CHAPTER XIII
Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road
Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross
Road were formed by the Metropolitan
Board of Works under powers granted by the
Metropolitan Street Improvements Act of 1877
(later amended), and were opened in 1886–7.
The general history of the project has been described in Survey of London, volume XXXI, chapter
v, pages 68–71.
In 1838 a Select Committee of the House of
Commons expressed concern at the volume of
traffic from Paddington and Euston stations that
might be expected to converge upon the east end
of Oxford Street, and its recommendations
included an improved line of street from St.
Giles's to Charing Cross. (ref. 1) The opening of Charing Cross station in 1864 increased the need for
such an improvement and a proposal to connect
the new station and the northern railway termini
by an underground railway to be built beneath a
new street was considered. (ref. 2) In 1877 the Metropolitan Board of Works obtained through the
Metropolitan Street Improvements Act the necessary powers for the formation of the streets now
known as Charing Cross Road and Shaftesbury
Avenue and for the execution of other improvements elsewhere in London. (ref. 3)
The line of the new street from Charing Cross
to St. Giles's had been drawn up by the Board's
superintending architect, George Vulliamy, and
its engineer, Sir Joseph Bazalgette. The plans
approved by the Act defined the limits of deviation
within which the street must be formed and
within which the Board was empowered to
purchase all the ground that it might require (fn. a)
(fig. 73). The line approved was skilfully devised
to make the maximum use of existing streets,
and a large part of Charing Cross Road was formed
by widening Castle Street and Crown Street,
thereby keeping to a minimum the amount of
ground to be purchased. Much of the ground
which the Board could not avoid purchasing was
in the area of Newport Market, the entire redevelopment of which, as part of the new street
scheme, constituted a long-overdue social improvement.
The policy of the Metropolitan Board of
Works in acquiring as little property as possible
for the formation of new streets has frequently
been criticized, and it may therefore be useful to
recall that the Board's rates were 'in practice
almost invariably paid by the tenant' of property,
and not by the owner, the permanent value of
whose estate was often greatly enhanced by the
Board's improvement schemes. In 1866 a
Select Committee of the House of Commons
recommended that 'a portion of the charge for
permanent improvements and works should be
borne by the owners of property within the
metropolis', but the Bill which the Board submitted to Parliament in the following year to
give effect to this recommendation was so strongly
opposed that it had to be withdrawn. (ref. 5) The
Board was moreover until 1884 precluded from
retaining for itself any of the long-term capital
appreciation which its own improvements might
produce, for the Metropolitan Street Improvements Act of 1877 required it to sell all its surplus
land within ten years of the completion of the
streets. (ref. 6) In the era of Gladstonian finance it is
therefore not surprising that the Board continued
to buy as little land as possible.
The delay in the formation of Charing Cross
Road and Shaftesbury Avenue was caused by
the obligation which was placed by Parliament
upon the Board to provide housing for all displaced members of the labouring classes. Section
33 of the Act of 1877 stipulated that the Board
should not take fifteen or more working-class
houses until it had satisfied the Home Secretary
that sufficient accommodation for the displaced
inhabitants had been provided elsewhere. The
Act also specified that certain land to be acquired
by the Board for the new streets should be used to
provide labouring-class accommodation and that
after acquiring this ground the Board should sell
or lease it for this purpose, the Board itself having
no power to spend money on the erection of
buildings.
Much of the proposed line of the two new
streets crossed squalid poverty-stricken areas and
within the limits of deviation laid down in the Act
lived 5,497 of the labouring classes, all of whom
would have to be rehoused if the Board acquired
all the ground which Parliament had authorized.
But in the Newport Market area, which the
Board considered to be the only suitable site
available for working-class accommodation, there
was only space to rehouse about 1,470 persons,
and the others could only be accommodated in the
immediate vicinity by building blocks of artisans'
dwellings along the frontages of the new streets,
a course which the Board pointed out 'would not
only entail a heavy pecuniary loss, but would be
excessively detrimental to the character of the
street'. (ref. 7)
After prolonged negotiation with the Government the Act of 1877 was amended in 1883.
The Board surrendered its right to acquire part of
the land defined by the Act of 1877, thereby reducing the number of persons to be displaced to
four thousand. (fn. b) In return the Board was authorized to take immediate possession of and demolish
130 properties in the Newport Market area, and
to provide for the erection on their site of artisans'
dwellings for at least two thousand of the labouring classes, i.e., half the total number to be
displaced by the whole improvement. After this
accommodation had been provided the Board could
proceed with the construction of the two streets,
relieved of all further obligation under section
33 of the Act of 1877. (ref. 9)
Figure 73:
Charing Cross Road and part of
Shaftesbury Avenue, plan. Broken lines
denote the limits of the land which the
Act of 1877 authorized the Metropolitan
Board of Works to acquire. In 1883 these
limits were reduced. Continuous lines
denote the boundaries of the lands which
were acquired by the Board but which
did not form part of the new street. The
stippling denotes the area set aside for the
rehousing of the displaced working
classes
By insisting that two thousand persons should
be rehoused in the Newport Market area the
Government compelled the Board to arrange for
the erection of multi-storey blocks of artisans'
dwellings along both sides of Charing Cross
Road south of Cambridge Circus. These two
blocks, known as Sandringham Buildings (Plate
138c), were erected in 1884 by the Improved
Industrial Dwellings Company, to whom the
Board granted building leases. (ref. 10) The rest of the
Newport Market area set aside for artisans'
dwellings was leased to Mr. G. Foskett, who had
previously taken similar leases in Clerkenwell,
and in 1884, when the dwellings which he had
covenanted to build were nearing completion
(Plate 138a), he bought the freehold of the site. (ref. 11)
In December 1884 the Home Secretary certified that the Board had provided artisans' dwellings
for upwards of two thousand persons of the labouring classes, and that it was therefore relieved of
its obligations under section 33 of the Act of
1877. (ref. 12) The Board was now able to proceed
with demolition work for the formation of both
streets, the contractors for which were Turner
and Son, J. J. Griffiths, T. Turner and J.
