City Wall and Gates (inc. Cook Street)

The Cook Street Gate is up for rent at £795 a month. Maybe plus utilities, maybe not. I'm guessing that it's expensive to heat. Subject to council tax. Perhaps they're aiming at students? Those who take their washing home at the weekends.

I saw it was up for rent Helen. I can't imagine the insulation is especially good.

Helen identified this amazing picture from the Cooper Collection as College Square looking west - worth sharing in here as I think it's the first ground level image I have seen of part of the Square - I was trying to ID it from BFA, Helen, but I don't think this one is right from 1937 as it's missing the chimney -

That's the right one Neil. There's another view of it, right at the bottom of this aerial view. That one is looking the right way and you can see the chimney. It used to be tucked behind the three storey jettied building below - the Fox Inn.

With the red dot Helen? I was looking at that one prior but hadn't realised the square was on there - thought it had been typically chopped off!

That's it. Technically the square isn't on that picture as it chops off all but the roof of the other buildings. I'll admit that I'm cheating. Some of these views were painted by Sydney Bunney and he kindly labelled them. I love the many two wheeled carts in the pictures of this era. Bunney painted them too. Bunney was painting about 15-20 years earlier than these photos.

I love the detail in that Cooper pic with that bricked up Fireplace on the 1st floor evidencing former premises...............

Yes, and there's more than one, if you look closely. This is one image I'd love to be able to zoom in close. Chimneys in buildings are very complicated the further back in time they were constructed, especially as they were added to. This one must be fairly early because it was sandwiched between two very old buildings.

Helen was there a College Yard as well as a College Square? Why was it so named anyway?

I don't know why it was called College Square and have wondered myself. On the Board of Health map it was called Pig Market. On the same map there is indeed a College Yard at the northern end (marked Court 1 on the 1888 map but Cook Street had its own Court 1). In the 1874 directory it was considered part of Cook Street. In 1886 the area was College Square but no college is mentioned. At other times it might have been part of Rude/Rood Lane.

Thanks Helen - I can only see this 1887 map. Was that the 'Yard' Court No.1 at the Northern end and have I highlighted the Cooper image correctly?

Yes the yard is correctly marked but the mark for the photo is behind the wrong part of the Inn. If you look closely at the photo there is a path running to the gate. It's possible that it was the original passage flooring running through the Inn (although I think that it kinks to the left of the photo, avoiding the original step to the right of the photo). Either way, the remaining building was the range behind the more northerly section of the Inn.

The Fox and its neighbours were on a slope. The timbers sat on stonework to give a level base. The red dotted line would have been the base level of the south side of the Fox. You can just about see the central passageway entrance had a step. Straighten the path and it reaches a stone embedded in the ground. You can see the jetty of the building next door to the left. The doorway for the left hand side of the Fox would have had to have steps. Sadly that part of the painting is somewhat blurry. One thing that I didn't see at first is the tree stump on the left, next to the two figures. You can see on Neil's map that there was a tree marked. I'd love to see the original painting.

Brill Helen as usual I need to find where that painting came from. It looks like it was from a book with the Title so hoping there might be others?!