Meard Street
Only the eastern, wider part of Meard Street,
containing Nos. 1–7 (odd) and Nos. 2–6 (even),
was built on the Pitt estate, that to the west
being built on the Pulteney estate (fig. 51 on page
208). In both parts, however, the building leases
were made to the same lessee, John Meard, the
younger, carpenter, and the whole is therefore
described here (Plate 116, figs. 60–66).
Both parts were erected approximately on the
sites of existing seventeenth-century courts,
which opened off Dean Street and Wardour Street
but did not communicate with each other.
The western part was by ten years the first to
be built. The leases of the sites on the south side,
now Nos. 9–23 (odd), and of the roadway, were
dated 3 December 1722 and ran for sixty-one
years from Michaelmas 1720. They were
granted by William Pulteney of St. Martin in the
Fields, esquire. (ref. 211) Those of sites on the north
side, now Nos. 8–20 (even), were dated 23 March
1722/3; the term for which they ran is not known.
The lessor was John Pulteney of St. James's,
esquire. (ref. 212) In all leases Meard was described as
carpenter and citizen of London.
The houses in this western part, called Meard's
Court, were built and occupied in 1722. Like
the earlier court they replaced, they formed a culde-sac off Wardour Street. The north and
south ranges terminated approximately at the
present eastern boundaries of Nos. 12 and 13,
where the court was closed by a house occupying
the present roadway between Nos. 10 and 11. (ref. 213)
Behind this house, occupying the present roadway between Nos. 8 and 9, was the small northeastern extremity of Meard's carpenter's yard, the
greater part of which lay south of Meard Street
and was approached by the former No. 64 Wardour Street (fig. 51 on page 208). This yard,
fronting to Milk Alley (later Little Dean Street
and now Bourchier Street), and the sites of Nos.
60–74 and 76–78 (even) Wardour Street, were
leased to Meard at the same time. (ref. 214)
This western part of Meard Street was about
eighteen feet wide before the north side was
rebuilt and set back in c. 1907–10.
East of this lay in 1722 the seventeenthcentury Dean's Court, opening off Dean Street,
on the Pitt estate. About this time Strype called
it 'a pretty neat and cleanly Place, not large,
but indifferent well inhabited'. (ref. 215) When redevelopment became possible here in 1731 this
court was pulled down, (ref. 7) and Meard, now described as an 'esquire', of St. Anne's, was granted
the leases for the rebuilding: these were dated in
March 1731/2 and ran for a longer term than his
Pulteney leases (see table on page 252). On this
part Meard built in 1732, contemporaneously
with Nos. 67–70 (consec.) Dean Street, seven
houses fronting a short, comparatively broad
street, about thirty-eight feet wide, known as
Meard's Street. (ref. 7) The name, and date of building,
are inscribed on tablets on the return fronts of
Nos. 68 and 69 Dean Street (fig. 60).
Being possessed of leases of the whole, Meard
pulled down the ten-years-old house closing the
east end of Meard's Court, and made a through
way. On the street frontages thus newly created
at the east end of the Pulteney estate Meard built
in 1733 Nos. 8 and 10 on the north and Nos. 9
and 11 on the south, (ref. 7) conforming to the narrow
street-width of the earlier part (fig. 51 on page
208). So far as the surviving Nos. 9 and 11 indicate, he adhered also to the smaller scale of the
earlier houses, but gave the new houses the more
elaborate doorcases of those on the Pitt estate
(fig. 65).
Figure 60:
Meard Street, name tablet
These doorcases of 1732–3 are virtually identical with those which had been set up, doubtless by
Meard, at Nos. 48–58 (even) Broadwick Street,
St. James's, in 1722–3, (ref. 216) but it may be noted
that in the humbler part of Meard Street that was
actually contemporary with Broadwick Street
a simpler type of doorcase had been thought to
suffice (fig. 66).
