Lisle Street
Lisle Street was built in two parts. The western
half was laid out in 1682–3 on part of the site of
the garden of Leicester House (see page 427).
In 1791 or 1792 Leicester House and its garden
and out-buildings were acquired by Thomas
Wright of Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, (ref. 173)
a banker in the firm of Wright, Selby and Robinson. He extended Lisle Street eastward across the
northern part of this ground to join Little
Newport Street. The extension of Lisle Street
was at first called New Lisle Street.
Between 2 March 1792 and 7 May 1795
Wright granted twenty-one leases of ground on
either side of Lisle Street, all for terms of between
ninety-six and ninety-nine years. With one
exception (James Morem, baker) (ref. 288) all the lessees
were building tradesmen, who were probably
acting in partnership. They were William Brooks
of Castle Street, St. George's, Bloomsbury,
mason (ref. 289) (twelve leases), John Simmons of
Goswell Street, surveyor, who was possibly the
architect of the houses (two leases, each for two
houses), (ref. 290) William Wickerstaff of New Lisle
Street, plasterer (two leases), (fn. 291) and (one lease
each) Thomas Jefferies of Carnaby Street,
painter and glazier, (fn. 292) William Luxton of Exeter
Street, bricklayer, (fn. 293) Titus Taylor of Little
Denmark Street, St. Giles's, carpenter, (fn. 294) and
William Woodcock of St. Martin's Lane,
plumber. (fn. 295)
A few artists gave Lisle Street as their address
in exhibition catalogues, namely: Edward Francis
Burney, painter, 1802–3; Nicholas Toussaint
Charlet, painter, 1834; John Eckstein, painter,
1797; J. George Sigmund Facius, miniature
painter, 1788; Alexander Pope, miniature
painter, 1804–5; Samuel John Stump, miniature
painter, 1803.
No. 1 Lisle Street: the Falcon Public House
The original house on the north corner of
Princes Street was occupied from an early date by a
victualler; from 1731, at least, it was called the
Falcon. (fn. 296) The present Falcon public house
combines the site of the corner house and the
adjacent site eastwards.
No. 5 Lisle Street: St. John's Hospital for Diseases of the Skin
The original No. 5 was one of the larger
houses in Lisle Street. It was let, together with a
coach-house and a stable, on 24 December 1683,
by the direction of Richard Frith, bricklayer, to
Michael Rolles of London, merchant, for fortyone years at a peppercorn for the first year and
three pounds per annum thereafter. (fn. 297)
Occupants have included: the Right Honourable Lady 'Darkey', (fn. 7) ? the wife (d. 1689/90) of
Lord Darcy and Conyers, later second Earl of
Holdernesse, 1688; (fn. 297) Lord William Paulet,
M.P., second son of the first Duke of Bolton, (fn. 52)
1691–4; (fn. 9) Arthur Herbert, first Earl of Torrington, formerly admiral of the fleet, (fn. 18) 1694–7 (fn. 9)
(?); the Hon. Robert Cecil, M.P., second son of
the third Earl of Salisbury, (fn. 52) (?) 1700–16;
his widow, 1717; Bulstrode Peachey Knight,
M.P., who moved from here to No. 75 Dean
Street, 1725–34; (fn. 9) James Edward Oglethorpe,
brigadier-general, M.P., and colonist of
Georgia, (fn. 18) 1747–55; the Hon. Mrs. Verney,
1757–60; (fn. 9) John Peyto Verney, fourteenth
Baron Willoughby de Broke, (fn. 52) 1761; MajorGeneral John Thomas, 1768–75; (fn. 9) and Anthony
Le Texier, actor, who gave readings of 'French
Dramatic Pieces' to 'numerous and fashionable
audiences' here, and performed in the privately
produced plays of the Pic-Nic Club, (fn. 298) 1783–
1803 or 1804. (fn. 9)
The present No. 5 (Plate 140d) was designed
by Frank T. Verity in 1897. (fn. 299) It has a highly
picturesque front in the early Renaissance style of
northern Europe, a well composed design dominated by a three-storeyed oriel placed centrally
below a great gable, its stepped profile decorated
with inverted consoles and crowned with an
obelisk. Now painted in two colours, the front
appears to be built of pale terra-cotta.
The building was first occupied in 1900 by the
French Club and subsequently by Pathé of
France and Pathéscope Limited, film-makers.
Since 1935 it has been in the possession of St.
John's Hospital. (fn. 300)
St. John's Hospital for Diseases of the Skin
was founded in 1863 at No. 12 Church Street,
Soho, by John Laws Milton, a surgeon who specialized in skin diseases. In 1865 it was moved to
No. 45 Leicester Square where it remained until
1887. In that year it removed to No. 49 Leicester
Square and in 1935 was transferred to its present
home at No. 5 Lisle Street. (fn. 301)
After the move to No. 45 Leicester Square in
1865 the hospital, at which the medical officer
had previously attended once a week, was open
daily at 2 p.m. There was also an evening clinic
once a week, which enabled the 'artisan classes'
to attend 'without it being known that they are
afflicted with a skin disease' and thus to avoid the
risk of dismissal from their employment. (fn. 302)
During the late 1860's the hospital began to take
in-patients, and usually had about a dozen beds.
