3-077-811 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

An old house in the City: the Sir Paul Pindar, Bishopsgate, 1890. 'One by one the landmarks of old London are fast disappearing, by the advance of street and building improvements. Our Illustration shows one of the most interesting old houses in Bishopsgate-street. Originally it was the residence of Sir Paul Pindar, who was a celebrated parishioner of St. Botolph's, and was for nine years Ambassador to Constantinople. He enriched the parish endowments greatly, and also gave £10,000 to the rebuilding of St. Paul's Cathedral. He made a computation of his fortune some time before his death, and found he was worth £236,000, a large sum in those days...the portion of the house remaining, and now in use as a tavern, is only a small part of the large mansion once standing there. The ceiling...on the first floor, is magnificent with its floriated strap panels and quaint pendentives; in fact, it is one of the finest examples in London. The beautiful enriched plaster panels are well worth notice, also the carved trusses supporting the gables. This fine old house was commenced in the closing years of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and is now to be pulled down, to make way for the Great Eastern Railway's extension of their Liverpool-street terminus'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.