Farringdon Without is the most westerly Ward of the City of London, England. Its suffix Without reflects its origin as lying beyond the City's former defensive walls. It was first established in 1394 to administer the suburbs west of Ludgate and Newgate, including West Smithfield and Temple. This was achieved by splitting the very large, pre-existing Farringdon Ward into two parts, Farringdon Within (inside the wall) and Farringdon Without (outside the wall). The large and prosperous extramural suburb of Farringdon Without has been described as having been London's first West End.
The largest of the City's 25 Wards, it was reduced in size considerably after a boundary review in 2003, and no longer corresponds very closely to its historic extent. Its resident population is 1,099 (2011).
Farringdon Without and Farringdon Within are unconnected to the Farringdon area to the north, outside the City, in Clerkenwell. Southern Clerkenwell is sometimes referred to as Farringdon due to the presence of Farringdon Station, which was named after Farringdon Street and originally named Farringdon Street Station.
Setting
The ward administers the land beyond the City's former western gates, including the Middle Temple, Inner Temple, Smithfield and St Bartholomew's Hospital. Since the boundary changes the ward now extends further west to meet the City of Westminster at Chancery Lane.
It includes land on both sides of the (now buried) River Fleet and part of its northern boundary was formed by the Fagswell Brook, which ran east to west along a line approximating to Charterhouse Street, before joining the Fleet which runs north to south under Farringdon Road and Farringdon Street.
The Ward includes a part of Holborn; the church of St Andrew Holborn and the part of its parish known as St Andrew below the Bars – with the part known as St Andrew above the Bars outside the City (in the modern London Borough of Camden). The term Bars refers to the historic boundary marks the city established when its rights or jurisdiction came to extend beyond the walls.
Ornamental boundary markers known as West Smithfield Bars, first documented in 1170 and 1197, once marked the City's northern boundary. These stood close to the Charterhouse Street junction with St John Street (at the Fagswell Brook which formed the boundary before it was culverted over). Although the Smithfield Bars are lost, the ward still has Dragon boundary marks at Temple Bar, Farringdon Street and High Holborn.
History
Before the division of Farringdon ward
The Wards of London appear to have taken shape in the 11th century, before the Norman Conquest. Their administrative, judicial and military purpose made them equivalent to Hundreds in the countryside. The primary purpose of Wards like Farringdon, which included a gate, appears to be the defence of the gate, as gates were the weakest points in any fortification. Farringdon was a very large ward and had two gates, Ludgate and Newgate (previously called Chamberlains Gate after an area of land called the Chamberlain's Soke, lying just outside the gate).
Early charters show that the western boundary of the City and Westminster was pushed back to approximately its current position in around 1000, though the area outside the walls is thought to have been sparsely populated, if at all, at this time. The boundary markers at West Smithfield Bars were mentioned in 1170 and 1197. London was one of the first cities in Europe to develop segregated quarters and extramural suburbs, and the growth, west of the wall of its first 'West End' was well underway in the twelfth century. This early 'West End' suburb, heavily influenced by the proximity of the seat of government in Westminster, was based around large houses spread along the Thames, the Strand and the Holborn road.
Early names for the undivided ward included the Ward of Ludgate and Newgate, and in the 13th century Flete Ward (after the River Fleet) and in the 14th Fleet Street Ward.
In the 12th and 13th centuries it was common practice was to refer to wards by the name of their Aldermen. In 1246 the part of the undivided Farringdon ward outside the wall is referred to as the ward of Henry of Frowyk without. and in 1276 the area was carried the name of another Alderman, as the Ward of Anketill de Auvergne,