Williamson’s Tavern
1 Groveland Ct, London EC4M 9EH
Barbarians at the gates
With a power vacuum in London (and throughout Britain) the Saxons and their allies, the Angles, had it easy. Without a military force the Romano- British were defenceless and the invaders practically walked in. The Saxons, a semi-nomadic culture, found the Roman stone walls and buildings foreboding and settled outside the City in the area corresponding to Victoria Embankment, Aldwych and Covent Garden today. They called the timber-built settlement Lundenwich and its main thoroughfare, Strand (meaning shoreline).
London belonged to the Kingdom of Essex (the east Saxons). In time the Saxons came to recognise the defensive attraction of the old Roman city and moved within its walls, calling it Lundenberg, and adopting the Roman street patterns. A new port at Queenhithe (near Billingsgate) was established and Aldwych (meaning the old port) was degraded. Cheapside (i.e., ‘shop-side’) was formed as the main thoroughfare and streets leading off it carried the names of the produce one could purchase (e.g., Bread, Milk, Honey and Fish) and still evident today. At the church of All Hallows (by Tower Bridge) we can see the oldest stone arch in London from this period, datined tog AD 675.
In AD 851, the Vikings invaded the Saxon settlement. And despite the city walls, the Saxons succumbed to the ferocity and might of the invaders. Today, St Clement Danes reminds us of the Viking church on the site and the English language is packed with old Norse words (e.g., sky, skin, leg, gun and get). It was over thirty years, in AD 886, before the Vikings were repulsed by King Alfred of Wessex and forced to seek terms – – leading to a division of the country into southern Saxon and northern Viking controlled territory. But further incursions continued, some notably stopped by London’s Norwegian ally King Olaf II – – remembered at locations in Southwark and by the nursery rhyme ‘London bridge is falling down’, taken as a measure to prevent invasion by the Vikings from the south. Eventually, the Viking Kings Sweyn Forkbeard and Cnut prevailed – – becoming Kings of England in 1013 and 1035 respectively.
Cheapside would later become the main route for royal processions between the monarch’s palace at the Tower of London and the centre of royal worship at Westminster Abbey.
Situated off Bow Lane on Cheapside; , Williamson’s Tavern was originally the home of Sir John Fastolf (whose name Shakespeare changed to Falstaff in the Merry Wives of Windsor) before becoming a residence fort the Lord Mayors of London. The pub dates to the 1600s with twentieth century renovations, although the fireplace claims to be made of Roman bricks. Inset into the wall of the restaurant there is an inscribed tablet marking the exact centre of the City of London (the ‘City’).
