CHAPTER XIV
Upper St. Martin's Lane and
Cranbourn Street Area: Salisbury Estate
The Salisbury estate on the west side of
St. Martin's Lane and Upper St. Martin's
Lane (fig. 79) consisted of three adjoining
closes of land, all part of the great field known as
St. Martin's Field (Plate 1a). It is possible to trace
the boundaries of these closes on the Ordnance
Survey map of 1869–74 (Plate 6), but many of
them have since been obliterated by the construction of the Charing Cross Road.
All three closes were bought by Robert Cecil,
first Earl of Salisbury, in 1609 and 1610, and
subsequently all three were called Swan Close.
A plan of the estate made in 1609 is reproduced
on fig. 80. The name Swan Close had previously
applied to only one of the three closes, that bounded
on the east by St. Martin's Lane and Upper St.
Martin's Lane, (fn. a) on the south by the backs of the
houses on the north side of Cecil Court, and on
the west partly by Castle Street. This, the original
Swan Close, had been purchased by Henry VIII
from John Digby at some time between 1535 (ref. 1)
and 1547, and was let as two acres of land belonging to the Swan Inn. It was sold by Queen
Mary in 1554 to John Best and John Grene (ref. 2)
and descended by inheritance and purchase (ref. 3) to
John Kyme and William Mynterne (Minterne)
in right of their wives, daughters of Richard
Nightingale. In 1610 Kyme and Mynterne sold
their respective moieties of Swan Close to Lord
Salisbury. (ref. 4)
By the same conveyance of 1610 Salisbury also
bought from Kyme and Mynterne the second of
the three closes. (ref. 4) This lay to the west of the first
close and its north and south boundaries are now
marked by Newport Court (approximately) and
Bear Street. (fn. b) It was said to contain 3 acres 3
roods and 35 perches, (ref. 5) and this acreage is marked
on the plan of 1609. Its earlier history is obscure,
but at the time of Lord Salisbury's purchase in
1610 both closes were in the occupation of William Colbeche. (ref. 6)
The third of the three closes comprising the
Salisbury estate was bounded on the north by the
backs of the houses on the north side of Cecil
Court, on the east by St. Martin's Lane and on
the south by Hemmings Row. It was part of the
five acres formerly called Beaumont's lands (see
page 416), and was purchased in 1609 by Lord
Salisbury from Sir Henry Maynard, (ref. 7) who had
been secretary to Lord Salisbury's father, William
Cecil, Lord Burghley. It was then described as
the Two Acres Close and is marked on the plan of
1609 as containing 2 acres, 2 roods and 12 perches.
About half of the Salisbury estate was included
in the new parish of St. Anne in 1686. The rest
remained in the parish of St. Martin in the
Fields, and has been described in Survey of London,
volume XX.
The Earl of Salisbury at once began to develop
his new estate, and in November 1610 he agreed
to lease land with a frontage of 759 feet to St.
Martin's Lane to Francis Carter of London,
carpenter. (ref. 8) In 1625, when a considerable amount
of building had taken place, a dispute arose over
the Earl of Salisbury's title to the moiety of the
two closes which he had purchased from William
Mynterne. The purchase of John Kyme's
moiety of the closes had presented no legal difficulties, and the first Earl had bought it outright
for £200. (ref. 9) But Mynterne's moiety had already
been settled on William Mynterne's daughter
Elizabeth, who had married Francis Leigh, son
of Sir Oliphe Leigh of Addington. (ref. 10) The conveyance of this moiety had been made to the
first Earl of Salisbury despite the fact that Elizabeth and Francis, to whom it rightfully belonged,
were both minors. (ref. 11) According to Mynterne
(whose word seems to have been supported by the
second Earl's own legal advisers in 1627) (ref. 12) the
first Earl had taken possession and built upon the
land, but had paid nothing for it, knowing that the
conveyance was not good in law, and that Mynterne could give him no indemnity form claimants. (ref. 11) Not unnaturally, Francis Leigh and his
son Wolleigh Leigh, in 1625, and Sir Thomas
Leigh, Francis's grandson, in 1662, attempted to
obtain some recompense for their alienated
inheritance and in 1677 James, third Earl of
Salisbury, was forced to buy out Sir Thomas
Leigh's interest for £2,000. (ref. 13)
Figure 79:
The Salisbury estate, plan. Based on the Ordnance Survey, 1869–74
Figure 80:
The Salisbury estate, plan in 1609. From a plan by John Thorpe in the possession of the Marquess of Salisbury
Soon afterwards the Salisburys began the development of the western part of the estate, and
Castle Street, Bear Street, Cranbourn Alley,
Cranbourn Passage and Cranbourn Street were
all laid out. The development of the area was
completed with the building of Ryder's Court
(now Leicester Court) in the 1690's.
In 1843 the second Marquess of Salisbury sold
ground on the west side of Upper St. Martin's
Lane and the south side of Cranbourn Street to
the Commissioners of Woods and Forests for the
widening of both streets and the eastward extension of Cranbourn Street (fig. 81 on page 353),
and in the 1880's, the third Marquess sold ground
on the west side of Castle Street to the Metropolitan Board of Works for the construction of
the Charing Cross Road (fig. 73 on page 298).
Much of the area described in this chapter is now
the property of the Salisbury Settled Estates.
Upper St. Martin's Lane
St. Martin's Lane is a highway of immemorial
antiquity leading northward from Charing Cross
and the Church of St. Martin in the Fields to
Long Acre. There this highway turned north-westward along the modern West Street to the site
of Cambridge Circus where it divided, two
branches leading northward to St. Giles's. These
roads are marked on the plan of 1585 (Plate 1a).
Only the ground on the west side of St. Martin's
Lane to the north of Great Newport Street formed
part of the parish of St. Anne.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
the ratebooks refer to this northern part of the
lane as Cock Lane, a name which was evidently
derived from the Cock and Pye Inn near its
northern end. (ref. 14) Horwood's map (Plate 5)
marks it as Little St. Martin's Lane and the
Ordnance Survey map of 1869–74 (Plate 6)
gives its modern name, Upper St. Martin's
Lane. In 1843–6 the street was widened by the
Commissioners of Woods and Forests, who set
back the line of frontage of the west side (see
fig. 81).
All of the ground on the west side of Upper
St. Martin's Lane was included in a lease granted
on 1 March 1612/13 by William, second Earl
of Salisbury, to John Waller of I field, Sussex,
yeoman, who in 1619 was described as 'late
servant' to the Earl. (ref. 15) In 1650 Lord Salisbury
bought from Waller's heirs the remainder of the
forty-year term which he had granted in 1612/
13, (ref. 16) and by two leases dated April 1653 and
18 December 1657 he let all the ground hitherto
in Waller's occupation to Richard Ryder the
elder. (ref. 17)
(fn. c)
After the grant of these leases some rebuilding
of Waller's earlier higgledy-piggledy development took place, (ref. 19) and Ogilby and Morgan's
map of 1681–2 (Plate 2) shows all of the frontage
to Upper St. Martin's Lane built upon to the
north of the gardens of the houses in Great Newport Street. In 1692 Richard Ryder the younger
surrendered his late father's leases and obtained
a new one from James, fourth Earl of Salisbury,
for sixty years, provided that he laid out £400
in repairing and rebuilding within forty years. (ref. 17)
The progress of building in St. Martin's Lane
in the seventeenth century caused frequent drainage difficulties. In c. 1608 James I had granted
£100 towards making a sewer from St. Giles's
along St. Martin's Lane so that the King's
passage 'through those fields shall be both sweeter
and more commodious', (ref. 20) but a number of complaints in the 1630's show that the problem had
not been solved. (ref. 21) By 1655 the sewer was too
small to carry the increased quantity of effluent (ref. 22)
and in that year the second Earl of Salisbury was
presented to the Commissioners of Sewers for not
arching over the sewer in Cock Lane (i.e.,
Upper St. Martin's Lane). (ref. 23)
Aldridge's Horse and Carriage Repository, Upper St. Martin's Lane
Demolished
In 1714 Judith Ryder, the widow of Richard
Ryder the younger, agreed to assign the lease of
the ground on the west side of Upper St. Martin's
(then Cock) Lane to George Arnold, junior,
of St. Anne's, chapman, for £1,221. (ref. 24) Arnold's
father, George Arnold, senior, had occupied
premises here from 1696 until his death in 1705, (ref. 25)
but by 1714 George Arnold, junior, needed
stabling for his cattle-dealing business, and the
property which Judith Ryder eventually assigned
to him in 1716 included coach-houses and a stableyard as well as seven dwelling houses. (ref. 26) In 1739
George Arnold, junior, now described as of St.
