MANSION HOUSE
Mansion House: translation
At the junction of the Poultry and Cornhill on the south side, opposite Mansion House Street (P.O. Directory). In Walbrook Ward.
Erected 1739-52 as a residence for the Lord Mayor during his year of office. Archt., G. Dance, City Surveyor.
First inhabited in the Mayoralty of Sir Crisp Gascoigne, 1752-3 (Strype, ed. 1755, I. 484).
Built on piles, the soil being full of springs. Principal room, the Egyptian Hall.
Prior to the erection of the Mansion House, the Mayoral receptions and banquets were either held in one of the Halls of the City Companies, or at the house of the Mayor himself during his term of office.
Strype complains that the Mansion House was too much shut in with houses (ib. p. 517), but since his time it has been improved in that respect by the removal of Charlotte Row and of a considerable number of houses at the corner of the Poultry for the formation of Queen Victoria Street.
The building was erected on the site of the Stocks Market and of the church of St. Mary Woolchurch (q.v.).