Mowlem and Company. The gross cost of the
street from Charing Cross to St. Giles's was
£778,238, and after deduction of the value of
the land acquired, the net cost was £597,499.
Taking both streets together accommodation in
new buildings for 3,044 persons of the labouring
classes was provided. Shaftesbury Avenue was
completed in January 1886; Charing Cross Road
was opened to the public by the Duke of Cambridge
in February 1887, the intersection of the two
streets at Cambridge Circus being named after
him. (ref. 13)
The land which had been acquired by the
Board but which was not required for the streets
was divided up into plots of suitable size and shape
and usually the land was then let on building lease
by public tender. (ref. 14) The Act of 1877 had required the Board to sell all the freehold interest or
reserved ground rents arising from surplus lands
within ten years of the completion of the improvement, (ref. 6) but the Metropolitan Board of Works
(Money) Act of 1884 had extended the prescribed
period for the disposal of surplus lands to the
year 1929, or, in the case of land bought under
any Improvement Act passed in or after 1881,
to the year 1941. (ref. 15) The London County Council, which superseded the Board in 1889, had
power to hold land in mortmain and was therefore under no obligation to sell surplus ground. (ref. 16)
In Charing Cross Road the Board leased most
of the ground for eighty years from Midsummer
1887. On the south side of Shaftesbury Avenue
between Wardour Street and Newport Place
about half the ground was leased and half sold
freehold. In Cambridge Circus the freehold of all
the ground in the southern segment between
Romilly Street and West Street was sold, but the
north-eastern segment between West Street and
New Compton Street was leased. The Board's
policy in deciding whether to sell or lease has not
been discovered.
The general standard of design of the new
buildings in Charing Cross Road and Shaftesbury Avenue was exceedingly low, (fn. c) and it is
therefore worth noting that after the resignation
of its aged superintending architect, George
Vulliamy, in May 1886, the Board frequently
rejected designs submitted for its approval. In
February 1888 A. R. Jackson, who had leased or
bought several plots from the Board and commissioned Martin and Purchase as his architects,
complained to the Board about delay in approving
his plans. (ref. 17) Thomas Blashill, Vulliamy's successor as the Board's superintending architect,
replied that 'the real cause of the delay arose
through the utter inadequacy of the designs submitted by Messrs. Martin and Purchase'. (ref. 18)
To this Martin and Purchase retorted (in
reference to a building which has now been
demolished) that they had 'sent in elevation after
elevation but without success … in our poor
opinion … the Board have now approved of the
worst design of the four we sent in'. (ref. 19) The
Board's good intentions were evidently frustrated
by its own incompetence, but some of the
responsibility for the architectural squalor of the
two new streets rests with the Government for
the conditions with which it required the Board
to comply, and with the lessees and purchasers
of the surplus ground for employing fourth-rate
architects.
In some amelioration of the ugliness of the
two streets, both were planted with trees in part
of their length. The 1894–6 Ordnance Survey
map shows trees at the southern end of Charing
Cross Road, south of Bear Street: northward of
Cambridge Circus trees are shown on both sides
of Shaftesbury Avenue and on the east side of
Charing Cross Road. With some modifications
this distribution of trees remains to-day.
Shaftesbury Avenue
The original buildings lining Shaftesbury Avenue
vary in height from four to six storeys, and in
frontage width, but almost all have poorly composed fronts dressed with confused details, the
materials generally being red brick with stone
or terra-cotta. The style usually adopted was a
hybrid Renaissance of Flemish derivation, with a
frequent use of curvilinear or pedimented gabledormers rising against the slated mansard roofs,
and domed or cone-capped corner turrets to emphasize the street corners. Noteworthy exceptions
to this generalized description are the Palace
Theatre by T. E. Collcutt, and No. 136 (the
Welsh Chapel house) by James Cubitt.
Nos. 75 and 77 Shaftesbury Avenue
This building was erected in 1905 to the designs
of E. Keynes Purchase. (ref. 20)
Nos. 93–107 (odd) Shaftesbury Avenue: Wingate House and The Columbia Theatre
This block of offices, with a cinema at the
south-west corner, was erected in 1958 to the
designs of Sir John Burnet, Tait and Partners
(Plate 139c). The simple geometry and spare
elegance of Wingate House provide a refreshing
contrast to the fussy mediocrity of most of the
buildings in Shaftesbury Avenue. The ground
storey consists of shops extending between the
entrance to the Columbia Theatre on the west,
and the entrance to the offices on the east. Above
is a tall face of six equal storeys where, apart from
the first floor, the metal windows of uniform
pattern are set in thin stone frames, above
similarly framed apron panels of dark brick, in
three-windows-wide groups separated by narrow
rib-like piers. A flat cornice, inset with lenslights, projects boldly below the recessed attic
stage of two storeys.
The Palace Theatre
On 15 December 1888 Helen D'Oyly Carte
laid the foundation stone of the Royal English
Opera House, now the Palace Theatre. (ref. 21)
Richard D'Oyly Carte had previously entered
into negotiations with the Metropolitan Board of
Works for the site, which had been acquired by
the Board for the formation of Shaftesbury
Avenue, and he later bought the freehold from
the London County Council for £32,240. (ref. 22)
T. E. Collcutt designed the façades and internal
decorations, but the constructional work was based
on plans by G. H. Holloway, who superintended
the erection of the theatre. There was no general
contractor. (ref. 23)
The island site of the Palace Theatre is an
irregular quadrangle fronting some 68 feet east to
Cambridge Circus, 160 feet south to Shaftesbury
Avenue, 97 feet west to Greek Street, and 148
feet north to Romilly Street (fig. 74). The concave entrance front, forming a segment of Cambridge Circus, is at the narrow end of the site, and
the stage, which averages 66 feet in width and
46 feet in depth, backs on to Greek Street. The
auditorium, with stalls just below the street level
and three tiers above, is insulated from traffic
noises by the shallow range of dressing-rooms,
offices, cloak-rooms and exits extending the
entire length of the Shaftesbury Avenue frontage,
and by the foyers and staircases fronting to Cambridge Circus. Owing to the irregular shape of
the site, the side walls of the auditorium shell are
not parallel, but converge slightly towards the back.
