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Bassishaw is a ward in the City of London. Small, it is bounded by wards: Coleman Street, east; Cheap, south; Cripplegate, north; Aldersgate, west.
It first consisted of Basinghall Street with the courts and short side streets off it, Book 2, Ch. 6: Bassishaw Ward, A New History of London: Including Westminster and Southwark (1773), pp. 549-51 accessed: 21 May 2007 but since a boundary review in 2003 (after which the ward expanded into Cripplegate Within) it extends to streets further west, including Aldermanbury, Wood Street,'Cripplegate, one of the 26 Wards of the City of London' Baddesley, J.J p46: London; Blades, East & Blades; 1921 and, to the north, part of London Wall and St Alphage Garden. City of London Corporation Map of Bassishaw ward (2003 —) The ward was historically the City's smallest. A Topographical Dictionary of England, Samuel Lewis, 1831, p 134
The masons' hall was constructed in 1463 in Mason's Avenue which today is a southern limit. Their hall was also sold to the Corporation in 1865. The weavers and girdlers also had their guild halls in the ward. The modern livery halls of the pewterers, salters and brewers are in Bassishaw.
There were two churches, neither of which remain. St Michael Bassishaw, dedicated to St Michael, the archangel, which was founded in the 12th century. Churches of the City of London Reynolds,H (Bodley Head 1922) At that time, the rectorship was included in the gift of St Bartholomew-the-Great, but, over time, it came to be associated with St Paul's Cathedral itself. The church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, and rebuilt in 1679. It was united with St Lawrence Jewry in 1897; the site was sold in 1899 and the church was demolished in 1900. St Alphage London Wall, also damaged in the Great Fire but not rebuilt until 1777, was eventually demolished in 1924.
Also in the ward is Wood Street police station, the former headquarters of the City of London Police (not to be confused with the Metropolitan Police Service whose headquarters are at Scotland Yard). It used to host a small police museum, which relocated in 2016 to the Guildhall Library, replacing the Clockmakers' Museum and Library.
The prominently motifed Chartered Insurance Institute at 20 Aldermanbury has its own hall ( Insurance Hall) and a small museum. The building itself is Listed building.
Points of interest
The ward contains a large part of the Guildhall buildings, the main administrative centre for the City of London Corporation. (A small, but important, part of the Guildhall lies within Cheap ward.) The Guildhall Art Gallery and Guildhall Library both lie in Bassishaw, as part of the Guildhall buildings.
Pedestrian route
Aldermanbury has broad pavements and remains a pedestrian link from Gresham Street to the road aspect of, the main successor of, London Wall.
Politics
Bassishaw is one of 25 wards in the City of London, each electing an alderman to the Court of Aldermen and commoners (the City equivalent of a councillor) to the Court of Common Council of the City of London Corporation. Only electors who are Freemen of the City of London are eligible to stand for election, though all candidates who stand are granted this status.
Notable people
See also
Further reading
A History of Bassishaw Ward c.1200 – c.1600 (2014, Christine M. Fox, PhD) ebookpartnership.com
External links
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