St. Pancras Soper Lane 145/19

Introduction

This was the corner property between Pancras Lane, as it now is, to the S., Soper Lane to the W., 20 to the N. and 18 to the E. It seems originally to have been approximately 13 ft. (3.96 m.) square. In 1858 its site lay within that of no. 83 Queen Street.

Walter le Kayere held 19, described as land and houses to the S. of 20, in or before 1254. Richard le Kayere held the same in 1279. By his will proved in 1290, Richard le Kayere left four shops and 3 solars to various legatees for their lives. Some at least of these shops formed 19, and possibly all did; they must in that case have been very small indeed. Richard left his shop which Hervy le Bokeler had held in medio cornario de Soperlane, with 2 solars over its length and breadth, to his wife Alice for life, together with the moiety of a shop with a window (fenestra) in the same lane and parish, to the S. of the shop held by Hervy; he left the other moiety of the same shop to his niece Isabel. He left a shop in the same parish, to the E. of his door or entry, to his godson John, son of Hervy le Bokeler, apparently rent free, and a shop in the same parish and lane to Stephen le Moldere, for life at £1. 4s. rent to be paid to his executors. He also directed that if Stephen wanted to continue to hold the solar over the shop after the end of his present term of 12 years, he was to be preferred to any other, if he satisfied the executors. After the deaths of the legatees the shops etc. were to revert to the executors, to be used for pious purposes, and after the executors' deaths good men of the parish were to collect the rents for the same purposes. In 1299 Adam le Furbour of London Bridge and his wife Alice, widow of Richard le Keyere, granted to Simon de Parys, citizen and mercer, the plot of land with houses in St. Pancras parish which Richard had left to Alice for life, for £6. 13s. 4d. (10 marks) paid as a gersum. It lay between the street leading to St. Pancras church to the S., Soper Lane to the W., 20 to the N., and 18, already held by Simon de Parys, to the E. (fn. 1)

On Alice's death 19 should have reverted to Richard le Keyere's executors, or to men of the parish. No further medieval deeds relate to this property, but abutments from 20 refer to it as the shop of the rector and parishioners of St. Pancras in 1338, 1351, and 1374. (fn. 2) It does not appear to be recorded in the Chantry Certificate of 1548. (fn. 3) The property to the N., 20, was a void plot 13 ft. (3.96 m.) square in 1544. By the time of the Great Fire 20 and 19 seem to have been united, but it is not certain at what date this happened. (fn. 4) Later 16th- and early 17th-century occupants of 19-20 are not known. The most probable occupant in the 1638 list is Mr. Lane, with a house was valued at £12 p.a., who seems to have been on the E. side of Soper Lane just N. of Pancras Lane. He was probably the John Lane, tailor, of Soper Lane, in whose house Thomas Perkins and his wife, inmates, were lodged in 1637. Mr. John Lane's name occurs next but one to James Reade (18) in a list of 1642. In 1662-3 and 1666 the property on the corner of Soper Lane and Pancras Lane, which had 4 hearths, was occupied by Thomas Hoskins or Hotchkis, apothecary. (fn. 5)

After the Great Fire, in 1669, the W. abutment of 18 was given as 'Pancras parish land.' The corner property (19 or 19-20) was surveyed in 1670 for Samuel Dillingham. Before the Fire his property had measured approximately 26 ft. N.-S. by 13-14 ft. E.-W. (7.92 m. by 3.96 m. to 4.27 m.), but a strip 5 ft. (1.52 m.) wide was cut off along the Pancras Lane frontage, and another strip 4 ft. 8 in. to 5 ft. 2 in. (1.42 m. to 1.57 m.) wide along Soper Lane was added to the W. side, to bring up the frontage to the line of the new Queen Street. No record either of compensation or payment for betterment seems to survive. (fn. 6)