CHAPTER VII
St. James's Fair, St. James's Market and Surrounding Streets
St. James's Fair was established by Edward I,
who in 1290 granted to the leprous maidens
of the Hospital of St. James the right to hold a
fair on the vigil, the feast and the morrow of St.
James and the four days following, i.e., 24–30
July. (ref. 1) The earliest surviving lease of St. James's
Farm is dated 1455, and from this date (though
probably the custom was much older) the tenant of
the hospital's farm enjoyed the profits of the tolls
of the fair. (ref. 2) The last lessee of the farm before St.
James's Hospital and its lands were surrendered to
Henry VIII in 1531 was Thomas Arnold, who
in 1540 brought an action in the Court of Requests
against William Moraunt, keeper of St. James's
Palace and bailiff of St. James's Fair (see page 23),
complaining that the latter had collected the tolls
himself for the previous two years and deprived
Arnold of the profits. Moraunt had been able to
do this by preventing the stall-holders from erecting their booths on Arnold's land and directing
them 'within the utter courte of St. James and the
highwaye' (ref. 3) —i.e. the road known as St. James's
Street, which was probably formed at about this
time (ref. 4) (see page 431). The ruling of the Court has
not survived, but it appears that for the rest of its
existence the fair was held in St. James's Street.
The profits of the tolls were included in a Crown
lease of St. James's Farm in 1551, (ref. 5) and continued
to be enjoyed by succeeding tenants. (ref. 6) When
Thomas Poultney received an assignment of the
farm in 1590 the profits of the tolls were also
assigned to him. (ref. 7)
Like others near London, St. James's Fair was
prohibited during times when plague was prevalent,
and for this reason it was not held in 1593, 1603
or 1636. (ref. 8) In 1648 the Committee of the Militia
of Westminster 'desired that the fair at St. James'
may be put off for this year lest under colour of
repairing thither there may be a meeting of many
persons, which may prove dangerous to the Parliament'. (ref. 9) In spite of this request the fair was held,
and although an affray took place it had no
political significance. The affair involved 'one
goodman Hall', a poor man aged eighty, who had
permission from Ann Street to sell his wares outside her house in St. James's (presumably St.
James's Street). Next door was a house tenanted
by James Supple, a vintner and one of the building
speculators in Pall Mall Field. Hall having
omitted to ask Supple for permission to sell his
wares during the time of the fair, Supple's wife
Mary, 'did forcibly and violently runne upon him
and flinge both him and his wares on the ground'.
She was reproved by Ann Street's son, William
Painter, who appears to have been the more willing
to join in because the Supples owed the Streets
rent. Thereupon Mary Supple assaulted Painter
and gave him 'very scandalous and opprobrious
Language'. Painter himself was arrested on the
charge of James and Mary Supple, for assaulting
them. (ref. 10)
Scenes like these must have frequently taken
place and at the fair in 1661 several whores and
'infamous persons' (including one called 'tory
Rory') were removed to the house of correction
for indecent conduct. (ref. 11)
In 1665 the fair was removed to the recently
established St. James's Market. An advertisement
in The Newes of 1 June 1665 states that 'Whereas
St. James Fair has been formerly kept in the Road
near the House of St. James; be it known, that
hereafter it is to be kept in St. James' Marketplace to begin the 25th of July 1665, and to continue for 15 dayes at least in the Place aforesaid:
A special care being taken for a better Regulation
of the People thereabouts then has been formaly.' (ref. 12)
After this date no mention has been found of the
fair.
St. James's Market
Like St. James's Church, St. James's Market was
established under the aegis of the Earl of St.
