Produced by Susan Skinner and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
_THE FASCINATION OF LONDON_
THE STRAND DISTRICT
_IN THIS SERIES._
Cloth, price 1s. 6d. net; leather, price 2s. net each.
THE STRAND DISTRICT.
By SIR WALTER BESANT and G. E. MITTON.
WESTMINSTER.
By SIR WALTER BESANT and G. E. MITTON.
HAMPSTEAD AND MARYLEBONE.
By G. E. MITTON. Edited by SIR WALTER BESANT.
CHELSEA.
By G. E. MITTON. Edited by SIR WALTER BESANT.
KENSINGTON.
By G. E. MITTON. Edited by SIR WALTER BESANT.
HOLBORN AND BLOOMSBURY.
By Sir WALTER BESANT and G. E. MITTON.
HAMMERSMITH, PUTNEY, AND FULHAM.
By G. E. MITTON and J. C. GEIKIE.
MAYFAIR, BELGRAVIA, AND PIMLICO.
_In the press._
[Illustration: HOLYWELL STREET, STRAND
(_Demolished 1901_)]
The Fascination of London
THE STRAND
DISTRICT
BY
SIR WALTER BESANT
AND
G. E. MITTON
LONDON
ADAM & CHARLES BLACK
1903
_Published July, 1902_
_Reprinted, with corrections, April, 1903_
PREFATORY NOTE
A survey of London, a record of the greatest of all cities, that should
preserve her history, her historical and literary associations, her
mighty buildings, past and present, a book that should comprise all that
Londoners love, all that they ought to know of their heritage from the
past--this was the work on which Sir Walter Besant was engaged when he
died.
As he himself said of it: "This work fascinates me more than anything
else I've ever done. Nothing at all like it has ever been attempted
before. I've been walking about London for the last thirty years, and I
find something fresh in it every day."
He had seen one at least of his dreams realized in the People's Palace,
but he was not destined to see this mighty work on London take form. He
died when it was still incomplete. His scheme included several volumes
on the history of London as a whole. These he finished up to the end of
the eighteenth century, and they form a record of the great city
practically unique, and exceptionally interesting, compiled by one who
had the qualities both of novelist and historian, and who knew how to
make the dry bones live. The volume on the eighteenth century, which Sir
Walter called a "very big chapter indeed, and particularly interesting,"
will shortly be issued by Messrs. A. and C. Black, who had undertaken
the publication of the Survey.
Sir Walter's idea was that the next two volumes should be a regular and
systematic perambulation of London by different persons, so that the
history of each parish should be complete in itself. This was a very
original feature in the great scheme, and one in which he took the
keenest interest. Enough has been done of this section to warrant its
issue in the form originally intended, but in the meantime it is
proposed to select some of the most interesting of the districts and
publish them as a series of booklets, attractive alike to the local
inhabitant and the student of London, because much of the interest and
the history of London lie in these street associations. For this purpose
Chelsea, Westminster, the Strand, and Hampstead have been selected for
publication first, and have been revised and brought up to date.
The difficulty of finding a general title for the series was very great,
for the title desired was one that would express concisely the undying
charm of London--that is to say, the continuity of her past history
with the present times. In streets and stones, in names and palaces, her
history is written for those who can read it, and the object of the
series is to bring forward these associations, and to make them plain.
The solution of the difficulty was found in the words of the man who
loved London and planned the great scheme. The work "fascinated" him,
and it was because of these associations that it did so. These links
between past and present in themselves largely constitute The
Fascination of London.
G. E. M.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFATORY NOTE vii
PART I
WEST AND NORTH OF CHARING CROSS 1
PART II
PICCADILLY AND ST. JAMES'S SQUARE 37
PART III
THE STRAND 67
INDEX 112
_Map at end of Volume._
THE STRAND DISTRICT
PART I
WEST AND NORTH OF CHARING CROSS
Beginning at the extreme westerly limit of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields,
on the south side of Hyde Park Corner, we find ourselves in the Green
Park. This is a triangular piece of ground, which was formerly called
Little or Upper St. James's Park. It has not much history. In 1642
fortifications were erected on Constitution Hill, and at the end of the
seventeenth century this same spot was a noted place for duels.
Fireworks on a great scale, with public entertainments, took place in
the park at the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, and again in 1814. On
Constitution Hill three attempts were made on the life of Queen
Victoria. The chief object of interest in the park is Buckingham Palace,
which is not altogether in St. Martin's; in fact, the greater part,
including most of the grounds, is in the adjacent parish of St.
George's, Hanover Square. The palace is a dreary building, without any
pretence of architectural merit, but it attracts attention as the London
home of the English Sovereign.
It stands on the site of Arlington House, so called from its connection
with Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington (the Earl whose initial supplied
one of the _a's_ in the word "Cabal"). John Sheffield, Duke of
Buckingham, bought the house and rebuilt it in 1703, naming it after
himself, and including in the grounds part of the land belonging to Tart
Hall, which stood at the head of St. James's Street, and has been
mentioned in the account of the adjoining parish of St. Margaret's,
Westminster. Buckingham House was bought from Sir Charles Sheffield, son
of the above-mentioned Duke, by the Crown in 1762. In 1775 it was
granted to Queen Charlotte as a place of residence in lieu of Somerset
House, and at this period it was known as Queen's House. George IV.
employed Nash to renovate the building, and the restoration was so
complete as to amount to an entire rebuilding, in the style considered
then fashionable; the result is the present dreary building with
stuccoed frontage. The interior is handsome enough, and, like that of
many a London house of less importance, is considerably more cheerful
than the exterior. The chief staircase is of white marble, and the rooms
are richly decorated. The state apartments include drawing-rooms,
saloons, and the throne-room, which is sixty-four feet in length. The
picture-gallery contains a collection of pictures made by George IV.,
chiefly of the Dutch school; it includes works of Rembrandt, Rubens,
Vandyck, Dürer, Cuyp, Ruysdael, Vandervelde, and others.
