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Whitehall Stairs

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Whitehall Stairs

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The Whitehall Stairs were a historically significant site, providing access to the Thames from Whitehall Palace. The stairs are occasionally written as White Hall or Whitehal. While they are not labelled on the Agas map, the Whitehall Stairs were very much a part of everyday life in London. Few mentions of the Whitehall Stairs can be found in early modern literature, but they are memorialized in a number of accounts of life in London, from legal records to personal diaries.

Royalty

Whitehall Stairs were not the only stairs leading to the Thames near Whitehall Palace. According to Montagu H. Cox and Philip Norman, from the beginning there were two sets of river stairs at Whitehall, the public Whitehall Stairs, and the Privy Stairs (Cox and Norman). As to why there were two sets of stairs, there may have been a public thoroughfare next to York Place, with a public landing on the Thames. If this public thoroughfare existed, then public rights had to be considered even by Henry VIII when he acquired York Place and transformed it and the surrounding area into the Palace of Whitehall (Cox and Norman). Accordingly, the Privy Stairs were for the private use of the royals and favored nobles dwelling at Whitehall, while Whitehall Stairs were intended for public use.
However, royalty did on occasion use the public Whitehall Stairs. Queen Elizabeth was known to use the stairs during royal processions on the river.1 Other royals used the Whitehall Stairs for matters of state. The record keeper for the corporation of Rye discusses plans for the coronation of King James I and Queen Anne, noting that The King and Queen would be crowned on the 25th of this month [July], and that two canopies were in making, yet the coronation would be private and their Majesties would take barge at Whitehall staires [. . .] and thence be landed at the Parliament house stairs, where the canopies should be ready to receive them (Historical Manuscripts Commission, The Corporation of Rye: 1601-16). Peter Heylyn mentions that the stairs were also used to recieve foreign ambassadors, who if they came to London by Water, were met at Gravesent by the Lord Mayor, the Aldermen, and Companies in their severall Barges, and in that solemn sort conducted unto White Hall stairs (Heylyn 109).

Textual Mentions

The Whitehall Stairs were not always used for the pleasure or pageantry of the monarchs, In Historical Memoirs of My Own Time (1837), Sir Nathaniel William Wraxall discusses the speculation and gossip that surrounded the execution of Charles I in 1649. Wraxall writes that, according to a duchess, the executioner wore a black crape stretched over his face, and had no sooner taken off the king’s head, than he was put into a boat at Whitehall Stairs, together with the block, the black cloth that covered it, the axe, and every article stained with blood. Being conveyed to the Tower, all the implements use in the decapitation, were immediately reduced to ashes. (Wraxall 297).
People arrested for committing crimes were often taken up or down the Thames, gaining access from Whitehall Stairs. Richard Kingston writes that the cheeky William Fuller was taken into custody for fistfighting with a gentleman and was subsequently brought to Whitehall Stairs (Kingston). Another instance involved several men suspected of spying for John Ashton. Court documents record that these men attempted to convince Captain Billop, who commanded the vessel, to let them off early, pretending want of Refreshment, they not having eaten, and the Night having been cold (Preston 27); however, Billip refused and they were brought to Whitehall Stairs to stand trial (Preston 27).
Brief references to Whitehall Stairs occur often in early modern texts. Anna Trapnel, a prophetess in England mentions the Whitehall Stairs in her Anna Trapnel’s Report and Plea. Trapnel recounts her travels to Cornwall, where she was arrested and taken before the magistrates for disturbing the peace. When she began this ill-fated journey, she and her traveling companions went by water from Southwark to White-Hall-stairs, where [she] landed, and went to the Inne where [they] took Coach; and many friends came to bid [them] farewell (Trapnel 7). Trapnel escaped conviction, but she did indicate whether or not she returned by the same stairs. In an attempt to prove a young man named Christian innocent of tricks played on an irate nobleman, Timothy Touchstone, a pen name, reports that Christian at Two of the Clock in the Afternoon that day took Water from Whitehall Stairs with him upon the request of a brewer (Touchstone 2). This reference suggests that the Whitehall Stairs was a popular place from which to draw water, particularly for breweries. In the penny pamphlet The Character of Those Two Protestants in Masquerade: Heraclitus and the Observator, an anonymous writer ridicules the genre of the penny pamphlet, writing: Take but a Pair of Oars from Black-friars to Whitehall Stairs, and the Academy will furnish you with as much Matter as will complete a dozen of these Pamphlets, with a great deal of Applause after the Publication (The Character of Those Two Protestants in Masquerade: Heraclitus and the Observator). The author mocks the simple ideas and the silly gossip printed in penny pamphlets,2 and the use of Blackfriars to Whitehall Stairs may signify that this was a common path on the river, upon which one would encounter many common people.

