Stow, Survay of London

• The beare Gardens

Record title: Stow, Survay of London
Publication: STC
Publication number: 23341

John Stow (1525–1605) was one of England's best-known contemporary historians and chroniclers. According to C.L. Kingsford, he was 'the first English historian to make systematic use of the Public Records for the purpose of his work'; see English Historical Literature in the Fifteenth Century (Oxford, 1913), p 266. He had an extensive collection of medieval and renaissance manuscripts, many now included in the Harley collection at the British Library.

The Survay of London was first published in 1598 but enjoyed a long publishing history. As Barrett L. Beer observes: '[t]he book is a topographical survey of the city and its suburbs developed along the lines of earlier works by John Leland, William Lambarde, and William Camden. In its composition Stow drew on a wide range of classical and medieval historical literature, public and civic records, as well as upon his own intimate personal knowledge of the city where he spent his life. The reader of A Survey travels with Stow through each of the city's wards and the adjoining city of Westminster, learns about the wall, bridges, gates, and parish churches of London, and peruses lists of mayors and sheriffs'; 'Stow [Stowe], John (1524/5–1605), historian,' ODNB, accessed 21 December 2022.

The passage on the bear gardens appears in the section on London's Bridge Ward Without among the list of notable houses on the west bank, though the liberty of the Clink lay outside the jurisdiction of the city. There seems no doubt that Stow's description is primarily about the Bear Garden at the Bell and Cock, also known as Payne's Standings, most probably the only one still operating in the 1580s.

Kingsford edited the second edition of Stow's Survey published in 1603 as 'the only full and authoritative' version (Survey of London, vol 1, p xli) but only minor variations in spelling and phrasing occur in the section on the bear gardens, so the earliest available edition published in 1598 is used here.

A | SVRVAY OF | LONDON. | Contayning the Originall, Antiquity, | Increase, Moderne estate, and description of that | Citie, written in the yeare 1598. By Iohn Stow | Citizen of London. | Also an Apologie (or defence) against the | opinion of some men, concerning that Citie, | the greatnesse thereof. | With an Appendix, containing in Latine, | Libellum de situ & nobilitate Londini: Written | by William Fitzstephen, in the raigne| of Henry the second. | Imprinted by Iohn Wolfe, Printer to the honorable Citie of | London: And are to be sold at his shop within the | Popeshead Alley in Lombard street. 1598. STC: 23341.