Anne's, gentleman, obtained a renewal of his
lease from James, sixth Earl of Salisbury, (ref. 27) and in
1750, when he was described as of Ashby St.
Legers, Northamptonshire (where he had purchased an estate), esquire, he assigned this property to his son, Lumley Arnold of Lincoln's
Inn, barrister at law. (ref. 28) Rocque's map of 1746
(Plate 4) shows 'Arnold's Yard' on the west side
of Upper St. Martin's Lane.
In 1762 Lumley Arnold's premises included
'Horse Standings', a counting house, and a
dwelling house where he lived, which were assessed for rates at £100—over five times as
much as any other property on this side of Upper
St. Martin's Lane. In 1766–8 he was succeeded
as occupant by Nathaniel Bever. Subsequent
occupants recorded in the ratebooks were James
Aldridge, 1776–82, Thomas Aldridge, 1783–6,
Joseph Aldridge, 1787–1826, John Morris,
1827–34, and Matthew Clement Alien, 1835–
1856. The latter was succeeded by his partner
William Freeman in 1857, one of whose descendants is a director of the firm at the present
time. The name Aldridge's persisted throughout
these changes, the business being variously described as 'horse bazaar' or 'repository for horses
and carriages'.
In 1843 the front of Aldridge's premises was
compulsorily acquired by the Commissioners of
Woods and Forests for the widening of Upper St.
Martin's Lane, (ref. 29) and a new façade was erected in
the following year to the designs of Charles
Hatchard, surveyor (ref. 30) (Plate 45).
In 1895 Aldridge's was described as 'a well-known mart for nearly all kinds of horses, except
racers. It is, however, specially famous for the
sale of middle-class and tradesmen's horses. As
soon as the West End season is over, the London
job-master sells off his superfluous stock, and this
market is the recognised medium for getting rid
of the horses for which he has no further, or, at
any rate, no immediate use. Many horses sold
at this period are purchased by seaside men, whose
harvest is about to commence.' The proprietors
at this time were W. and S. Freeman. (ref. 31)
In 1907 the firm began to hold regular motor
sales, and the last horse sale was held in 1926. (ref. 32)
In 1940 Aldridge's repository was removed to
William Road, St. Pancras, where it still exists,
the firm now being described as motor and greyhound auctioneers and valuers. The buildings in
Upper St. Martin's Lane were demolished in
1955–6, and their site is now occupied by Thorn
House.
Aldridge's long frontage to Upper St. Martin's
Lane was a pleasant Grecian design, carried out
in painted stucco. The entrance was at the north
end in a five-bay feature, two storeys high, the
middle three bays being dressed with plain-shafted
Doric pilasters supporting a plain frieze and mutule
cornice, and forming a triumphal-arch motif.
Each of the side bays contained a ground- and
first-floor window, and in the middle bay was a
wide and lofty archway leading through the
building to a covered court. Above the middle
bay was an attic pedestal flanked by scrollconsoles. The southern half of the front consisted
of a windowless ground storey of horizontally
channelled courses, and a plain upper face finished
with a shallow cornice and blocking. This upper
storey contained six windows, widely and evenly
spaced, all dressed with a moulded architrave,
narrow frieze and cornice.
Thorn House, Upper St. Martin's Lane
Thorn House, designed for Thorn Electrical
Industries Limited by (Sir) Basil Spence and
Partners, was completed in September 1959
(Plate 139d). The office accommodation is contained in a tower block of oblong plan, some 50
feet deep and extending east to west some 125
feet, which rises twelve storeys above a lofty and
largely open ground storey, forming part of an
extensive paved court. Placed partly beneath the
east end of the tower, and extending south along
the east front of the site, is a showroom range of
two storeys. The main entrance hall, with four
lifts and a staircase, is at the west end of the tower,
and there is a lavatory stack and second staircase
in the second bay of the north side. Ample
ground parking space and an underground car
park are provided.
The in-situ reinforced concrete structure uses
two techniques of pre-stressed and self-finished
concrete, and demonstrates the versatility of the
material. The north and south faces of the office
tower are divided into five equal bays, with sixlight windows extending in horizontal bands
between aprons of flecked grey p.v.c. fabric.
Above the twelfth storey is a lofty top stage,
largely open and forming an aerial pergola. The
tower's east and west faces are plain and windowless, the east forming a ground for a large metal
sculpture by Geoffrey Clarke. Within, the most
impressive features are the entrance hall, with its
spectacular effect of lighting cylinders suspended
from the concrete-beamed ceiling, and the showroom, which was designed by John and Sylvia
Reid. The general contractors were Bovis
Limited. (ref. 33)
Great Newport Street
This street was one of the earliest in the parish to
be built up. It appears to have had its origin in the
lease of 1612/13 (mentioned on page 341)
granted by William, second Earl of Salisbury,
to John Waller, variously described as of I field,
Sussex, yeoman, (ref. 15) or (in 1619) as 'late servant' to
Salisbury, (ref. 34) although it is possible that there was
already a pathway here which connected St.
Martin's Lane with the areas to the west. (ref. 35) It
seems likely that this pathway was originally
part of the Military Street (see page 361), but
from 1649 onwards the street was known generally as Newport Street, (ref. 36) after Mountjoy Blount,
Earl of Newport, whose house fronted another
section of the Military Street, now known as
Little Newport Street. The name Great Newport Street seems to have been used from the middle of the eighteenth century. (ref. 36) Only the
northern side of the street is in the parish of St.
Anne.
On 1 March 1612/13 the Earl of Salisbury
granted a lease to John Waller for forty years at
the rent of one peppercorn, a condition of the
lease being that Waller 'would erect and sett up
severall substantiall and well built dwelling
houses'. (ref. 15) Waller's land amounted to one acre
and one rood, part of the northern section of
Swan Close, and abutted east on Upper St.
Martin's Lane, north on Hog Lane (now West
Street), and south on what became Great Newport Street. (ref. 37) Some time afterwards several
houses were built on the land by John Waller
'whereof one front of howses were built towards
the Streete called Newport streete'. Among the
people who took leases from Waller was Sir Ralph
Freeman of Beckworth, Surrey, knight, who had
'a great Messuage' with a frontage of forty-two
feet; this was 'a faire and well-built house better
then any other of the Messuages there built by
the said Waller'. (ref. 16)
By 1650 many of Waller's houses were very
much out of repair and in the hands of very poor
tenants 'who suffered the same to goe to ruine'.
In that year Lord Salisbury bought from Waller's
heirs the remainder of the forty-year term which
he had granted in 1612/13 (ref. 16) and by two leases
dated 2 April 1653 and 18 December 1657 he
let all the houses on the north side of Great Newport Street to Richard Ryder, the elder, who
covenanted to spend a large sum of money on
'new building'. (ref. 17)
The ratebooks show that between 1656 and
1660 the north side of Great Newport Street
was completely rebuilt by Richard Ryder the
elder. The street began to attract members of
the nobility and people prominent in public life,
and became a fashionable place to live. A letter
signed 'H.B.', written in 1672 to Viscountess
Cranborne, recommends the Earl of Bolingbroke's house, one of the largest in the street:
'A freind of mine tells me of My Lord Bullingbrookes house in Newport Streete, wch they say
he will let, yt will be in every way fit garden and
all'. (ref. 38) In December 1666, during a lawsuit
between himself and Sir Thomas Leigh (see page
341), Lord Salisbury employed a carpenter,
John Angier, and a bricklayer, Maurice Emmett, (fn. d)
to take a view of the nine houses built by Ryder on
the north side of Great Newport Street. They
estimated that the cost of building the Earl of
Bolingbroke's house, which included stables and
two coach-houses, was £800, and that of Lord
Crofts next door, £1,000. Altogether Angier and
Emmett estimated that a total of £5,750 had
been spent on the north side of the street. (ref. 42)
The Earl of Bolingbroke's house stood at the
east end of the north side of Great Newport
Street, and was described as a 'City Mansion' by
William Maitland in 1739. (ref. 43)
Between 1684 and 1692 the number of houses
on the north side of the street increased from nine
to fourteen. In the latter year Richard Ryder the
younger of St. Anne's, gentleman, who had succeeded to his father's leasehold interest, obtained
two new leases from James, fourth Earl of Salisbury, of sixty years each, provided that he laid out
£2,500 in building within forty years. (ref. 17)
In 1720 Strype stated that 'the North Side
which is in this Parish [of St. Anne's], hath far
the best Buildings, and is inhabited by Gentry;
whereas, on the other Side dwell ordinary Tradespeople, of which several are of the French
Nation'. (ref. 44) In the second half of the eighteenth
century, however, many of the inhabitants of
Great Newport Street were associated with the
arts. Of these the most famous were (Sir) Joshua
Reynolds (see below) and Josiah Wedgwood, the
potter, who had a showroom at the corner of
Great Newport Street and Upper St. Martin's
Lane. Wedgwood's premises were designed for
him in 1768 by Joseph Pickford, (ref. 45) and he remained here until his removal to No. 12–13
Greek Street in 1774 (ref. 36) (see page 174). The
building in Great Newport Street was demolished
for the widening of Upper St. Martin's Lane in
1843–6. A description of the premises during
Wedgwood's occupation of them is to be found
in Eliza Meteyard's Life of Josiah Wedgwood,
vol. II, 1866, pp. 35–7, 94–5. (fn. e)
The houses on the north side of Great Newport Street were sufficiently large and important
for Ogilby and Morgan to represent them by a
pictorial symbol on their map of 1681–2 (Plate
2), where they appear as a fairly uniform terrace
of six two-storeyed houses, set back within
forecourts or gardens. Emslie's view of 1883
(Plate 57b) shows the backs of the westerly
houses, by then subdivided and otherwise altered.