Albans to serve the growing number of people
who had come to live in the new buildings in the
vicinity. In March 1663 and again in the following June inquisitions were held at the Green
Dragon tavern (ref. 13) in Pall Mall (ref. 14) to enquire into a
proposal that three markets should be held each
week in St. James's Fields and two others in the
Haymarket. It was decided that these would not
be prejudicial to the interests of the King or of the
merchants and traders in the area, and so on the
following 21 November the King granted by
letters patent the right to hold the markets to
John Hervey and John Coell, (ref. 13) as trustees for the
Earl of St. Albans. (ref. 15)
Figure 41:
St. James's Market, layout plan, 1815. Re-drawn from a plan in the Public Record Office
The existence of a market place on leasehold
property of the Earl of St. Albans is first mentioned in a building lease of July 1663 (ref. 16) and the
ratebooks confirm that it had been laid out and
houses built around it before the end of the year.
Building in Market Lane and St. Albans Street
soon followed. (ref. 14) The market itself was proclaimed on 27 September 1664 'to be kept in St
Jame's Fields for all sort of Provisions every
Monday, Wednesday and Saturday'. (ref. 17)
(fn. a)
A market house was built in 1665–6. (ref. 18) On
1 April 1666 Pepys wrote in his diary 'So all up
and down my Lord St. Albans his new building
and market-house, and the taverne under the
market-house'. (ref. 19) Kip's perspective view (Plate
4) clearly shows a large building with a simple
front, probably classical in style, having a pedimented centre facing down St. Albans Street and
twin pediments at each end. Although this cannot
be accepted as definite evidence of the building's
appearance, it is likely to be a more reliable
representation than that given on Ogilby and
Morgan's survey of 1681–2, and Blome's slightly
later map (Plates 2, 3), both of which show
the market house as a Jacobean building of two
storeys, with three entrances separated by projecting turrets, these rising against a high hipped roof.
The true value of this representation may be
assessed by observing that both cartographers have
introduced gable-fronted houses into St. James's
Square, and Blome shows a steeple astride the roof
of Wren's church.
Parts of the market house were occasionally let
off for purposes unconnected with trade. In 1674
Richard Baxter, the presbyterian preacher, held a
number of meetings in 'divers Rooms over the
Market-house laid together'. (ref. 20) He had been most
anxious to preach in this part of London, for he
considered that it was 'the habitation of the most
ignorant, Atheistical and Popish about London'. (ref. 21)
There were, so he believed, 'forty thousand more
than can come into the Church [i.e., old St.
Martin's Church], especially among all the new
buildings in St. Jameses, where Neighbours many
[sic] live like Americans, and have heard no Sermon of many years'. (ref. 20)
At one of Baxter's meetings an incident
occurred which could have had tragic consequences had it not been for the timely intervention of his wife. 'The Roof of that Markethouse', so he wrote, 'is a vast weight, and was ill
contrived to lye much on one Beam in the middle
of the Floor : the place being greatly crowded, the
Beam gave so great a crack as put all the people in
a fear. But a second crack set them all on running
and crying out at the windows for Ladders. . . .
After the first crack she [his wife] got down the
stairs through the crowd, where others could not
get that were stronger. The first man she met,
she askt him what Profession he was of ? He said,
a Carpenter. Saith she, Can you suddenly put a
prop under the middle of this Beam? The man
dwelt close by, had a meet prop ready, suddenly
put it under, while all we above knew nothing of
it; but the mans knocking encreased the peoples
fears and cry. We were glad all to be gone; and
the next morning took a skilful Workman to take
up the boards, and search the Beam; which we
saw had two such rents, so long and so wide, and
the sound part left was so slender, that we took it
for a wonder that the house fell not suddenly.' (ref. 22)
Figure 42:
Regent Street, layout plan. Based on Horwood's map, editions of 1792–9 and 1819
Despite these structural weaknesses, there is no
indication that the market house was ever rebuilt.