The first two tiers have horseshoe fronts with
two boxes at each end, but the third tier was
altered in 1908 from a segmental front to one
of serpentine form, with small serpentine extensions above the boxes. All three tiers are of
cantilevered construction, partly supported by
columns at the sides and backs of the seating areas;
the front of each tier recedes from the one below,
and the steppings rise slightly from the centre to
the sides of the auditorium in order to obtain the
best possible sighting. As originally planned, the
auditorium seated 1,976 and the orchestra pit
accommodated 63 musicians. (ref. 24) In 1959 the
amphitheatre was again remodelled and with other
re-seating arrangements the present capacity of
the theatre is 1,462.
Figure 74:
Palace Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, plan in 1959. Redrawn from a plan in the possession
of the Greater London Council
Figure 75:
Palace Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, design for the east front: altered in execution. From a drawing of 1888 by T. E. Collcutt in the possession of the Greater London Council
The exterior is of red Ellistown bricks dressed
with Doulton's terra-cotta of a deep salmonpink colour (Plate 37, fig. 75). The long and
slightly convex front to Shaftesbury Avenue contains a diversity of elements and a variety of window groupings, not wholly mastered by the bay
spacing effected by the introduction of six octagonal turrets, but the concave front to
Cambridge Circus is an admirable example of
Collcutt's northern Renaissance style, exhibiting
a happy contrast of plain surfaces with richly
detailed features. The ground storey, built of terracotta up to the impost and of brick above, is plain
except for the arabesque-ornamented spandrels of
the triple-arched entrance, with a wide opening
between narrow ones. The upper face, embracing
two lofty storeys below the entablature and an
attic above, is flanked by two octagonal turrets
and is divided into three bays, wide between narrow, by splay-sided buttresses, smaller versions of
the angle turrets. The brick shafts of the turrets,
striated by moulded strings and plain bands of
terra-cotta, rise above the attic into tall belvederes
with steep-pedimented windows and helmet
domes, the buttresses being treated and finished
in a similar but simpler manner. In the wide
middle bay there are four windows to each
storey, those of the first floor deeply set in
round arches with paired lights above. Each
second-floor window is divided by a mullion and
transom into four lights, the upper pair with arched
heads. In the side bays each storey has two
mullioned-and-transomed windows, generally
similar to those in the middle bay. Above the deep
entablature, the frieze of which is enriched with
arabesques above the windows only, is the attic
storey of arcaded windows, three in each side bay
and five in the middle. A pantiled roof slopes back
from the attic to meet the gabled end wall of the
auditorium, its panelled and banded face containing
a large circular window in the centre, and its narrow
cornice-coping, broken by finials, sloping up to a
central turret originally surmounted by a statue.
Apart from the auditorium, the most important
feature of the interior is the grand staircase, on the
south side of the foyers (Plate 38). It rises from
floor to floor with flights round three sides of an
open arcaded well, the arches resting on Tuscan
columns placed on the pedestals of the balustrade.
Here, as in the foyers and around the proscenium,
Collcutt used marbles to achieve a sumptuous
polychromatic effect, with green cipollino for the
columns, and black 'grand antique' for the capping
and plinth of the alabaster balustrade, against
walls of alabaster and ceilings modelled with
arabesques painted in green and gold. The richness of the auditorium decoration culminates in
the proscenium, with the framing arch and adjoining splays faced with 'grand antique', cipollino and pavonazzo marbles, inset with panels of
Mexican onyx. Over the proscenium is an
elliptical tympanum with gilded allegorical figures, framed by an outer arch and a ceiling band of
the same arched form, decorated with two rings
of circular medallions filled with gilded arabesques.
The paired boxes flanking the first and second
tiers are framed with arches rising from short
columns above the bowed fronts which are
decorated, like the tier fronts, with arabesques
and, at regular intervals, boldly modelled putti
holding lights. The ceiling above the auditorium well slopes up from the stage and features
a large octagonal frame containing eight wedgeshaped panels, each decorated with coffers of
arabesque ornament geometrically arranged round
a pseudo niche containing an allegorical figure.
The original colour scheme, additional to the
marblework, was in tones of green and gold, with
some touches of dark blue and red in the ceiling
panels, and yellow draperies. Unfortunately, all
this has been changed and much of Collcutt's
delicate ornament flatted out by monochromatic
painting, while his marblework is largely hidden
by paint and wallpaper.
The Royal English Opera House, which is
estimated to have cost about £150,000, (ref. 25) opened
on 31 January 1891 with the first performance of
Sir Arthur Sullivan's Ivanhoe. This was withdrawn in the autumn of 1891, and since D'Oyly
Carte had no English opera to replace it, he was
obliged to fall back on a French opera by André
Messager, La Basoche. On 28 November 1891
D'Oyly Carte said that he had not pledged himself
to mount opera solely by English composers,
and that his future policy must depend on public
support. The measure of this may be judged by
the fact that D'Oyly Carte was forced to present a
series of plays starring Sarah Bernhardt, and
opening on 30 May 1892 with Sardou's Cleopatra.