Meard completed his development of the compact piece of property north of Milk Alley when
he obtained in June 1733 a building lease from
Michaelmas 1734 of the site of Nos. 65 and 66
Dean Street and some houses in the alley. This
was from a third landowner, the Duchess of
Portland. (ref. 217) He rebuilt these houses at about
the same time as Nos. 67–70 Dean Street. (ref. 7)
Meard was evidently a man of some substance
He was the son of an elder John Meard, also a
carpenter. The latter had been employed on the
parish watch-house in 1687–8, (ref. 218) and was perhaps
responsible for building in the Wardour Street
area, south of St. Anne's Court, where he owned
fourteen houses and where part of the present
Flaxman Court bore the name Meard's Passage
or Yard. When he made his will, in August 1717,
the elder Meard himself lived in Swan Yard (now
part of Flaxman Court), and also owned a house
in Old Compton Street, and four in St. Giles's
parish. He described himself, however, as of
Chiswick, and mentioned both freehold and
manorial property there. His will was proved in
October 1719. (ref. 219)
His son, the builder of Meard Street, was described as of St. James's in 1710, (ref. 220) when he was
probably concerned in the erection of houses in
Great Marlborough Street. (ref. 221) His work in
Broadwick Street in the same parish in 1722–3 has
been mentioned. He was no doubt the John
Meard who was carpenter at many of the Fifty
New Churches, (ref. 222) and in Soho he erected (and
possibly designed) the spire added to St. Anne's
church tower in 1718. He was active as a
builder elsewhere in the parish. (fn. a) His advancement from 'carpenter' to 'esquire' in title-deeds
between 1722 and 1732 has been noticed. He
was latterly a justice of the peace. In his will of
1742/3 he described himself as of Greenwich,
esquire, and as a freeman of the City of London.
He was dead by April 1746. (ref. 224) One of his sons
was a clergyman, of Luddesdown, Kent, (ref. 225)
and a grandson was George James, the portrait
painter, who lived at No. 73 Dean Street from
1763 to 1779. (ref. 226)
Meard had been a member of the St. Anne's
Select Vestry, and, if the evidence produced in
1742 by the enemies of that body is sound, had
abused his position to obtain relief from rates for
himself or his tenants. A former overseer of the
poor testified before the House of Commons that
in at least 1734 and 1735 'Justice Meard' had
paid no rates: 'his Method was, to shuffle from
one House to another of different Rent, so that
they never knew how to charge him'. Meard's
steward or agent acknowledged that the house he
himself lived in and three others belonging to
Meard were excused parish rates. (ref. 227) The ratebooks seem to confirm that from 1733 to about
1738 the eastern houses were mostly occupied by
unnamed tenants and that the rates were often not
paid.
Figure 61:
Meard Street, south side, plan
Occupants
For the first occupants of Nos. 1–7 (odd) and
2–6 (even) see the table on page 252. Other
occupants of houses which survive include:
South Side
No. 1. Burkat Shudi (Burckhardt Tschudi), harpsichord-maker, (ref. 228) 1738–42; Westminster Female Penitent Asylum, 1840–7. (ref. 229)
No. 3. Rev. Richard Terrick, later Bishop of London,
1739–42.
No. 9. First occupant, Mrs. White, 1733–5. Batty
Langley, the architectural writer, was assessed for rates
at No. 9 in 1739–40 and 1742–5 (in succession to
Elizabeth Langley in 1738). In 1741 his brother,
Thomas, an engraver, was assessed. They were carrying on their business as surveyors and designers of
buildings and gardens here in 1740 (ref. 230) and 1742. (ref. 231) (In
the former year Thomas also advertised that he taught
architecture and drawing to 'young gentlemen'). (ref. 230)
For much of this time the rates were not paid and the
collector noted 'out of town' or 'in ye country or gone
away'.
From 1745 an Ann Langley appears as ratepayer at
the former No. 20 Meard Street, until 1748. Batty
Langley then appears at that house (again mostly as a
non-payer) in 1749 and 1750. He gave his address in
Meard Street in 1746 (ref. 232) and 1748, (ref. 233) while works of
his published in 1747 (ref. 232) and 1748 (ref. 234) were said to have
been printed for Archimedes Langley in Meard Street.