In 1696 the building was described as having 'been
erected about 30 years' and would, in the opinion
of the Surveyor General, require rebuilding at the
expiry of the Crown lease in 1740. (ref. 23) This requirement does not seem to have been fulfilled, for
an illustration in the Westminster City Library
of the interior of the market house immediately
prior to its demolition in 1818, shows it then as a
building of considerable age and in a very poor
state of repair. (ref. 24) It was probably substantially
the same building as that erected in the 1660's A
plan of 1815 (fig. 41) shows it as a broad H-shaped building with staircases in the angles and
with the market stalls lining the interior and
exterior walls. (ref. 25) The various plans of the market
place in the maps of Rocque, Zachary Chambers (ref. 26)
and Horwood bear little resemblance to each other
(see Plates 5, 6) and may have been only conventional representations.
The leasehold interest of the Earl of St. Albans
in the market, which was due to expire in 1740,
was conveyed in 1695 to Sidney, Lord Godolphin,
together with the right, granted by letters patent,
of holding the market in the market house and
market place. (ref. 15) In 1696 Godolphin obtained a
reversionary Crown lease of the market place and
market house for ninety-nine years from 1740 (ref. 27)
and granted a sub-lease to the trustees of the
Pulteney estate. Surviving accounts of the trustees,
for the period 1712–13, show that they were responsible for sweeping and cleaning the market and
for repairing the market house. They also paid a
Captain Rathbone for 'a Militia Horse for the
Markett'. (ref. 28)
In 1720 St. James's Market was described as 'a
large Place, with a commodious Market-house in
the Midst, filled with Butchers Shambles; besides
the Stalls in the Market-Place, for Country
Butchers, Higglers, and the like; being a Market
new grown to great Account, and much resorted
unto, as being well served with good Provisions.
On the South-west Corner is the Paved Alley, a
good Through-fare into Charles-Street and so into
St. James's Square, and those Parts; but is of no
great Account for Buildings for Inhabitants.' (ref. 29)
Provisions were 'usually a fourth Part dearer than
in the Markets about the City of London, most of
the Provisions being brought from thence, and
bought up here by the Stewards of People of
Quality, who spare no Price to furnish their Lords
Houses with what is nice and delicate'. (ref. 30)
By the early nineteenth century St. James's
Market was no longer of such good repute.
Writing in 1856 the Reverend J. Richardson
remembered it and the adjoining streets as being
'very properly avoided by all persons who respected
their characters or their garments, and were consequently only known to a "select few", whose
avocations obliged, or whose peculiar tastes induced them to penetrate the labyrinth of burrows
which extended to Jermyn Street, and westward
to St. James-square'. (ref. 31)
Figure 43:
New St. James's Market, layout plan, 1818. Re-drawn from plans in the Crown Estate Office
The adoption of Nash's plan for a New Street
from Marylebone Park to Carlton House involved
the removal of St. James's Market and the demolition of most of the houses in Market Lane
and the market place. By April 1816 the
demolition had begun and the houses between
the market and Pall Mall were swept away. (ref. 32) The
market house was not demolished until 1818,
when the remaining tenants delivered up their
stalls and shops to the Commissioners for the New
Street. (ref. 33)
The Crown lease of the market place and market house had by this time passed to the Duke of
Leeds, the eventual heir of Sidney, Lord Godolphin. (ref. 18) The Duke was paid £22,000 for his
interest in St. James's Market, (ref. 33) although Nash
considered it worth only £18,000 and was greatly
loth to pay out any more. (ref. 34)
Part of Waterloo Place and Regent Street were
then laid out on the site of the old houses in St.
James's Market and St. Albans Street, and Charles
Street was extended eastward into the Haymarket
(fig. 42).