Discouraged by his failure with opera, D'Oyly
Carte opened negotiations with Sir Augustus
Harris, and in December 1892 the Royal English
Opera House became the Palace Theatre of
Varieties. However, it did not flourish and in
1893 that veteran of the music halls, Charles
Morton, was called in as manager.
The Sketch of 10 February 1897 reported the
Palace as being one of the best-paying concerns
in London. This success was due to the skilled
management of Charles Morton, and his innovation of the highly successful tableaux-vivants,
which were a feature of programmes at the
Palace. Morton also achieved his success by the
extraordinary variety of his programmes and by
engaging first-rate variety artists. In 1897 the
Biograph, invented by an American, Herman
Casler, made a successful appearance at the Palace,
where it stayed as a regular part of the programme
until it was replaced by Charles Urban's Bioscope
in February 1904.
In this year Alfred Butt became manager of the
Palace and in 1910 he engaged Anna Pavlova, the
Russian prima ballerina, to make her first
London appearance there. In 1911 he changed
the name to the Palace Theatre, and presented
Bernard Shaw's How He Lied to Her Husband
(1911–12) and H. Beerbohm Tree in Rudyard
Kipling's The Man Who Was (1912). From
1914 to 1919 there were several successful revues
at the Palace including A. Wimperis' The Passing
Show (1914) and The Passing Show of 1915. (ref. 21)
After the war the management passed to C. B.
Cochran and the theatre did not have another
success until Irving Berlin's The Music Box
Revue (1923). The immensely successful musical
comedy No, No, Nanette ran at the Palace from
March 1925 to October 1926, followed by other
successful musical comedies. (ref. 26) During the Second
World War Jack Hulbert and Cicely Courtneidge
frequently appeared at the Palace. Post-war
successes include Emile Littler's Song of Norway
(1946) and Ivor Novello's King's Rhapsody
(1949). (ref. 21) Since 1951 Emile Littler has been in
sole charge of the theatre, (ref. 26) and in recent years
Peter Daubeny has presented a series of visits by
famous foreign companies. (ref. 21)
No. 64 Shaftesbury Avenue: the George and Dragon Public House
This public house stands on the site of the
George in Princes (now Wardour) Street, which
existed here from at least 1731. (ref. 27) (fn. d) In the 1830's
the loyal name of George was changed to the
George and Dragon.
This part of Shaftesbury Avenue was formed
by setting back the south side of King Street,
and the site of the George and Dragon thus
became the corner of Wardour Street and
Shaftesbury Avenue. The present building was
erected in 1886 to the designs of the Metropolitan Board of Works' own architect, George
Vulliamy. (ref. 28) Dansey Place or Yard, on the south
side of the inn, was until 1884 called George
Yard.
Nos. 66–86 (even) Shaftesbury Avenue
This block of shops and offices was erected to
the designs of Martin and Purchase in 1888–9;
the contractor was C. Wright. (ref. 29)
Nos. 90–98 (even) Shaftesbury Avenue
This block of shops with 'residential chambers'
above was also erected in 1888–9 to the designs
of Martin and Purchase, and the contractor was
C. Wright. (ref. 30)
Nos. 100–124 (even) Shaftesbury Avenue
The whole of this block was erected in 1888–9.
Nos. 100–112 (Exeter Mansions) were probably
designed by James Hartnell, architect, to whom
the Metropolitan Board of Works leased the site.
Nos. 114–118 (Egmont House) and 120–124
(Nassau House) were designed by Davis and
Emanuel. (ref. 31)
The Shaftesbury Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue
Demolished
This theatre formerly occupied the whole of
the block bounded by Shaftesbury Avenue,
Newport Place, Gerrard Street and Gerrard
Place. The northern part of the site was acquired
in 1875–6 by the London School Board and the
erection of a school there had actually begun when
it was found that the Metropolitan Board of
Works would require part of the land for the new
street (later Shaftesbury Avenue) which was then
being planned. (ref. 32) After the Metropolitan Street
Improvements Act of 1877 had been passed the
contract for the building of the school was cancelled, and in 1879 the Metropolitan Board of
Works bought the site from the School Board. (ref. 33)
The southern part of the block was subsequently
purchased from the individual owners by the
Board of Works. (ref. 34) In 1885–6 a narrow strip of
land at the north end was incorporated into
Shaftesbury Avenue, and the whole of the rest of
the site was leased to John Lancaster for eighty
years from Midsummer 1887. (ref. 35)
Figure 76:
Shaftesbury Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, plan.
Redrawn from a plan of 1887 in the possession of the
Greater London Council
Lancaster was 'a shrewd Manchester merchant'
who built the Shaftesbury Theatre 'for the gratification of his wife, Ellen Wallis, a well-known
Shakespearean actress'. The theatre was designed
by C. J. Phipps and built by Messrs. Patman and
Fotheringham at a cost of £20,000. It was opened
on 20 October 1888 with a performance of
As You Like It. (ref. 36)
The quadrangular island site of the theatre
fronted 75 feet north to Shaftesbury Avenue,
131 feet east to Newport Place, 66 feet south to
Gerrard Street, and 130 feet west to Gerrard
Place (fig. 76). Although the plan exhibited
C. J. Phipps's usual skill in arrangement, with an
ingenious dovetailing of entrance and exit staircases, the building was not nearly so advanced in its
design and construction as the contemporary
Palace Theatre. For instance, the raking girders
of the tiers were cantilevered only a short distance
in front of the supporting semicircle of cast-iron
columns, which obtruded into the seating areas.