Elizabeth Flint, 'generally slut and drunkard;
occasionally whore and thief' had a furnished room here
at No. 9 Meard Street in 1758 at 5s. per week. It was
probably in reference to this house that Johnson
observed, 'Bet … had, however, genteel lodgings, a
spinnet on which she played, and a boy that walked
before her chair'. (ref. 235)
No. 11. First occupant, Wyriott Ormond, 1733–4;
Abraham Browne 'one of his Majesty's and of the
Queen's Band, and First Violin at Ranelagh', (ref. 236)
1755–70; Francis, John, and John N. Sartorius,
painters, 1775–6. (ref. 204)
No. 13. First occupant, Dr. Blackly, 1722.
No. 15. First occupant, Thomas Tubman, 1723–5.
No. 17. First occupant, Edmund Paine, ? watchmaker, (ref. 237) 1722–44.
No. 19. First occupant, John George, 1722–7.
No. 21. First occupant, Francis Allard, 1722–8.
North Side
No. 2. John Shebbeare, political writer, 1754–76.
No. 6. Rev. M. M. Merrick, Lecturer of St.
Anne's, (ref. 238) 1763–82; James Jefferys, painter, and
Thomas Hearne, painter, in 1783. (ref. 239)
Occupants of houses which no longer survive
include:
North Side
No. 8. First occupant, 'ten.', 1733; Richard Collett,
1736.
No. 10. First occupant, Stephen Tanpier, 1734–54.
No. 12. First occupant, John Bowring, 1722–33.
No. 14. First occupant, Peter Barboult, 1722–5.
No. 16. First occupant, Charles Ponthieu, 1723–6;
John Fabian, enamel and miniature painter, 'at Mr.
Tacet's' in 1763. (ref. 32)
No. 18. First occupant, John Christopher Schmidt,
friend of Handel and father of (John) Christopher
Smith, musician (1712–95), (ref. 240) 1723–47.
No. 20. First occupant, Mr. Barbo (? Barbault),
1722–4; Batty Langley, 1746?–1750 (see No. 9
above); François A. D. Philidor, chess-player and
composer, in 1753. (ref. 241)
South Side
No. 23. First occupant, Hensham Eaglesham,
1722–5.
House closing east end of Meard's Court, built 1722,
demolished 1731: 'Mr. Vanderbanck', 1722–3. ? John
Vanderbank, portrait painter.
Salem Chapel
Demolished
In 1824 Salem Chapel was built behind Nos.
8 and 10 for the Rev. John Stevens and a congregation of Particular Baptists, who removed
thither from the chapel in Duke of York Street,
St. James's: (ref. 242) they had previously, until 1813,
worshipped in Grafton Street, Soho (ref. 243) (see page
373). The site was Crown freehold and the Land
Revenues officials consulted the Bishop of London, William Howley, before granting a lease.
He thought 'the propriety of granting a lease of
ground belonging to the Crown for the erection
of a place of worship for a body of Dissenters is
very questionable'. A lease was, however, granted
to the builders, Burstall and Burgess of St.
Martin's Lane, (ref. 244) and the chapel was opened on
19 September 1824. In 1848 it was said to hold
1,000 persons and to have cost (with the galleries
by then erected) £4,000. Stevens died in 1847. (ref. 243)
Salem Chapel continued here until 1878. (ref. 245) The
Bloomsbury Chapel Baptist Mission (previously
in Moor Street) was located here from 1886 until
1907, when it was replaced by the garage built
behind Royalty Mansions. (ref. 246)
The interior of the chapel is shown on page
61 of Two Centuries of Soho (1898).
Architectural Description of Nos. 1–21 (odd) and
2–6 (even) Meard Street
Nos. 1, 3, 5 and 7 (Plate 116b, fig. 62) form a
terrace of four single-fronted houses of 1732,
planned in pairs with mirrored arrangements so
that the doorways of Nos. 3 and 5 are conjoined.
