In the footsteps of Pepys

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Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys in 1666 by John Hayls, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In my last year as a history undergraduate, a very long time ago, my special subject was the ten years following the Restoration of 1660. A major source was the diary of Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) and I have been fascinated by him ever since. A naval administrator who rose to be Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both Charles II and James II/VII, he obviously had a front seat at many of the major events of those years as well as being an entertaining character. He further endeared himself to me by being a bibliophile, collecting over 3000 books, all carefully catalogued and indexed. They can still be seen in Magdalene College, Cambridge, on their original book cases, in their original arrangement – by size. At this point I have to say we would have fallen out!

Pepys Library building

We visited the Library back in 2007 – photography is not allowed inside but you can see some of the interiors on the library website.

On a visit to London last year (November 2022) I decided to follow A Sightseer’s Guide To Samuel Pepys’s London which I found online. Originally, I planned to do this alone because John was working, but this was a period of on/off rail strikes and his meetings that day were cancelled so I had the bonus of his company.

We got off the Tube at Tower Hill to start our walk at All Hallows by the Tower, one of London’s most ancient churches. Pepys lived nearby in Seething Lane and relates in his diary that he climbed the steeple to watch the Great Fire of London in 1666.

All Hallows by the Tower
Oldest church in the City
Connections
Doorway
Doorway
All Hallows by the Tower

We spent quite a long time looking at the interior of this lovely church.

Interior
Interior
Interior
Interior

There were various sculptures, of which we particularly liked the Tower Hill Madonna.

Tower Hill Madonna
Tower Hill Madonna

The church had other connections, including to Philip Clayton, Vicar of All Hallows from 1922 to 1963 and founder of the international Christian movement, Toc H.

Philip Clayton memorial
Philip Clayton memorial

We then crossed to Seething Lane to a church even more closely related to Pepys, his own parish church, with the street opposite now being named after him. External features include a crest of skulls above the churchyard gate which inspired Charles Dickens to nickname the church St Ghastly Grim, a fact which is celebrated on the board next to it. There is also a bricked up door which was Pepys’ special entrance to the Navy Office pew. There should also be a bust to Pepys in the churchyard, but the plinth was empty – possible away for conservation?

Pepys Street
Churchyard entrance
Crest of skulls
St Ghastly Grim
Churchyard
Navy Office Pew entrance

The church interior was even more interesting than All Hallows. Pepys and his wife are both buried in the vault beneath the nave, and they have memorials on opposite walls. Although Samuel was a serial philanderer he was still very fond of his wife, Elizabeth, and devastated when she died of typhoid in 1669 at just 29. He placed her memorial where he could see it during services.

Nave
Samuel Pepys memorial
Elizabeth Pepys memorial
Pulpit by Grinling Gibbons
Memorial to brothers Andrew and Paul Bayninge, both Alderman of London

Leaving the church we headed for Munster Court, admiring along the way the juxtaposition of old and new. The Ship, whose website boasts friendly service since 1802, nestles in between newer buildings and you are never far away from a glimpse of plate glass.

The Ship
City of London street

In Munster Court we were looking for the Clothworkers’ Hall which has existed on this site since the 15th century, though this is its sixth building. Pepys was a regular visitor to a predecessor as Master of the Company.

Plaque
Clothworkers’ Hall
Clothworkers’ Company Crest

Once again, we wandered through old and new, savouring the evocative street names such as Mincing Lane and Eastcheap.

Munster Court
Munster Court
St Margaret Pattens
The Walkie-Talkie
View of the Shard

Our destination this time was Pudding Lane where the Great Fire of London began in September 1666. A plaque marks the site of Thomas Faryner’s bakery where the flames took hold, and a monument, erected in 1677, stands nearby. Pepys’ diary is one of the main sources for the history of the fire.

Spot the photographer!
Plaque on Pudding Lane
Monument to the Great Fire of London

The online walk suggested stopping for lunch at Pepys Bar, in another fabulously named street, Stew Lane, though this has no connection with Samuel other than its name. We decided instead to backtrack slightly to cross the Thames via the Southwark Bridge.

The Samuel Pepys Bar
Stew Lane
View of the Shard
Dome of St Paul’s dome from Southwark Bridge
River cruiser from Southwark Bridge

We chose to eat in the Anchor at Bankside which dates in its current form from the late 18th century, but Pepys writes of its predecessor that during the Great Fire, he took refuge “in a little alehouse on Bankside … and there watched the fire grow”. (This was later in the day after he had been up the church tower, these accounts do not conflict). Inside, it was quite a warren of small spaces, and as far as I can remember the food was good.

