Stand at Ease (see original 1798 description below)
The parish of St. James’s, Westminster taken from the last survey with corrections (1685), engraving by Richard Blome, 1665. The plan’s title features in a banner at the top centre, with a key to streets, yards, halls, courts and private properties at the top left. Land use and natural features described by symbols and three-dimensional illustrations. St James’s Square was laid out in 1662 when Henry Jermyn, Earl of St Albans, obtained a grant of land on the outskirts of London. In 1674, Christopher Wren was appointed architect of the parish church. Courtesy of The Board of The British Library.
The St. James’s Loyal Volunteer Regiment was centred in the Parish of St. James whose Church is located on Piccadilly in London. See map (click on it to enlarge). St James’s Church, Piccadilly, also known as St James’s Church, Westminster, and St James-in-the-Fields, is an Anglican church in the centre of London. The church was designed and built by Sir Christopher Wren. The church is built of red brick with Portland stone dressings. St James’s is a central district in the City of Westminster, London, forming part of the West End. In the 17th century the area developed as a residential location for the British aristocracy, and around the 19th century was the focus of the development of gentlemen’s clubs. Once part of the parish of St Martin in the Fields, much of it formed the parish of St James from 1685 to 1922. Since the Second World War the area has transitioned from residential to commercial use.
St James’s is bounded to the north by Piccadilly and Mayfair, to the west by Green Park, to the south by The Mall bounding St. James’s Park, and to the east by Haymarket.
ATTENTION (see original 1799 description below) Westminster, a central area of London, became a city in 1539. (See map). For centuries Westminster and the City of London were geographically quite distinct. (See Map). It was not until the sixteenth century that houses began to be built over the adjoining fields, eventually absorbing nearby villages such as Marylebone and Kensington, and gradually creating the vast Greater London that exists today. Westminster is bordered by the City of London to the East and, until 1965 by Marylebone and Paddington to the North (which were both then absorbed into Westminster) and by Kensington and Chelsea to the West. The River Thames forms the Southern border.
This Corps was an earlier creation than many of the other volunteer units – formed in 1779. At that time Britain was at war on three fronts: The Revolutionary War in America, the East India Company, with British troops, fighting the Marathas in Wadgaon, India, and were forced to return all territories acquired since 1773 and the Siege of Gibraltar had began. The London & Westminster Volunteers were a group of well connected gentry from across the whole of London (London and Westminster by this time being two neighbouring cities).
St Georges parish, Hanover Square. With the views of the church and chapels of ease from the original survey of the late Mr Morris. 1761. Engraver: George Bickham. Courtesy of The Crace Collection at the British Library London.
SHOULDER ARMS from Recover 1st Motion (see original 1799 description below)
A civil parish of St George Hanover Square and an ecclesiastical parish were created in 1724 from part of the ancient parish of St Martin in the Fields (see map attached – click on it to expand). St George’s, Hanover Square, is an Anglican church, the parish church of Mayfair in the City of Westminster, central London, built in the early eighteenth century. The building is one small block south of Hanover Square, near Oxford Circus. Because of its location, it has frequently been the venue for society weddings. The Parish was formed following the decision by Parliament in 1711 to promote the erection of 50 new Churches within the Cities of London and Westminster (the Queen Anne Churches). The Parish comprised what had previously been St Martin-in-the-Fields and stretched from Regent Street to the Serpentine, and south from Oxford Street to include Mayfair, Belgravia and Pimlico. The Church St George’s, Hanover Square, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, central London, built in the early eighteenth century as part of a project to build fifty new churches around London. The church was designed by John James, an apprentice of Sir Christopher Wren; its site was donated by General William Steuart, who laid the first stone in 1721.
