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OBJECTS FROM THE GALLERIES

Sir Paul Pindar's house

Façade of Sir Paul Pindar's house, London. Museum no. 846-1890.

Façade of Sir Paul Pindar's house, London. Museum no. 846-1890. (click image for larger version)

The façade of Sir Paul Pindar's house, originally in Bishopsgate, London and now in the new Medieval and Renaissance Galleries at the V&A, is an outstanding survival of a London timber-framed house built before the Great Fire of 1666.

In 1597 Sir Paul Pindar bought several properties in Bishopsgate, just outside the walls of the city of London, and used this area to build a much larger property with a street façade of three and a half storeys. To the left, the older existing properties were adapted to form part of an impressive new frontage. To the right a large gateway lead down the side of the house. Between these Pindar built a new bay, and it is this that has survived.

By 1660 Pindar's property had already been subdivided into smaller dwellings. It survived the Great Fire of 1666, as Bishopsgate was one of the few areas of the City that escaped burning, but was soon given over to the London workhouse, with wards for 'poor children' and 'vagabonds, beggars, pilferers, lewd, idle, and disorderly persons'. The street-level rooms on the front were used as a tavern, known as Sir Paul Pindar's Head. In the mid 19th century, with the newly developed railway terminus, there were many small businesses along Bishopsgate; Sir Paul Pindar's former mansion stood between William Sorrell's coffee rooms and Ralph Smith & Co, Pianoforte Makers.

Pindar’s house in about 1865. Photographed by William Strudwick. Museum no. 67:466

Pindar’s house in about 1865. Photographed by William Strudwick. Museum no. 67:466 (click image for larger version)

In 1890 the property was demolished to make room for the expansion of Liverpool Street Station, but fortunately, the façade was recognised to be an architectural rarity and presented to the V&A.