Crosby Hall, London

The Great Hall is the only surviving part of the medieval mansion of Crosby Hall, Bishopsgate, in the City of London, which was built in 1466 on the ground of St. Helen's Convent by the wool merchant and alderman, Sir John Crosby.[2] Upon his death in 1476, the hall was the residence of his widow, Anne.[3]

By 1483, the Duke of Gloucester, later Richard III, King of England and Lord of Ireland acquired the Bishopsgate property from the original owner's widow.[4] It was used as one of his London homes.[4][5]

It was used as a setting for several scenes of William Shakespeare's first published play Richard III"[6] in which the Plantagenet King refers to Crosby Hall (then Crosby Place): "When you haue done repaire to Crosby place" (Act I, Scene 3), "At Crosby place there shall you finde vs both" (Act III, Scene 1).[7][8]

During the Tudor period, Crosby Hall belonged to Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England to King Henry VIII, who also owned the estate in Chelsea on which the building now rests.[9] Crosby Hall was described by 16th Century English historian John Stow in his Survey of London as being ‘of stone and timber, very large and beautiful, and the highest at that time in London’.[3]

In 1523, Thomas More sold the remainder of his lease in Bishopsgate to his close friend, the wealthy Anglo-Italian merchant, Antonio Bonvisi.[10][11] Bonvisi protected the lease of the mansion in various arrangements throughout the Dissolution of the Monasteries, which affected freeholds under the "Priory of St. Eleyns" including that of Crosby Place.[12] In 1547, upon the death of Henry VIII, Bonvisi leased the mansion back to Thomas More's nephew, William Rastell, and Thomas More's son-in-law and biographer, William Roper.[13]

Crosby Hall was sold in 1594 to Alderman John Spencer, Lord Mayor of London who further restored the building. Spencer entertained Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare, the Duc de Sully, the youngest son of the Prince of Orange, other notable figures, and ambassadors.[14] Other residents included the poet Dowager Countess of Pembroke Mary Sidney and Sir Walter Raleigh.[1][15]

From 1621 to 1638 it was the home of the East India Company.[16][17] Following a fire in 1672 only the Great Hall and Parlour wing of the mansion survived; it then became a Presbyterian meeting house, and then a warehouse with an inserted floor.[1]

From 1835-36, a campaign was launched to save the Hall, which had begun to show signs of decay. A Committee chaired by Alderman W. T. Copeland, M.P., then Lord Mayor of London, met at The City of London Tavern at Bisophsgate Street to support the Hall's repair, eventually raising a small sum. However, the majority of the funds needed were provided through a single lady, Maria Hackett, who took over the lease at significant personal expense. Hackett assumed all liabilities, oversaw the laying of stones for an adjoining council chamber, and funded the removal of the inserted floor.[18]

In 1868 Crosby Hall was turned into a sumptuous restaurant and bar by Messrs. Gordon & Co., whose directors were Frederick Gordon and Horatio Davies, later owner of Pimm's and Lord Mayor of London. They bought the freehold in early 1873 for about £37,000.[19]

It was sold in April 1907 for £175,000 to the Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China whose directors intended to pull down one of the most ancient buildings in the City of London and build a new bank building in its stead.[20] Its impending destruction aroused a storm of protest, and a campaign was once again started to save it.[21]

In 1910, the medieval structure was again reprieved from threatened demolition and moved stone by stone from Bishopsgate to its present site in Chelsea. The site was provided by the former London County Council, whilst the salvage, catalogue and storage were paid for by the Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China, whose directors had purchased the Bishopsgate site to build new offices.[22][23] The architect responsible for the building's relocation and restoration was Walter Godfrey. Neo-Tudor brick additions designed by Walter Godfrey were constructed around it.[23][24] In 1916, the building housed Belgian refugees, as noted in an essay by Henry James.[25]

The British Federation of University Women (BFUW) took a long lease on Crosby Hall and employed Godfrey to build a tall Arts and Crafts residential block at right angles to the great hall in 1925–1927.[24][26] The federation raised money for the work through a major campaign reaching out to individual women, industrialists, philanthropists, and Chelsea residents. Two years into the campaign, £17,000 of their initial £25,000 target had been raised. Work began in 1926, and Queen Mary opened the new building on July 1, 1927.[27]

The expanded Crosby Hall included offices for both the British and International Federation of University Women. The residential block was used as a hall of residence for visiting university women, some of whom received IFUW scholarships to travel and study.[27]

Many of the foreign women were spending just the one year in England, and ... as a result felt this year to be one of the greatest experiences of their lives. For this reason the majority of the Crosby Hall residents lived at an enormous pitch of intensity, lifted out of their everyday habits, and this, above all, was what shaped the intellectual life of Crosby Hall.

— Viennese physicist Berta Karlik[27]

With the rise of National Socialism (Nazism) in Germany and the passage of the anti-Jewish Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service on 7 April 1933,[28][29][30] Crosby Hall provided an important source of support for women academics who were being forced out of Germany. The BFUW undertook an additional fund-raising appeal on their behalf, which met with an enthusiastic response. As a result, the BFUW was able to provide 3 new 12-month residential fellowships (in addition to 7 existing ones) as well as smaller awards. In 1934 the new fellowship recipients were Emmy Klieneberger-Nobel, Betty Heimann, and Helen Rosenau. Among many other women who received funding and support were Adelheid Heimann (no relation to Betty), Gertrud Kornfeld, Dora Ilse, and Erna Hollitscher.[27][31]

I cannot describe what it meant to me and other refugees when we were allowed to stay there, after the persecution and hatred that we had undergone in "Greater Germany". In Crosby Hall we were not only tolerated but welcomed, and we found an atmosphere of kindness and understanding which assured us that there was another world outside Nazi Germany in which we might be allowed to live freely, and perhaps happily. I feel sure that everyone who stayed in Crosby Hall felt that atmosphere, from whichever part of the world she came.

— Erna Hollitscher[27]

Crosby Hall was requisitioned by the war effort, but reopened in 1946.[32]

The site passed to the Greater London Council (GLC), who maintained it until 1986, when the GLC was abolished. The London Residuary Body, charged with disposing of the GLC's assets, put Crosby Hall up for sale.[33]

Crosby Hall was bought in 1988 by Christopher Moran,[34] a businessman and philanthropist who is the Chairman of Co-operation Ireland. Until then the site's frontage had been open to Cheyne Walk and the River Thames and its central garden was open to the public. Moran commissioned a scheme to close the frontage with a new building and convert the complex to a luxury mansion. The scheme caused considerable controversy, but was given eventually permission after a Public Inquiry in December 1996, following two previous refusals by Kensington and Chelsea Council. Moran paid for the building's restoration, including initial stabilization of the great hall's 15th-century Reigate stone.[24][26]