A new market was laid out in 1817–18 (ref. 35) on a
more restricted site to the west of the Haymarket
and between Jermyn Street and Norris Street
(fig. 43), at an estimated cost of about £20,000. (ref. 36)
The builder was James Burton, who had been
granted a ninety-nine-year lease of the site. (ref. 35)
Nash had been particularly anxious for a new
market to be built; 'an open Market', so he wrote
in 1816, 'seems indespensable, St. James Market
being totally removed and a pledge if not given at
least understood that a new Market should be
substituted—open shambles are essential to the poor
and the poorer description of tradesmen who cannot pay large rents nor will the greater Butchers
etc. supply the poor from their expensive shops at
the same low terms as the poorer Butchers who
pay smaller rents for the Shambles'. (ref. 36) The new
provision shops which had sprung up in the
neighbourhood had evidently attracted away the
market's former aristocratic clientèle and weakened any hostility which might have been felt to
the destruction of old St. James's Market.
Figure 44:
New St. James's Market. Drawn from a photograph of c. 1880 in the Crown Estate Office
A photograph in the Crown Estate Office (ref. 37)
(fig. 44) gives a fair idea of the strictly utilitarian
character of Burton's market buildings, showing
the shops, with their small-paned windows and
simple entablature-fascias, surmounted by two
storeys of living accommodation, each having two
widely spaced windows in plain openings with
segmental arches, the brick fronts being finished
with a narrow eaves-cornice. Unlike its predecessor, the new St. James's Market did not have
a central market house.
By the 1880's the buildings in the new market
were dilapidated. There were two cases of
typhoid fever amongst the inhabitants in 1882 and
the vestry clerk of St. James's complained to the
Commissioners of Woods and Forests that the
buildings there were 'not altogether suitable for
human habitation'. (ref. 36)
The lease granted to Burton expired in 1916
and at the end of the war the plans of the Office of
Woods and Forests, made previously, for the
closure of the market and the redevelopment of the
whole site were put into operation. These involved the widening of the existing passageway
from Market Street (now St. Alban's Street) to
the Haymarket, to form a new street, now called
St. James's Market, and the consequent demolition
of the houses on the south side of the market built
in 1817–18. (ref. 38) The remaining houses were let as
part of the island site, bounded by Jermyn Street
on the north, the newly made street on the south,
the Haymarket on the east and what is now St.
Alban's Street on the west. This site was subsequently occupied by a cinema.
The Gaumont Cinema
Formerly the Capitol
A cinema, at first known as the Capitol, was
erected in 1922–4 on the site described above.
The architect was Andrew Mather, (ref. 39) and the
contractors were Messrs. Arthur Vigor. (ref. 40) On the
Jermyn Street front there were five shops, (ref. 41) and a
restaurant was opened in the basement in 1927. (ref. 42)
To obtain the maximum development of the
site, the architect was obliged to raise the cinema,
containing stalls and a large upper tier, to the
second-storey level, leaving the ground storey and
basement free for the large galleried restaurant,
and for shops along the Haymarket and Jermyn
Street fronts, flanking the corner entrance to the
cinema. The exterior, faced with Portland stone,
was in the 'Regent Street Renaissance' manner,
the ground storey being devoid of interest and the
second storey having segmental-headed windows
set in a rusticated face. The third and fourth
storeys were embraced and divided into bays by
Ionic pilasters, supporting a deep entablature with
oblong windows in its frieze, and the attic storey
over the Haymarket end had circular windows
linked by festoons. The corner entrance to the
cinema was emphasized by the tower-like treatment of the upper face, with its large arch-headed
windows and a curious superstructure crowned
with a concave roof and an illuminated lantern—
a giant urn-shaped rival to the globe on the London Coliseum. The interior of the cinema was
decorated in a coarse version of the Adam style,
coloured in lilac and silver, the main ceiling having
painted panels and medallions by Colin Gill,
A.R.A. Oliver Bernard, the stage designer and
architect, was responsible for the plaster cyclorama on which the films were originally projected,
against a ground of coloured light appropriate to
the emotion of the moment.
In 1936 the interior of the building was entirely
reconstructed, and the shops and restaurant were
eliminated; the architect was W. E. Trent. (ref. 43) The
cinema was re-opened as the Gaumont on 4 February 1937. (ref. 44) In 1951 the lantern on the corner
turret was replaced by a flagpole. (ref. 43) The cinema
was closed in 1959.
