LUKE'S (ST.), a parish in the Finsbury division of the hundred of OSSULSTONE, county of MIDDLESEX, comprising the liberties of the City-road, East Finsbury, West Finsbury, Golden-lane, Old-street, and Whitecross-street, and containing 40,806 inhabitants. The earliest notice of this district occurs in its connexion with the " Eald," or Old street, by which the Saxons designated the Roman military way from the western, extremity of the metropolis, without the great fen, which is stated to have given name to Fensbury, now Finsbury, and to Moorfields; this road is said to have extended from London Wall to Hoxton, and to have been continued through the churchyard of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, and through the parish of Bethnal Green, to the Old Ford near Hackney. The southern part of the fen was gradually raised by various deposits, and particularly by many hundred cart-loads of bones removed from the charnel-house of St. Paul's, by order of the Duke of Somerset, when Protector; whence it obtained the name of Bonehill (now Bunhill) Fields: a portion" of the site was appropriated by the city as a cemetery during the plague in 1665, and is now a burial- ground. Another portion of the same fields, was formed into a place of exercise for the practice of archery, by the corporation of the City of London, in 1498: it was subsequently let in trust to Sir Paul Pindar, and appropriated in 1641 as a place of exercise for the City train bands, it is now enclosed by buildings, and is the property of the Hon. the Artillery Company, who, during the late war, formed a very efficient regiment, equipped at their own expense: they continue to muster occasionally; and have an armoury, a mess-room, and other apartments, forming a handsome and substantial building, in front of which is a spacious plot of ground for field exercise, from which circumstance it has obtained the name of the "Artillery Ground." In Golden-lane was the original play-house of Alleyn, founder of Dulwich College, of which the front, bearing the royal arms, is still remaining. This district was anciently part of the parish of Cripplegate, the church of which being found inadequate to the accommodation of the parishioners, a new church, dedicated to St. Luke, was erected in Old-street hy the commissioners for building new churches in the reign of Queen Anne, who assigned to it the present district, which, after the completion of the church, was laid out in numerous streets and squares, covered with buildings in every direction, and has become one of the most extensive and populous parishes in the suburbs of the metropolis. Peerless Pool, called by Stowe " Perilous" Pool, and in 1743 converted into one of the largest swimming-baths in the kingdom, surrounded with spacious gardens, and fitted up with every accommodation, is now used for bathing alone; the site of the gardens is occupied by ranges of modern buildings. Bath-street has been erected on the site of the ancient Pesthouse-.row, where was one of the lazarettos in the time of the plague. To the west of BunhilUrow was the lord mayor's " Dog house," or kennel for the city hounds, the site of which is occupied by part of Featherstone-street; and at Mount Mill, near the upper end of Goswell-street, now levelled and covered with buildings, was one of the bastions erected by the parliamentarians, in 1643, for the greater security of the metropolis. The parish is well paved, lighted with gas, and supplied with water by the New River Company. The City of London Gas Company have one of their establishments in Brick-lane, in this parish. Since the formation of the Regent's canal, extensive lime, timber, and coal wharfs have been established on its banks; and within the parish are various cooperages, a brewery, an indigo manufactory, and a rope-walk, all on an extensive scale. The city basin, communicating with the Regent's canal, crosses the city road, and forms a grand depfit for merchandise forwarded by water to every part of the kingdom; the principal carriers have large wharfs and warehouses on the banks, of which those belonging to Messrs. Pickford and Co. are the most extensive. The living is a rectory not in charge, in the archdea conry of Middlesex, and diocese of London, and in the patronage of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's. The church, built in 1732, is a plain substantial edifice of stone, in the Grecian style of architecture, with a lofty steeple in the form of a fluted obelisk, the only steeple of the kind in the metropolis; the interior is neatly arranged, and the galleries are supported by Ionic pillars separating the nave from the aisles. The churchyard is spacious, and behind it is an additional cemetery of considerable extent j in the former are the tombs of the Caslons, eminent type-founders in the parish, and in the latter are numerous gravestones inscribed with crosses. St. John's church, in King's-square, a neat edifice of brick, with a stone portico of the Ionic order, surmounted by a slender spire, was erected, in 1823, by grant from the parliamentary commissioners, at an expense of £ 12,853. 3. 3., and contains one thousand six hundred and eight sittings, of which nine hundred and seventeen are free. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Rector, There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, and Wesleyan and Calvinistic Methodists. Of these, the Tabernacle was erected by the Rev. G. Whitefield, the founder of the Calvinistic Methodists, in which he himself for some time preached. That belonging to the Wesleyan Methodists was the chapel of the Rev. J.Wesley, founder of the sect, who was interred behind it in 1791, and by whom it was built, on the site of the City foundry which was used for casting cannon so late as 1715. "In front of the latter is Tindal's, or Bunhill-fields, burialground. The dues for interments are received by the corporation of the City of London, who appoint a sexton resident on the spot. The number of persons interred here annually average from one thousand two hundred to one thousand five hundred, chiefly dissenters: among the numerous distinguished non-conformist divines, may be enumerated Mr. John Bunyan, author of the Pilgrim's Progress, who died in 1688; Dr. Williams, founder of the Dissenters' Library, in Red-cross-street, who died in 1716; Dr. Isaac Watts, the poet, logician, and divine, who died in 1748; the Rev. Dr.Neale, author of the History of the Puritans, who died in 1765; Dr. Lardner, author of the Credibility of the Gospel History, who died in 1768; Dr. Gill, who died in 1771 j Dr. Richard Price, an eminent mathematician, author of Reversionary Payments, &c., who died in 