The grounds are about forty acres in extent, and contain a large piece
of ornamental water, on the shore of which is a pavilion, or
summer-house, with frescoes by Eastlake, Maclise, Landseer, Dyce, and
others, illustrating Milton's "Comus." The channel of the Tyburn, now a
sewer, passes under the palace. The Marble Arch, at the north-east
corner of Hyde Park, was first designed to face the palace, where it
stood until 1850.
The palace is partly on the site of the well-known Mulberry Gardens, a
place of entertainment in the seventeenth century. These gardens
originated in an order of James I., who wished to encourage the rearing
of silkworms in England. This project, like many others of the same
King, proved a failure, and the gardens were turned into a place of
public recreation. The frequenters were of the fashionable classes, and
came in the evening to sit in small arbours, and "be regaled with
cheesecakes, syllabubs, and wine sweetened with sugar." In this form the
place was extremely popular, and is often mentioned in contemporary
literature. Dryden came there to eat tarts with "Mrs." Anne Reeve, and
doubtless Evelyn and Pepys often strolled about in the gay crowd, a
crowd much gayer than it would now be--in the matter of costume, at all
events. The scene of "The Mulberry Gardens," a play by Sir Charles
Sedley (1668) is laid here.
Stafford House, not far from St. James's Palace, and overlooking the
Green Park, is now tenanted by the Duke of Sutherland. It was originally
built for the Duke of York, brother to George IV., but he died before
its completion. It stands on the site of an older building, called
Godolphin House, and also occupies the site of the Queen's Library
formed by Caroline, wife of George IV.
St. James's Palace is divided into many sets of apartments and suites of
rooms, and in this way resembles more the ancient than the modern idea
of a palace. On its site once stood a hospital for fourteen leprous
women, which was founded, as Stow quaintly says, "long before the time
of any man's memory." Maitland says the hospital must have been standing
before 1100 A.D., as it was then visited by the Abbot of Westminster.
Eight brethren were subsequently added to the institution. Several
benevolent bequests of land were made to it from time to time. In 1450
the custody of the hospital was granted perpetually to Eton College by
Henry VI. In 1531 Henry VIII. obtained some of the neighbouring land
from the Abbey of Westminster, and in the following year he took the
hospital also, giving lands in Suffolk in exchange for it. There is
reason to believe that he pensioned off the ejected inmates. At any
rate, having demolished the House of Mercy, he proceeded to build for
himself a palace, which is supposed to have been planned by Holbein,
under the direction of Cromwell, Earl of Essex. Henry VIII. was too much
occupied in taking possession of Wolsey's palaces to bestow very much of
his time on his own new building, though he occasionally resided here
before he acquired Whitehall. Edward VI. did not live at St James's
Palace regularly, but Queen Mary patronized it, preferring it to
Whitehall. It was granted to Prince Henry during the reign of James I.,
and Charles I. spent the last three days before his execution here. The
Prince known as the "Pretender" was born in one of the palace
apartments, and many historians have commented on the fact that this
chamber was conveniently near a small back-staircase, up which a
new-born infant could have been smuggled. During the reign of King
William the palace was fitted up as a residence for Prince George of
Denmark and Princess Anne. When the Princess ascended the throne, the
palace became the regular residence of the Court, which it continued to
be until the accession of Queen Victoria, who preferred Buckingham
Palace.
The only parts remaining of King Henry's building are the gatehouse,
some turrets, a mantelpiece in the presence chamber, which bears the
initials H. and A. (Henry and Anne Boleyn) with a true lovers' knot, the
Chapel Royal (which has, of course, been renovated), and the
tapestry-room. Levées are still held at the palace.
On the west of the gatehouse a series of apartments were being prepared
for the Duke of Clarence at the time of his death, and were afterwards
assigned to the present Prince and Princess of Wales. At the west end is
Clarence House, in the occupation of the Duke of Connaught. This was
occupied by the King of Prussia and his sons on their visit to England
in 1814. The Duchess of Kent resided here until 1861.
The Lord Chamberlain's offices and residence, and also the official
residence of the Keeper of the Privy Purse, are among the official
chambers in the palace. There are minor offices also, those of the Clerk
of the Works, and the Gentlemen of the Wine Cellar; there are state
apartments and the quarters of the Gentlemen at Arms and the Yeomen of
the Guard. There are several courts in the palace, namely, the
Ambassadors' Court, Engine Court, Friary Court, and Colour Court. There
have been various chapels connected with the palace, but the only two
of importance are the Chapel Royal and German Chapel, which still
remain.
The Chapel Royal is supposed to be on the site of the chapel of the
ancient hospital, and various Norman remains dug up in the course of
repairs favour this supposition. The roof is beautifully decorated in
panels by Holbein; the date of its completion is supposed to be 1540.
Prince George and Princess Anne; Frederick, Prince of Wales; George IV.;
Queen Victoria; and the Empress Frederick, were all married in this
Chapel.
The German Chapel was founded in 1700 by Princess Anne; service was held
in it once on Sundays up to the present reign, but has now been
discontinued.
