Bassishaw is a ward in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

. Small, it is bounded by wards:

Coleman Street Coleman Street is one of the 25 ancient wards of the City of London and lies on the City's northern boundary with the London Borough of Islington. The ward, which includes land lying on either side of the former city wall, takes its name from ...

, east; Cheap, south;

Cripplegate Cripplegate was a gate in the London Wall which once enclosed the City of London. The gate gave its name to the Cripplegate ward of the City which straddles the line of the former wall and gate, a line which continues to divide the ward into ...

, north;

Aldersgate Aldersgate is a Ward of the City of London, named after one of the northern gates in the London Wall which once enclosed the City. The Ward of Aldersgate is traditionally divided into Aldersgate Within and Aldersgate Without, the suffix den ...

, west. It first consisted of Basinghall Street with the courts and short side streets off it,''Book 2, Ch. 6: Bassishaw Ward'', A New History of London: Including Westminster and Southwark (1773), pp. 549-51
accessed: 21 May 2007 but since a boundary review in 2003 (after which the ward expanded into Cripplegate Within) it extends to streets further west, including Aldermanbury, Wood Street, and, to the north, part of

London Wall The London Wall was a defensive wall first built by the Romans around the strategically important port town of Londinium in AD 200, and is now the name of a modern street in the City of London. It has origins as an initial mound wall and di ...

and St Alphage Garden. The ward was historically the City's smallest.''A Topographical Dictionary of England'', Samuel Lewis, 1831, p 134

History

Toponymy

The ward is named for Basinghall, the mansion house of the Bassing (or Basing) family, who were prominent in the City beginning in the 13th century. King Henry III granted Adam de Basing "certain houses in Aldermanbury and in Milk-street; the

advowson Advowson () or patronage is the right in English law of a patron (avowee) to present to the diocesan bishop (or in some cases the ordinary if not the same person) a nominee for appointment to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice or church living, a ...

of the church at Bassings hall; with other liberties and privileges".

John Leake Admiral of the Fleet Sir John Leake (4 July 1656 – 21 August 1720) was a Royal Navy officer and politician. As a junior officer he saw action at the Battle of Texel during the Third Anglo-Dutch War. He then distinguished himself when he led ...

's 1667 map of the City of London refers to the ward as "Basinghall ward".

Guilds and churches

In this ward was a weekly cloth market, authorised by King Richard III. The coopers' guild hall was first founded in this ward in 1522, at The Swan, a

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

, and, from 1547, their purpose-built hall. Their hall was destroyed in the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past th ...

in 1666 but later rebuilt in situ. They rebuilt again in 1865, selling a part of the site to the

City of London Corporation The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the municipal governing body of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United King ...

for the expansion of the

Guildhall A guildhall, also known as a "guild hall" or "guild house", is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commonly become town halls and in som ...

. This hall was destroyed by fire on the night of 29 December 1940.''History of the Coopers'' (Company of Coopers)
accessed 21 May 2007 The masons' hall was constructed in 1463 in Mason's Avenue which today is a southern limit. Their hall was also sold to the Corporation in 1865. The weavers and girdlers also had their guild halls in the ward. The modern livery halls of the pewterers, salters and brewers are in Bassishaw. There were two churches, neither of which remain. St Michael Bassishaw, dedicated to

St Michael Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...

, the archangel, which was founded in the 12th century.''Churches of the City of London'' Reynolds,H (Bodley Head 1922) At that time, the rectorship was included in the gift of St Bartholomew-the-Great, but, over time, it came to be associated with

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglicanism, Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London ...

itself. The church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, and rebuilt in 1679. It was united with

St Lawrence Jewry St Lawrence Jewry next Guildhall is a Church of England guild church in the City of London on Gresham Street, next to Guildhall. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, and rebuilt to the designs of Sir Christopher Wren. It is th ...

in 1897; the site was sold in 1899 and the church was demolished in 1900. St Alphage London Wall, also damaged in the Great Fire but not rebuilt until 1777, was eventually demolished in 1924.

Points of interest

The ward contains a large part of the

buildings, the main administrative centre for the

. (A small, but important, part of the Guildhall lies within Cheap ward.) The

Guildhall Art Gallery The Guildhall Art Gallery houses the art collection of the City of London, England. The museum is located in the Moorgate area of the City of London. It is a stone building in a semi-Gothic style intended to be sympathetic to the historic Guild ...

and

Guildhall Library The Guildhall Library is a public reference library specialising in subjects relevant to London. It is administered by the Corporation of London, the government of the City of London, which is the historical heart of London, England. The libra ...

both lie in Bassishaw, as part of the Guildhall buildings. Also in the ward is Wood Street police station, the former headquarters of the

City of London Police The City of London Police is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the City of London, including the Middle and Inner Temples. The force responsible for law enforcement within the remainder of the London region, o ...

(not to be confused with the Metropolitan Police Service whose headquarters are at Scotland Yard). It used to host a small police museum, which relocated in 2016 to the Guildhall Library, replacing the

Clockmakers' Museum The Clockmakers’ Museum in London, England, is believed to be the oldest collection specifically of clocks and watches in the world. The collection belongs to and is administered by the Clockmakers’ Charity, affiliated to the Worshipful Com ...

and Library. The prominently motifed

Chartered Insurance Institute The Chartered Insurance Institute (also known as the CII) is a professional body dedicated to building public trust in the insurance and financial planning profession. The CII's purpose, as set out in its 1912 royal charter, is to 'Secure an ...

at 20 Aldermanbury has its own museum.

Pedestrian route

Aldermanbury has broad pavements and remains a pedestrian link from

Gresham Street Gresham Street in the City of London is named after the English merchant and financier Thomas Gresham. It runs from the junction of Lothbury and Moorgate at its eastern end, to St. Martin's Le Grand in the west. Gresham Street was created in ...

to the road aspect of, the main successor of,

Politics

Bassishaw is one of 25 wards in the City of London, each electing an

alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members them ...

to the Court of Aldermen and commoners (the City equivalent of a

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

) to the Court of Common Council of the

. Only electors who are Freemen of the City of London are eligible to stand for election, though all candidates who stand are granted this status.

References

External links

Map of Early Modern London: Basinghall Ward
- Historical Map and Encyclopedia of Shakespeare's London (Scholarly) {{City of London wards Wards of the City of London