From Shaftesbury Avenue a central range of
five double doors opened directly into the shallow
oblong vestibule, where two pay-boxes flanked
the short central staircase rising to the corridor
encircling the first tier. On the far side of each
pay-box was a staircase descending to the front
stalls, but the staircases serving the pit, upper
circle and gallery were entered from the side
streets. The auditorium contained a pit of sixteen
rows behind five rows of stalls, a dress circle with
six rows and an upper circle with five, both tiers
having three boxes on either side, while the third
tier contained an amphitheatre of four rows and a
gallery of seven. The fronts of the first two tiers
followed a horseshoe curve, and the third tier
conformed to three-quarters of a circle. The
stage, at the south end of the site, was 64 feet
wide and 45 feet deep, with a storey of dressingrooms ingeniously constructed below the fly
galleries and scene-painting gallery, supplemented
by dressing-rooms in the basement.
The front of red brick with stone dressings was
designed in a Caroline Renaissance manner, with
some Jacobean features (fig. 77). The composition was attractive and appropriate to a theatre,
being much less domestic in character than
Phipps's Lyric Theatre near-by. The ground
storey, dominated by an iron and glass canopy, was
boldly rusticated to provide an appropriate base
for an upper stage of two storeys, where a
Corinthian order formed a colonnade of five
bays, screening a shallow loggia, between end
pavilions of one bay, dressed with pilasters.
The first-floor windows were round arched and
those of the second floor had straight heads, all
being furnished with mullioned-and-transomed
casements. Over each end pavilion rose a
pedimented gable feature, flanked by scrollbuttresses, and the recessed attic storey was surmounted by a similar gable extending above the
middle three bays.
Figure 77:
Shaftesbury Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, elevation. Redrawn from a drawing of 1887
in the possession of the Greater London Council
The interior decorations were simple and in
much the same style as the front, with the architectural scheme dominated by the round-angled
proscenium frame, surmounted by a pedimented
tablet flanked by large foliated scrolls. The upper
part of the auditorium walls were concave-curved
in plan and divided into bays by pilasters supporting
a groined cove rising to the flat circular ceiling.
The theatre's first great success was The Belle
of New York, which opened here on 12 April
1898 and ran for 697 performances. In 1908–9
H. B. Irving became the lessee and manager and
presented a successful season of plays. He was
succeeded by Robert Courtneidge, one of whose
most successful productions here was The
Arcadians, which was first performed on 28 April
1909 and ran for two and a half years. His successors as lessees and managers from 1917 to
1921 were George Grossmith and Edward
Laurillard. (ref. 37)
In 1941 the theatre was so severely damaged
by aerial bombardment that the lease was vacated,
and in 1956 the site was appropriated by the
ground landlords (the London County Council)
for use as a fire station. It is at present used as a
car park and for advertising purposes. (ref. 38)
Nos. 128–132 (even) Shaftesbury Avenue: Fire Station
In October 1886 this site was leased by the
Metropolitan Board of Works to the London
Salvage Corps, (ref. 39) a private fire-fighting organization founded by various London insurance
companies. A fire station was built here in 1887,
the architect being either William Wimble (ref. 40) or
Messrs. Brown and Mannering. (ref. 41) In 1888 the
Board sold the freehold of the site to the London
Salvage Corps for £11,700 (ref. 42) . In 1920 the London
County Council acquired the fire station for use as
a new central London station for the London
Fire Brigade. (ref. 43)
The station was damaged by aerial bombardment during the war of 1939–45, and though
still in use, has never been fully rebuilt. Only a
fragment of the original building survives.
No. 134 Shaftesbury Avenue: the Avenue Bar Public House
This public house, originally known as the
Cock, was erected in 1887 to the designs of
Messrs. Wylson and Long. (ref. 44) In c. 1938 it was
renamed the Avenue Bar.
No. 136 Shaftesbury Avenue
This building, designed by James Cubitt,
was the chapel house of the Welsh Chapel in
Charing Cross Road (see page 308). Its front is
a well composed design of Hanseatic character,
built in dark red brick and terra-cotta. There
are two wide and equal bays, divided and flanked
by narrow buttresses. Each bay contains four
tiers of windows—a wide one of mullioned-andtransomed lights framed in an elliptical arch
serves the ground storey, the first floor has a pair
of round-headed lights; the second-floor window
is similar to that of the ground storey, and the
third floor has a trio of round-headed lights.
A great gable, divided by narrow buttresses
into six equal bays, forms an effective finish to
this front.
No. 138 Shaftesbury Avenue
This block of shops and chambers above, at the
south corner of Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing
Cross Road, is known as Albany Mansion. It was
erected in 1889 to the designs of Martin and
Purchase, and H. Bailey was the contractor. (ref. 45)
The letters CB over the door stand for the
City Bank, the first occupant of the building.
No. 140 Shaftesbury Avenue
This block of shops and offices on the southeast side of Cambridge Circus, and known as
Gloucester Mansions, was erected in 1889,
probably to the designs of Martin and Purchase.
No. 142 Shaftesbury Avenue: the Marquis of Granby Public House
This public house was erected in 1886 to the
designs of Wylson and Long. (ref. 46)
Charing Cross Road
Some of the buildings in this street which are
within the parish of St. Anne are described
individually below. Those on the east side of the
street to the north of Cambridge Circus are in the
parish of St. Giles in the Fields and are summarized here.
The east side of the northern part of Charing
Cross Road is lined with buildings of various
styles, heights and materials, although red brick
predominates and a general level of mediocrity
prevails. Trentishoe Mansions, erected in 1891
to the designs of James Hartnell, (ref. 42) is a six-storeyed
block in red brick and terra-cotta, flaunting a skyline of pedimented gables and having a Chambord
pavilion at the corner of New Compton Street.
No. 100, also of red brick and terra-cotta, is a
Gothic building of warehouse character, dated
1888. Phoenix House, of the inter-war period, is
grimly utilitarian, its rustic fletton bricks and
general air of cheapness unworthy of a central
street. The narrow and curving entrance
pavilion of the Phoenix Theatre (opened in
1930), with a Corinthian colonnade in its upper
face, was designed by Sir Giles Scott in the prim
Renaissance style he sometimes favoured.