Just opposite to the palace is Marlborough House, the residence of the
Prince and Princess of Wales. The house was built in 1709 at the public
expense, as a national compliment to the Duke of Marlborough. Sir
Christopher Wren was the architect. After the death of the third Duke it
was sublet to Leopold, subsequently King of the Belgians. Queen Adelaide
lived in it after the death of King William IV. The building was
afterwards used as a gallery for the pictures known as the Vernon
Collection. But in 1850 it was settled on King Edward VII., then Prince
of Wales, when he should attain his eighteenth year, which he did nine
years later. The interior is decorated with beautiful mural paintings
executed by La Guerre; many of these represent the battles of the famous
Duke of Marlborough. On the removal of the King to Buckingham Palace the
present Prince of Wales comes in his turn to Marlborough House.
Carlton House Terrace owes its name to Carlton House, built by Henry
Boyle, Baron Carlton, in Queen Anne's reign. It was afterwards sold to
Frederick, Prince of Wales, and was occupied subsequently by George IV.
before he succeeded to the throne. J. T. Smith says: "Many a saturnalia
did those walls witness in the days of his hot youth." Princess
Charlotte was born here. In 1811 the ceremony of conferring the regency
upon Prince George was enacted at Carlton House, and in the June
following the Prince gave a magnificent supper to 2,000 guests. In 1827
the house was pulled down. It stood right across the end of the present
Waterloo Place, where now a flight of steps lead into the park. At the
head of the steps is the York Column of granite, 124 feet high, designed
by Wyatt, and surmounted by a figure of the Duke of York, son of George
III.
One of the sights of London in the seventeenth century, was the garden
which lay between St. James's Park and Charing Cross, called Spring
Gardens. The place was laid out as a bowling-green; it had also butts,
a bathing-pond, a spring made to scatter water all around by turning a
wheel. There was also an ordinary, which charged 6s. for a dinner--then
an enormous price--and a tavern where drinking of wine was carried on
all day long. In the "Character of England," 1659, attributed to Evelyn,
the following account of Spring Gardens is found:
"The manner is as the company returned [from Hyde Park] to alight at the
Spring Gardens so called, in order to the Parke, as our Thuilleries is
to the Course; the inclosure not disagreeable, for the solemness of the
grove is broken by the warbling of the birds, as it opens into the
spacious walks at St. James's; but the company walk in it at such a
rate, you would think that all the ladies were so many Atalantas
contending with their wooers.... But fast as they run they stay there so
long as if they wanted not time to finish the race; for it is usual here
to find some of the young company till midnight; and the thickets of the
garden seem to be contrived to all advantages of gallantry; after they
have been refreshed with the collation, which is here seldom omitted, at
a certain cabaret, in the middle of this paradise, where the forbidden
fruits are certain trifling tarts, neats' tongues, salacious meats, and
bad Rhenish; for which the gallants pay sauce, as indeed they do at all
such houses throughout England."
After the Restoration the gardens were built over. Prince Rupert lived
here 1674-1682. Colley Cibber, actor and prolific dramatist, had a house
"near Bull's Head Tavern in Spring Gardens, 1711-14"; Sir Philip Warwick
and George Canning were also among the residents.
"Locket's ordinary, a house of entertainment much frequented by gentry,"
was on the site of Drummond's Bank:
"Come, at a crown ahead ourselves we'll treat:
Champagne our liquor, and ragouts our meat;
* * * * *
With evening wheels we'll drive about the Park,
Finish at Locket's, and reel home i' the dark."
Vague rumour assigns an earlier house to Cromwell on the same spot. The
bank was established about 1712 by Mr. Andrew Drummond, a goldsmith.
George III. transferred his account from Coutts' to Drummond's when he
was displeased with the former firm, and he desired Messrs. Drummond to
make no advances to Frederick, Prince of Wales, who also had an account
here. This order was obeyed, with the consequences that in the
succeeding reign the royal account was transferred again to Messrs.
Coutts. The County Council offices are at present a very noticeable
feature in Spring Gardens, and the aspect of the place is no longer
rural.
The part of Whitehall included in St. Martin's parish is not very
large, yet it is of some importance. On the west side is Old Scotland
Yard, for long associated with the headquarters of the Metropolitan
Police, now removed to New Scotland Yard. Stow says:
"On the left hand from Charing Cross are also divers tenements lately
built till ye come to a large plot of ground inclosed with brick, and is
called Scotland, where great buildings have been for receipt of the
Kings of Scotland and other estates of that country, for Margaret Queen
of Scots and sister to King Henry VIII. had her abiding here when she
came to England after the death of her husband, as the Kings of Scotland
had in former times when they came to the Parliament of England."
Here for some time was the official residence of the Surveyor of Works
to the Crown, and Inigo Jones and Sir Christopher Wren were both
occupants. Sir J. Vanbrugh also resided at Scotland Yard, and as
Secretary to the Council Milton had an official residence here before he
went to Petty France, as described in the book on Westminster in the
same series.
Craig's or Cragg's Court, in which is the Royal Almonry office, is shown
in old maps. Strype speaks of it as a "very handsome large Court, with
new buildings fit for gentry of Repute." It was built in 1702, and is
supposed to have been called after the father of Secretary Craggs, who
was a friend of Pope and Addison. Woodfall, the publisher, had a West
End office in the court, and Romney the painter lived there. There is a
fine old Queen Anne house still standing at the back of the court.
Opposite Scotland Yard is the Admiralty, built round a courtyard, and
hidden by a stone screen surmounted by sea-horses. The screen was the
work of the brothers Adam, and was put up to hide a building which even
the taste of George III.'s reign declared to be insufferable. This had
been built for the Admiralty in 1726, and replaced old Wallingford
House, so called from its first owner, Viscount Wallingford, who built
it in the reign of James I. George Villiers, the well-known Duke of
Buckingham, bought the house, and used it until his death. Archbishop
Usher saw the execution of Charles I. from the roof, and swooned with
horror at the sight. The house was occupied by Cromwell's son-in-law,
General Fleetwood, and in 1680 became Government property. In one of the
large rooms the body of Nelson lay in state before his national funeral.
