St George's Fields

[1] Originally the area was an undifferentiated part of the south side of the Thames, which was low-lying marshland unsuitable even for agricultural purposes.

In 1082, according to the "Annales Monasterii de Bermundeseia", Alwinus Child obtained a royal license to found a monastery dedicated to St Saviour, most likely on the site of the earlier one.

Prisons, at that time, were run as private concerns for profit, as a sort of forced lodging for debtors and those awaiting trial.

As they became more prominent at court the Brandons grew wealthier and acquired from the Abbey parts of the western side of the high street to create a large mansion.

[5] and grounds including, notably, Moulton Close, which is now Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park around the Imperial War Museum.

Charles Brandon, the last of the male line, became Earl Marshal in 1510 and was created Duke of Suffolk in 1514; he married Henry VIII's sister in 1516.

In 1536 Charles gave Suffolk Place, rebuilt by him in fine Renaissance style in 1522, to King Henry VIII in exchange for Norwich Palace on the Strand.

The building remained a royal mansion; in 1554 Queen Mary stayed overnight with her new husband King Philip II of Spain as part of their progress to London.

According to Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn, six years later, St George's Fields were one of the places of refuge to which the poorer citizens retreated with such of their goods and chattels as they could save from the Great Fire of London.

The location at the edge of the territory it had control of in St George's Fields, the site of the Dog and Duck tavern,[2] was thought at the time to be sufficiently rural for the institution but also convenient to the built up area.

The obelisk at St George's Circus was built in 1771 in honour of Brass Crosby, the Lord Mayor of the City of London.

It was moved to the north apex of Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, (the remnant of Moulton Close) a short distance to the southwest, in front of the museum, in 1905, and put back in its original spot in the late 1990s.