A party wall exposed by demolition clearly shows
that the demolished house, like its still-standing
neighbour, contained a basement, two storeys,
and garrets in the double mansard roof.
Notable inhabitants of houses on the north
side of Great Newport Street include the following: Lady Everett or Everard, 1656–72; Lady
Harris, 1659–69; Catherine, Viscountess Grandison, widow of John Villiers, third Viscount
Grandison, 1659; Lady Harbert, possibly Herbert, 1660; Elizabeth, Countess of Holland,
first wife of Robert Rich, second Earl of Holland,
1660–1; Lady Elizabeth Leake, 1660–2; Oliver
St. John, second Earl of Bolingbroke, 1661–
c. 1679; William Crofts, first Baron Crofts of
Saxham, prominent Royalist in the Civil War
and close personal servant to the royal family,
1662–71; Elizabeth, Lady Cornwallis, widow of
Frederick, first Baron Cornwallis, and half-sister
of Lord Crofts, 1662–73; Sir Maurice Bartlett,
1662; Robert Rich, second Earl of Holland,
c. 1664; Sir Allen Ashby, 1666; Sir Philip Meadows, diplomat, 1666–71; Margaret, Countess of
Carlisle, widow of James Hay, third Earl of Carlisle, 1666; Sir Daniel Harvey, 1669–c. 1673;
Sir Kingsmill Lucy, 1669–76; Lady Dacre,
1669–c. 1685; John Creed, secretary to the
Commissioners for Tangier and Fellow of the
Royal Society, 1671–c. 1685; Charles Howard,
first Earl of Carlisle, 1672–6; Charles Bertie,
possibly a relative of the Earl of Lindsay,
1675–1713; Sir Thomas Slingsby, 1676–c. 1679;
Lady Hamilton, 1679–c. 1685; Lady Hewett,
possibly the widow of Sir Thomas Hewett, first
Baron, of Pishiobury, Hertfordshire, 1679–c.
1685; Horatio, first Viscount Townshend,
formerly M.P. for Norfolk, 1679; Mary,
Countess of Exeter, widow of John Cecil,
fourth Earl of Exeter, 1681; Sir Christopher
Musgrave, fourth baronet and M.P. for Carlisle,
1684–c. 1685; William Harbord, Whig politician and Paymaster General, c. 1691; Elizabeth,
Countess of Anglesey, widow of Arthur Annesley,
third Earl, c. 1691–7; Sir Charles O'Hara,
first Baron Tyrawley, general in the war of the
Spanish Succession and afterwards commanderin-chief in Ireland, 1710–14; Charles Montagu,
first Earl of Halifax, financier and sponsor of the
Act for the establishment of the Bank of England, 1715; Christopher Wandesford, second
Viscount Castlecomer, politician, 1717–19;
Thomas Pelham, M.P., and first cousin of Henry
Pelham and the Duke of Newcastle, 1720–35;
John Roberts, possibly Henry Pelham's private
secretary, 1724–7; Elizabeth Cooper, possibly
the authoress, 1735–7; Jeremiah Davison,
portrait painter, who painted Frederick, Prince
of Wales, and Admiral Byng, 1738–9; Francis
Vivares, engraver, 1753–80; (Sir) Joshua
Reynolds, portrait painter, 1754–60; Thomas
Vials, carver, 1754–66; Celeste Reignier, printseller, and third wife of Louis-Francois
Roubiliac, the sculptor, 1755–72; Lady Anne
Hamilton, 1757–c. 1779; John Bourke, seventh
Viscount Mayo, 1757–9; John Eccardt, portrait
painter, who painted Bentley, Gray and Mrs.
Woffington, 1761; (ref. 47) John Wyatt, surgeon,
1764–80, brother of James and Benjamin
Wyatt, architect and builder respectively, both
of whom appear to have lived for an unspecified
period with their brother John in Great Newport
Street; (ref. 48) Nicholas Thomas Dall, landscape
painter, 1768–76; Johann Zoffany, artist, 1779;
Everett Home, probably (Sir) Everard Home,
baronet and surgeon, 1786–7; James Pearson,
possibly the glass-painter, 1788–95; Henry
Spicer, miniature painter and painter on enamel
to George IV, 1792–c. 1802. (ref. 47)
Some artists whose addresses are given as being
in Great Newport Street in exhibition catalogues,
but whose names do not appear in the ratebooks,
are listed below, with the years in which they
exhibited:—
H. Cornman, sculptor, intermittently 1799–
1815; P. Cornman, sculptor, 1788, 1790–2;
Samuel De Wilde, painter, 1782, 1796–1800;
Edmund Garvey, R.A., painter, 1797–1802;
George Henry Harlow, painter, 1809, 1812,
1814; R. Harraden, painter, 1799; Frederick
Christian Lewis, painter, 1824–6; John Frederick
Lewis, R.A., painter, 1824–6; George Mullins,
painter, 1770; Rev. William Peters, R.A.,
painter, 1776–7; Sir Robert Kerr Porter, painter,
1796–9; John Powell, painter, 1781, 1783–5;
Henry J. Richter, painter, 1788–90, 1792;
George Romney, painter, 1768–9, 1771–2;
James Scouler, miniature painter, intermittently
1766–76; (fn. f) and James Tassie, modeller, 1767–71.
No. 5 Great Newport Street
This, the one surviving house of the range on
the north side of the street, has been most injudiciously altered and refronted, the present face
of black faience tiling having been applied over a
refronting of probably mid eighteenth-century
date. Photographs show this to have had a stuccoed ground storey, with the doorway centred
between two windows, all being set in a shop front
trim of Regency Doric pilasters supporting a
fascia (Plate 58a). The upper part of two storeys,
each with four evenly spaced windows, was of
plain stock bricks with a storey bandcourse
extending above the flat gauged arches of the
first-floor windows. The brick face was carried
up to form a plain parapet in front of the two
closely set dormers in the roof. (fn. g)
The only important internal feature is the
open-well staircase, furnished with a massive
railing of symmetrically turned balusters, rising
from moulded closed strings to support a broad
handrail, both raking members housed into stout
square newels having turned pendants. Unfortunately, this late seventeenth-century balustrading has now been cased in.
Nos. 6 and 7 Great Newport Street: The Arts Theatre
The Arts Theatre of London Limited was
registered as a company in 1925. Shortly afterwards its directors acquired premises at Nos. 6
and 7 Great Newport Street for the establishment
of a proprietary club whose objects were 'to create
a social rendez-vous with all the amenities of a
London club, and bring together in an artistic
and congenial atmosphere those interested in the
theatre from both sides of the curtain', and 'to
found and support its own permanent Arts
Theatre within the Club premises'. A private
theatre of this kind would be unaffected by the
censorship regulations, and the promoters hoped
to encourage the works of new playwrights,
producers and players. The new theatre was
designed by P. Morley Horder and built by
F. G. Minter Limited at a cost of over £18,000;
it was opened on 20 April 1927 with Picnic, an
intimate revue by Herbert Farjeon. (ref. 50)
In July 1933 the club was closed by a receiver
in bankruptcy on the application of a number of
creditors, but it re-opened on 28 February 1934,
after redecoration to the designs of Basil Ionides,
under new managers who had purchased the
assets of the old club.