St. Catherine's Hermitage, Charing Cross, stood somewhere near Charing
Cross. It is believed to have been about the position of the
post-office. It belonged to the See of Llandaff, and was occasionally
used as a lodging by such Bishops of that See as came to attend the
Court and had no town-house.
St. Mary Rounceval, on the site of Northumberland House, was founded by
William Marischal, Earl of Pembroke, in Henry III.'s reign. The Earl
gave several tenements to the Prior of Rounceval, in Navarre, who
established here the chief house of the priory in England. The hospital
was finally suppressed by Edward VI. The little village of Charing then
stood between London and Westminster. It formed part of the great
demesne belonging to the Abbey of Westminster, and was inhabited chiefly
by Thames fishermen, who had a settlement on the bank, and by the
farmers of the Westminster estates. The derivation of the name from _La
Chère Reine_ is purely fanciful.
There is certainly no part of London which has been so much changed as
Charing Cross. In other parts the houses are changed, but the streets
remain. Here the whole disposition of the streets has been transformed.
The secondary part of the name recalls the beautiful cross, the last of
the nine which marked the places where Queen Eleanor's coffin rested on
its journey from Lincolnshire to Westminster Abbey. The cross was
destroyed by the fanatical zeal of the Reformers. The equestrian statue
of Charles I., cast in 1633 by Le Soeur, occupies the site of the
cross. It had not been set up when the Civil War broke out, and was sold
by the Parliament to John Rivit, a brazier, who lived by the Holborn
Conduit, on condition that it should be broken up. John Rivit, however,
buried the statue, and dug it up again after the Restoration. It was not
until 1674 that it was actually erected, on a new pedestal made by
Grinling Gibbons, in the place which it now occupies, which is the site
of the old cross, the place where the regicides were executed, and where
the Charing Cross pillory stood. It is curious to remark on the
preservation of the site of the cross. It was apparently railed in; some
of the stones of which it was made were used in paving Whitehall.
Ballads were written on its destruction:
"Undone, undone, the lawyers are;
They wander about the towne,
Nor can find the way to Westminster
Now Charing Cross is downe.
At the end of the Strand they make a stand,
Swearing they are at a loss,
And chaffing say that's not the way,
They must go by Charing Cross."
CUNNINGHAM.
Many of the regicides were executed at this spot in Charles II.'s reign,
within sight of the place where they had murdered their King. These men,
according to the brutal temper of the times, were cut down when half
hanged and disembowelled before a great concourse of people. Pepys
mentions going to the executions as to a show. Later the pillory stood
here in which, among others, Titus Oates suffered. But, besides these
dismal reminiscences, Charing Cross was at one time famed for its
taverns and festive places of amusement, and was the resort of wits and
literati in the eighteenth century. Dr. Johnson speaks of the "full tide
of human existence" being at Charing Cross, and if he could see it now
he might be confirmed in his opinion.
At the top of the present Northumberland Avenue stood formerly
Northumberland House, the last of the Strand palaces to be destroyed,
and until its destruction the chief glory and ornament of the street and
Charing Cross. It was never an episcopal palace, having been built in
1605 by the Earl of Northampton; from him it went to the Earl of
Suffolk, and was called for a time Suffolk House; in 1642 it fell into
the hands of the Earl of Northumberland, and by marriage into those of
the Duke of Somerset until 1749, when the daughter of the Duke of
Somerset succeeded, and by her marriage with Sir Hugh Smithson the house
became the property of this family, now Dukes of Northumberland, until
its compulsory sale in the year 1874. The house originally consisted of
three sides of a quadrangle, the fourth side lying open with gardens
stretching down to the river. The front was wrongly attributed to Inigo
Jones. The house had been repaired or rebuilt in many places, so that
there was not much that was ancient left in its later days. By the side
of Northumberland House formerly ran Hartshorn Lane, now entirely
obliterated. Ben Jonson was born here, and lived here in his childhood.
Trafalgar Square was built over the site of what was formerly the Royal
Mews, a building of very ancient foundation; and a rookery of obscure
and ill-famed lanes and alleys on the west and north of St. Martin's
Church, popularly known as the Bermudas, and afterwards the Caribbean
Islands. In the midst of the mews stood a small and remarkable building
called Queen Elizabeth's Bath. It is almost impossible to estimate the
difference between the then and the now, in regard to this particular
part. St. Martin's Lane continued right up to Northumberland House,
where the lion of the proud Percies stiffened his tail on the parapet.
The house stood across the present head of Northumberland Avenue. The
Royal Mews themselves were where the fountains now splash, and on the
further side of them was Hedge Lane.
Pennant says the Mews was so called from having been used for the King's
falcons--at least, from the time of Richard III. to Henry VIII. In the
latter King's reign the royal horses were stabled here, but the name
Mews was retained, and has come to be applied to any town range of
stabling. The mews were removed to make way for the National Gallery
about 1834. Geoffrey Chaucer, the poet, was Clerk of the King's Works,
and of the Mews at Charing about the end of Richard II.'s reign. During
the Commonwealth Colonel Joyce was imprisoned in the Mews by order of
Oliver Cromwell.
