Measure, baluster measure lid

Baluster measure lid, marked with several stamps featuring a crescent moon, with an ownership triad of ‘O’ over ‘I’ and ‘S’ and the inscription ‘ALDERSGATE STREET’. The lid is plain underneath. Two of the marks have been double-struck.

The ownership mark probably refers to the ‘Halfe Moone (tavern) in Aldersgate Street’ active from c.1563 to 1781 (Lillywhite, 1972, p, 261 - 8249.) and a trade token in the Museum of London’s collection: no. NN16422: obverse – THE. HALF. MOON. TAVERN=A half moon; Reverse – IN.ALDERS.GATE.STREETE=I.W. This tavern ‘to which the wits in the reign of Charles II restorted on account of its proximity to Lauderdale House’ originally comprised a range of tenements, with ‘parloure chambers and shoppe’. The site was acquired by Tyde Roberts, and in 1676 he pulled down some of the buildings to make way for a new Half Moon tavern. Tyde sold the old tavern ‘except for a portion of its cellar and the passage leading into Aldersgate Street..’ By sub-dividing his property in this way between the adjoining parishes of St Bartholomew and St Botolphs Tyde tried to avoid paying any tax. In 1781 the occupier of the tavern was indicted ‘for using the house for immoral purposes, and from this point the property ceased to be run as a tavern. See E.A.Webb, 1921, ‘The parish: Bounds, gates and watchmen’. The records of St Bartholomew’s priory [and] St Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield: volume 2, pp 199-211.