197 London and Middlesex Archaeological Society Transactions, 69 (2018), 197—222 THE BARBICAN BEFORE BARBICAN: THE HOUSE, ITS HISTORY AND THE ‘IMAGINARY’ WATCHTOWER Caroline A Sandes Close to the walls which fair Augusta 1 bind (The fair Augusta much to fears inclined) An ancient fabric, raised to inform the sight, There stood of yore, and Barbican it hight: A watchtower once; but now, so fate ordains, Of all the pile an empty name remains (From John Dryden’s Mac Flecknoe (1682, 371) SUMMARY This paper is about the Barbican — the house and possible preceding tower that gave the present housing and arts complex and this part of the City of London its name. The paper examines its origins and uncovers the history of a house that was held by several generations of a family close to the monarchy, beginning with a grant by Edward III to his close and trusted aide, Robert de Ufford, of the property in 1331. In the absence of any archaeological data this paper relies on archival sources. It comprises sections on the Barbican prior to 1331 and the etymology of the name, the people involved with the house, and what can be ascertained about the house itself in terms of its architecture. It also briefy examines Garter House, the Barbican’s neighbour, and clarifes the relationship between the Barbican, Bridgwater House and Garter House — as the three have come to be confated or confused in some sources. In conclusion it demonstrates that this was a house of some standing, home to some interesting and important people, and that it almost certainly got its name from an earlier defensive structure. INTRODUCTION Most people know of the Barbican as a modernist housing and arts complex situated on the north-western edge of the City of London. Today the only signs of the area’s previous history are St Giles’s Church, some surviving fragments of Roman and medieval city wall, the nomenclature of the modernist development and some historic street-names. This paper is an attempt to restore some historic life to that ‘empty name’ Dryden refers to in his poem Mac Flecknoe by tracing the history of the Barbican from its potential origins as a watch tower to its fnal demise. The appearance of the Barbican is recorded on the earliest cartographic depictions of London. For instance, Wyngaerde’s London Panorama (c.1544) (Fig 1) depicts a tower that he marks as ‘76’ and identifes as the Barbican. It looks like a gatehouse and protrudes out of some trees to the north of Cripplegate; beyond it is a sketching of a house. The Agas map (1633) (Fig 2) of c.1561—71, shows to the west of Golden Lane a street known as ‘Barbican’, along the north side of which is the property of the same name. It comprises an approximately ‘H’- shaped building and beyond it is a structure with a tower topped with a spire and a cross representing the Garter House with its chapel (Prockter & Taylor 1979, plate 7). A similar property appears on the various derivatives of Braun and Hogenberg’s 1572 map, while a much larger property and gardens is evident on Ogilby and Morgan’s map of 1676, when the Barbican has become Bridgwater House, with Garter House (unmarked) just to the east (Fig 3).