Norris Street
Norris Street, a short street leading off the west
side of the Haymarket, is first recorded by name in
the ratebooks of St. Martin's in 1674. It had
probably been laid out some years earlier, for in
1661 the Earl of St. Albans's trustees had granted
to Godfrye Norris a lease of four houses and a yard
in the Haymarket and what was later to become
St. James's Market. (ref. 45) In 1720 the street was
described by John Strype as 'a Place of a pretty
good Trade for Salesmen'. (ref. 29)
Old 'St. Albans Street'
One of the streets which were entirely destroyed
for the formation of Regent Street was St. Albans
Street, a name still used for another street in the
vicinity (see below). This was described by Strype
in 1720 as 'handsome [and] well built', and ran
from the north side of Pall Mall up to the market
place. (ref. 29) In 1710 Swift lodged on the second floor
of a house there; he had 'the use of the parlour
to receive persons of quality'. (ref. 46) Later in the
eighteenth century William Hickey's father, a
solicitor, lived in St. Albans Street. He 'purchased
the house next to his own . . ., pulled it down and
rebuilt it as an addition to his. . . . This addition
made it a most capital mansion, one of the advantages being, instead of a common passage, the
entering into a handsome hall, with a fire place,
the room that had been my brother's, and the
clerk's office being a part of it.' (ref. 47)
St. Alban's Street
The whole of this street was originally part of
Market Lane. Until the formation of Regent
Street and the consequent improvement of a number of adjacent side streets Market Lane was a
narrow thoroughfare running from Pall Mall to
Jermyn Street; part of its east side formed the east
side of the market place (Plate 6), and further
south another part abutted on the back of the
Opera House. In about 1797 Thomas Leverton,
who was architect to the Land Revenue Department and surveyor to the Theatres Royal in London, proposed that the whole of Market Lane
south of Charles Street should be converted into
'a Corridor of General Communication to the
Theatre, and that the old Houses on the west side
of Market Lane should be used as Dressing Rooms,
which would be the means of removing the Inhabitants, who are of the most exceptionable
Class'. (ref. 48) This proposal was subsequently adopted
in modified form by Nash when he built the Royal
Opera Arcade upon the site of the southern portion of Market Lane (see page 242).
At the time of the demolition of St. James's
Market in 1816–18, the paving committee of St.
James's Vestry re-named the section of Market
Lane to the north of Charles Street as St. Alban's
Place, (ref. 49) but the 1819 edition of Horwood's map
still marks the northern end of the street between
Norris Street and Jermyn Street as Market Lane.
This northern end subsequently became known as
Market Street. (ref. 50) In 1936 both St. Alban's Place
and Market Street were re-named St. Alban's
Street.
In 1816–18 a stable yard was built on the west
side of the street to the design of (Sir) John Soane,
for the Earl of St. Germans (see page 208).
The Western Synagogue
Demolished
The Western Synagogue was built in 1827–8
by Robert Abraham (ref. 51) behind No. 12 St. Alban's
Place and at the back of houses on the north side
of Charles Street. (ref. 52) It was built by a congregation
from Denmark Court, Strand, which had been
founded in 1774. (ref. 53) No illustration of the building
has been found.
The synagogue appears to have occupied the
first floor of a stable block and No. 12 St. Alban's
Place was occupied by the rabbi. (ref. 52) Between 1865
and 1870 the building was repaired and redecorated from the designs of J. D. Hayton. (ref. 54)
In 1905 the congregation was joined by that of
the former Maiden Lane Synagogue. For a time
they considered a project to rebuild the premises in
St. Alban's Place, but this scheme was later abandoned in favour of an entirely new site elsewhere.
The old building was demolished in the summer
of 1914. (ref. 55)
No. 10 St. Alban's Street: The Pall Mall Safe Deposite
When the leases of Nos. 11–13 (consec.)