It is supposed that we are indebted to William IV. for the idea of a
square to be called Trafalgar in honour of Nelson, and to contain some
worthy memorial of the hero. The total height of the monument, designed
by Railton, is 193 feet, and its design is from that of one of the
columns of the Temple of Mars at Rome. The statue, which looks so small
from the ground, is really 17 feet high, nearly three times the height
of a man; it was the work of E. H. Baily, R.A. The pedestal has bronze
bas-reliefs on its four sides, representing the four greatest of
Nelson's battles, Trafalgar, St. Vincent, Aboukir, and Copenhagen. The
massive lions on the extended pedestal were designed by Sir Edwin
Landseer.
Of the other statues, that of George IV. is by Sir Francis Chantrey, and
was originally intended for the top of the Marble Arch, and that of
General Gordon was designed by Hamo Thorneycroft. Bronze blocks let into
the north wall of the square contain the measures of the secondary
standards of length, and were inserted here in 1876 by the Standards
Department of the Board of Trade. The Union Club and College of
Physicians are on the west side of the square. The latter was founded by
Dr. Linacre, physician to King Henry VIII.
The National Gallery was not designed as it now stands, but grew
gradually. The idea of a collection of national pictures began in 1824,
when the Angerstein Collection of thirty-eight pictures was purchased.
The building began in 1832, and was opened six years later, but there
were then only six rooms devoted to the national collection, the
remainder being used by the Royal Academy of Arts. The Academy, however,
betook itself to Burlington House in 1869, and subsequently the National
Gallery was enlarged, and is now well worthy of its name. The English
are taunted with not being an artistic nation; this may be, but they
recognise merit when they see it, and the national collection need fear
comparison with no other in the world. The sections of the gallery
include Italian schools, schools of the Netherlands and Germany,
Spanish, French, and British schools; in the last named the Turner
Collection claims two rooms.
St. Martin's Church was founded by Henry VIII., who disliked to see the
funerals of the inhabitants passing through Whitehall on their way to
St. Margaret's, Westminster, but there had probably been an
ecclesiastical building on or near this site from a very early date. In
1222 there was a controversy between the Bishop of London and the Dean
and Chapter of St. Paul's on the one hand and the Abbot and Canons of
Westminster on the other, as to the exemption of the chapel and convent
of the latter from the jurisdiction of the former. The matter was
settled in favour of Westminster. It is probable that this chapel was
for the use of the monks when they visited their convent garden.
In 1721 the old church was pulled down, and a new one built from the
designs of Gibbs the architect, whose bust stands in the building near
the entrance. A rate was levied on the parish for expenses, but money
poured in so liberally that a gift of £500 toward the enrichment of the
altar was declined.
The building has been derided, but it has the merit of a bold
conception. Ralph in "Publick Buildings" says: "The portico is at once
elegant and august, and the steeple above it ought to be considered one
of the most tolerable in town. The east end is remarkably elegant, and
very justly challenges a particular applause; in short, if there is
anything wanting in this fabric, it is a little more elevation."
The only original features in the interior are the two royal pews, not
now used, which look down on the altar. St. Martin's is the royal
parish, including in its boundaries Buckingham Palace and St. James's,
but the births of the Royal Family are not registered here, as has been
frequently stated. There is no monument in the church of any intrinsic
interest, and the only other noticeable details are two beautiful mosaic
panels on either side of the chancel, put up by Lady Frederick Cavendish
to the memory of her husband.
Among the names of those buried in the old church is that of Vansomer, a
portrait-painter. Nell Gwynne, Roubiliac, and Jack Sheppard--whose first
theft took place at Rummer's Tavern, near Charing Cross--lie in the
burial-ground. There is a large crypt, with vaulted roof, below the
church, and here are several monuments from the old building, and also
the ancient whipping-post.
Before the erection of the palaces along the riverside the fishermen of
the Thames lived beside the river bank at Charing Cross. A piece of
ground in the churchyard of St. Martin's was set apart for their use and
kept separate. Meantime, as one after the other of the Bishops'
town-houses were built, the fishermen found themselves pushed farther up
the river, until finally they were fairly driven away, and established
themselves at Lambeth, where the last of them lived in the early part
of the nineteenth century. Their burial-ground, meantime, was preserved
even after they had disappeared. The churchyard of St. Martin's was
curtailed in 1826, and the parish burial-ground removed to Pratt Street,
Camden Town.
Behind the National Gallery is the National Portrait Gallery, opened in
1896, and opposite to it St. Martin's Town Hall, with the parish
emblem--St. Martin dividing his cloak with a beggar--in bas-relief on
the frontage.
Charing Cross Road is very modern. It was opened in 1887, and swept over
a number of narrow courts and alleys.
For St. Martin's Lane, see p. 16.
In this is the Public Library, where some watercolours and old prints of
vanished houses are hung on the staircase. There is also the
eighteenth-century plan from Strype's Survey, well worth studying.
Leicester Square, at first known as Leicester Fields, is associated with
the Sidneys, Earls of Leicester, who had a town-house on the north side,
where the Empire Music-hall is now. This was a large brick building,
with a courtyard before it and a Dutch garden at the back. During the
reign of Charles I. and in the time of the Commonwealth the Sidneys
tenanted it, but later it was occupied by foreign Ambassadors.
Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, took it in 1662, and afterwards it was
aptly described by Pennant as "the pouting-place of Princes"; for
George, son of George I., established here a rival Court when he had
quarrelled with his father, and his son Frederick, the Prince of Wales,
did precisely the same thing. During the latter tenancy a large building
adjoining, called Savile or Ailesbury House, was amalgamated with
Leicester House. George III. was living here when hailed King. Savile
House stood until the Gordon Riots, when it was completely stripped and
gutted by the rioters. The square was presented to the public in 1874 by
Baron Albert Grant, M.P. The gift is recorded on the pedestal of the
statue of Shakespeare standing in the centre.
