MOURN ARMS 3rd Motion (see original 1799 description below)
Courtesy of the Crace Collection of Maps of London held by The British Library, London. Engraving 1821. Surveyor H. Gardener. The title of this parish plan appears at middle left, with scale bar and compass star above the title, and an inset view of the parish church at bottom left. Christ Church was built in 1737 on the site of a church built in 1670 which was demolished after sinking in the Lambeth Marsh.
Christchurch (see map attached – click to enlarge) was a civil parish in the metropolitan area of London, England, located south of the River Thames straddling Blackfriars Road. It was the manor of Paris Garden of St Margaret, Southwark. St Margaret was replaced by St Saviour in 1541. In 1670 the area was made a parish in its own right when Christ Church was constructed. Prone to flooding, it was not heavily built on until after 1809. In 1900 the parish became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Southwark. The area now forms the north-western part of the London Borough of Southwark. Paris Garden was located adjacent to Southwark, in the Brixton Hundred in Surrey. It was considered to form part of “Southwark”. The area enjoyed special privilege as a liberty, which contributed to its poor reputation. You could avoid arrest within the liberty. William Baseley was granted a 21 year lease of the manor in 1542. In 1547 he was licensed to organise bowls, dice and other legally forbidden recreations. Paris Garden became infamous for bear and bull baiting during the 16th and 17th centuries. When the City of London extended its authority south of Thames in 1550 the liberties of the Clink and Paris Garden were not part of the new jurisdiction of the ward of Bridge Without.
When the Metropolitan Police was established in 1829 the parish was included in the initial Metropolitan Police District. Following the Reform Act 1832 it was added to the Parliamentary Borough of Southwark.[6] For the administration of the New Poor Law the parish was united with St Saviour as the St Saviour’s Union in 1836. The parish was small and, although the population had almost doubled in the first half of the 19th century, it was considered too small to form an administrative unit when local government in the metropolitan area of London was reformed in 1855.
PRESENT ARMS [1st Motion from Mourn Arms] (see original 1799 description below)
Courtesy of The British Library, Crace Collection, London. 1755 engraving; cartographer: Richard Blome. Plan of the parish of St Mary Magdalen Bermondsey from J. Strype’s edition of Stow’s Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster and borough of Southwark published in 1754-56. Damaged by repeated flooding, the old medieval parish church of St Mary was demolished at the beginning of the 18th century. In 1715, a new parish church was erected on the site with funds raised by the parishioners themselves after the Commissioners of the Fifty New Churches Act (Queen Anne’s Churches) turned down their request for money.View of the south, or garden front of the Jamaica Tavern in Bermondsey; where the Volunteers met and where they kept their arms. Drawn by: Thomas Hosmer Shepherd. Courtesy of The Trustees of the British Museum – Crace 1878 / A Catalogue of Maps, Plans and Views of London, Westminster and Southwark, collected and arranged by Frederick Crace (XXXIV.14) Binyon 1898-1907 / Catalogue of drawings by British artists, and artists of foreign origin working in Great Britain (394).
Bermondsey (see maps attached) is a district in southeast London, part of the London Borough of Southwark, England, 2.5 miles (4.0 km) southeast of Charing Cross. To the west of Bermondsey lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe and Deptford, to the south Walworth and Peckham, and to the north is Wapping across the River Thames. It lies within the historic county boundaries of Surrey. As it developed over the centuries, Bermondsey underwent some striking changes. After the Great Fire of London, it was settled by the well-to-do, and took on the character of a garden suburb especially along the line of Grange Road and Bermondsey Wall East as it became more urbanised. A pleasure garden was constructed during the Restoration period in the 17th century, commemorated by the Cherry Garden Pier. Samuel Pepys once visited here with his wife and servants.
Though not many buildings survive from this period, one notable exception is the church of St Mary Magdalen in Bermondsey Street, completed in 1690 (although a church has been recorded on this site from the 13th century). This church survived the 19th-century redevelopment phase and the Blitz unscathed. It is an unusual survivor for Bermondsey as buildings of this period are relative rarities in Inner London in general.
The lower map shows the location of Jamaica House where the description below tells us that the Volunteers met and kept their arms. Samuel Pepys once visited Jamaica House, which at some stage became a tavern, with his wife and servants.
PRESENT ARMS from Mourn Arms 2nd motion (see original 1799 description below)
Billingsgate Ward and Bridge Ward Within with their Divisions into Parishes According to a new Survey. Map of the London wards, with inset views of St Mary at Hill and St Botolph, or St George, Botolph Lane; two coats of arms on the left; illustration to Maitland’s ‘The History of London’. 1756 Etching and engraving. Courtesy of the British Museum https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_Heal-Topography-227– (ANNOTATED by Iain Laird on 9th October 2022).
