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| 8 | London’s Alleys: Tokenhouse Yard, EC2 | ----------- | |
| ianVisits – London news and events | 2019-12-02 16:10 | ????0? | |
| Prior to 1672, cheaper copper coins were rarely issued by the government, leaving people with the problem of how to pay for small goods. The use of silver coins could be analogous to today finding the smallest coin for paying for goods being a £20 note – so how do you pay for a coffee? That’s why traders issued unauthorised tokens, which could be exchanged for legal tender when you had enough of them — at the Token House in the City of London.The passageway is also famous for its grim appearance in Daniel Defoe’s novel, the History of the Plague, where he wrote that when “passing through Tokenhouse Yard, in Lothbury, of a sudden a casement violently opened just over my head, and a woman gave three frightful screeches, and then cried, ‘Oh! death, death, death!” in a most inimitable tone, which struck me with horror, and a chilliness in my very blood.”The yard’s history took an unusual twist in 1799, when he entire street was sold by Sir William Petty’s descendent, the Marquess of Lansdowne to the Bank of England. At the time the Bank was struggling with a lack of space and had intended to expand into the street, but then Sir John Soane secured permission to expand the Bank’s existing site and create the Bank of England site we have today. The Bank then sold the street in 1824. -- ???????? | |||
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