(The image below, from the Illustrated London News, is shown for historical interest and is not for sale) Temple Bar was the principal ceremonial entrance to the City of London from the City of Westminster. In the middle ages, London expanded city jurisdiction beyond its walls to gates, called ‘bars’, which were erected across thoroughfares. To the west of the City of London, the bar was located in the area known as the Temple. Temple Bar is situated on the historic royal ceremonial route from the Tower of London to the Palace of Westminster, the two chief residences of the medieval English monarchs, and from the Palace of Westminster to St Paul’s Cathedral. The road east of Temple Bar and within the City is Fleet Street, while the road to the west, in Westminster, is The Strand.
Temple Bar Gate in 1870. The Illustrated London News.
STAND at EASE [Supporting Arms] (see original 1799 description below) Hans Town is an area of West London in Chelsea and Kensington approximately surrounding Sloane Square that was owned by Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753). Sloane was an Anglo-Irish physician, naturalist, and collector who provided the foundation of the British Museum, the British Library, and the Natural History Museum, London. He was elected to the Royal Society at the age of 24 and later succeeded Sir Isaac Newton as its President. Sloane travelled to the Caribbean in 1687 and documented his travels and findings with extensive publications years later. He was a renowned medical doctor among the aristocracy, and was elected to the Royal College of Physicians at age 27.
ORDER ARMS [2nd Motion] (see original 1799 description below)
The Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) is a reserve regiment in the British Army. Incorporated by royal charter in 1537 by King Henry VIII, it is the oldest regiment in the British Army and is considered the second-oldest military unit in the world. Today, it is also a charity whose purpose is to attend to the “better defence of the realm”, primarily through supporting the HAC regiment and a detachment of City of London Special Constabulary. The word artillery in this context dates from a time when it meant small projectiles, such as arrows. In the 17th century, its members played a significant part in the formation of both the Royal Marines and the Grenadier Guards. More recently, regiments, battalions and batteries of the Company fought with distinction in both World Wars and its current Regiment, which forms part of the Army Reserve, is the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior in the Army Reserve after the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers (Militia). Members of the Regiment and Specials are drawn, for the most part, from young men and women working in and around the City and Greater London. Those leaving the active units may become Veteran Members and remain within the fraternity of the Company.
UNFIX BAYONET [1st Motion] (see original 1798 description below) Pimlico is an area of West London on the North side of the River Thames lying between Westminster and Chelsea. It is an upscale residential area with quiet streets lined with 19th-century homes. Its many hotels, plus proximity to Tate Britain, Chelsea and the Houses of Parliament make it popular. Pimlico was built as a southern extension to neighbouring Belgravia. It is known for its garden squares and distinctive Regency architecture. Pimlico is demarcated to the north by Victoria Station, by the River Thames to the south, Vauxhall Bridge Road to the east and the former Grosvenor Canal to the west. At its heart is a grid of residential streets laid down by the planner Thomas Cubitt, beginning in 1825 and now protected as the Pimlico Conservation Area. The most prestigious are those on garden squares, with buildings decreasing in grandeur away from St George’s Square, Warwick Square, Eccleston Square and the main thoroughfares of Belgrave Road and St. George’s Drive. Additions have included the pre–World War IIDolphin Square and the Churchill Gardens and Lillington and Longmoore Gardens estates, now conservation areas in their own right. The area has over 350 Grade II listed buildings and several Grade II* listed churches. At the western edge of Pimlico, on the borders of Chelsea, Pimlico Road has become known in recent years for its interiors and design stores. Pimlico was the location of Hugh Evelyn Limited’s book and print store in the late 60’s and early 70’s.
Residents have included politician Winston Churchill who lived on Eccleston Square, designer Laura Ashley, philosopher Swami Vivekananda, actor Laurence Olivier, illustrator and author Aubrey Beardsley, Kenyan president Jomo Kenyatta, Australian prime minister Billy Hughes, lawn-tennis inventor Major Walter Wingfield, and world record–holding pilot Sheila Scott.