Billingsgate is one of the 25 Wards of the City of London. Its name derives from being the City’s original water gate, and this small City Ward is situated on the north bank of the River Thames between London Bridge and Tower Bridge in the south-east of the Square Mile. See map attached (click on it to expand). The modern Ward extends south to the Thames, west to Lovat Lane and Rood Lane, north to Fenchurch Street and Dunster Court, and east to Mark Lane and St Dunstan’s Hill. The Ward at the end of the eighteenth century is shown in the attached map (click on it to expand). Until boundary changes in 2003, the Ward included Pudding Lane where in 1666 the Great Fire of London started. Billingsgate Fish Market was formally established by an Act of Parliament in 1699 to be “a free and open market for all sorts of fish whatsoever”. Oranges, lemons, and Spanish onions were also landed there, alongside the other main commodities, coal and salt. In 1849, the fish market was moved off the streets into its own riverside building, which was subsequently demolished (c. 1873) and replaced by an arcaded-market hall (designed by City architect Horace Jones, built by John Mowlem) in 1875. In 1982, Billingsgate Fish Market was relocated to its present location close to Canary Wharf in east London. The original riverside market building was then refurbished by the architectRichard Rogers to provide office accommodation and an entertainment venue.
A SERGEANT with ARMS ADVANCED ((see original 1799 description below) Queenhithe is a small and ancient ward of the City of London, situated by the River Thames and to the south of St. Paul’s Cathedral. (See map attached – click on it to expand). The Millennium Bridge crosses into the City at Queenhithe. Queenhithe is also the name of the ancient, but now disused, dock and a minor street, which runs along that dock, both of which are within the ward. The ward’s name derives from the “Queen’s Dock”, or “Queen’s Quay”, which was probably a Roman dock (or small harbour). The dock existed during the period when the Wessex king, Alfred the Great, re-established the City of London, circa 886 AD. It only became “Queenhithe” (spelt archaically as “Queenhythe”) when Matilda, wife of King Henry I, was granted duties on goods landed there. The Queenhithe dock remains today, but has long fallen out of use and is heavily silted up (being tidal). Queenhithe harbour was used for importing corn into London and continued to be in use into the 20th century, by the fur and tanning trades. Being upstream of London Bridge, however, meant that large sea-going sailing ships could no longer safely reach the dock from the sea. King Charles II landed at Queenhithe during the Great Fire of London in September 1666 to view the extent of the destruction and assist in the firefighting. The dock, including the wharf walls and adjacent street, was designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument in 1973; it is the only surviving inlet on the modern City’s waterfront. Its walls have been re-strengthened, as part of London’s flood defences. Bombing in the Blitz destroyed approximately three-quarters of the ward’s buildings: the only listed buildings are St Benet Paul’s Wharf Church, and the tower of the former St Mary Somerset Church.
A key sequence of the 1951 comedy The Lavender Hill Mob used Queenhithe as a location for filming: Mr. Holland, played by Alec Guinness, can be seen falling from a wharf into the Thames and being rescued by two actors dressed as police officers.
ORDER ARMS (from advance Arms 1st motion) (see original 1799 description below) Cripplegate was a gate in the London Wall which once enclosed the City of London (see map – click on it to expand). 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 two parts: Cripplegate Within and Cripplegate Without, with a beadle and a deputy (alderman) appointed for each part. Since the 1994 (City) and 2003 (ward) boundary changes, most of the ward is Without, with the ward of Bassishaw having expanded considerably into the Within area. Until World War II, the area approximating to Cripplegate Without was commonly known as simply Cripplegate. The area was almost entirely destroyed in the Blitz of World War II causing the term to fall out of colloquial speech. Cripplegate Without is the site of the Barbican Estate and Barbican Centre, with a small part of these lying in neighbouring Aldersgate Without. Cripplegate was located at what is now the corner of Wood Street and St Alphage Gardens . The origins of the gate’s name are unclear. One theory is that it takes its name from the Anglo-Saxon word crepel, meaning a covered or underground passageway. Another theory suggests cripples used to beg there. The nearby church of St Giles lends credence to this suggestion as Saint Giles is the patron saint of cripples and lepers.
PILE ARMS (see original 1798 description below) Mile End is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the East End of London, England, 3.6 miles (5.8 km) east-northeast of Charing Cross. Situated on the London-to-Colchester road, it was one of the earliest suburbs of London. It became part of the metropolitan area in 1855, and is connected to the London Underground. Shoreditch is a district in the East End of London in England, and forms the southern part of the London Borough of Hackney. Neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets are also perceived as part of the area. In the 16th century, Shoreditch was an important centre of the Elizabethan Theatre, and it has been an important entertainment centre since that time. Today, it hosts many pubs, bars and nightclubs. The most commercial areas lie closest to the city of London and along the A10 Road, with the rest mostly residential. Minories is the name of a small former administrative unit, and also of a street in central London. Both the street and the former administrative area take their name from the Abbey of the Minoresses of St. Clare without Aldgate. Both are positioned just to the east of, and outside, the line of London’s former defensive walls, in London’s East End. The area of the former administrative unit was outside the City of London (most recently in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets), with the street partially in the City and partly in Tower Hamlets. Boundary changes in 1994 mean the area of both is now wholly within the City of London.
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The Ward at the end of the eighteenth century is shown in the attached map (click on it to expand). Until 