The number of new out-patients gradually increased from 1,442 in 1876 to 4,298 in 1886,
while from 1883 to 1886 seventeen beds were
available for in-patients at an annexe at No. 17
Markham Square, Chelsea. (fn. 303)
In 1886 the lease of No. 45 Leicester Square
expired, the Markham Square annexe was closed
and in the following year the hospital moved to
No. 49 Leicester Square. The accommodation
there was described as 'spacious, with commodious
entrance hall, the staircase light and easy of ascent,
rooms light, lofty and airy. The extensive basement could be readily adapted for an excellent
bath department and dispensary; there was considerable space at the back which could easily be
utilised for a doctor's room and waiting room for
out-patients'. (fn. 304)
By the early years of the twentieth century the
hospital was treating nearly 8,000 new outpatients a year (fn. 305) and in 1905 No. 49 Leicester
Square was rebuilt. It was completed and
equipped at a cost of a little over £10,000, and
was thought to be 'spacious enough to meet all
demands that may be made upon it in years to
come'. (fn. 306) Since 1864 courses in dermatology
were held at the hospital, and in 1923 the London
School (now the Institute) of Dermatology was
established here. In 1948 St. John's was designated as a teaching hospital within the National
Health Service. (fn. 307)
By 1934 the hospital was treating 54,453
out-patients and the existing accommodation was
inadequate. Accordingly the Board of Management purchased No. 5 Lisle Street for £25,000.
Plans for the necessary internal alterations, estimated to cost an additional £8,000, were prepared
by the honorary architect, A. Bryett. (fn. 308) Alterations began in the summer of 1935 and the
hospital moved into No. 5 Lisle Street at the end
of the year. (fn. 306) The new premises, which were
opened on 1 January 1936, (fn. 309) were described as
'bright, airy and cheerful, and …so planned that
the patients attending, numbering over a thousand
per week, may be dealt with rapidly'. (fn. 306) By 1938
the total number of out-patients attending had
risen to 65,798. (fn. 310) In 1950 the hospital premises
were extended northwards over the sites of Nos.
28–29 Gerrard Street and the Westminster General Dispensary at No. 9 Gerrard Street was
rented by St. John's from 1954 to 1962. In 1962
No. 30 Gerrard Street was also taken over by the
hospital. (fn. 309) Plans for removal to Chelsea are
now under consideration. (fn. 311)
Nos. 6–8 (consec.) Lisle Street
No. 8 demolished
The present Nos. 6 and 7 are early nineteenthcentury houses. No. 8 was demolished in 1904
for the National Telephone Company's exchange,
replaced in 1935–7 by the present General Post
Office building (see page 400).
The three original houses were noticeably
smaller than No. 5 Lisle Street and had fewer
occupants of interest. They included: (fn. 9) (No. 6)
the Earl of Ailesbury, who owned the large house
in Leicester Square next to Leicester House,
1691–2; Sir William Moore or More of Stamford, Lincolnshire, fifth baronet, (fn. 186) 1780–7;
(No. 7) Lady Stapleton, 1701, probably the
widow of Sir William Stapleton, baronet, Governor of the Leeward Islands; (fn. 186) Sir Clement
Cotterell, master of the ceremonies, (fn. 18) 1712–19;
and (No. 8) Captain Medley, 1743–4, ? Henry
Medley, captain and later vice-admiral. (fn. 18)
Nos. 9 and 10 Lisle Street
Demolished
This was originally a single large house,
divided or rebuilt as two in the nineteenth
century. Occupants have included: (fn. 9) Lord Henry
Scott, later first Earl of Deloraine, (fn. 18) who subsequently occupied No. 46 Leicester Square, 1704;
Colonel (later Brigadier-General) Thomas Stanwix, Governor of Gibraltar, (fn. 312) 1706–11; Lady
Gascoyne, 1714–18, 1720–2, probably the widow
of Sir Thomas Gascoigne of Barnbow, Yorkshire,
fourth baronet (but see No. 5 Leicester Street); (fn. 186)
Lady Sarah Cooper, 1730–3; Dr. William Egerton, Canon of Canterbury Cathedral, (fn. 313) 1736–7
or 1738; Colonel Onslow, 1738, ? Colonel
Richard Onslow, son of Foote Onslow; (fn. 314) Dr.
Samuel Lisle (Bishop of St. Asaph 1744, Bishop
of Norwich 1748, died 1749), 1739–49; and
Dr. Francis Ayscough, formerly clerk of the
closet to Frederick, Prince of Wales, and preceptor to his son Prince George (George III), (fn. 18)
1751–62.
In 1904 the two houses on the site were demolished for the erection of the National Telephone Company's exchange, which was replaced
by the present General Post Office building in
1935–7 (see page 400).
