Moscow Guide
The Kitay-gorod
The Old English Court
Address: Palaty starovo angliyskovo dvora
Opening time: 10am–6pm, Wed & Fri 11am–7pm; closed Mon & the last Fri of each month
Price: R50
At the bottom of the slope beyond the Church of St Barbara stands a chunky white building with a steep wooden roof and narrow windows of varying sizes, identified by a plaque on the wall facing the Rossiya hotel as the Old English Court. As the exhibition inside relates, trade between England and Russia began in 1553 with the arrival of Richard Chancellor's merchant ship in the White Sea and the foundation of the Muscovy Company, which was granted duty-free privileges by Ivan the Terrible and given the house as a kind of embassy. While the first two envoys were warmly received, the third incurred Ivan's wrath by prevaricating over his demand to marry Queen Elizabeth I, and was confined under house arrest until Ivan's anger had abated. In return for English muskets, gunpowder and broadcloth, the Company exported furs, honey, caviar and mica, until it was expelled from Russia in 1649 by Tsar Alexei, who was outraged by the English Parliament's execution of Charles I.
The collection of old prints and coins is less interesting than the house itself, whose narrow staircases and extremely low doorways are typical of early Muscovite architecture. Its vaulted Official Hall has a huge fireplace-cum-stove made of bricks incised with zoomorphic designs, and was once used for banquets; it now hosts monthly concerts of medieval music ( 
298 39 52). The final section of the exhibition tells how the house was saved from demolition in the 1960s by the architect Baranovsky, who recognized its medieval origins beneath what was by then an apartment block. It was restored to coincide with the state visit of Queen Elizabeth II in 1994.