{"id":450,"date":"2021-03-01T02:55:42","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T07:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/london\/?p=450"},"modified":"2021-08-14T14:38:53","modified_gmt":"2021-08-14T18:38:53","slug":"bridewell-and-surroundings-the-importance-of-nature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/london\/bridewell-and-surroundings-the-importance-of-nature\/","title":{"rendered":"Bridewell and Surroundings: The Importance of Nature"},"content":{"rendered":"

The seam joining the Thames with the rest of the City of London is the wharves: just within the area surrounding Bridewell there are over fifteen of varying sizes. This abundance makes sense with the context given in Fores\u2019s list that London harbours over ten thousand boats. As a result, however, the boundary between the natural and built environment is blurred even more than it already was; after all, where does the river end and the district begin if the boats are part of the city?<\/p>\n

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Blackfriars Bridge as depicted in Malton’s Picturesque Tour (1792-1801)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The natural environment\u2014most notably the Thames\u2014influences the built environment both in terms of the types of structures that need to exist to make this district the heart of the larger city, and in terms of the names of these structures. In addition to the wharves, a point of contact between this part of the City of London and the river is Blackfriars Bridge. Without the bridge and the wharves, not only would access to the area be far more limited, but this shift away from being a hub would fundamentally change the area\u2019s identity since multiple structures have names referring to this symbiotic relationship between the natural and the built. The two most prominent streets that connect other smaller streets together are aptly named Fleet Street and New Bridge Street. The prison located right next to the intersection of these streets is also called Fleet Prison. There are numerous other smaller streets that highlight this Thames-based identity such as Little Bridge Street and Water Street.<\/p>\n

Another important meeting point between the natural and the built environments is the Temple Gardens. The natural body of water directly next to the garden plays into the style of English gardens that contrasted from the jardin \u00e0 la fran\u00e7aise<\/em>. As can be seen in the image of Temple Gardens from 1809, the artificially created nature is still meant to look realistic to an extent. This is a heightened form of nature, but is, nonetheless, reminiscent of undisturbed nature. There is a deliberate attempt to work with nature\u2014unlike the symmetrical and perfectly trimmed topiary common in French gardens\u2014that makes this garden stand out as quintessentially English.<\/p>\n

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Temple Gardens, 1809<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The gardens of Versailles<\/a>; an example of a French garden for reference<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Bridge Street, Blackfriars from Papworth’s Select Views (1816)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When we look at changes between Horwood\u2019s Plan and Faden\u2019s 1819 revision, we see there is a new and much smaller garden that is built right next to Bridewell. In addition to the garden, Bridewell also has a new chapel in its premises. Another change is the obelisk located in the intersection between Fleet Street and New Bridge Street. The obelisk must have been there since 1816 at the latest given the image of Bridge Street from Papworth\u2019s Select Views <\/em>includes the obelisk. The most substantial change in the area that alludes to technological developments of the time is the replacement of the New River Office and Yard with the Gas Light Company. The existence of the company suggests that using gas light must have been popular enough to sustain a business as early as 1819.<\/p>\n

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Bridewell Hospital and surrounding area in Horwood’s Plan (1792-9)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Bridewell Hospital and surrounding area in Faden’s 1819 revision. Orange highlights refer to places that have changed since Horwood’s original map. Green highlights refer to places mentioned in the current and following posts that have not changed between the two editions of the map.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The seam joining the Thames with the rest of the City of London is the wharves: just within the area surrounding Bridewell there are over fifteen of varying sizes. This abundance makes sense with the context given in Fores\u2019s list that London harbours over ten thousand boats. As a result, however, the boundary between the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Bridewell and Surroundings: The Importance of Nature”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3687,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[82,47,83,80,84,86,85,87],"class_list":["post-450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-project-1a-romantic-london","category-uncategorized","tag-blackfriars","tag-bridewell","tag-bridge","tag-city-of-london","tag-garden","tag-gas-light","tag-thames","tag-wharf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3687"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":638,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions\/638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}