It’s worth expanding the information board to get the full history of the site if you are interested.

The Anchor, Bankside
The Anchor, Bankside
The Anchor, Bankside
Information board
One of the interior bars

After lunch we got back on track by recrossing the river via the Millennium Bridge to St Paul’s Cathedral. Designed by Christopher Wren, this cathedral was completed in 1710 and replaced Old St Paul’s, yet another building which Pepys watched burn. It would have been close to his heart – he was born nearby and attended St Paul’s School.

St Paul’s from Millennium Bridge
On the Millennium Bridge
St Paul’s from Millennium Bridge
St Paul’s Cathedral
St Paul’s Cathedral
St Paul’s Cathedral
St Paul’s Cathedral

A little further on in Salisbury Court we found the plaque commemorating Pepys’ birth on 23rd February 1633 and the church, St Bride’s, where he was baptised a few days later on 3rd March. (NB I have not got the year wrong. The plaque shows 1632, a confusion arising because of a change in the calendar at a later date, when the beginning of the year was shifted from March to January.) Again, this was not the building Pepys would  have known as it was a casualty of the fire and the current building, like St Paul’s, is a Wren replacement. Have a careful look at the tiered spire which, in the 18th century, became the inspiration for umpteen wedding cakes after baker William Rich created a three-tiered cake based upon Wren’s design for his marriage to Susannah, his former master’s daughter.

Pepys birth site
St Bride’s, Salisbury Court

The online tour ended here. However, from a comment below it we picked up that there are plaques on two separate houses in Buckingham Street where Pepys also lived.

Plaque where Pepys lived, 1679-1688.
Pepys lived here 1679-1688.
Buckingham Street plaque

From the nearby York Watergate, built about 1626, he could well have been rowed across to the Anchor on Bankside, the pub where we had lunch, although as the plaque points out, the gate is no longer on the river bank since the construction of the Embankment.

York Watergate
York Watergate

Although we continued walking, our Pepys tour ended here. I felt I had got a lot closer to the man whose writing was a constant companion to me for one year in the 1970s, and whom I have read about intermittently since. I have a small collection of books about him and dip in and out of the wonderful Pepys Diary site which publishes a new entry each day. Out of interest, I looked up the entry for the day on which I am writing. It’s a corker. Saturday 13 October 1660:

To my Lord’s in the morning, where I met with Captain Cuttance, but my Lord not being up I went out to Charing Cross, to see Major-general Harrison hanged, drawn, and quartered; which was done there, he looking as cheerful as any man could do in that condition. He was presently cut down, and his head and heart shown to the people, at which there was great shouts of joy.

What can I say to follow that? Bloodthirsty times. And yet, he ends the day quietly where I started my post: with his books.

Within all the afternoon setting up shelves in my study. At night to bed.

Goodnight, Samuel!

Linked to Jo’s Monday Walk.

England, Historic figures, UK , ,

65 Comments »

  1. Pingback: London: a women’s history miscellany – The Glasgow Gallivanter
  2. Pingback: Jo’s Monday walk : Castelnaudary | Still Restlessjo

  3. A wonderful tour, very nicely written – and I have to compliment you on the superb photos. You dipped into bits of London I know in a lot more detail than I do! I have to say I enjoy London so much more now that I don’t work in it, but have always loved its layers.

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  5. Very interesting and a great way of seeing London too. I don’t know London very well at all and it was brill to see some different places and familiar places with new backdrops. Going to watch someone being hung, drawn and quartered seems quite a normal thing to do of an afternoon then. 😉

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  6. Brilliant, as always. I somtimes wonder what I did with my time in London. Certainly didn’t put it to good use like tracking Pepys down, although I have been to many of those places, all unawares of the presence of greatness.
    You’ll have seen me recommending Wendy Leighton-Porter’s Shadows from the Past series (for MG readers, but I love them). The Shadow of the Great Fire is especially good. I think you’d enjoy it.

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  9. I always learn so much from your posts! I haven’t been lucky enough to visit Scotland (yet), but I feel as if I’m slowly getting to know the country via your blog. And I admit I’ve never seen a crest of skulls in a church!

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  10. What a great walk you had and filled with amazing information. Funny how that great fire started in a bakery. As for poor Harrison, if that happened today, people would need counseling and many would have anxiety etc. Back then they overjoyed and then went home for supper.