Nos. 114–116 is a four-storeyed building of
red brick and stone, its round-headed windows
giving a Florentine flavour; it was designed in
1888 by Roumieu and Aitchison for Crosse and
Blackwell. (ref. 47) Nos. 118–120 is a good and unaffected modern building of seven storeys, the upper
six having metal windows and plain brick aprons
set between narrow stone mullions. Between
Denmark Street and Denmark Place is a block
dominated by the German Renaissance front of
Sheldon Mansions. Built of dark red brick
dressed with stone, this is a striking composition
of three bays, narrow between wide, its five
storeys surmounted by a great stepped gable
containing three tiers of windows.
Nos. 142–146 (designed by H. H. Collins in
1888) (ref. 48) has a reticent front of grey brick dressed
with stone or cement, the single and paired windows set in a grid formed of slender pilaster-strips
and stringcourses. No. 148 (by Bateman and
Bateman, 1888) (ref. 49) has a stone front of early
French Renaissance character, with its first- and
second-floor windows recessed in a great arch,
and its attic storey surmounted by a tall pyramidal roof, a design more appropriate to a Victorian theatre than a shop.
The east side terminates north at the new St.
Giles's Circus, dominated by an exciting tower
block constructed of prefabricated T-shaped
units of stone-faced concrete, and designed by
Reuben Seifert and Partners.
Sandringham Buildings, Charing Cross Road
The deep decline in the standards of London's
street architecture during the late nineteenth
century is nowhere more evident than in Charing
Cross Road. The southern half of the street is
dominated by the ugly repetitions of Sandringham
Buildings (Plate 138c), multi-storey artisans'
dwellings with shops at ground-floor level, which
extend along both sides of Charing Cross Road
between Litchfield and Great Newport Streets.
The Metropolitan Board of Works was compelled to arrange for the erection of artisans'
dwellings here because the Home Secretary, Sir
Richard Cross, insisted that the Board's Bill of
1883 to amend the Metropolitan Street Improvements Act of 1877 should provide for the rehousing of 2,000 of the labouring classes on the
site of Newport Market. (ref. 50) In June 1882 a
Select Committee of the House of Commons had
agreed to the Board's proposal that only 1,470
persons should be rehoused here and another
600 in Old Pye Street, Westminster, (ref. 51) and the
Board had immediately taken steps to rehouse
1,100 of the displaced persons in Newport
Dwellings (ref. 52) (see page 377). The remaining 370
could have been rehoused to the east of Charing
Cross Road, but in March 1883 the Home
Secretary, in accordance with 'the settled view of
Parliament on the subject', raised the total number
to be rehoused in the Newport Market area from
1,470 to 2,000, (ref. 53) and the Board therefore had no
option but to provide large blocks of dwellings
along the frontage of the new street.
Sandringham Buildings were erected in 1883–4
by the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company
Limited, to whom the Board leased the site.
The architect was George Borer, probably of the
firm of Borer and Dobb, architects and surveyors,
of London Wall, and the estimated cost was
between £65,000 and £70,000. (ref. 54) Nine hundred
persons were to be housed here, and most of the
tenements consisted of three rooms. Sandringham
Buildings were formally opened by the Prince
and Princess of Wales in July 1884. (ref. 55) They are
designed in the sour Gothic style characteristic
of artisans' dwellings, mixed with debased Renaissance motifs. Above the shops is a fourstoreyed face of yellow stock bricks, regularly
patterned with single, paired, and three-light
windows having flat Gothic arches of brick, now
painted. The end blocks have another storey of
the same character, but the intervening blocks are
all finished with a steep mansard slope of red fishscale tiles, broken by Gothic gabled features
flanked by pedimented dormers, the roof line
being crested with a spiky ironwork railing.
No. 82 Charing Cross Road
This building was erected in 1888 as a police
station, to the designs of the Metropolitan Police
surveyor, John Dixon Butler (Plate 138b).
In 1911 it was converted to use as a section house;
since shortly after 1945 it has been occupied by a
Government department. (ref. 56)
Raised on a battered plinth of rusticated granite
courses, and built of dark red bricks sparingly
dressed with stone, this building has a severity of
expression appropriate to its original purpose.
There are five storeys above the semi-basement,
and the front is divided into eight bays by narrow
piers. Generally the windows are of two lights,
those of the lofty first storey being recessed in
elliptically arched openings. In the next two
storeys the windows have segmental arches, and
those above are straight headed. The vertical
emphasis of the design is checked by the impost and
cornice of the first storey, the narrow string
mouldings defining the aprons of the succeeding
storeys, and by the cornice below the attic.<Demolished 1984.>
Welsh Chapel, Charing Cross Road
In November 1886 the trustees of the Welsh
Calvinistic Methodist Connexion, whose chapel
in Nassau Street (now Gerrard Place) had been
acquired in 1884 by the Metropolitan Board of
Works for the formation of Shaftesbury Avenue
(see page 411), made an agreement with the
Board for a building lease of this site on the west
side of Charing Cross Road. (ref. 42) The trustees employed James Cubitt to design a new chapel, (ref. 57)
to which they moved in 1887. In 1889 they
bought the freehold of the site from the London
County Council. (ref. 42)
The cruciform plan of the chapel (fig. 78) is
composed of a large square central space, with
arches opening east and west to short transepts,
and south to a nave of twice their length, all containing galleries resting on arcades. A shallow
northern arm contains the Lord's Table, placed
in front of the raised pulpit and flanked by choir
stalls. Behind is a gallery of three bays, with the
organ case projecting above.
