In an extract from his new book, London Railway Stations, CHRIS HEATHER outlines the history of Blackfriars station
The name ‘Blackfriars’ relates to the area of London where Dominican monks established a monastery in the year 1224, on the east side of Shoe Lane, north of the Thames. It was a large priory stretching about 400 yards from Ludgate Hill down to the river Thames at Puddle Dock. The monks wore long black robes, and were known locally as the Black Friars. In 1538 Henry VIII dissolved the Order, and their priory was pulled down.
Forty years later a man named Henry Nailer turned the site into the equivalent of an Elizabethan casino, building several bowling alleys, a pitch on which to play a game called ‘Black and White’, and a dicing house for gambling. This was much to the annoyance of local residents, who started a petition against him, writing to Sir Nicholas Bacon, politician and Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley statesman, chief adviser to Queen Elizabeth I, Secretary of State and Lord High Treasurer from 1572.
The same spot was later used for the Blackfriars Theatre, set up by the actors Richard Burbage and William Shakespeare in 1596. Shakespeare actu…