In 1942 the management was taken over by
the Arts Theatre Group of Actors under the
direction of Alec Clunes. During the next ten
years a large number of plays were staged at the
Arts Theatre, many of them having their first
London production here. In 1953 the lease was
acquired by Campbell Williams, (ref. 50) whose productions included Waiting for Godot (1955) and The
Waltz of the Toreadors (1956). (ref. 51) In 1962 Nat
Cohen bought the lease, and the theatre was
used by the Royal Shakespeare Company for a
while. The lease now belongs to Alfred Esdaile.
Nos. 10 and 11 Great Newport Street
Demolished
(Sir) Joshua Reynolds occupied a large house
on this site from 1753 or 1754 until 1760. (ref. 36)
Reynolds came to London from Plymouth in
1752 and engaged rooms in St. Martin's Lane.
He soon 'found his prospects so bright and extensive, that he removed to a large house on the
north side of Great Newport-street'. (ref. 52) Here 'his
practice increased so rapidly that it became necessary to obtain some assistance, and he engaged
Mr. [Peter] Thoms, an artist of much ability,
whom Hogarth used to call Reynolds's drapery
man, to forward preparation of his pictures'. (ref. 53)
Reynolds's first meeting with Dr. Johnson, in
c. 1754, took place in Great Newport Street, at
the house of the Misses Cotterell on the south side
of the street. (ref. 54)
In 1760 Reynolds removed to No. 47 Leicester
Square (see page 508). His house in Great Newport Street was rebuilt as two houses in 1767. (ref. 36)
Castle Street
Castle Street, which probably took its name from a
public house, extended from Hemmings Row to
Great Newport Street, and was entirely demolished in the 1880's for the formation of
Charing Cross Road (fig. 73 on page 298).
The ground on both sides of the southern half of
the street, to the south of Bear Street, formed
part of the estate of the Earls of Leicester, while
that to the north of Bear Street was part of the
Salisbury estate. Only the western side of the
northern part of Castle Street was within the
parish of St. Anne; the rest of the street, in the
parish of St. Martin in the Fields, was described
in Survey of London, volume XX.
The divided ownership of the ground along
Castle Street, which is first mentioned by name in
the ratebooks in 1677, probably accounts for
the break in the line of the street at its intersection
with Bear Street (see fig. 79). It may be that the
northern portion, on the Salisbury estate, was laid
out first, and that the westward break was caused
by the Earl of Leicester's need to allow sufficient
depth of ground for building on the eastern side of
his portion of the street. Ogilby and Morgan's
map (Plate 2) shows that the development of the
street was complete by 1681–2.
William Bull, trumpet-maker, came to live in
Castle Street in 1700. (ref. 55) In 1714 Admiral Sir
John Jennings was resident here, probably with
his kinsman, David Jennings, doctor of physic,
whose house was on the west side to the north
of Bear Street. (ref. 56)
Bear Street
Only the north side of Bear Street is in the parish
of St. Anne, and the street also formed part of the
boundary between the Salisbury and Leicester
estates. The street may have taken its name from
a public house in the locality, or the name may
indicate that Augustine Beare, glazier, worked
here. Building began on the south side, on the
Leicester estate, in 1671–2, (ref. 36) and at about the
same time the houses and ground on the north
side were said to be in the possession of Richard
Ryder (probably the elder). (ref. 57) In 1681 William
Edwards of St. Martin's held five messuages
which he had lately built in Bear Street on lease
from John Rossington, carpenter. (ref. 58)
Bear Street has been shortened twice, part of
the west end being taken for the widening of
Cranbourn Street in 1843–6 and part of the east
end for the formation of Charing Cross Road in
1883–7.
Little Newport Street
In 1654 William, second Earl of Salisbury,
sold the freehold ground on the north side of the
modern Little Newport Street to the Earl of
Newport (see page 362). Little Newport Street
thus became the boundary between the Salisbury
and Newport Ground estates. The history of the
north side is described on page 378. Building on
the south side seems to have been completed by
1695 (ref. 36) and was probably carried out under the
auspices of the Ryder family (see page 349).
A deed of 1715 mentions a 'meeting house' on
the south side of Little Newport Street; (ref. 59) this
may conceivably refer to the Ryder's Court
Chapel. No other reference to a chapel in Little
Newport Street has been found.
The line of frontage of the south side of the
street was set back in 1899–1900 during the
building of the London Hippodrome, which
flanks the whole length of this side.
The Waterhouse
Demolished
On the west side of what is now Newport
Place, between the north side of Lisle Street and
No. 9 Newport Place, there is an irregularly
shaped piece of ground, a small island of what was
the Salisbury estate wedged between three other
estates: the Military Ground on the north, the
Leicester estate on the west and Newport Ground
on the east. It was on this piece of ground that
the waterhouse, part of a scheme for supplying
the neighbourhood with water from springs in
Soho, was built.
In 1633 Charles I, by letters patent, granted
to Francis, Earl of Bedford, William, Earl of
Salisbury, Sir Edward Wardour and Sir Oliver
Nicholas, a licence to make a watercourse from a
spring in Colman Hedge, alias Soe Hoe, across a
close late in the tenure of Anthony Wakers, and
then across another close called 'Wardners Gravell
Pitts' to the King's highway (King Street, now
part of Shaftesbury Avenue). The watercourse
was to pass through the Military Ground to the
waterhouse, and thence by way of the Military
Street to the upper end of St. Martin's Lane. (fn. h)
There the pipes were to divide, one pipe conveying water down St. Martin's Lane, and another, via Long Acre, to Covent Garden. Water
was to be piped into the houses of those inhabitants who so desired. The licensees covenanted to build a great cistern to conserve the
water in Swan Close, and to pay twenty shillings
a year for the licence. (ref. 60)
The waterhouse was presumably built to contain this cistern, for in 1633 the Earl of Salisbury paid £100 'towardes Erectinge, or newe
buildinge, of one Waterhouse, near unto the
Millitarie Garden' and 'makeinge a Seasterne,
there And layinge of water Pipes, And other
workes'. (ref. 61) In May 1656 the Earl of Salisbury
leased the waterhouse and the piece of ground
which went with it to John Hodgskins of St.
Martin's, gentleman, for forty-one years, at £8
per annum, provided Hodgskins spent £120
within two years in repairing or rebuilding the
house. The plot of land is described as adjoining
Leicester House wall on the west, (ref. 62) and Ogilby
and Morgan's map of 1681–2 (Plate 2) shows a
house in this position.
John Hodgskins's lease was acquired by Andrew
Arnold of St. Anne's, to whom, in c. 1694,
James, Earl of Salisbury, granted a new lease for
sixty years, subject to payment of a fine of £300. (ref. 63)
By this time water was being piped from other
sources into the new houses which were being
built in the neighbourhood, and the necessity
for the waterhouse had passed. So it was demolished and on the site were built seven houses
and the Huguenot chapel (ref. 64) (see page 351), which
in fact stood on the northern arm of Ryder's
Court. By 1732 (or possibly earlier) one of these
houses had become a public house called the
White Bear, (ref. 65) which still exists in rebuilt form
at the corner of Lisle Street and Newport Place.
Two other houses, later numbered 5 and 7
Newport Place, which until their recent partial
demolition stood on the site of the waterhouse,
were designed in a simple Palladian manner to
form a closure to the vista along Newport Court;
they probably dated from the mid eighteenth
century. Above the ground-storey shops was a
brick face of two storeys, each house being three
windows wide. The first-floor windows were
uniform but the middle window of the second
floor in each house was accented by an arched
head. A plain bandcourse marked the attic
storey, each house having one central window,
that of No. 7 arched and rising into the tympanum of an open triangular pediment. The
boldly modillioned cornice of the pediment was
continued across the front of No. 5. (ref. 66)
Cranbourn Street, Passage and Alley: Earl's Court
Cranbourn Street, Cranbourn Passage and Cranbourn Alley all formed part of the Salisbury
estate and take their names from the family's
property at Cranborne in Dorset. Building in
the area of these three streets appears to have begun
in the late 1670's (ref. 36) and Ogilby and Morgan's
map (Plate 2) suggests that it had been substantially completed by 1681–2. Unfortunately the
street nomenclature was at that time and for
many years afterwards so confused that it has
proved impossible to disentangle the early development of the three streets individually. (fn. i) It is,
however, clear that the Ryder family were the
principal developers of this area.