Norris Street expired in 1890 the Office of Woods
and Forests decided to retain the old buildings for
a further two years until the leases of the adjoining
property in St. Alban's Place should expire. They
obtained possession of this latter property, which
comprised Lane's Hotel and No. 4 St. Alban's
Place, in April 1892 and immediately cleared the
whole of the site. The first rebuilding project, for
a block of shops and residential chambers by
Arthur Green, did not materialize. This was
followed by another abortive scheme for a theatre
from the designs of Charles J. Phipps and A.
Blomfield Jackson. (ref. 56)
By the spring of 1897 the Office of Woods and
Forests was negotiating for the erection of a fireproof depository, with six shops in Norris Street.
It was particularly specified that the façade of the
new building was not to look like that of a factory.
The main front, as seen from Regent Street, was
to be of Portland stone and the remaining elevations of red brick. The architects were Arthur
and Leslie W. Green. Their plans were finally
approved in June 1897. (ref. 57)
Work was started in the autumn of 1897 and
completed in the latter half of 1898 (Plate 277c).
As originally designed the main façade was to have
lettering on the cornice, immediately below the
attic storey. After objections from the Office of
Woods and Forests, however, this was changed in
1899 to the present arrangement of lettered scrolls
over the pilasters at third-storey level. These
appear to have been designed to match the scrolls
which were already in place on either side of the
entrance arch. (ref. 58)
In 1948 the balusters which had formerly
decorated the lower part of the attic, immediately
below the clock, were removed. Similar balusters
were also removed from beneath the sills of the
second-storey windows. (ref. 59)
The Safe Deposit is a four-storeyed building of
red brick dressed with stone, its most important
feature being the main entrance, monumentally
treated in the Baroque manner to fill the vista
from Regent Street. This part of the front is
entirely stone-faced, the four storeys being
arranged in two stages, with the windows grouped
so that the lower stage contains only one tall
round arch, and the upper stage a single mullioned-and-transomed window within a pedimented
frame. Flanking the rusticated lower stage are
two-tier pedestals, the lower tier composed of
heavily battered rustic courses, and upon the
pedestals stand paired Corinthian plain-shafted
pilasters rising through the upper stage and supporting the main entablature. Above this is a low
attic stage with paired brackets supporting a swanneck pediment at either side, and over all is the
crowning triangular pediment, its tympanum containing a clock-face within a moulded architrave
broken by blocks.
Nos. 14–16 (even) St. Alban's Street
Formerly No. 2 Market Street and Nos. 1–3 (consec.)
St. James's Market
The present building at Nos. 14–16 (even) St.
Alban's Street was erected in 1907 by J. Styles
and Son, builders and decorators, who had occupied one of the old buildings on the site since 1860.
The architects were Messrs. Treadwell and Martin of Charing Cross Road. The building was
designed to serve J. Styles and Son as both office
and workshop, but is now used as a restaurant and
a block of flats. (ref. 60)
It is a five-storeyed building of red brick with
stone dressings in a vaguely Georgian style. Equal
fronts with five windows crowded into each upper
storey face St. Alban's Street and St. James's Market, and on the east of the St. James's Market front
is a projecting wing of three bays. Display windows with stone surrounds fill the ground storey,
having over them a deep stone fascia and a
prominent cornice. The windows in the upper
storeys are uniformly flat-headed, with moulded
stone architraves, and only the addition of keystones and cornice-hoods in the second storey relieves the monotony. A Doric pilaster striped with
broad, horizontal bands of stone is placed at either
end of the St. Alban's Street front and of the
eastern wing, and there is another at the western
end of the St. James's Market front. Just below
the capital of each pilaster is a small stone cartouche, and on the rounded angle of the building,
at second-storey level, is a large, foliated cartouche
proclaiming the name of the builders in ornate gilt
letters. The crowning cornice is surmounted by a
balustrade.