his circumstance Temple Bar was
sometimes called the Golgotha of London.

Here we turn westward, and resume our perambulation in the part lying
along the northern side of the Strand, which has not yet been described.

The parish of St. Clement Danes has changed very greatly since ancient
times, when a large part of it, stretching from Lincoln's Inn Fields to
the Strand, was known as Fickett's Field, and was the jousting-place of
the Templars. This portion became gradually covered with houses and
courts, which were at first fashionable dwelling-places, and were
associated with noble names. These degenerated until, at the beginning
of the present century, a vast rookery of noisome tenements, inhabited
by the poorest and most wretched people, covered the greater part of the
parish to the north of the Strand. The erection of the new Law Courts,
1868, entirely swept away numbers of these tenements, and opened out the
parish to the north of the church. The change thus effected paved the
way for further reformation, and though the streets about the site of
Clare Market are poor and squalid, they show a beginning of better
things, and no longer own such an evil reputation as they did.

Further north, beyond King's College Hospital, is Portugal Street,
called by Strype "Playhouse Street." In the times of the later Stuarts
it was a very fashionable locality. It is said that women first
performed on the stage in public at the King's Theatre, in this street.
The players were often patronized by Pepys. In 1717 the first English
opera was performed here, and in 1727 the "Beggar's Opera" was produced
with unprecedented success; but in 1835 the theatre in Portugal Street
was taken down to make room for the enlargement of the museum belonging
to the College of Surgeons.

Portsmouth Street contains a quaint, low, red-tiled house purporting to
be the Old Curiosity Shop of Dickens' novel. The Black Jack Tavern, of
some notoriety, stood here. It was the resort of the actors and
dramatists of the adjacent theatre, and was the scene of a famous
escape of Jack Sheppard from the Bow Street officers. It is said to have
been a meeting-place of the Cato Street conspirators.

Shear or Shire Lane formerly ran from the east end of Carey Street to
the Strand, and formed the parish boundary. This was a narrow, dirty
lane of the vilest reputation before its demolition, but it had known
better days. A very famous tavern stood in the lane, first calle