Cranbourn Street originally connected the
north-east corner of Leicester Square with Castle
Street, but in 1843–6 it was extended eastwards
to St. Martin's Lane (see below). Cranbourn
Passage and Earl's Court both connected the
north side of Cranbourn Street with the south side
of Little Newport Street; the former was entirely
demolished in the 1880's for the formation of
Charing Cross Road, and the latter was closed in
1897, its site being subsequently incorporated into
that of the London Hippodrome, now called The
Talk of the Town. Cranbourn Alley joins the
south side of Cranbourn Street with Bear Street
and still exists (see fig. 79).
The connexion between the Earls of Salisbury
and Richard Ryder the elder dated back to at
least 1647, when the latter was working at the
manor house at Cranborne. (ref. 41) James, third
Earl of Salisbury, evidently granted at least one
lease of ground to the north of Cranbourn
Street, to Richard Ryder the elder, for in his
will, proved in 1683, the latter bequeathed the
brick messuage in Swan Close in which he then
lived and all the other messuages there which he
held by lease from the Earl, to his wife Joan for
her life. (ref. 67) Ryder's own house was in Cranbourn
Street, near the entrance to Ryder's Court, for
the formation of which it appears to have been
demolished in c. 1693. (ref. 68)
In November 1682 Richard Ryder the elder
sub-let part of this ground, in the vicinity of
Cranbourn Passage, to John Hooper, variously
described as of St. Martin's, or of Farnborough,
carpenter. (ref. 69) He also granted at least four sub-leases
of adjoining ground to John Rossington, carpenter, (ref. 70) whose unbusiness-like methods were
later to bedevil the development of Cleveland
House garden, St. James's. (ref. 71) John Stone, stone
cutter, also held land here, probably under a sublease from either Richard Ryder the elder or
younger. (ref. 72) In her will, proved in 1688, Richard
Ryder the elder's widow, Joan, mentions half a
dozen houses in Cranbourn Street, all on the north
side. In 1692 Richard Ryder the younger leased
a messuage in Cranbourn Passage to his brother,
George Ryder, described as of Henley-on-Thames, gentleman, (ref. 73) and in his will, proved in
1709, the latter mentions three houses in Cranbourn Street and Passage as well as ground rents
in Little Newport Street. (ref. 74) Richard Ryder the
younger died in 1712. (ref. 75)
This fragmentary evidence suggests that the
Ryder family held all of the land bounded by
Little Newport, Castle and Cranbourn Streets
and Ryder's Court on lease from the Earls of
Salisbury, and that they were responsible for its
development. Richard Ryder (probably the
elder) was also possessed of ground on the north
side of Bear Street, (ref. 57) and was therefore probably
concerned with the triangular block on the south
side of Cranbourn Street, bounded by Castle
Street on the east and Bear Street on the south
(and including Cranbourn Alley). In 1681
John Rossington, carpenter, held a lease of ground
fronting Bear Street where five houses had lately
been built by his sub-lessee, William Edwards,
carpenter. (ref. 76) It is not known whether this
ground was on the Salisbury estate on the north
side of Bear Street or on the Leicester estate on
the south, but Rossington worked elsewhere on the
Salisbury estate and may therefore have also had a
hand in the development of the ground south of
Cranbourn Street.
In 1720 Strype recorded that Cranbourn
Street 'hath a very handsome Freestone Pavement and an open Passage into Leicester Fields
for Foot Passengers: Which great Thoroughfare
makes it to be a Place of a very good Trade, both
Sides being inhabited by Shopkeepers. Out of
the North Side is Cranborn Alley, a narrow
Place most taken up by Shoomakeepers.' (ref. 44) By the
second half of the eighteenth century the shoemakers for which Cranbourn Street, Passage and
Alley had all been famous were displaced by
milliners' shops, and in the early nineteenth
century 'Cranbourn Alley' (i.e., Cranbourn
Street) had become a great mart for cheap bonnets. J. T. Smith, writing in 1846 when the
south side of the street was in course of rebuilding,
stated that 'Those who are ignorant of the town
may be amused to learn that at every shop door in
this alley, while it existed, a young woman of
decent appearance was stationed all day long, on
the watch for customers, whom it was her business to entice or to drag into the shop, and force
to purchase, whether they would do or no.
These young women were known by the name
of "She Barkers" to distinguish them from the
"He Barkers", who were stationed at the second-hand clothes-shops, and who acted the same annoying part towards the men. Woe used to betide
the woman of the middle classes who passed
through Cranbourn Alley with an unfashionable
bonnet. It was immediately seen from one end of
the place to the other, and twenty barkers beset
her, each in turn, as she walked forward, arresting her course by invitations to inspect the ware
that was for sale within. Many a one has had her
cloak or shawl torn from her back by these rival
sisters of trade, during their struggles to draw her
within their den, each pulling a different way'. (ref. 77)
William Hogarth, who was born in 1697, was
apprenticed at an early age to Ellis Gamble,
goldsmith, for whom he designed a very fine
trade card with the following inscription: 'Ellis
Gamble Goldsmith, at the Golden Angel in
Cranbourn-street, Leicester-Fields. Makes, Buys
& Sells all sorts of Plate, Rings, etc. Jewells
etc.' (ref. 78)
(fn. j) It has always been assumed that Hogarth
designed this card while serving his apprenticeship,
which ended in about 1718, (ref. 79) but the first reference to Ellis Gamble in the ratebooks for Cranbourn Street does not occur until 1724, by which
year Hogarth had set himself up in business as an
engraver on his own account. Recent unpublished research by the late Colonel William Le
Hardy has shown that Hogarth was apprenticed
on 2 February 1713/14 to Ellis Gamble, to
whom he may have been related by marriage. Ellis
Gamble had in the previous year become a freeman of the Merchant Taylors' Company, and
had been described as an engraver of Blue Cross
Street, Leicester Fields. (ref. 80) The ratebooks show
that Ellis Gamble occupied a house on the south
side of Blue Cross Street (now part of Orange
Street) between Whitcomb and St. Martin's
Streets from 1715 to 1723, (fn. k) and it is therefore
evident that Hogarth served most of his apprenticeship here.
In 1720 Hogarth designed a trade card for his
own use, with the following inscription: 'W.
Hogarth Engraver at ye Golden Ball ye Corner
of Cranbone Alley little Newport Street Aprill
ye 29, 1720'. (ref. 82) Hogarth's name is not recorded
in the ratebooks for either Cranbourn Alley or
Little Newport Street, and at this early stage of
his independent career his workshop was possibly little more than a furnished lodging. One of
Hogarth's earliest customers was his former
master, Ellis Gamble, who in 1724 removed from
Blue Cross Street to Cranbourn Street, (fn. l) where
he remained until 1732. (ref. 36) The trade card which
Hogarth designed for Gamble 'at the Golden
Angel in Cranbourn-street' must have been
produced during these years.
Hogarth's biographer, John Nichols, writing
in 1781, states that the artist's two sisters, Mary
and Anne Hogarth, kept a linen draper's shop in
Little Cranbourn Alley. (ref. 83) The ratebooks show
that they occupied premises in Cranbourn
Passage from 1739 to 1742.
Mathias Darly, architect, and Isaac Jehner,
engraver, exhibited their works with addresses in
Cranbourn Alley in 1765 and 1777 respectively.
Henry Fuseli, the painter, on his arrival in
England in 1763 'took lodgings in the house of a
Mrs. Green, in Cranbourne Street, then called
Cranbourn Alley. He lived here from prudential
motives, those of economy'. (ref. 84)
Ryder's Court
Ryder's Court (Plate 57c) originally had a narrow entrance on the north side of Cranbourn
Street and four arms arranged in a square (see
Plate 4). The western arm of the court was
beside the wall of the grounds of Leicester House
and is called Portaville Passage on Horwood's
map of 1792–9, the northern arm was incorporated into the extension of Lisle Street in 1791–
1795, and only the eastern arm now remains,
widened, lengthened and since 1936 known as
Leicester Court. The whole length of the court is
flanked by the Warner Theatre on the west and
by the London Hippodrome on the east.
Ryder's Court took its name from Richard
Ryder (Rider) the younger, son of Captain Richard
Ryder, master carpenter to Charles II. (ref. 67) Richard
Ryder the younger, who is described as of St.