“East India House,” by Thomas Malton the Younger (1748-1804), watercolour over etched outline. 8 1/2 in. x 11 15/16 in. (21.6 cm x 30.3 cm). Courtesy of the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Center for British Art, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. [Downloaded from Wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:East_India_House_by_Thomas_Malton_the_Younger.jpg]AN OFFICER SALUTING
The East India Company was an English joint-stock company founded in 1600 formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region. The company seized control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent, colonised parts of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong after the First Opium War, and maintained trading posts and colonies in the Persian Gulf Residencies. It was headquartered in a large imposing building in Leadenhall Street in the heart of the City of London (see image attached). The company rose to account for half of the world’s trade during the mid-1700’s and early 1800’s, particularly in basic commodities including cotton, silk, indigo dye, sugar, salt, spices, saltpetre, tea, and opium. The company eventually came to rule large areas of India, exercising military power and assuming administrative functions. There were both London based employees and retirees from India and the other outposts of the Company who had returned to England who provided the manpower for this Volunteer Association. Given that the Company had its own Army and Navy there would have been no shortage of suitable trained soldiers to join the ranks of the Volunteers.
GROUND ARMS [2nd Motion] (see original 1798 description below)
Fulham was a parish in the west of London lying in the bend of the River Thames between Chelsea to the East and Hammersmith to the North. Today it comprises the southern part of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.
GROUND ARMS [3rd Motion] (see original 1798 description below)
St Andrew Holborn was an ancient English parish that until 1767 was partly in the City of London and mainly in the county of Middlesex. Its City (Southern) part retained its former name or sometimes referred to as St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars. From the old Thavie’s Inn, Holborn embraced the legal worlds of Lincoln’s Inn and Grey’s Inn and stretched to St. Giles in the Fields to the West. The Church of St. Andrew in Holborn was rebuilt to Wren’s design in 1686.
St George the Martyr (and thus the working centre of the old Parish) is a church in the historic Borough district of south London. It lies within the modern-day London Borough of Southwark, on Borough High Street at the junction with Long Lane, Marshalsea Road, and Tabard Street. St George the Martyr is named after Saint George. Wikipedia
St. George’s parish, Hanover Square. With the views of the church and chapels of ease from the original survey of the late Mr Morris. 1761. Engraver: George Bickham. Courtesy of The Crace Collection at the British Library London.
MAKE READY [as a Center Rank] (see original 1799 description below)
St George’s, Hanover Square, is an Anglican church (and thus the epicentre of the old parish) in the City of Westminster, central London, built in the early eighteenth century as part of a project to build fifty new churches around London (the Queen Anne Churches). (See Map). The church was designed by John James; its site was donated by General William Steuart, who laid the first stone in 1721. The building is one small block south of Hanover Square, near Oxford Circus. Because of its location, it has frequently been the venue for society weddings.
Courtesy of The British Library – Crace Collection of Maps of London. 1720 Richard Blome. This plan was published in Strype’s first annotated edition of Stow’s Stow’s ‘Survey of the cities of London and Westminster’.
PRIME & LOAD [as a Rear Rank] (see original 1798 description below) Farringdon Within is one of the 25 wards of the City of London, the historic and financial centre of London. (See maps – click to enlarge). It was formed in the 14th century from the sub-division of the pre-existing Farringdon Ward into Farringdon Within (inside the line of the Former London Wall), and Farringdon Without, beyond the Wall. Farringdon Without and Farringdon Within are unconnected to the Farringdon area to the north, outside the City, in Clerkenwell. Southern Clerkenwell is sometimes referred to as Farringdon due to the presence of Farringdon Station, which was named after Farringdon Street and originally named Farringdon Street Station.
The Wards of London appear to have taken shape in the 11th century, before the Norman Conquest. Their administrative, judicial and military purpose made them equivalent to Hundreds in the countryside. The primary purpose of Wards like Farringdon, which included a gate, appears to be the defence of the gate, as gates were the weakest points in any fortification. Farringdon was a very large ward and had two gates, Ludgate and Newgate lying just outside the gate). Early charters show that the western boundary of the City and Westminster was pushed back to approximately its current position in around 1000, though the area outside the walls is thought to have been sparsely populated, if at all, at this time.
