London Inn of the Bishop of Exeter (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Essex House; Paget House; Paget's Place; Norfolk House; Leicester House; Exeter Inn

In the civil parish of City Of Westminster.
In the historic county of London and Middlesex.
Modern Authority of London Borough of Westminster.
1974 county of Greater London.
Medieval County of Middlesex.

OS Map Grid Reference: TQ310809
Latitude 51.51160° Longitude -0.11471°

London Inn of the Bishop of Exeter has been described as a certain Palace.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Land acquired from Knights of St John after 1310. Exeter Inn built between1310 & 1326 probably by bishop Walter Strapylton. At the Reformation Henry VIII granted it to William Paget & became Paget House. 1563 Robert Dudley acquired it & did much rebuilding renaming it Leicester House, later called Essex House in1588 after Earl of Essex. 1674 sold to Dr Barton for redevelopment & most of building demolished. Last part was demolished in 1777. (Greater London HER)

London Inn of the Bishop of Exeter. 'memorable for greatness on the River of Thames...who the first builder thereof I have not read but that Walter Stapleton was a great builder in the raigne of Edward the second is manifest' (Stow). After Stow the hall was built by Bishop Lacy in the reign of Henry VI. In Strand. Acquired 1310 and hall rebuilt 1420-55.

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 081279/00/00; 081445/00/00.

Books
- Emery, Anthony, 2006, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 3 Southern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 549-51
  Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p. 176
  Schofield, J., 1995, Medieval London Houses (Yale University Press) p. 210 No. 156
  Lobel, M.D. (ed), 1989, The City of London from prehistoric times to c.1520 British Atlas of Historic Towns Vol. 3 (Oxford University Press) p. 73 online copy
  Chancellor, E. Beresford, 1912, The annals of the Strand (Chapman & Hall) p. 291
  Morewood, Caroline C., 1910, 'Introductory Chapter' in Rait, R.S. (ed), English Episcopal Palaces (Province of Canterbury) (London; Constable & Co) p. 29-30 online copy
  Timbs, J. and Gunn, A., 1872, Abbeys, Castles and Ancient Halls of England and Wales Vol. 1 (London) p. 70 online copy
  Smith, J.T., 1807, Antiquities of Westminster p. 5 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Kingsford, C.L., 1923, 'Essex House, formerly Leicester House and Exeter Inn' Archaeologia Vol. 73 p. 1-5
  Kingsford, C.L., 1916, 'Historical Notes on Medieval London Houses (Part 1)' London Topographical Record Vol. 10 p. 117
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Speed, John, 1611-12, The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain online copy)
  Stow, John, 1633 (3edn), Survey of London p. 489a
  Agas, c. 1558, map of London
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Payne, Naomi, 2003, The medieval residences of the bishops of Bath and Wells, and Salisbury (PhD Thesis University of Bristol) Appendix B: List of Medieval Bishop's Palaces in England and Wales (available via EThOS)

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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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