2-969-817 - /Heritage Images

Fragments of the Black Friars' Monastery, preserved at the office of "The Times", 1856. 'The Church of the Black Friars immediately adjoined the site of the theatre [Playhouse-yard, in the City of London]; for a plinth and foundation of one of the buttresses of the church have, according to the Builder, "been brought to light after being buried 300 years; to turn up in such a position, too - in the midst of the printing-house of the Times newspaper. The plinth stands on a mass of ragstone and chalk, six feet high...It is interesting to reflect on this remnant of the Medieval Church, grown round and pressed out of sight by the most wonderful and momentous result of intelligence organisation, and capital in the world'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.