Farringdon was later named after Sir Nicholas de Faringdon, who was appointed Lord Mayor of London for “as long as it shall please him” by King Edward II. The Ward had been in the Faringdon family for 82 years at this time, his father, William de Faringdon preceding him as Alderman in 1281, when he purchased the position. William de Faringdon was Lord Mayor in 1281–82 and also a Warden of the Goldsmiths’ Company.
MAKE READY [as a Rear Rank] (see original 1799 description below)
Aldgate ward with its divisions into precincts & parishes according to a new survey (1756) Courtesy of The Crace Collection of Maps of London at The British Library 1756 by Benjamin Cole
Aldgate was a gate in the former defensive wall around the City of London. (See map – click to expand).It gives its name to Aldgate High Street, the first stretch of the A11 road, which included the site of the former gate. The area of Aldgate, the most common use of the term, is focused around the former gate and the High Street and includes part of the city and parts of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is 2.3 miles (3.7 km) east of Charing Cross. There is also an Aldgate Ward of the City of London. The Ward is of ancient origin, but intramural, so almost entirely distinct from the area around Aldgate High Street, which is mostly outside the line of the London Wall.
Walbrook Ward (circled in red) in 1756 (From the Crace collection of maps at the British Library in London)
PRESENT [as a rear rank]
Walbrook is a City ward and a minor street in its vicinity. The ward is named after a river of the same name. (see maps – click to enlarge). The ward of Walbrook contains two of the City’s most notable landmarks: the Bank of England and the Mansion House. The street runs between Cannon Street and Bank junction, though vehicular traffic can only access it via Bucklersbury, a nearby side-road off Queen Victoria Street. A street called Walbrook runs along the lower part of the brook’s course. A valley is clearly visible; this can be seen most clearly at the junction of Walbrook and Cannon Street.[1] On the street is the church of St Stephen Walbrook, which originally stood on the west bank of the stream, but was rebuilt around 1439 on the east side. In 1666 the church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London; Christopher Wren built a new church there in 1672, which still stands, to replace it. The Bank of England and the Mansion House, the official residence of the Lord Mayor, are both situated in Walbrook ward, as is the historic London Stone (the latter situated on Cannon Street).
Walbrook is one of 25 wards in the City of London, each electing an Alderman and Commoners (the City equivalent of a Councillor) to the Court of Common Council of the City of London Corporation. Only electors who are Freemen of the City of London are eligible to stand.
This map of Clerkenwell includes a text panel explaining the origin of the name down the left side of the plate. Two medallions at the foot of the plate show a contemporary view of the parish church and one of its previous design, with an explanatory note along the lower margin. Courtesy The British Library; Crace Collection of Maps of London. 1805. Engraving; James Tyler.
Advance Arms (see original 1799 description below) Clerkenwell is an area of central London, England (see map – click on it to expand). It was an ancient parish from the mediaeval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington. The well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance. Goswell Street formed the eastern boundary of the Clerkenwell parishes, with the River Fleet, now buried beneath Farringdon Road and other streets, forming the western boundary with Holborn and, in part, St Pancras.[3] This western boundary with both neighbouring areas is now used as part of the London Borough of Islington’s western boundary with the London Borough of Camden. Pentonville is a part of northern Clerkenwell, while the southern part is sometimes referred to as Farringdon, after the railway station of that name – which was named after Farringdon Road (an extension of Farringdon Street) and originally named Farringdon Street Station. Finsbury Town Hall and the Finsbury Estate lie in Clerkenwell, rather than Finsbury. They are named after the former Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury which included Clerkenwell, Finsbury and other areas. The Industrial Revolution changed the area greatly. It became a centre for breweries, distilleries and the printing industry. It gained an especial reputation for the making of clocks, marine chronometers and watches, which activity once employed many people from around the area. Flourishing craft workshops still carry on some of the traditional trades, such as jewellery-making.
