Ulitsa Varvarka 4a
Tel (495) 298 3952
Open: 10am- 6pm Tue,
Thu, Sat- Sun
11am- 7pm Wed, Fri
Subway: Kitay Gorod,
Ploshchad Revolyutsii
The Old English Court (Старый английский двор) is an architectural and historical landmark of Moscow (Varvarka Street, 4A). A monument of civil architecture of the 15th-17th centuries, the residence of the English trading Moscow company, and during embassy missions - the English embassy house. It is considered the first official representation of a foreign power, preserved in Moscow. The building in which the museum is located was previously part of the Museum Association "Museum of Moscow", since September 2020 - the object of the landscape and architectural complex of Zaryadye Park.
These white-stone residential chambers appeared in the 15th century
and belonged to the bed-keeper Ivan Bobrischev, also known by the
nickname "Yushka". Since the latter, apparently, left no heirs, in
the next century the building became state-owned and was somewhat
rebuilt.
In 1553, Sir Richard Chancellor opened the northern
sea route connecting England with Russia. In 1556, Tsar Ivan the
Terrible, who was interested in establishing trade relations with
Europe, “welcomed the British in Moscow by court”, giving them the
right to free and duty-free trade in all Russian cities, serious
customs benefits, as well as a number of other trade privileges.
This state of affairs served as the basis for the creation in London
in 1555 of the trading Moscow company. The British supplied Russia
with weapons, gunpowder, saltpeter, lead, pewter, and cloth. In
return, they exported wood, hemp, ropes, wax, leather, blubber, and
furs. As premises for the Moscow office, the British merchants were
given a house in Zaryadye. In 1571, during the invasion of Moscow by
Khan Devlet Giray, the walls and vaults of the chambers were
damaged, but they were soon rebuilt and expanded.
Like many
merchant houses of that era, the building combined front rooms with
extensive storage and utility rooms (goods were lifted along the
wall to the warehouse window using a simple block). For its
maintenance, the English embassy daily received a quarter of a bull,
4 rams, 12 chickens, 2 geese, one hare or black grouse, 62 loaves of
bread, 50 eggs, a quarter of a bucket of Mediterranean wine, 3/4
buckets of beer, half a bucket of vodka and 2 buckets of honey.
Gradually, English merchants acquired an exclusive position in
the Russian market, which at that moment was practically closed and
not involved in maritime trade with European countries. The British
Moscow Company opened its farmsteads in many Russian cities,
including Veliky and Nizhny Novgorod. English merchants were
actively trading with local residents, setting up their own
production of ropes, supplying military supplies and ship gear to
the Russian army and the English fleet. Finally, the economic
development of the Russian North by the British began, from where
the Moscow Company continued to equip expeditions to the east along
the Arctic coast. Attempts were also made to break down the Volga in
search of new routes leading to India. The Moscow company was even
able to safely survive the Time of Troubles.
The company's
activities had a significant impact on the formation of Russia's
image in Europe. In 1598, Richard Hakluyt published a multi-volume
work in London, in which, among the reports of numerous English
expeditions, English stories about Russia occupied an impressive
place. At the beginning of the 17th century, the first
English-Russian dictionaries appeared in the libraries of both
countries. The number of English books in the private libraries of
the Russian boyars is gradually increasing, and handwritten books in
Russian come to England. In 1612, after the liberation of Moscow
from the Poles, a vestibule was added to the chambers on the
northern and southern sides; at the same time, the southern facade,
which was then the main one, received a new architectural design
[4]. In 1636, the company acquired another courtyard in Moscow, a
larger one - the New English Court in the White City, at the
Ilyinsky Gate. Since then, the property on Varvarka has received a
corresponding addition to the name and begins to be called the Old
English Court.
Trade relations with England were severed in 1649,
when the execution of King Charles I in Great Britain provoked a
deep diplomatic crisis between Russia and England. By decree of Tsar
Alexei Mikhailovich, British trade and diplomatic representatives
were expelled from the country, and the property of the Moscow
Company was confiscated.
After the British, the chambers were
owned for 20 years by a relative of the tsar, the boyar I. A.
Miloslavsky, who bought the estate from the treasury for 500 rubles.
After the death of Miloslavsky, the chambers again became the
property of the state and were assigned to the Posolsky order, and
at the end of the 17th century they were allocated under the
metochion of the Metropolitan of Nizhny Novgorod. At the beginning
of the 18th century, Tsar Peter I organized here one of the first
Arithmetic Schools in Russia. In the middle of the 18th century, the
chambers passed into private ownership, and during the 18th-20th
centuries, representatives of various merchant families
(Solodovnikovs, Milas, etc.) owned the building. Various owners
constantly rebuilt the building, and by the middle of the 20th
century, the chambers of the Old English Court on Varvarka had
completely lost their original appearance and were considered
irretrievably lost. In Soviet times, the house was used for
residential apartments and various institutions. From 1949 to 1966
it housed the Foreign Literature Library.
In the mid-1960s,
when many buildings in Zaryadye had already been demolished for the
construction of the 8th Stalinist skyscraper (later never built),
the restorer Pyotr Baranovsky discovered this monument of history
and culture behind later layers. Baranovsky insisted on preserving
the monument, since a car ramp was supposed to be built in its
place. In the course of his research in 1968-1969, the historical
basis of the monument, hidden by the structures of later additions,
was revealed, and its comprehensive study was carried out. Then, on
the basis of the information collected in 1970-1972, the chambers
were returned (with a certain degree of approximation) to the
appearance that they had at the end of the 16th century (the authors
of the restoration project I. I. Kazakevich, E. P. Zhavoronkova).
According to the data preserved in the masonry itself, window and
door openings, hewn at a later time, as well as lost decorative
elements, were restored. Where evidence of the most ancient forms
did not survive at all, later reconstructions were left. For
example, wide window openings of the end of the 18th century were
left on the eastern facade of the building.
On October 18,
1994, the grand opening of the Old English Court Museum took place,
which became a branch of the Museum of the History of Moscow. Queen
Elizabeth II of Great Britain and her husband Prince Philip, who
were on an official visit to Russia these days, took a personal part
in the opening of the museum.
In the main hall of the Old
English Court - the Treasury Chamber - concerts of early music are
regularly held.