Figure 78:
Welsh Chapel, Charing Cross Road, and minister's house, Shaftesbury Avenue, plan. Redrawn from an engraving in The Building News, 13 January 1888
The exterior (Plate 25b) is designed in the late
Norman style and generally built of Yorkshire
parpoints dressed with Ancaster stone. The
Charing Cross Road front is a lively composition
dominated by the east face of the transept, with a
two-storeyed porch on the north side, and a
deeply recessed doorway on the south. The
transept front, flanked by wide buttresses, the
south crowned by a small turret, is divided into
two equal bays of four stages. In each bay of the
second stage is a triple window with a tall middle
light, and there are larger windows of similar
form in the third stage, set in wide roundarched recessions. The twin gables of the fourth
stage are decorated with two tiers of arcading.
Behind the transept rises the octagonal stage above
the dome of the central space, with two unglazed
openings in each face except the north-east, where
an octagonal turret abuts. Behind battlements
rises a roof of pyramidal form, finished with a
square louvre set diagonally.
Inside the chapel, the piers and wide pointed
arches of the central space are of Ancaster stone,
the walls generally, the pointed barrel vaults of
the four arms, and the dome spandrels being of
Fareham red bricks. The scalloped or umbrella
dome appears to be of white plaster, and the
furniture generally is of pine.
No. 93 Charing Cross Road: the Cambridge Public House
A public house called the King's Arms in
Moor Street stood on approximately this site
from at least 1744 until its demolition for the
formation of Charing Cross Road. (ref. 58) The present
building was erected in 1887 to the designs of
Wylson and Long, (ref. 59) and was renamed the
Cambridge in 1891. (ref. 60) The four-storeyed front of
Flemish Renaissance character is built of red
brick, banded and dressed with stone. The two
equal bays have a three-light window in each upper
storey and finish with a gable, ogee-sided and pedimented.
Nos. 1 Old Compton Street and 99A Charing Cross Road
See page 196.
No. 2 Old Compton Street: the Coach and Horses Public House
See page 199.
No. 101 Charing Cross Road
Formerly No. 68 Crown Street
This is the least altered in character of the
surviving Crown Street houses. It is a very modest
building, having above the ground storey a plain
brick face of two storeys, each with two flushframed windows set in openings having crudely
formed cambered arches. It was probably built
or rebuilt about 1734, together with Nos. 2–6
(even) Old Compton Street (see page 199).
No. 103 Charing Cross Road
Formerly Nos. 66 and 64 Crown Street
This originally comprised two houses, respectively two and three windows wide, their simple
fronts elaborated with a dress of Victorian stucco.
Giant Doric pilasters mark the party walls, and
the first-floor windows are finished with steep
pediments.
A public house called the Bull's Head stood on
this site from at least 1759 until 1893. (ref. 61) At the
time of the opening of Charing Cross Road in
1887 the building was enlarged and repaired to the
designs of R. W. Read (ref. 62) and its name was changed,
firstly in 1894 to the Tam o'Shanter, and again in
1900 to the Palace Tavern. It ceased to be used
as a public house in 1960, and is now occupied by
a firm of caterers. (ref. 60)
No. 105 Charing Cross Road: Jacey Cinema
The Cambridge Circus Cinematograph
Theatre was opened here in 1911. The cinema
was subsequently known as the Tatler for many
years. (ref. 60)
Nos. 107 and 109 Charing Cross Road: St. Martin's School of Art
See page 286.
No. 111 Charing Cross Road
This site was for many years occupied by the
Plough inn, which had a large yard surrounded
by a gallery with bedrooms above and stables
below. By the 1870's the buildings were ruinous,
and in 1875–6 Crosse and Blackwell erected new
stables here to the designs of R. L. Roumieu in a
severe but powerful Italian Romanesque manner.
The entrance was through an archway from
Crown Street, and the central covered yard was
surrounded on the ground floor by accommodation
for eighteen vans and four horses. A ramp led
to the first floor, where there were stalls for
thirty-five horses, a loose-box and living quarters
for the stablemen. The Builder commented that
'The great value which is now attached to land
makes it necessary to economise space in every
way, particularly surface, and the London stables
are following the example set by the London
houses of shooting up vertically, instead of spreading horizontally'. The height from floor to roof
ridge was, however, only forty feet. (ref. 63)
In the early 1920's Crosse and Blackwell removed from all their premises in Charing Cross
Road, and in 1927–9 the existing block of shops,
showrooms and offices was erected to the designs
of F. Taperell and H. Haase. (ref. 64)
No. 119 Charing Cross Road
Formerly No. 52 Crown Street
This original Crown Street house, with a twowindows wide front to Charing Cross Road and a
four-windows wide return to Manette Street,
has been heightened by a storey and faced over
with stucco. The windows are dressed with
crudely detailed architraves, and an entablature
has been introduced below the tall attic storey.
The building was for many years a public house,
the Rose and Crown. (ref. 65) Foyle's, the booksellers,
are the present occupants.
Nos. 121–125 (odd) Charing Cross Road
Formerly Nos. 50–46 (even) Crown Street
Nos. 121 and 123 were erected in 1903 to the
designs of Alfred Burr, (ref. 66) and have been occupied
by Foyle's, the booksellers, since 1913. (ref. 60) This
four-storeyed building has a front of one wide
bay to Charing Cross Road, a narrow splayed
corner, and a return front of two wide bays to
Manette Street. Simple in design and crudely
detailed, it is built of red brick dressed with stone.
The upper storeys are lit by large mullioned-andtransomed windows, the small windows in the
splayed angle are finished with pediments, and a
gable surmounts the Charing Cross Road front.
No. 125, another Crown Street survival, has a
stuccoed front of four storeys, each three windows
wide. The top storey probably replaced a mansard garret.
Nos. 127–131 (odd) Charing Cross Road
Formerly Nos. 44–40 (even) Crown Street
This building (Plate 136b) was erected in
1897 for A. Goslett and Company Limited,
builders' merchants, to the designs of (Sir)
Banister Fletcher. (ref. 67) The building was severely
damaged by fire in September 1903, but its outward appearance was not altered during the ensuing restoration. (ref. 68) Messrs. Goslett are still the
occupants.
