e west of Leather Lane, Baldwin's Buildings and Portpool Lane open
out. The former consists largely of workmen's model dwellings,
comfortable and convenient within, but with the peculiarly depressing
exteriors of the utilitarian style. Further north these give way to
warehouses, breweries, and manufactories. East of its southern end in
Holborn were two old inns, the Old Bell and Black Bull. The former was a
coaching inn of great celebrity in its day, and picturesque wooden
balconies surrounded its inner courtyard. It has now been transformed
into a modern public-house. It was the last of the old galleried inns of
London. The Black Bull was also of considerable age. Its courtyard has
been converted into dwellings.

Brooke Street takes its name from Brooke Market, established here by
Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, but demolished a hundred years ago. It was
in Brooke Street, in a house on the west side, that poor Chatterton
committed suicide. St. Alban's Church is an unpretentious building at
the north end. An inscription over the north door tells us that it was
erected to be free for ever to the poor by one of the humble stewards of
God's mercies, with date 1860. Within we learn that this benefactor was
the first Baron Addington. The church is well known for its ritualistic
services.

Portpool Lane, marked in Strype's plan Perpoole, is the reminiscence of
an ancient manor of that name. The part of Clerkenwell Road bounding
this district to the north was formerly called by the appropriate name
of Liquorpond Street. In it there is a Roman Catholic Church of St.
Peter, built in 1863. The interior is very ornate. Just here, where Back
Hill and Ray Street meet, was Hockley Hole, a famous place of
entertainment for bull and bear baiting, and other cruel sports that
delighted the brutal taste of the eighteenth century. One of the
proprietors, named Christopher Preston, fell into his own bear-pit, and
was devoured, a form of sport that doubtless did not appeal to him.
Hockley Hole was noted for a particular breed of bull-dogs. The actual
site of the sports is in the adjoining parish, but the name occurring
here justifies some comment. Hockley in the Hole is referred to by Ben
Jonson, Steele, Fielding, and others. It was abolished soon after 1728.

It was in a sponging-house in Eyre Street that Morland, the painter,
died. In the part of Gray's Inn Road to the north of Clerkenwell Road
formerly stood Stafford's Almshouses, founded