Each house contains a basement and four storeys,
No. 5 alone having an added garret. The plan
is that of the conventional terrace house, with a
passage-hall and a dog-legged staircase at the side
of a large front and a smaller back room with a
closet opening off the latter, the closet-wing
being only three storeys high.
The four-storeyed fronts are quite uniform, all
the houses having, in their upper storeys, three
evenly spaced windows. Wide piers occur between Nos. 1 and 3, and 5 and 7, where the
chimney-stacks are paired in the party walls.
The ground storey of each house has been faced
with stucco, mock-jointed to resemble stone,
and at first-floor sill level is a plain stucco bandcourse, perhaps covering one of red brick. The
upper storeys are faced with brown stock bricks,
red brick being used for the jambs and gauged flat
arches of the window-openings, which have stone
sills and contain moulded box-frames, slightly
recessed. The double-hung sashes are evidently
mid-Victorian, each being divided by a single
vertical glazing-bar.
The most interesting and elaborate feature of
each house (as of Nos. 9 and 11) is the wooden
doorcase (fig. 65), which, as has been said, is
virtually identical with those at Nos. 48–58
Broadwick Street, St. James's. The tall straightheaded opening, containing a door and an
oblong fanlight, is framed by a wide moulded
architrave. This is flanked by narrow pilasterstrips with panelled shafts, and upright scrollconsoles boldly carved with acanthus leaves.
These consoles support the cornice-hood, of
which only the bed-mouldings are broken back
between the heads of the consoles and the central
tablet, with its raised-and-fielded panel, which
breaks like a keyblock through the plain frieze
and the head of the architrave.
Nos. 1, 5 and 7 retain the original front-area
railings, the standard-finials taking the form of
tall-necked urns.
The south side is continued westwards by the
contemporary pair of houses, Nos. 9 and 11,
which have their fronts nearly parallel with, but
advanced some feet in front of the building line
of Nos. 1–7, giving No. 9 an east-facing
return frontage (Plate 116c). The plans, mirrored
so that the doorways adjoin, show an interior
arrangement similar to that of Nos. 1–7. The
rooms in No. 7 are distorted because the party
wall with No. 9 lies parallel with those of the
earlier terrace of houses on the west, where the
frontage changes alignment and inclines more
sharply south-west (fig. 61). Nos. 9 and 11 are
narrower than Nos. 1–7, they each contain a
basement and three storeys with a garret in the
mansard roof, and the floor heights are lower.
Both houses are three windows wide, but at
No. 9 the easterly window in each upper storey
is blind, and there is a narrow window in the
return frontage. A simple Victorian shop front
fills the ground storey of No. 9, but No. 11 is
reasonably unaltered. The wooden doorcase
(fig. 65), with acanthus scroll-consoles and a
panelled frieze-tablet, and the windows, though
smaller, are similar to those at Nos. 1–7. A
plain bandcourse extends above the flat gauged
arches of the first-floor windows, and the pink
stock brickwork of the front is carried up to
form a parapet, finished with a narrow coping of
Stone. Each house has a five-light dormer window, probably an alteration, in the mansard roof.
Figure 62:
Meard Street, south side, elevation
Figure 63:
No. 21 Meard Street, plans
Nos. 13–21, five single-fronted houses of modest size built in 1722, complete the range of early
eighteenth-century buildings on the south side.
All five houses have the same plan, with the
passage-hall and dog-legged staircase on the east,
or left, side of the front and back rooms, the latter
having an angle chimney-breast, as has the adjoining closet-wing (figs. 61, 63). The three-windows-wide fronts are generally similar to
those of Nos. 9 and 11, except for the simpler
design of the wooden doorcases (Plate 116c, 116d).
Here, the moulded architrave framing the straightheaded opening is flanked by plain-shafted Doric
pilasters, supporting an entablature that is returned
and recessed above the head of the architrave.
