brewer's Quay, Chester
Quay, Galley Quay, Wool Quay, Porter's Quay, Custom-House Quay,
Great Bear Quay, Little Bear Quay, Wigging's Quay, Ralph's Quay,
Little Dice Quay, Great Dice Quay, and Smart's Quay, of which, next
to the Custom-House Quay, Bear Quays are the most considerable,
there being one of the greatest markets in England for wheat and
other kinds of grain, brought hither by coasting vessels.
The public buildings in this ward (besides the western part of the
Tower above-mentioned to be within the City) are the Custom House,
Cloth-workers' Hall, Bakers' Hall, and the three parish churches of
Allhallows Barking, St. Olave Hart Street, and St. Dunstan's in the
East.
The Custom House is situated on the north side of the Thames,
between the Tower and Billingsgate, consisting of two floors, in the
uppermost of which, in a wainscoted magnificent room, almost the
whole length of the building, and fifteen feet in height, sit the
commissioners of the customs, with their under officers and clerks.
The length of this edifice is a hundred and eighty-nine feet, and
the general breadth twenty-seven, but at the west end it is sixty
feet broad.
