The Building of England: How the History of England Has Shaped Our Buildings. Simon Thurley
work, which increased the walled area of the Tower by at least an acre, probably remained unfinished; part of it certainly collapsed, and it was left to Edward I to complete the fortification of the Tower between 1275 and 1285. Edward threw a second wall around the one built by his predecessor, digging a new moat and creating a complex series of outworks and gatehouses as a new entrance. The Tower of London was now the first coherently planned concentric fortress in England (fig. 116).
Fig. 116 The Tower of London today. Although altered in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Tower is still recognisably a concentric fortress with rings of defences and, bottom right, an elaborate system of gatehouses, drawbridges and causeways that secured its entrance.
To enter, it was now necessary to pass from Tower Hill on to the Lion Tower, a semicircular enclosure surrounded by a moat and guarded by two gates and a drawbridge. From here the would-be visitor had to pass through the twin-towered Middle Tower, a gateway defended by a drawbridge, gateway and two portcullises, before passing onto a parapeted causeway across the moat. Here visitors were confronted by a second twin-towered gatehouse, the Byward Tower, also defended by a gate, portcullises and a drawbridge. King Edward I is known, rightly, as one of the great builders in English history. As well as substantial work in England, over a 25-year period – and at the cost of £80,000 – he built a series of castles and fortified towns in North Wales as part of his campaign to conquer and subdue the Welsh. Caernarvon, Conway, Harlech and Beaumaris, for example, still stand witness to this remarkable chapter in royal patronage. As these buildings are in Wales they fall outside the scope of this book, yet it is necessary to ask what influence, if any, did this gargantuan building programme carried out for an English king with English labour and finance have on the development of English architecture?38
The first point to make is that the Welsh castles were exceptional, not only because of the incredibly impressive focus of men, materials and money, but because they were all built from scratch. Most English castles were a product of hundreds of years of piecemeal addition; very few new castles were built after 1150. Therefore, unusually, Edward had the opportunity to create a series of brand-new ideal forts, building what were probably the greatest military achievements of their age in Western Europe. The design of the Welsh castles brought together ideas that had been tried and tested at Dover and the Tower. For instance, none of them has a great tower or keep. Their most prominent feature, and where the prime accommodation lay, was the gatehouse. It was the gatehouse that had proved decisive during the siege of Dover, and the new defences at Dover, particularly the Constable Tower, emphasised its importance. But there was perhaps more than military necessity in the prominence given to gatehouses. Since Saxon times the English had favoured the gatehouse as a sign of status (p. 52), and the Welsh castles of Edward I reinforced this as a major feature in English architectural design (p. 146).39
Finally, both Conway and Caernarvon castles effectively contained royal palaces.40 This is an important point because neither Henry III’s works nor those of Edward I were confined to defence. Henry III transformed his castles into major and comfortable residences for himself; his works at Dover and the Tower included new palaces, as did those at Windsor and Winchester. After his marriage in 1236, yet more building was commissioned to provide suitable accommodation for the queen. These royal works reflect a wider move by magnates who were making their castles more comfortable and spacious. The Cliffords at Brougham Castle, Cumbria, were typical in setting out to extend and modernise their Anglo-Norman great tower in 1300. They added an elaborate gatehouse to its face, raised it by a storey and added fine rooms, including a vaulted oratory (fig. 117). Brougham was no longer a cold northern fortress; it was a commodious and fashionable residence.
Fig. 117 Brougham Castle, Cumbria, is a lesson in how to transform a severe Norman great tower into a compact but luxurious residence. The bottom three storeys date from around 1200 and contain a store, the castle’s hall and above that the original lord’s chamber. The storey above, with its fancy oratory and big fireplace, date from a century later and was added by Robert Clifford.
A Capital City
It was during the reign of Edward I that London became a capital city in the modern sense of the word, displacing Winchester as the seat of the state and the focal point for English identity, language and law. Its population was perhaps as large as 100,000, much smaller than Paris but four times the size of its nearest rival, Norwich. The years after 1300 saw London consolidate its position as the engine-house of England’s economy. By 1306 it exported more wool than Boston, and by 1334, in terms of taxation, London was five times richer than Bristol, her nearest competitor.41
London was still surrounded by a wall with six gates, Roman in origin, and on a number of occasions during the Middle Ages these were manned to defend the City. Yet the population had already burst through the walls, especially in the west, where buildings lined the streets of the Strand and Holborn. Within the city most of the major buildings and structures that dominated its skyline to the Reformation had already been founded. The Tower and St Paul’s Cathedral have already been mentioned, but London also had monasteries and 140 parish churches, as well as London Bridge, 906ft long with 19 arches.
| The rich and powerful had houses in London from 1100, but from 1300 large numbers of bishops and abbots, and then lay nobles, built great houses or inns in London, seeking to be close to Westminster and the law courts, and to trade with each other. We have already met the pluralist Bogo de Clare (p. 134), who was typical of the very rich in having a house near Aldgate but only 950ft away also owning a substantial wardrobe – essentially an office where he could trade, entertain business contacts and conduct his financial affairs. His wardrobe had a courtyard with a well and a lawn, perhaps a chapel, too. Between 1285 and 1286 Bogo spent £375 on supplies through his wardrobe. This was big business for everyone concerned and demonstrated that aristocratic houses were crucial to the economy of the city. Their wealthy occupants spent heavily on supporting their households and equipping themselves with the latest luxuries. When Richard Swinfield, Bishop of Hereford, brought his household to London in 1291, his expenditure trebled from £1 to £3 a day.42 |
| The houses of men such as Bogo were generally set back from the street in courtyards approached by a gatehouse. Their owners would often build and rent out shops on the street front, making their houses to an extent self-supporting. At the back of the courtyard was generally the great hall and an attached chamber built up over a vaulted undercroft. Many also had towers that lifted their owners above the noise, smell and confusion of the streets to daylight and spectacular views over the rooftops. No single 14th-century house or wardrobe survives, but in Southwark parts of the Bishop of Winchester’s palace do, and these give us a glimpse of the magnificence of the richest of the residences (fig. 118). |
| Winchester Place was started in about 1200, and was extended and altered right up to the Reformation. The bishop had a separate chapel and, at right angles to this, was a suite of rooms built in the late 1350s containing a number of fine chambers, including a study and latrines. The new rooms overlooked gardens. The kitchen and domestic buildings lay to the west of the hall. The whole was bounded by walls and supplied by extensive stabling. This latter point is important as stabling was a huge problem, rather like car parking today. Pasture, fodder and a place to stable horses were crucial to the efficient existence of a nobleman, and good stables in central London were vitally important for a man of wealth.43 |
| English architecture in the period from 1220 to 1350 displays the confidence that comes with wealth and independence. Architects had mastered both the structural capabilities of Gothic architecture and its decorative possibilities. Patrons wanted to translate their ambitions into stone, timber, glass and fired clay, and were not ashamed of extravagant display. |