New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-09-07
tBy Cable 20 The Tribune J

London. Sept. 6.-Through the coll
umns OF The Times an appeal is be-
ing made to Americans TO find SOME
way OF preserving the memorial OF the
house at No. { Craven street. Strand,
which was Benjamin Franklin's favor
lite residence in his more prosperous
days. about 100. This house is one
Of those which are to be torn down
next January 10 make room for res
taurant and hotel for Sir Joseph Lyons.
whose chief restaurants are British
editions Of the Childs restaurants Of
New York.
The house has long been marked by
tablet recording that Franklin lived
there. and the suggestion is made that
this tablet be fixed IN that part Of the
new hotel covering the site OF Frank
Inns house. II is also suggested mat
there be a Franklin Hall. which might
become the scene OF American gather
ings in London, while there should also
be in the new building a counterpart
OF Franklin's bedroom, the original
furnishings OF which still remain In the
present h.Ise.
Cloth Fair to Disappear.
Another bit OF picturesque London.
too. is vanishing. Cloth Fair. dating
from the late Elizabethan and early
Jacobean periods. is about 10 be done
hafpra
the city Corporation contemplates ex-
pending 100000 in driving a wide
street through Cloth Fair, abol!shins
all its ancient picturesqueness, and in
place Of It's gabled. stoutly timbered
houses erc,ting-of all new worldly
things-huge cold storage warehouses
Smithfield Market must expand and
Cloth Fair is in the line OF least re-
sistance.
The ancient district quartered about
the Priory Church of ST. Bartholomew
the Great, Smithheld. is hidden away
! in narrow passages and tortuous wind
ings, a London backwater that takes
no part In the busy life around IT.
The casual visitor who drifts down the
single path wide enough 10 bear the
name OF street. or any OF the tiny pas
sages, finds himself In bit OF old Lon
don-the London that was walled
city, with gates that were locked al
night In the heart OF Cloth Far
stands tho old Dick Wilmington TaV-
ern, believed to-day TO be the Oldest
inhabited house in the city. The name
Of Cloth Fair suggests It's origin.
Many years have passed since the rat
tie OF shuttle and loom was heard in
London, but this was the gathering
ground of the ira far back In media
val days, before Spitalfields.
In old times the Priory Of st. Bar
tholomew extended over what Is now
Cloth Fair, and the mart was held IN
the churchyard. but the hard hand OF
Henry VIII fell with great severity
upon it, and he sold the whole OF the
priory and its rights for about $780,
900. The purchaser and those who in
herited from him conceived the idea
that instead OF movable booths streets
, with permanent houses would be II
profitable speculation. and accordingly
they covered the site right up. 10 the
church wall with houses. The earliest
buildings standing are those originally
built on the land perhaps not more
than a half century after the dissolu-
ton OF the monasteries.
Even to-day Cloth Fair is unique IN
the city. for in 1t there are still dwell
ing houses with rickety wooden stairs
and cosey living rooms. In Back Court,
hard against the church, are houses
with fronts or sides covered with
weather boards--the last weather
boards in use in the city.
london's Recent Losses.
London has lost much in antiquity in
the last dozen years. When the Strand
Improvement swept over Holywell
street and Wych street and established
Kingsway and Aldwych. where The
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