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  11. I enjoyed the book collection discussion. I can’t resist a Waterstones on my hiking travels and invariably end up with more books to go on my Must Read pile. However, I have transitioned from being a hoarder of books to letting them all go. As soon as I finish reading a book I take it to a charity shop, apart from those I absolutely love. I tend to just keep books about the great outdoors now, such as all Robert McFarlane’s books.

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    • Yes, it was interesting to find out what different people do with their books. I’m with you now on not hoarding books unless they are special. I tend to read fiction online now so only buy nonfiction in physical format. The trouble is there’s a big backlog to go through to get rid of the non-special!

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  12. I spent many a happy hour in The Anchor pub when I worked near by. There used to be Vinopolis in the arches nearby but that closed down a few years ago.

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  13. Hi Anabel – that part of London is so interesting … I’m sure I worked briefly in Seething Lane and in Buckingham Street – but can’t be sure … name changes etc. I loved the Madonna sculpture – and Jacquie’s explanation – a really good read; also what was obviously an inspiring time for you (now and then) – thank you – cheers Hilary

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  14. That was delightful. I will be inspired to do my own. If ever we meet up for that London walk I’ll take you to the rather delightful Pie Corner memorial near Smithfield so you can bookend the Great Fire!

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  18. A most interesting post and such a refreshing change from the usual post of London – Buck Palace, Westminster and Horse Guards. However, I have to be honest and say that in all my years in the UKI have only ever passed through London – I have never “visited” it. Pepys, I believe was an interesting character and he did live in fairly violent times. He was a supporter of Oliver Cromwell and changed sides and became a Royalist when Cromwell died.

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  19. An interesting post Anabel. I must have done some of this walk during my visit to London , but without the Pepys connection. As for books, we tend to order them by genre and then by size (of course the height of the shelves have a bearing on this), CDs on the other hand are very much alphabetical. There are some that have to be flat (too big) and most of the IT tech books are on the OH’s bookshelf in his office!

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  20. In 1999, just before we took our girls on a six week trip to the UK to visit friends, the younger one had to do a school project on an important historical event and she chose the Great Fire of London because we were going there. So of course, while we were in London, we went to the Monument, climbed to the top and explored the area around it. She was thrilled to actually see what she had written about.

    I tend to group the books on my bookshelves according to authors.

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  22. My first job was in the shadow of the Monument so this was a nostalgic post for me. I enjoyed reading Pepys, and at this time of night I am very much in the “and so to bed.” frame of mind.

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  23. Well, he did ask, Anabel, and if he hadn’t I would have. I just glanced at my shelves in horror. Size and colour do feature in my arrangement but I don’t have a huge lot on display. Subjects are grouped together but I do like a pleasing appearance. Are you shocked? I also have a cupboard where books that have been read reside on one shelf and yet to be read on another. Once in a while I decide which will go to the charity shop (where most of them came from). Woe is me- I’m a philistine! Thanks for the walk.

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    • Not at all! I’m finding out all sorts of things about people’s book arrangements, it’s quite entertaining. And the ordered shelves are books I keep. I’ve also got piles of books on tables which I haven’t read, or which I don’t want to keep but haven’t passed on yet. Some day I will sort them out (and find more time for reading).

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  27. Great post! I enjoyed following in your footsteps as you navigated that area of London, an area I used to know quite well. I always enjoy having a focus to my wanderings so I really like your using Pepys’ life as a guide. I am not sure how I feel about the fact that Pepys organized his books by size. I always appreciate a well-organized and curated book collection but size is not a way I would have considered. My fiction books are organized alphabetically by author surname and my non-fiction bookcases used to be organized by category/genre but it was becoming chaotic so I recently reorganized them by colour. It is making me a little twitchy but it does look aesthetically pleasing so time well tell whether I change it again – but certainly not by size.

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    • Thanks Laura – it certainly makes a walk more interesting when you have something to focus on. Interestingly, you having said you arrange by colour, the next commenter said she arranged by size! So I’m obviously wrong to think it is purely for aesthetics. I do wonder how you both find anything though.

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      • Interesting. I guess we all just adopt a system that works best with however our minds work. As for how I find things, it helps to have familiarity with your books. Within each color grouping, the books are broken down into their genre categories so that does make it easier to find specific books. I could never organize my fiction books by anything other than by alphabetical order but somehow I am at ease with this color system experiment. I get weird whims to tackle big organizing projects when I am stressed so I may well end up adopting some other system in future.

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