The demolition of some picturesque Elizabethan houses in Cloth Fair in 1914 permits an interesting glimpse from that street of the exterior of the north-west bay of the nave. The only relic of the conventual buildings is a fragment (three bays) of the old cloisters, entered through a Norman doorway, with the original 15th century oaken doors, at the west end of the south ambulatory. These, built about 1405, were rebuilt in 1905 and now contain a few ancient fragments and relics, including a portion of Rahere's shoe from his tomb.
To the south of the church is Bartholomew Close, in which Milton sought hiding after the Restoration in 1660. Hogarth was born here in 1697, and here Benjamin Franklin lived while working in the printing office in the Lady Chapel. Washington Irving also lodged here.
From the east corner of Smithfield Little Britain, a narrow street deriving its name, according to Stow, from a house belonging to the Dukes of Brittany, and once famous for its booksellers, runs east, with St. Bartholomew's Hospital on the right and Bartholomew Close on the left. Farther on it turns abruptly to the left and ends at Aldersgate St., at the corner of which is the church of St. Botolph without Aldersgate, slightly injured by the Great Fire, but entirely rebuilt in 1790. Its churchyard is now a pleasant little garden, known as the Postmen's Park from its proximity to the General Post Office, and contains a covered arcade, presented by G. F. Watts, with a statuette of the donor and tablets recording deeds of 'heroic self-sacrifice,' especially in humble life.