Anne's, gentleman (ref. 85) or esquire (ref. 86) or, on one
occasion, as Captain Ryder, (ref. 87) developed Ryder's
Court for building under a sixty-year lease granted
to him on 20 December 1692 by James, fourth
Earl of Salisbury. (ref. 86) In May 1693 Ryder was
negotiating for the construction of a drain with the
Westminster Commissioners of Sewers, who had
examined 'a Scheame of the houses intended to be
built . . . (being about six and Twenty in number), (ref. 85) and in December of the same year he
granted a number of fifty-year sub-leases of plots
in Ryder's Court. (fn. m) Two of the houses there were
evidently built by Ryder himself. (ref. 86) The court
first appears by name in the ratebooks in 1694,
and seems to have been completed shortly afterwards.
In 1720 Strype described Ryder's Court as
'new built, and neat, with a Freestone Pavement,
cleanly kept and well inhabited'. (ref. 44) Many of the
early inhabitants were French, (ref. 36) and many of
them were goldsmiths. Between 1699 and 1738
six goldsmiths (including Abraham and Jean
Harrache), one jeweller and one plateworker
(Paul Hanet), all evidently of French origin,
are recorded as working in Ryder's Court. (ref. 88)
Frederick Hintz, 'Guittar-maker to her Majesty
and the Royal Family' was here in 1763, (ref. 89) and
John Sartorius, painter, and W. Christopher
Tate, sculptor, exhibited with addresses in Ryder's
Court in 1768–74 and 1828–9 respectively.
In 1890 the third Marquess of Salisbury, the
then owner of the freehold, and the Board of
Works for the Strand District, began improvements in Ryder's Court, which had by then
become a rather disreputable part of the parish. (ref. 90)
The eastern arm of Ryder's Court was widened
and extended straight through to Cranbourn
Street, while the rest of the court was cleared
to provide a site for Daly's Theatre, now the
Warner Theatre (see page 355).
Ryder's Court Chapel
Demolished
This French Protestant chapel stood at the
north-west corner of Ryder's Court and is marked
'Pr M' (Protestant Meeting) on Rocque's
map of 1746 (Plate 4). The chapel was probably
opened in November 1700, the congregation
being formed by the amalgamation of those in
St. Martin's Lane and Newport Market. In
the following year the congregation entered into a
pastoral union with the Leicester Fields chapel,
then in Orange Street. (ref. 91) There was never a large
congregation at the Ryder's Court Chapel, which
has been described as 'practically an annexe of
Leicester Fields'. (ref. 92) By 1734 it had evidently
ceased to exist, for in that year Dr. James Anderson, minister of the Scottish Presbyterian chapel
in Swallow Street, (ref. 93) removed part of his congregation to the Ryder's Court Chapel. (fn. n) Anderson
died in 1739 and was succeeded as minister by Dr.
John Patrick. By 1755, when the lease of the
chapel expired, the owner was John Home,
poulterer, father of John Home Tooke. Horne,
whose quarrel with the Prince of Wales about a
doorway between his property and the back premises of Leicester House is described on page 454,
was 'a zealous Anglican' and refused to renew the
lease. Patrick and his congregation therefore
removed to Peter Street. (ref. 95) Nothing more is
known of Ryder's Court Chapel, which (if it still
existed) was probably demolished when Lisle Street was extended eastward in 1791–5.
New Coventry Street, Cranbourn Street and Upper St. Martin's Lane: Street Improvements
In August 1838 a Select Committee of the House
of Commons on Metropolitan Improvements
drew attention to the need for improvement of
east-west communications in the Leicester Square
area. The Committee noted that at that time
both the main arteries of communication from
the West End to the City (Oxford Street and
Piccadilly-Coventry Street) came to an abrupt
end at their eastern extremities, and much of its
report was concerned with proposals for remedying this situation. The Committee stated that
'In order to improve and complete the line in
Piccadilly and Coventry-street, the first alteration
urgently required is not apparently very difficult
of accomplishment, nor would it be attended with
a very great expense . . . The sudden impediment presented to this line at the end of Coventrystreet—where carriages are obliged to diverge to
the right or to the left, in order to find their way
eastward, through narrow and tortuous streets . . .
is proposed to be remedied by carrying a broad
street into the North-western corner of Leicestersquare, and thence, from its North-eastern angle,
in a direct line over the ground now occupied by
Cranbourne-street, across Castle-street, and
thence, south of Newport-street, to the junction
of Long-acre with St. Martin's-lane.' From this
point communication could be opened with the
west end of King Street, Covent Garden and
thence to Lincoln's Inn Fields. (ref. 96)
The Committee also suggested that Oxford
Street should be extended to Holborn, and submitted other proposals for new streets east of
the City. It recommended that all these improvements should be carried out by the Commissioners
of Woods and Forests under the supervision of the
Treasury. The Committee hoped that, whatever
Parliament might decide, 'no objection or difficulty will be interposed to prevent the early
adoption of that part of the plan which relates to
the opening from Coventry-street through
Leicester-square. The present obstruction at that
point ought not to be permitted to continue
longer.' (ref. 96)
The Committee's recommendations were
largely based upon the evidence given by (Sir)
James Pennethorne, one of the architects employed by the Commissioners of Woods and
Forests. He had stated that the 'enormous'
traffic in Coventry Street was 'principally stagecoaches and omnibuses, and also market-gardeners', and estimated the cost of forming the
line from Coventry Street to St. Martin's Lane at
either £45,000 or £63,400, depending on the
need to purchase the houses on the south side of
Sidney's Alley (formerly Sidney Street). (ref. 97)
In March 1839 another Select Committee
recommended that a Bill should be introduced to
empower the Treasury and the Commissioners
of Woods and Forests to execute this and other
improvements. (ref. 98)
(fn. o) An Act which received the
royal assent in August of the same year empowered
the Commissioners subject to the consent of the
Treasury, to raise £200,000 out of certain funds
derived from the duties on coal and wine entering
the Port of London, including the 'Orphans
Fund' and the 'London Bridge Approaches Fund',
in order to construct the streets. The Commissioners were also authorized to make detailed
surveys but not as yet to undertake actual construction. (ref. 99)
The surveys subsequently made by Pennethorne and his colleague Thomas Chawner
showed that the cost of these improvements would
be £638,000. (ref. 100) Another Select Committee was
therefore appointed, which heard evidence in the
spring of 1840. Pennethorne and Chawner had
judged that it would be necessary to set back
the south side of Coventry Street east of the
Haymarket, because after an opening into
Leicester Square had been made 'there would be
so much more traffic brought to Coventry-street
from all the different directions to which it would
open, that it would be too narrow'. One of the
plans which they had submitted to the Commissioners also required the purchase of three houses
on the south side of Sidney's Alley and fourteen
in Leicester Square—five on the west side, seven
on the north and two on the east. (ref. 101) The cost of
this plan was extremely high, and on 13 March
1840 the Commissioners (probably at the instance
of the Select Committee) directed Messrs. J. W.
Higgins and R. L. Jones, the latter being described in a later account as 'a person of great
influence in the City', to examine Pennethorne
and Chawner's proposals 'with a view to the reduction of those estimates, by cutting off every
part of the plans, and portion of the purchases,
which may not be indispensable to carry out the
designs'. (ref. 102)
A few days later Higgins and Jones presented
their estimate of the cost of the line from Coventry Street to St. Martin's Lane. It was, of
course, far lower than that of Pennethorne and
Chawner, but there would be no sites to let after
the street had been made. The widening of
Coventry Street was abandoned, and only three
houses were to be taken to form the opening at
the north-west corner of Leicester Square, where
there was to be no footway on one side of the
proposed new street. (ref. 103)
When Pennethorne was recalled to give the
Select Committee his views on Higgins and
Jones's proposals he succinctly stated the practical
case against the folly of not buying enough
ground on the sides of the street—a mistake
nevertheless made in almost every nineteenth-century metropolitan street improvement except
those executed by John Nash: Higgins and Jones
merely proposed to 'purchase sufficient ground to
form the street, without purchasing any to form
building-ground on the sides of the street'. This
policy had already been adopted in the formation
of the northern part of Wellington Street, and
had been 'a complete failure ... It is quite
impossible that we can purchase the ground to
form the street only, without also leaving little
scraps of ground on each side, too small to be let
for building-ground; and the consequence will be,
that they will be hoarded in and covered with
placards, and subject to every nuisance for 10
years, or more, to come, to the great injury of the
neighbourhood, because, although the freeholder
may be desirous to take advantage of the frontage,
he will not be able to do so until the leases fall in
. . . whereas we, by having power to compel them
[the tenants] to give up, could secure the street
being completed within a reasonable time.' (ref. 104)
Figure 81:
New Coventry Street, Cranbourn Street and Upper St. Martin's Lane, street improvements, plan. Stippled area denotes ground bought by the Commissioners of Woods and Forest. Redrawn from a plan of 1840 in the Public Record Office (MPE 789)
Higgins had admitted before the Select Committee that by purchasing very little surplus land
'the façade of the line of the street may not be
formed according to the desire of the Commissioners', (ref. 105) but Pennethorne seems to have made
no comment on this aspect; the polyglot architecture of most nineteenth-century street improvements provides its own commentary on the
importance of this point.