The square was for long a favourite place for duels. A line drawn
diagonally from the north-east to the south-west corner roughly
indicates the boundary of St Martin's parish, the upper half of the
square being in St. Anne's, Soho.
The associations of this part are numerous and very interesting. The
busts of the four men standing in the corners of the centre garden have
all some local connection. They are those of Hogarth, Sir Joshua
Reynolds, Sir Isaac Newton, and John Hunter. Hogarth's house was on the
east, on the site of Tenison's School, and next to it was that of John
Hunter, the famous surgeon. Sir Joshua Reynolds bought No. 47 on the
west side in 1760, and lived in it until his death. Sir Isaac Newton
lived in the little street off the south side of the square, at the back
of the big new Dental Hospital. His house is still standing, and bears a
tablet of the Society of Arts. It is quite unpretentious--a
stucco-covered building with little dormer-windows in the roof. The
great scientist came here in 1710, when he was nearly sixty, and his
fame was then world-wide. Men from all parts of Europe sought the dull
little street in order to converse with one whose power had wrought a
revolution in the methods of scientific thought. In the same house Miss
Burney afterwards lived with her father. Sir Thomas Lawrence took
apartments at No. 4, Leicester Square, in 1786, when only seventeen, but
he had already begun to exhibit at the Royal Academy. The square was for
long a favourite place of residence with foreigners, and has not even
yet lost a slightly un-English aspect.
Archbishop Tenison's School is at the south-east corner of the square.
Its founder, who was successively Bishop of Lincoln and Archbishop of
Canterbury, intended that it should counterbalance a flourishing Roman
Catholic school in the Savoy precincts. Among old boys may be mentioned
Postlethwaite, afterwards Master of St. Paul's; Charles Mathews, when
very young; Horne Tooke a former Lord Mayor of London; and Liston who
was for a time usher.
As stated above, the northern half of the square is in the parish of St.
Anne's, Soho, a parish now tenanted to a very large extent by
foreigners, chiefly French and Italians. Shaftesbury Avenue, running
diagonally through the parish, is of very recent origin.
Soho has been derived from the watchword of Monmouth at Sedgemoor,
because the Duke had a house in Soho, then King's Square. It is much
more likely that the reverse is the case, and the Duke took the
watchword from the locality in which he lived, for the word Soho occurs
in the rate-books long before the Battle of Sedgemoor was fought. In
1634 So-howe appears in State papers; and various other spellings are
extant, as Soe-hoe, So-hoe. This district was at one time a favourite
hunting-ground, and Halliwell-Phillipps in the "Dictionary of Archaic
and Provincial Words" suggests that the name has arisen from a favourite
hunting cry, "So-ho!"
The parish was first made independent of St. Martin's in 1678. Soho has
always been a favourite locality with foreigners. There were three
distinct waves of emigration which flooded over it: first after the
revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1635; then in 1798, during the
Reign of Terror; and thirdly in 1871, when many Communists who had
escaped from Paris found their way to England. At the present time half
the population of the parish consists of foreigners, of which French and
Italians preponderate, but Swiss, Germans, and specimens of various
other nationalities, are frequently to be met with in the streets.
The parish church of St. Anne's was so named "after the mother of the
Virgin Mary and in compliment to Princess Anne." The site was a piece of
ground known as Kemp's Field, and the architect selected was Sir
Christopher Wren. The building is in all respects like others of its
period, but has a curious spire added later. This has been described as
"two hogsheads placed crosswise, in the ends of which are the dials of
the clock," and above is a kind of pyramid, ending in a vane.
The old churchyard lies above the level of the street, and has been
turned into a public garden. Facing the principal entrance in Wardour
Street is a stone monument to King Theodore of Corsica, and a small
crown on the stone marks his rank. King Theodore died in this parish
December 11, 1756, immediately after leaving the King's Bench Prison, by
the benefit of the Act of Insolvency, in consequence of which he
registered his kingdom of Corsica for the use of his creditors.
His epitaph was written by Horace Walpole:
"The grave, great teacher, to a level brings
Heroes and beggars, galley slaves and kings.
But Theodore this moral learned ere dead:
Fate poured its lessons on his living head,
Bestowed a kingdom, but denied him bread."
Close by is a monument to the essayist Hazlitt, born 1778, died 1830.
The inscription says that he lived to see his deepest wishes gratified
as he expressed them in his essay on the "Fear of Death," and proceeds
to set forth at considerable length the tenor of those wishes.
During the dinner-hour, when the weather is fine, the graveyard seats
are filled by the very poorest of the poor, many of them aliens, far
from their own country, and sad beneath the gray skies of the land that
gives them bread, but denies them sun.
In the registers are recorded the baptisms of two of the children of
George II., and five of the children of Frederick, Prince of Wales, born
at Leicester House, in this parish.
Wardour Street has long been celebrated for its shops of old china,
bric-à-brac, and furniture. It can claim Flaxman among its bygone
residents.
Dean Street is a long and narrow thoroughfare, a favourite residence
with artists at the end of the eighteenth century; the names of Hayman,
Baily, Ward, and Belines are all to be found here in association. Sir
James Thornhill lived at No. 75, where there are the remains of some
curious staircase paintings by him, in the composition of which he is
said to have been assisted by his son-in-law, Hogarth. Turner, the
father of the great painter, was a hairdresser in Dean Street, and
Nollekens' father died in No. 28. In the house adjoining the Royalty
Theatre Madame Vestris was born.