Fletcher's design for Goslett's building pays
tribute to the pervading influence of Norman
Shaw. Built of red brick dressed with stone, it is a
composition of three bays in two stages, each
embracing two storeys, surmounted by a recessed
attic crowned with three pediment-gables. The
ground- and first-floor windows are set in three
large arch-headed openings, their brick piers
banded with narrow stone rustics, and their arches
formed of a brick intrados and moulded stone
extrados, broken by stone voussoirs and a triple
key. The console-moulded middle keyblock of
each arch breaks into a modillioned and dentilled
cornice underlining the upper stage. This is a
plain brick face with three tall straight-headed
openings, the wide middle one containing a secondand third-floor window, each divided by mullions
and transom into two tiers of eight lights. The
side openings frame similar windows, each having
two tiers of five lights. Ornament in this stage
is restricted to the panelled aprons of the windows,
the upper ones lettered and dated, and to the handsome lead rainwater-heads and pipes on the four
piers. Above the crowning cornice is a brick and
stone parapet, its moulded coping curving down
above each bay, between tall rusticated dies
surmounted by obelisks. The three mullionedand-transomed windows of the recessed attic are
surmounted by steep pediments, having stucco
tympanum decorations composed of cartouches
and scroll-work.
No. 133 Charing Cross Road: The Royal George Public House
Formerly No. 36 Crown Street
The public house called the George which
existed in Hog Lane (later Crown Street)
from at least 1731 (ref. 69) probably stood on the site
now occupied by the Royal George, at the south
corner of Charing Cross Road and Goslett
(formerly George) Yard. The present building,
which was altered by W. Ansell in 1887 at the
time of the formation of Charing Cross Road, (ref. 70)
has four storeys and a cement-faced exterior.
Above the ground storey is a giant order of
Corinthian pilasters, spaced out to divide the
Charing Cross Road front into three bays,
narrow between wide, and the return front into
four narrow bays. All the windows have straight
heads, but those of the first floor are framed in
arches, and those of the upper floors have architraves with scrolled heads. Above the narrow
central bay of the Charing Cross Road front is an
aedicule containing a bust.
Nos. 151–155 (odd) Charing Cross Road
Formerly No. 145 Charing Cross Road: previously
Nos. 24–16 (consec.) Crown Street
The erection of this warehouse building for
Crosse and Black well was begun in 1877, to the
designs of R. L. Roumieu. Owing to the narrowness of Crown Street, to which the building
then fronted, and to threats of proceedings from
surrounding property owners for loss of light and
air, the building was not immediately carried up
to its intended full height of seventy-six feet.
In 1885 the east side of Crown Street was demolished for the formation of Charing Cross
Road, and the building was then completed to the
original designs. R. L. Roumieu had died in
1877, and the completion of the building was
superintended by his son, R. St. A. Roumieu,
whose partner was Alfred Aitchison. The total
cost of the building was over £16,000, and the
contractors were J. M. Macey and Sons. (ref. 71)
Crosse and Blackwell remained in occupation
until 1921. (ref. 60) In 1925–6 the building was converted into showrooms and offices; the architects
were F. Taperell and H. Haase. (ref. 72)
The original brick and stone Gothic front has
been altered and completely disguised with a
cement facing, vaguely classical in style, the large
metal windows being framed in tall arch-headed
openings. The only surviving feature of the
original building is the angle turret, with pseudomachicolations supporting a low drum of segmental arches resting on stunted columns in pairs.
This drum is finished with a cornice of corbelled
brick courses, and crowned with a tall conical
roof of slate and lead.
Astoria Cinema and Dance Salon, Charing Cross Road
Shortly after the formation of Charing Cross
Road Messrs. Crosse and Blackwell erected a large
warehouse on this site, to the designs of Roumieu
and Aitchison. (ref. 73) The building was completed
by 1893. (ref. 74) In 1926–7 Berkeley Syndicates
Limited adapted it for use as a cinema and dance
hall, which were opened in the latter year. (ref. 75)
The architect for the conversion was E. A.
Stone, (ref. 76) and the contractors were Griggs and
Son Limited. (ref. 77)
The Astoria Cinema and Dance Hall were
constructed inside the brick shell of Crosse and
Blackwell's former warehouse. The cinema,
planned on an east-west axis, is entered through a
circular foyer at the corner of Sutton Street, and
the dance hall entrance is at the north end of the
Charing Cross Road front, with shop premises in
between. The auditorium, its floor raised a few
feet above street level, contains stalls with twentyfive rows of seats and a circle of twenty-one
rows, making a total of two thousand seats. The
cement-faced exterior is a heavy and crudely
detailed classical design, with the upper face
divided into wide and narrow bays by rusticated
piers sustaining an entablature having a scrollornamented frieze. Over the rounded corner rises
a low lantern crowned with a saucer dome, a feature oddly reminiscent of Theodoric's mausoleum
at Ravenna. The interior is decorated in the
Pompeian manner, with the rectangular proscenium frame recessed between arch-headed
organ grilles, flanked by massive Doric columns
which support the curving entablature beneath the
semi-domed ceiling above the auditorium well.
This semi-dome is decorated with painted
grotesques, and is framed by a wide arched band
of coffers. The dance hall beneath the cinema
accommodates one thousand dancers in an
octangular central space surrounded by a gallery.
No. 167 Charing Cross Road: The Excelsior Public House
Formerly No. 153 Charing Cross Road: previously
No. 35 Crown Street
There has been a public house on this site since
at least 1759. When the present building was
erected in 1889 the old name of the King's
Head was changed to the Excelsior. (ref. 78)