The Fire and Beyond

Samuel Pepys regularly used Whitehall Stairs to access the Thames, often flagging Whitehall Stairs as a meeting place or point of departure. Pepys writes that he met with Lord Montagu and his retinue on 2 January 1661 to conduct business at White Hall stairs (Pepys 1661-01-02). On 4 May 1663, Pepys met his wife at the stairs who called [him] at Whitehall Stairs (where [he] went before by land to know whether there was any play at Court to-night) before he joined her for the evening (Pepys 1663-05-04).3
As Pepys’s diary indicates, the Whitehall Stairs survived the Great Fire of London in 1666. Pepys records a meeting Sir W. Batten on 22 May 1667, six months after the fire, writing that they saw at White Hall stairs a fisher-boat, with a sturgeon that he had newly catched in the River (Pepys 1667-05-22). The Whitehall Stairs remained an important riverside feature in London until the late 1860s, when it were demolished to make way for the Victorian Embankment.

Notes

  1. For more information about royal processions, see MoEML’s critical introduction to the The Queen’s Majesty’s Passage. (TLG)↑
  2. For more information on gossip and gossips in early modern London, see Gossip and Gossips. (JT)↑
  3. To see a full list of tagged references to Whitehall Stairs in Pepys’s diary, see The Diary of Samuel Pepys’s encyclopedia article on Whitehall Stairs. (JT)↑

References

  • Citation

    Cox, Montagu H. and Philip Norman, eds. St. Margaret, Westminster, Part II: Whitehall I. Survey of London. Vol. 13. London: London County Council, 1930. Reprint. British History Online. Open.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

  • Citation

    Heylyn, Peter. Observations on the Historie of The reign of King Charles. London: Printed for John Clarke, 1656. Wing H1727. Reprint. EEBO. Subscription. EEBO.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

  • Citation

    Historical Manuscripts Commission, ed. The Corporation of Rye: 1601-10. The Manuscripts of Rye and Hereford Corporations, etc.: Thirteenth report, Appendix Part IV. London: 1892. 122-146. Reprint. British History Online. Open.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

  • Citation

    Kingston, Richard. The Life of William Fuller. London: Able Roper, 1692. Wing L2039. Reprint. EEBO. Subscription. EEBO.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

  • Citation

    Pepys, Samuel. The Diary of Samuel Pepys: Daily Entries from the 17th Century London Diary. Dev. Phil Gyford. Open.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

  • Citation

    Pepys, Samuel. Diary. 1659-1669. Ed. Henry B. Wheatley. London: George Bell and Sons, York St. Covent Carden, 1893. Project Gutenberg. Open.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

  • Citation

    Preston, Richard Graham, Viscount. The Arraignment, Trials, Conviction and Condemnation of Sir Rich. Grahme. London: 1691. Wing A3768. Reprint. EEBO. Subscription. EEBO.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

  • Citation

    The Character of Those Two Protestants in Masquerade: Heraclitus and the Observator. London: 1681. Wing C2029. Reprint. EEBO. Subscription. EEBO.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

  • Citation

    Touchstone, Timothy. Timothy Touchstone’s Reply to Sir Anonymous. London: 1679. Wing A3381. Reprint. EEBO. Subscription. EEBO.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

  • Citation

    Trapnell, Anna. Anna Trapnel’s report and plea, or, A narrative of her journey into Cornwal.  London: Thomas Brewster, 1654. Wing T2033. Reprint. EEBO. Subscription. EEBO.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

  • Citation

    Wraxall, Sir Nathaniel William. Historical Memoirs of My Own Time. Lea and Balnchard: Boston, 1837. Reprint. Google Books. Open.

    This item is cited in the following documents:

Cite this page

MLA citation

Smith, Caitlin. Whitehall Stairs. The Map of Early Modern London, edited by Janelle Jenstad, U of Victoria, 20 Jun. 2018, mapoflondon.uvic.ca/WHIT6.htm.

Chicago citation

Smith, Caitlin. Whitehall Stairs. The Map of Early Modern London. Ed. Janelle Jenstad. Victoria: University of Victoria. Accessed June 20, 2018. http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/WHIT6.htm.

APA citation

Smith, C. 2018. Whitehall Stairs. In J. Jenstad (Ed), The Map of Early Modern London. Victoria: University of Victoria. Retrieved from http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/WHIT6.htm.

RIS file (for RefMan, EndNote etc.)

Provider: University of Victoria
Database: The Map of Early Modern London
Content: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

TY  - ELEC
A1  - Smith, Caitlin
ED  - Jenstad, Janelle
T1  - Whitehall Stairs
T2  - The Map of Early Modern London
PY  - 2018
DA  - 2018/06/20
CY  - Victoria
PB  - University of Victoria
LA  - English
UR  - http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/WHIT6.htm
UR  - http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/xml/standalone/WHIT6.xml
ER  -

RefWorks

RT Web Page
SR Electronic(1)
A1 Smith, Caitlin
A6 Jenstad, Janelle
T1 Whitehall Stairs
T2 The Map of Early Modern London
WP 2018
FD 2018/06/20
RD 2018/06/20
PP Victoria
PB University of Victoria
LA English
OL English
LK http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/WHIT6.htm

TEI citation

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