Frith Street in old maps is marked "Thrift Street," a name by no means
inappropriate at the present time. It also has its associations, and can
claim the birth of Sir Samuel Romilly, the great law reformer, who lived
until the early part of the nineteenth century, and whose father was a
jeweller here; the early boyhood of Mozart, and the death of Hazlitt,
which took place in furnished lodgings. The failure of his publishers
had made him short of money; he was harassed by pecuniary cares, yet his
last words were: "I've had a happy life."
The following advertisement bearing date March 8, 1765, is worth
quotation: "Mr. Mozart, the father of the celebrated Young Musical
Family who have so justly raised the Admiration of the greatest
musicians of Europe, proposes to give the Public an opportunity of
hearing these young Prodigies perform both in public and private, by
giving on the 13th of this month a concert which will be chiefly
conducted by his Son, a boy of eight years of age, with all the
overtures of his own composition. Tickets may be had at 5s. each at Mr.
Mozart's, or at Mr. Williamson's in Thrift Street, Soho, where Ladies
and Gentlemen will find the Family at Home every day in the week from 12
to 2 o'clock and have an opportunity of putting his talents to a more
particular proof by giving him anything to play at sight or any Music
without a Bass, which he will write upon the spot without recurring to
his harpsichord."
In this street there are many interesting relics of bygone splendour.
No. 9--now to let--has a splendid well staircase with spiral balusters.
The walls and ceiling of this are lined with oil-paintings of figures
larger than life. These have unfortunately been somewhat knocked about
during successive tenancies, but clearly show that the house was one of
considerable importance in past times. It was in lodgings in this street
that Mrs. Inchbald wrote her "Simple Story," published 1791, in four
volumes, which was an immediate success. She was an actress as well as
an author, and a friend of the Kembles. Her dramatic writings were very
many.
At No. 13, Greek Street were Wedgwood's exhibition-rooms. In No. 27 De
Quincey used to sleep on the floor by permission of Brumel, the
money-lender's attorney.
On the other side of Shaftesbury Avenue, and parallel with it, is
Gerrard Street, a dingy, unpretending place, but thick with memories and
associations. It was built about 1681, and was called after Gerard, Earl
of Macclesfield. Wheatley quotes from the Bagford MSS. of the British
Museum to the effect that "Henry, Prince of Wales, son of James I.,
caused a piece of ground near Leicester Fields to be walled in for the
exercise of arms. Here he built a house, which was standing at the
Restoration. It afterwards fell into the hands of Lord Gerard, who let
the ground out to build upon." Hatton speaks of "Macclesfield House,
alias Gerrard House, a well-built structure situate in Gerrard Street
... now (1708) in possession of Lord Mohun." Dryden lived in Gerrard
Street in a house on the site of one marked by a tablet of the Society
of Arts. He died here, and his funeral was interrupted by a drunken
frolic of Mohocks headed by Lord Jeffreys. Close by is an hotel, where
once Edmund Burke resided; opposite to him J. T. Smith lodged, as he
tells us in "Nollekens and his Times," and he could look into Burke's
rooms when they were lighted, and see the patient student at work until
the small hours of the morning. Charles Kemble and his family also
resided in this street.
On the site of the Westminster General Dispensary was a tavern named the
Turk's Head, where the well-known literary club had its origin. The
members were at first twelve in number, including Sir Joshua Reynolds,
Dr. Johnson, Edmund Burke, Dr. Nugent, Topham Beauclerk, Mr. Langton,
Dr. Goldsmith, and Sir J. Hawkins. In 1772 the number of the members was
increased to twenty, and instead of meeting weekly, on Mondays, for a
supper, they met every fortnight, on a Friday, and dined together. David
Hume was here in 1758, and the actor Edmund Kean passed most of his
boyhood in this street, sheltered by a couple who had adopted him when
his mother deserted him in Frith Street. All his early boyhood is
associated with this neighbourhood; he was found in Frith Street, and
his schools were in Orange Court, Leicester Square, and Chapel Street,
Soho. The dispensary is in itself interesting, being one of the very
oldest institutions of the kind, established in 1774.
Charing Cross Road follows very nearly the course of the old Hog Lane,
later Crown Street, which bounded the parish on the east. St. Mary the
Virgin's Church is on the west side, and the building has had many
vicissitudes. In 1677 it was erected by the Greek congregation in Soho,
and had the distinction of being the first church of that community in
England. It was afterwards used by a French Protestant community, and
then by a body of Dissenters. In 1849 it stood in imminent peril of
being turned into a dancing-saloon, but was rescued and became Church of
England.
The very centre and nucleus of the parish has always been Soho Square,
which was built in the reign of Charles II., and was at first called
King Square--not in compliment to the monarch, but after a man named
Gregory King, who was associated with the earliest buildings. It is a
place of singular attractiveness, an oasis in a desert; many of the
houses are picturesque. The square garden is not large, but it is
planted with fine trees. From the very beginning the square was an
aristocratic locality, and the houses tenanted by the nobility; the most
important of these, Monmouth House, occupied the whole of the southern
side. This was architecturally a very extraordinary building, and the
interior was very magnificent. "The principal room on the ground-floor
was a dining-room, the carved and gilt panels of which contained
whole-length pictures. The principal room on the first-floor was lined
with blue satin superbly decorated with pheasants and other birds in
gold. The chimneypiece was richly ornamented with fruit and foliage; in
the centre, within a wreath of dark leaves, was a circular recess for a
bust" ("Nollekens and his Times").
