Between 1466-75, the wealthy grocer John Crosby built Crosby Hall, described by John Stow, in his “Survay of London” of 1598, as “very large and beautiful”, on  Bishopsgate in the City of London.  The Hall survived the Great Fire of 1666.  Bizarrely, in 1909, it was relocated to Cheyne Walk in Chelsea, where it can still be seen to this day (photos below).

There are some wonderfully evocative old black-and-white photographs of the Hall in its original location on Bishopsgate in 1907 in Philip Davies’ “haunting and heartbreaking” book “Lost London” (English Heritage, 2009).  There are also some sumptuous recent colour photographs of the interior of  the Hall in its new location in Chelsea in Davies’s “London – Hidden Interiors” (English Heritage, 2012).

Crosby Hall (photo by Bob Jones)

Crosby Hall and adjoining building from Chelsea Old Church (photo by Bob Jones)

Crosby Hall and adjoining buildings viewed from the river (photo by Bob Jones)