BRIDGE HOUSE

Bridge House: translation

   A dwelling-house attached to St. Thomas' Chapel on London Bridge, and quite distinct from the Bridge House at the Southwark end. John de Levesham, bailif of the manor of Levesham, was one of the Brethren of the Bridge House, 26 Ed. I. 1298 (Cal. L. Bk. B. p. 216).

   The Bridge House Estate comprises property held by the City and set apart for the repair and upkeep of London Bridge.

   Rents from the manor of Lewisham still form part of the estate (Chronicles London Bridge, p. 253-4).

   There was a messuage called "le Briggehouse" in parish of St. Botolph without Bishopsgate, 12 Ed. III. 1338 (Cal. L. Bk. G. 132), and another in parish of St. Martin Ludgate (Cal. P.R. Ed. III. 1338-40, p. 1).

   Another "Briggehous" near the Palace of the Bishop of London, opposite the great gate of the hostel of the Countess of Pembroke, near St. Paul's 1361 (Cal. L. Bk. G. p. 132).

   These were probably houses, whose rents were devoted to the repair and upkeep of London Bridge.

   See La Briggehuthe.

   Some houses described as "tenements belonging to the Bridge House" are shown on the north side of Newgate Market in a "plat of the Greyfriars" in Trans. L. and M. Arch Soc. V. 421.