In June 1840 Pennethorne and Chawner
produced the revised plan which was subsequently
executed (ref. 106) (fig. 81). The widening of Coventry
Street (fn. p) and the acquisition of property on the
south side of Sidney's Alley and the north side
of Leicester Square were all abandoned, but four
houses on the west side of the square were to be
acquired, compared with five which Pennethorne
and Chawner had originally proposed and three
proposed by Higgins and Jones. No land was to be
acquired on the north side of Cranbourn Street
west of Castle Street, but on its south side, and on
both sides of its extension to St. Martin's Lane,
enough land was to be bought to provide building
plots, though some of them were very awkwardly
shaped. In Upper St. Martin's Lane, which was
to be widened by setting back the west side,
there was to be no surplus land.
In its report, dated 25 June 1840, the Select
Committee recommended that the extra cost of
the various improvements envisaged by the Act
of 1839 should be met by a four-year extension
of the period in which the duties on coal and wine
might be levied. It also proposed that the improvements in other parts of London should be
executed immediately, but made no recommendation for the line from Coventry Street to St.
Martin's Lane, which would cost 'not less than
£120,000'. (ref. 108) In August 1840 two Acts implemented these proposals. (ref. 109)
Another Act, passed in May 1841, authorized
the Commissioners of Woods and Forests to construct the line from Coventry Street to St.
Martin's Lane and make minor improvements
elsewhere in the metropolis. The Commissioners
were empowered for these purposes to charge the
coal and wine duties with £214,000, and to
purchase compulsorily some seventy properties
between Coventry Street and Upper St. Martin's
Lane. After the completion of the street the
Commissioners were required to dispose of all the
remaining surplus land, either by granting building leases and then selling the reserved rents, or
by outright sale of the freehold. (ref. 110) No time limit
was imposed for the completion of the sale of
surplus land, and some of it was in fact never sold.
The freehold of all of the land required belonged to the Marquess of Salisbury and three
members of the Tulk family. (ref. 111) The total cost
of purchasing all the freehold and leasehold
interests for the whole improvement was about
£180,000, (ref. 112) of which the Marquess of Salisbury received £71,827. (ref. 113) Demolition of the
existing buildings began in 1843, and paving
work had commenced before the end of the
year. (ref. 114) A small quantity of the surplus ground
was sold freehold but in September 1844 the
greater part of it was offered on lease by public
tender in thirteen lots. William Herbert of
Grosvenor Basin, Pimlico, builder, acquired six
lots on eighty-year building leases, and Lancelot
Archer Burton and William Dent of Newcastle
Street, Strand, plumbers, jointly acquired two
others on the same terms. John Hill of Albany
Street, builder, George Healey of Cumberland
Market, publican, Alexander Robb of St. Martin's
Lane, baker, and Samuel Archbutt of Oakley
Street, Chelsea, builder, each acquired one lot on
forty-two-year repairing and improving leases.
No bid was received for the last lot, a small fragment which was sold freehold, probably to the
adjoining owner. (ref. 115)
In August 1845 the Commissioners reported
that the new buildings were 'in rapid progress,
and will very shortly be completed, and the whole
line open to the Public'. (ref. 112) Most of the leases,
which were not granted until the buildings were
almost finished, were dated in 1845 and 1846,
and in August of the latter year the Commissioners
stated that 'The whole of the Buildings in the
Coventry Street Line are now completed; and
the new Street has for some time past been open,
and affords a great accommodation to the
Public.' (ref. 116)
Nos. 23–25 (consec.) on the north side of
Cranbourn Street and Nos. 26–36 (consec.) on the
south side survive to represent the original buildings in this street, and they illustrate the descending standards of 'Metropolitan Improvements' architecture. The fronts are of yellow
stock bricks, dressed with stucco ornaments of a
coarse Italianate character. Most of the houses
are four storeys high and two windows wide,
but those on the south-east side are grouped into
fours between pavilion houses, flanked by rustic
piers and having one wide and elaborately dressed
window in each storey. The high attic storey
of some of the houses on the south side is, perhaps,
a later addition.
The total cost of the improvement was
£206,093 (ref. 117) against which must be set the
annual income of £1,649 derived from the rents
of the surplus ground. The builders evidently
experienced great difficulty in finding subtenants for their new buildings, and in April
1849 the arrears of rent due to the Commissioners
amounted to £1,629. (ref. 118) A year later the arrears
had declined to £1,155, (ref. 119) but Herbert and
Burton, two of the Commissioners' lessees, were
still asking unsuccessfully for concessions in their
rents 'on the Ground of the disastrous state of
the Speculation'. (ref. 120) It was probably this failure
to find tenants for the new buildings that caused the
Commissioners to postpone repeatedly the sale
of the freehold ground rents. (ref. 121) Most of the
ground on the south side of Cranbourn Street
between Charing Cross Road and St. Martin's
Lane still belongs to the Crown. (ref. 122)
Warner Theatre, Cranbourn Street
Site formerly occupied by Daly's Theatre, previously
by Ryder's Court
During its comparatively short career from
1893 to 1937 Daly's achieved a fame and prosperity unequalled by many longer-lived West End
theatres. Its success was largely due to one man,
George Edwardes, who built the theatre for
Augustin Daly and who for twenty years preceding his death in 1915 presented a series of
sparkling musical comedies which bewitched the
playgoers of Victorian and Edwardian London.
But in the more feverish 1920's and 30's the
management lacked Edwardes's mastery, and
although Daly's outlived both its great neighbours, the Empire and the Alhambra, it ultimately provided yet another victim for the then
irresistible cinema.
Between 1884 and 1891 Augustin Daly, the
American impresario, and his company had paid
five visits to London, but when he planned a sixth
visit no theatre was available. George Edwardes,
who was running the Gaiety Theatre, offered to
build a new theatre for Daly and lease it to him. (ref. 123)
Negotiations with the Marquess of Salisbury
for a building lease of the site now bounded by
Lisle Street, Ryder's (now Leicester) Court and
Cranbourn Street appear to have begun in
1889, (ref. 124) and in 1890 Ryder's Court was both
widened and straightened.. (ref. 90) The foundation
stone of the new theatre was laid on 30 October
1891 by Ada Rehan, the leading actress in Daly's
company. (ref. 125) Edwardes's architect was Spencer
Chadwick, assisted by C. J. Phipps. (ref. 126) The
builder was Frank Kirk (ref. 127) and the total cost of
the building, which was one of the first theatres in
London to be built on the cantilever principle,
was about £60,000. (ref. 126)
The new theatre occupied a site fronting some
70 feet south to Cranbourn Street and 130 east to
Ryder's Court, the east-to-west width varying
up to 85 feet. The excellent plan (fig. 82) must
have been largely devised by C. J. Phipps, probably
the leading theatre architect of his time. In the
middle of the Cranbourn Street front was a
shallow vestibule, five doors wide, leading to the
spacious grand hall, its ceiling opening through an
ovoid well into the domed foyer at first-floor
level. The auditorium was well insulated from
street noises by exit passages and staircases.
Stalls and pit were at basement level, the pit
extending back under the grand hall. The dress
circle at ground level consisted of five stepped
rows, following the curve of the semi-circular
front row which extended to meet the stage boxes.
The upper circle, also of five rows, was entered
from the first-floor foyer, and above was a deep
gallery with eleven steppings. The well equipped
stage was 60 feet wide and 44 feet deep, with a
range of dressing-rooms along the west side.
The Cranbourn Street front (Plate 40a), a
French Renaissance design with elaborate detail
and much figure carving, was executed in a yellow
stone. The composition was symmetrical, with a
five-bay centre flanked by narrow pavilions.
Above the arcaded ground storey was a lofty
principal storey dressed with a Doric order of
fluted columns and pilasters, the middle three bays
being accented with a pediment. The attic storey,
with arched windows, was recessed between the
end pavilions which contained richly dressed
round windows, flanked by terms supporting
segmental pediments.