1791; the Rev. Theophilus Lindsey, who died in 1808; Dr. A. Rees, editor of the Encyclopaedia, who died ia 1825; the Rev. John Townsend, founder of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, who died in 1826; and various others, distinguished either by their preaching or their writings. In Milton-street (formerly Grub-street) so called from having been the residence of that eminent poet, is a building named the Pantheon, formerly known as the City chapel, having belonged to a congregation of Independents, but now used as a theatre for dramatic exhibitions of an inferior description, and for occasional lectures. The parochial school for boys was established in 1698, and that for girls in 1761; the school-house in Golden-lane was built in 1780: these schools were erected, and are supported, by subscription, and by a fund of £ 6,500 three per cent, consols., which has arisen from benefactions and savings. There are in them one hundred boys and one. hundred girls, who are completely clothed, and with the former an apprentice fee of £2 is given on then- leaving school. John Fuller, in 1723, bequeathed £1600 Bank stock for the instruction .and clothing of boys, in consideration of which, twenty boys are admitted into the parochial school. The free school, founded by William Warral in 1689, and formerly in Goat-alley, was, in 1808, removed to Baltic-street; Golden-lane: it has an endowment producing about £300 per annum, which is appropriated to the clothing and instruction of forty boys in reading, writing, and arithmetic: the master, who is appointed by the trustees, has a salary of £80 per annum. The Haberdashers Company have a house and premises in Bunhill-row, in which a considerable number of boys are instructed on the Lancasterian system; the master resides in the house. A Lancasterian school for boys was established in North.street, City-road, in 1813, and another for girls in 1820: in these schools nearly one thousand children are instructed. The orphan working-school, in the City-road, was instituted in 1760, at Hoxton, by subscription; chiefly among the Protestant dissenters, and removed to this place in 1773, when the trustees erected the present commodious building, upon a site of land containing six acres, which they purchased for that purpose; the funds of the institution, arising from legacies and benefactions, produce a revenue of £713 per annum, which, with the amount, of annual subscriptions, is appropriated to the maintenance, clothing, and education, of orphan children, who are taught reading, writing, and arithmetic; the boys are also taught the making of nets and shoes, and the girls, needlework, knitting, and household work, and on leaving the school, are placed out apprentices, or in service: the building, which is substantial, contains every requisite accommodation for the purposes of the institution, and a neat chapel in which divine service is occasionally performed, it being open to the public on Sunday evenings during Summer; there are forty-five boys and forty-six girls in the school, which is adapted to the reception of one hundred. St. Luke's hospital, for lunatics, was originally built on the north side of Moorfields, as an auxiliary to Bethlehem hospital, and established on a system free from several of the objections to which that institution was then liable. The present spacious and elegant building was erected by subscription, at an expense of £ 55,000; it is of brick, ornamented with stone, and consists of a centre and two wings, four hundred and ninety-three feet in length, of proportionate depth, and three stories high, exclusively of the basement story, and an attic in the centre and at the extremity of each wing: it contains apartments for the master, matron, and attendants, a spacious committee-room, and galleries in the east and west wings for the reception of three hundred patients of both sexes, who are classed according to the nature and degree of their malady; the average number of patients is one hundred and ten males, and one hundred and fifty-three females, who are treated with humane and skilful attention, and provided with every comfort consistent with their security and the promotion of their cure. Almshouses for eight aged women, who receive each an annual allowance of £16, paid quarterly, and a chaldron of coal, were founded, in 1650, by Mrs Susan Amias, who erected eight distinct dwellings on the north side of Old-street, which, though becoming old, are still in good repair: the income arising from the endowment exceeds £220 per annum. Edward Allen, founder of Dulwich College, erected ten almshouses, in Pesthouserow, now Bath-street, for five aged men and five aged women of this parish, of whom, as vacancies occurred, one widower and two widows were to be removed to Dulwich; the inmates are, however, solely supported by the income arising from subsequent benefactions, the funds of the college not being legally available in any respect to the maintenance of this- charity. Six aimshouses were founded in the City-road by the Dyers' Company, in 1776; and six by the Girdlers' Company, which latter were rebuilt in 1741; and there are four aimshouses founded by the Ironmongers' Company, in Mitchelcourt, Old-street, which were rebuilt in 1811, pursuant to the will of Thomas Lewer, Esq., for four aged men, who receive £10 per annum and a chaldron of coal each, The French hospital in Bath-street, for the maintenance and support of French Protestants, was incorporated in the reign of George I.: it is a substantial building of brick, occupying three sides of a quadrangular area, the centre of which is laid out in gardens: the premises contain apartments for the master; a committee- room; and tenements for the aged of both sexes, who are clothed and supplied with every necessary comfort; a chapel, and a room for the temporary confinement of lunatics; the establishment is under the superintendence of a president and committee, chiefly of the descendants of French amilies. The city of London lying-in hospital, originally instituted in 1771, in Shaftesbury house, Aldersgate-street, and subsequently removed to its present situation, is a neat building of brick, ornamented with stone, consisting of a centre, surmounted by an open turret and a spire, and two wings, and containing apartments with every accommodation for the patients, in addition to which is a handsome chapel; behind the building are gardens pleasantly laid out: this institution, which is supported by subscription, constitutes also a school of midwifery, to which female pupils only are admitted. There are numerous charitable bequests for distribution among the poor of this extensive and populous parish.