Map of London, reaching Islington, Limehouse, Vauxhall and Park Lane; with inset view of the Queen’s Palace (Buckingham Palace) and the garden view of St James’s Palace at top right; with a front view of Westminster Abbey at bottom right; a bird’s eye view of London from the Thames and a south west view of St Paul’s at bottom centre and a view of the Monument at bottom left. 1796 Etching and engraving on two sheets, joined, with hand-colouring. Courtesy of The Trustees of The British Museum – Heal,Topography.193.
ADVANCE ARMS [4th Motion] (see original 1799 description below) Westminster, a central area of London, became a city in 1539. (See Map attached – click on it to expand). For centuries Westminster and the City of London were geographically quite distinct. It was not until the sixteenth century that houses began to be built over the adjoining fields, eventually absorbing nearby villages such as Marylebone and Kensington, and gradually creating the vast Greater London that exists today. Westminster is bordered by the City of London to the East and, until 1965 by Marylebone and Paddington to the North (which were both then absorbed into Westminster) and by Kensington and Chelsea to the West. The River Thames forms the Southern border.
SHOULDER ARMS [from advance 1st Motion] (see original 1799 description below) Bread Street (see maps – click to expand) is one of the 25 wards of the City of London the name deriving from its principal street, which was anciently the City’s breadmarket; already named Bredstrate (to at least 1180) for by the records it appears as that in 1302, Edward I announced that “the bakers of Bromley and Stratford-le-Bow [London], and ones already living on the street, were forbidden from selling bread from their own homes or bakeries, and could only do so from Bread Street. The street itself is just under 500 ft (153 m) in length and now forms the eastern boundary of the ward after the 2003 boundary changes. The modern ward extends much further west from Bread Street itself and includes Paternoster Square, a modern development to the north of St Paul’s Cathedral and home of the London Stock Exchange since 2004. The City’s major shopping centre which opened in 2010 is at One New Change within Bread Street Ward. As with most of the City’s 25 wards, the boundaries of Bread Street were altered quite considerably in 2003, having remained almost unchanged for centuries. The ward is now bounded on its north by Cheap Ward; to the east by Cordwainer Ward; to the south by Queenhithe and Vintry Wards; and to the west by Castle Baynard and Farringdon Within Wards. Its geographical boundaries are Bread Street in the east; Newgate Street and Cheapside in the north; Warwick Lane and Ave Maria Lane in the west; and Queen Victoria Street to the south. St Paul’s Cathedral is outside the ward boundaries, being in Castle Baynard Ward, but St Paul’s Cathedral School, situated between the cathedral and New Change is within the ward. Five successive Livery Halls of the Worshipful Company of Cordwainers (workers in fine leather) stood in the ward. They are commemorated by a blue plaque in the gardens of St Paul’s facing Cannon Street. The fifth and last hall was built between 1909–10, but on the night of 10 May 1941 was gutted during the Blitz. There were once two churches in the ward, All Hallows Bread Street and St Mildred, Bread Street, both to the design of Christopher Wren. Today their former parishes comprise part of St Mary-le-Bow on Cheapside. All Hallows was demolished in 1876 to make way for warehouses, and St Mildred was destroyed during The Blitz in April and May 1941.
CLUB ARMS [1st Motion] (see original 1799 description below) Vintry is one of the 25 wards of the City of London. (See maps – click to expand). Located within it is the City end of Southwark Bridge and, adjacent to that, the hall of the Worshipful Company of Vintners, the City livery company for the wine trade. The ward’s boundary is formed by Cannon Street to the north, College Hill and Cousin Lane to the east, the River Thames to the south, and its western edge follows an unusual line along part of Little Trinity Lane, Lambeth Hill and Distaff Lane. The Christopher Wren-designed church St James Garlickhythe is within Vintry ward, near Mansion House tube station. In medieval times, French wine and garlic were landed at the nearby Garlickhythe (‘garlic dock’). This circumstance led to the church being part of the route for English pilgrims travelling to the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, which is sacred to the memory of St James the Great. The ward contained Whittington’s Longhouse, a 128-seat public toilet gifted by Dick Whittington.
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