No. 21 has an eight-panelled front door, with
small square panels at top and bottom, which
probably represents the unaltered type of door
used in most of these houses (fig. 66). Now,
generally, there are six-panelled doors, the lower
panels raised-and-fielded, and the upper panels
glazed, below plain fanlights. The area-railings,
where original, have obelisk-like finials and the
standards have poppy-head urns. Three of the
fronts are virtually unaltered, apart from the
window sashes, but at No. 13 there is a plain
shop front, probably mid-Victorian; at No. 15
the upper part has been rebuilt, the second-floor
windows having segmental arches; and at No. 17
the plain parapet has been replaced with a brick
cornice extending between corbelled stops. The
dormer windows vary from house to house, and
it is doubtful whether any one of them is original.
The north side probably resembled the south,
with a western terrace of seven three-storeyed
houses fronting the paved passage of Meard's
Court, and an eastern group of three four-storeyed
houses fronting to Meard's Street. These latter,
Nos. 2, 4 and 6, of 1732, alone survive, with
altered and partly rebuilt fronts of little interest
(Plate 116a). The ground storey at No. 2 has
been faced with stucco and the doorcase has gone,
while at Nos. 4 and 6 there arc modern shop
fronts embracing the house entrance.
Figure 64:
No. 21 Meard Street, section
The standard of internal finish varies between
the three surviving groups of houses. No. 21 is
reasonably typical of the smaller and more cheaply
finished buildings in the south-west range (fig.
64). The passage-hall is lined with plain panelling
in two heights, set in unmoulded framing and
finished with a moulded dado-rail and a box-cornice. Doric pilasters with panelled shafts,
surmounted by moulded architraves and narrow
plain friezes, dress the opening from the hall
to the staircase compartment. The dog-legged
stair has cut strings, ornamented with foliated
scroll-brackets, as far as the half-landing above the
first floor, and moulded closed strings to the basement and top flights. The balusters are standardized turnings, resembling Doric colonnettes on urn
bases, and the newels are treated as plain-shafted
Doric columns. The end walls of the compartment are panelled, the hack-room side is formed
by the panelled partitioning, and the party-wall
side is plastered above a panelled dado.
Figure 65:
No. 11 Meard Street, doorcase
Figure 66:
No. 21 Meard Street, doorcase
In both ground-floor rooms the wall panelling is
plain and set in ovolo-moulded framing, but in
the back closet the framing is unmoulded. Each
chimney-breast has the usual arrangement of two
horizontal panels, wide above narrow, and in the
front room they are raised-and-fielded. Tall and
narrow panels flank the horizontal panels on the
wide splayed chimney-breast in the back room.
The fireplaces are finished with typical early
Georgian chimneypieces of marble or stone, consisting of jambs and a stilted lintel forming a wide
flat architrave with quadrant-curved corners to
the opening, moulded with a staff-bead on the inside and an ogee on the outside. Raised-and-fielded panels in ovolo-moulded framing, are
used in the first-floor rooms. Plain panelling in
unmoulded framing lines the second-floor rooms,
and the first-floor closet. The doors, generally,
are formed with two large panels.
At No. 7, which is probably typical of the
south-east group of houses, the hall is lined with
plain panelling in ovolo-moulded framing, the
Doric pilasters to the staircase-opening have plain
shafts, the doors generally arc six-panelled, and
both ground- and first-floor rooms have raised-and-fielded panelling.
Nos. 2, 4 and 6, at the cast end of the north
side, are finished internally in a superior style.
Raised-and-fielded panelling is used throughout
the ground and first floors, the front rooms
being finished with dentilled box-cornices of
generous girth. Centred in the back wall of the
ground-floor front room at No. 4 is a wide
recess, framed by an elliptical arch with an ovolomoulded archivolt, rising from plain-shafted
Doric piers, apparently an original feature. The
passage-halls are lined with raised-and-fielded
panelling, and the Doric pilasters to the staircase-openings have fluted shafts and enriched capitals.