Figure 82:
Daly's Theatre, Cranbourn Street, plan in 1904. Redrawn from a plan in the possession of the Greater London Council
According to The Times, the interior (Plate
40b) was 'rich in blendings of silver and gold and
in fine inlaid woodwork'. The scheme was
dominated by the deeply moulded gold arch of the
round-headed proscenium, flanked by pedimented boxes above which pendentives extended
to meet the saucer-dome of the main ceiling.
The Times also recorded that 'A striking feature
of the decoration is the number and variety of the
figures shown in relief, in the moulding of which
the plastic hand of Mr. Alfred Gilbert, R.A., is
felt.' (ref. 128)
Daly opened the new theatre on 27 June
1893 with The Taming of the Shrew. (ref. 50) His
company continued to play there intermittently
during the next two seasons, but in 1895 he returned to America (ref. 129) and Edwardes took a sublease from Daly of his own house. (ref. 130) His first
great success here was An Artist's Model (1895),
and this was followed by the succession of
popular musical comedies which continued until
his death in 1915. Of these the most famous were
San Toy (1899–1901), A Country Girl (1902–4)
and The Merry Widow (1907–9). (ref. 50) Edwardes
was succeeded by his daughter, assisted by Robert
Evett, who continued the musical tradition, but
in 1922 the theatre was bought by a property
speculator, James White. (ref. 131) He continued, with
diminishing success, to present musical comedy,
but after his suicide in 1927 the fortunes of the
theatre declined from grace, and revivals, variety
and even pantomime began to find a refuge at
Daly's. (ref. 132) In 1937 the theatre was bought by
Warner Brothers, and the last performance took
place on 25 September. (ref. 50)
The Warner Theatre (or rather cinema)
which replaced Daly's was designed by E. A.
Stone in association with T. R. Somerford, and
was built by Griggs and Son. The new building
was finished in September 1938, almost a year
after the closure of Daly's Theatre, and it opened
with a gala performance on 12 October 1938.
Covering the original site of Daly's together with
some premises fronting to Lisle Street, the new
theatre was designed to seat 1,775. From Cranbourn Street, a wide range of doors, three on each
side of a central paybox, opens to a spacious foyer.
This, in plan, is a triangle with two concave sides,
each containing a staircase to the balcony and
paired doors to the stalls lobbies. Above the entrance foyer is a large lounge serving the circle.
The auditorium, its parallel side walls converging
in wide segmental curves to meet the proscenium,
contains stalls seating at ground level and a single
circle extending back over the foyer and lounge.
The Cranbourn Street front is faced with slabs
of reconstructed marble bonded with granite
concrete. It is a simple design, with a straight
face containing a range of five tall windows,
extending above the marquise that shelters the
recessed entrance. This face impinges on two tall
pylons, which are linked by a recessed concavecurving wall broken centrally by a taller pylon
with a projecting vertical sign bearing the theatre's
name. At the head of each side pylon is a panel
with a figure carved by Bainbridge Copnal, one
symbolizing Sound, and the other Sight.
Panelling of Empire woods decorates the entrance foyer and forms a high dado in the auditorium, where the walls are largely covered with
small squares of asbestos quilting over a lining of
acoustic material. The proscenium frame is
formed in three stepped recessions, and is finished
with a skeletal pediment of reversed curves. A
series of concealed lighting troughs, incorporated
in the main ceiling, runs parallel with the side
walls. Blue, green and beige dominate the colour
scheme. (ref. 133)
(Ground and first-floor plans, together with
illustrations of the exterior and interior, are contained in The Builder for 14 October 1938.)
The Talk of the Town (Hippodrome Theatre Restaurant), Cranbourn Street
Formerly The London Hippodrome
The Hippodrome was built in 1899–1900 by
H. E. (later Sir Edward) Moss to provide 'a
circus show second to none in the world, combined with elaborate stage spectacles impossible
in any other theatre'. (ref. 50) Its site, which belonged to
the Marquess of Salisbury, was until 1897 divided
into two parts by Earl's Court, 'a resort of bad
characters' which, under the terms of an agreement for a building lease between Lord Salisbury
and Moss, was closed in that year. The northern
side of the new theatre was set back a few feet
to give Little Newport Street a width of forty
feet. (ref. 134)
The Hippodrome was designed by Frank
Matcham, and Messrs. Holliday and Greenwood
were the general contractors; (ref. 135) it was opened
on 15 January 1900 with a circus and an elaborate
'water spectacle', Giddy Ostend. The fronts to
Cranbourn Street and Charing Cross Road were
used for shops, offices, flats and a public house.
Both the stage and the circus arena could be raised
and lowered by hydraulic rams, and the arena,
when sunk to its lowest level, provided a tank
with a capacity of 100,000 gallons of water for
the performance of aquatic entertainments (Plate
39a). When wild animals formed part of the circus programme the arena could be quickly
enclosed by steel railings twelve feet in height. (ref. 50)
For nearly ten years elaborate and spectacular
shows were presented at the Hippodrome. Redskins in canoes shot down artificial rapids into the
tank, twenty elephants (which were kept in a
stable in Lisle Street when not performing)
'caused shrieks of laughter by their ungainly and
ludicrous antics in sliding down a steep incline
into the water', trained cormorants were brought
from China, a man was shot out of a cannon and
is said to have attained a velocity of fourteen miles
a minute, and in 1909 there were seventy polar
bears in a programme entitled The Arctic. (ref. 50)
But Moss's belief that the public was eager for a
revival of the circus proved unfounded (ref. 136) and in
April 1909 the theatre was closed for alteration. (ref. 50)
The main purpose of the changes was to enlarge
the stage by advancing it and the proscenium wall
several feet into the auditorium. Seats were installed in the arena, but they could be removed
so that it and the stage could still be used conjointly. Frank Matcham was again the architect,
and the theatre was reopened in August 1909. (ref. 50)
For the next three years the Hippodrome
was given over to seasons of variety, (ref. 137) but in
1912 Albert De Courville presented Hello
Ragtime!, the first of his long series of successful
revues here. After 1926 musical comedy prevailed, although revue, ballet and pantomime
were occasionally presented. In the 1950's there
were musicals, revues, ice shows and variety, but
on 17 August 1957 the theatre was closed and
converted at a cost of £250,000 into a theatre-restaurant. It reopened on 11 September 1958
under its new name of The Talk of the Town,
and provided 'a complete evening's entertainment,
consisting of dinner, dancing and a full variety
show'. (ref. 50)
Figure 83:
London Hippodrome, plan in 1898. Redrawn from a plan in the possession of the Greater London Council
The London Hippodrome occupies an island
site fronting some 150 feet to Cranbourn Street,
90 feet to Charing Cross Road, 180 feet
to Little Newport Street, and 170 feet to Leicester Court (fig. 83). The auditorium, with the
stage at its west end, is contained in an oblong
block some 78 feet wide, fronting to Little Newport Street, but the main entrance is at the south-east corner, with the booking hall and foyer placed
diagonally between the ranges of shops and offices
fronting Cranbourn Street and Charing Cross
Road. The latter frontage incorporates an entrance to Leicester Square Station, and the Crown
public house. As originally planned, the auditorium floor was divided into parterre and stalls in
stepped rows arranged concentrically with the
circus ring, 40 feet in diameter, which was placed
immediately in front of the shallow stage. A
range of private boxes ringed the stalls seating,
which was recessed beneath a capacious grand
circle. A second tier contained the amphitheatre
and gallery, bringing the total capacity of the
house to some 3,000. Flanking the proscenium
were two large boxes, one for the orchestra and
the other designed as an organ loft. It was
originally intended to provide a glazed winter
garden above the theatre, but this was omitted
to allow a sliding dome over the auditorium
well.
The fronts to Cranbourn Street and Charing
Cross Road (Plate 39b) are uniformly designed
in a free and florid Renaissance style, and built
in red terra-cotta, now painted. The second- and third-floor windows are given prominence by
being formed as shallow canted bays, resting on
deep console-terms flanking the first-floor
windows, and finishing with curving parapets in
front of the top-storey windows, which are set in
pairs, flanked by scroll motifs. The Cranbourn
Street front has three bays on either side of a central
feature, dressed with pilasters and surmounted by
a pedimented attic, and a similar feature is placed
off-centre in the Charing Cross Road front.
Circular turrets mark the west and north corners
of the building, and above the south-east entrance
pavilion rises a skeleton dome of cast iron, supporting a chariot drawn by leaping horses, symbolizing the circus origin of the building.