The Duke of Monmouth obtained the site for this house in 1681, but he
did not long enjoy his possession, for four years later he suffered the
penalty of his pretensions and was executed. The house was later
occupied by successive French Ambassadors; it was demolished in 1773.
The houses at present standing at the south end of the square must have
been built immediately after the destruction of Monmouth House, and
possibly the materials of the older building were used in their
construction. The Hospital for Women shows some traces of former
grandeur in panelled rooms and decorative cornices. The hospital was
only established in these quarters in 1851, so the house may have had
fashionable tenants before.
On the same side is the Rectory House, which was probably built directly
after the demolition of Monmouth House in 1773. Here there are to be
found all the characteristics of an eighteenth-century building,
including a decorative ceiling by Flaxman. In the south-west corner of
the square there is the house in which is now the Hospital for Diseases
of the Heart and Paralysis. This was at one time the headquarters of the
Linnæan Society, before its removal to Burlington House. It contains
some beautiful ceilings and cornices, and one room, now a female ward,
is worthy of special notice. A very lofty arched ceiling of rather
unusual construction is beautifully decorated, and the overmantel and
fireplace are exquisite.
In the opposite or south-east corner of the square is the House of
Charity. This was formerly the residence of Alderman Beckford, twice
Lord Mayor of London in George III.'s reign, who was credited with being
the only man of his day who dared tell the King the truth to his face.
His son was the author of "Vathek." The house is now a house of mercy,
for the assistance of orphans, homeless girls, and all who, through no
fault of their own, find themselves without a roof to shelter them or
work to do. The charity is Church of England, and under the direction of
a Warden and Council. The fine decorative wooden overmantels and
doorways still remain, and the joints and edges of the panels are all
carved, which gives a very handsome appearance to some of the rooms. The
council-room ceiling is a large oval with the figures of four cherubic
boys in relief, carrying respectively flowers, a bird, fire, and water,
to represent the four elements.
One of the former famous houses in the square was Carlisle House. The
walls were of red brick, and the date on the cisterns 1669, the date of
the creation of the earldom of Carlisle. In its later days the house
became notorious from its connection with Mrs. Cornelys, the daughter
of an actor, who was born at Venice in 1723, and who, after a tarnished
career in various Continental towns as a public singer, came to the
King's Theatre, London, to take part in one of Gluck's operas. She took
possession of Carlisle House, and projected a series of society
entertainments, which proved a marvellous success. The square was
blocked with the coaches and chairs of her patrons. In Taylor's "Records
of my Life" it is stated she had as many as 600 persons in her saloon at
one time, at two guineas per head. Foreign Ministers, many of the
nobility, scions of royalty, flocked to her rooms. She spent profusely
and lavishly. The decorations were superb, the entertainments
magnificent, in the ceremonious and rather affected style of the period.
In 1770 she was at the climax of prosperity. "Galas, masquerades, and
festivals, all equally splendid, succeeded one another throughout the
season" (Clinch); but after her sky-rocket ascent came the fall: fickle
Fashion deserted her, and finally the house and its contents were
announced in the _Gazette_ for sale. The Pantheon had proved too
formidable a rival. In 1785 the property was in Chancery, and Mrs.
Cornelys died in the Fleet Prison in 1797. The banqueting-hall in Sutton
Street, attached to Carlisle House by a covered way, was converted into
the Chapel of St. Patrick, and where masqueraders had revelled priests
heard confession. This also eventually disappeared, to make way for the
present church, which is such a feature of the square; it stands at the
corner of Sutton Street, and bears the name of its predecessor. It was
opened 1893, and its campanile reaches a height of 125 feet. Within the
porch is a beautiful marble group of the dead Christ, supported by an
angel. The pictures inside are exceptionally valuable and beautiful,
including paintings by Vandyke, Murillo, Carlo Dolci, Paul Veronese
(attributed), and many others. On the opposite side of the street
Messrs. Crosse and Blackwell's factory also covers a house owning
historical associations. No. 21 was the "White House," and 22,
"Falconberg House," in former times. The latter was the residence of
Oliver Cromwell's third daughter, Lady Falconberg, who died in 1712.
Sutton Street takes its name from the county seat of the Falconbergs. In
this house Sir Cloudesley Shovel's body lay in state before its
interment, after having been found cast up on one of the Scilly Islands.
A Spanish Ambassador was among the later residents, and afterwards the
house was for a time an hotel. In the large drawing-room the ceiling was
painted by Angelica Kauffmann. The Duke of Argyll, the Earl of Bradford,
and Speaker Onslow, were among its tenants. This house is now the
offices of Messrs. Crosse and Blackwell. The painted ceiling was
carefully taken down and saved from destruction by one of the heads of
the firm. The chief articles of interest remaining are a handsome
overmantel in one of the private rooms of the firm, and a curious
ceiling. The former is of wood, and is varnished and painted in various
tones of bronze and gold. The carving upon it is very elaborate and
enigmatical. The panelled ceiling has some affinity with it, but has
been modernized, and is not so interesting. The front of the house
remains as it was, and claims to be the only original frontage in the
square.
The centre of the square, when first laid out, was occupied by a
fountain surmounted by a statue of Charles II. in armour, the work of
Colley Cibber. Clinch in "Soho and its Associations" mentions a document
of 1748, still extant, in which are recorded the subscriptions made by
the inhabitants to replace the wooden palisades round the square by iron
railings. This is headed by £300 from the Duke of Portland, and among
the names are those of many titled and influential people, showing that
fashion had not then migrated westward. It was on the doorstep of a
house in the square that De Quincey sank dying of exhaustion and
starvation during his first novitiate of London life, and he was only
saved by his faithful companion Ann.