JUS No. 47 PATERNOSTER ROW UST as this book was approaching completion, the house numbered 47 in Paternoster Row, which had been the London house of the well-known firm of publishers, Messrs. W. and R. Chambers, for upwards of half a century, lost its old tenants. It is true that it cannot with certainty be reckoned among threatened buildings, but in view of possible alterations Mr. Fletcher was prompted to give a pictorial record of its appearance at the present time. The age of the house, and its dignified aspect among the meaner fronts in the Row, make it worthy of a place in Mr. Fletcher's picture gallery. For it was built shortly after the Great Fire, and, at the time of writing, remains an excellent example of the kind of house in which a substantial business man of the seventeenth century would choose to live. How long it will retain its old-world look it is impossible to say. One can only hope that nothing will be done to it that will seriously impair its character. The Street in which it stands is one of a series possessing names well suited to the precincts of a Cathedral Church. Paternoster Row itself appropriately ends in Amen Corner. A turn southwards leads through Ave Maria Lane, in a line with which, on the south side of Ludgate Hill, you come to Creed Lane. The names originated in the fact that the makers and sellers of Paternosters, or beads for devotion, and the stationers and writers of texts the Ave and the Credo for example-congregated round St. Paul's. Certainly for close on two centuries-for Paternoster Lane is heard of in 1374this old street maintained an ecclesiastical connexion, and to some extent served the purpose which it has served for another couple of centuries, the distribution of writings. The religious changes of the sixteenth century seriously affected the Row. The bead-sellers and the writers of Aves gave place to the mercers, who filled with silks and satins, and with feminine and even masculine fripperies, the windows previously devoted to the exhibition of religious wares. During their ascendency the Row underwent great architectural changes, the mercers requiring for their residence over their shops, and for the shops themselves, a larger and more ambitious type of house. About 1690, the mercers having migrated to the more fashionable neighbourhood of Covent Garden, the booksellers and publishers took possession of the Row, the name of which figures in the imprint of many famous publishing houses. The tendency of the publishing business is to drift westward, and Messrs. Chambers, in migrating to Soho, are only following the fashion. Not as yet, however, have all the publishers disappeared, and, even should they all take their departure, it is likely enough that Paternoster Row would continue for some long time to come to be the centre of the book-distributing industry. A. R. |