Nos. 11–13 (consec.) Lisle Street
Demolished
The original house on this site was about the
same size as No. 5, but had the advantage of overlooking the garden of Leicester House. It was let
on 25 November 1687 to Andrew Card (fn. 315) of
Gray's Inn, esquire, (fn. 48) and occupied from 1691
or earlier by William Cheyne, second Viscount
Newhaven, who probably moved here from a
house in Gerrard Street (see Nos. 36–39 Gerrard
Street). Lord Newhaven occupied this house until
his death in 1727. His widow Gertrude (née
Pierrepont) lived here until 1732. (fn. 9)
In 1733 Lady Newhaven's brother-in-law,
John Leveson-Gower, second Baron, and later
first Earl Gower, took the house, probably on
the occasion of his second marriage. His second
wife died shortly afterwards and he married a
third time in 1736, leaving the house in Lisle
Street in that year. (fn. 9)
Dr. Ayscough occupied the house in 1747–51,
having left No. 45 Gerrard Street to make way
for the pages of Frederick, Prince of Wales; he
moved from here to Nos. 9–10 Lisle Street, to
make way for the maids of honour of the Princess
of Wales. The maids of honour were lodged here
from 1751 to 1762 but in 1763, shortly before
Dr. Ayscough's death, the house reverted to the
Ayscough family who continued to occupy it
until 1776. In 1782 the house was turned into a
shop. (fn. 9)
From 1808 to 1931 the site was occupied by
the Royal Society of Musicians (now at No. 10
Stratford Place) and by two shops belonging to the
society. The society was founded in 1738 as a
charity to help musicians, or members of their
families, who were in need. Some 220 members
joined initially, including the composers Arne,
Pepusch and Handel. The latter was a great
benefactor to the society; he gave the first English
performance of his Messiah for its benefit, and
bequeathed it one thousand pounds in his will.
In 1790 the society secured a royal charter from
King George III, who was another important
benefactor. (fn. 316)
The affairs of the society are administered by
twelve governors who meet monthly. Until
1807 they met in taverns. In that year the society
took rooms at No. 10 Panton Square, off Coventry Street, but in 1808 it bought a plot of freehold ground on the north side of Lisle Street
from Thomas Wright for £700. (fn. 317)
At the annual general meeting held on 15 July
1808 the society authorized the house committee
to erect a building there 'for the use of the Society
as they shall judge will be most for the advantage
of it'. (fn. 318)
The first annual general meeting of the society
to be held in the new building took place on 25
June 1809, when a motion of thanks was passed
to 'Mr. Hopper' for 'the great Assistance he has
afforded the House Committee in drawing the
Plans, and superintending the building of the
room we are now assembled in', and he was requested to accept a life subscription as a mark of
gratitude. (fn. 318) This was presumably Thomas
Hopper (1776–1856) who was then commencing
his career as a fashionable architect, having added
a Gothic conservatory to Carlton House for the
Prince of Wales in 1807. (fn. 56)
The building which Hopper designed was
divided into three separate premises, Nos. 11–13.
A survey plan, made shortly before demolition,
shows that the society's board-room, some thirty-seven feet long and twenty feet wide, was placed
at the back of the site. (fn. 319) The doorway centred
in the long south wall was reached by a corridor
extending north from the entrance porch in
Lisle Street. On either side of the corridor was a
shop. A watercolour of 1886 in the collection of
the Greater London Council gives an oblique
view of the simply designed front. The recessed
porch, dressed with Doric columns in antis
supporting a triglyphed entablature, was flanked
by projecting shop fronts. The plain upper face,
of stucco or whitened brick, contained two tiers
of three widely spaced windows, those in the
middle set in a round-headed shallow recess.
A photograph (fn. 320) and a drawing by Hanslip
Fletcher (Plate 41a) show that the board-room
was decorated in the Grecian style of the Regency
period. A chimney-breast projected from each end
wall, the fireplace having a typical reeded-andstopped architrave chimneypiece of marble, but
the dominating features of the room were the
surrounds to the doorway and a corresponding
recess in the north wall. The doorway, dressed
with a cornice resting on scroll-consoles, was set
in a segmental-arched recess, flanked by paired
Doric pilasters supporting an entablature of frieze
and cornice. The pilaster shafts were decorated
with Soanic incised frets, and on the frieze above
them were laurel wreaths. The walls were left
plain as a ground for pictures, and from the simple
cornice a plain cove rose to the flat ceiling surrounding the oval skylight.
In 1866 the society amalgamated with the
Royal Society of Female Musicians, and when it
removed to Stratford Place in 1931 it had about
430 members. (fn. 321) The move was made necessary
by the expansion of the neighbouring telephone
exchange which now covers the site.
Nos. 14–27 (consec.), 34 and 35 Lisle Street
The eastward extension of Lisle Street in the
early 1790's was planned as a uniform street lined
with medium-sized houses, generally twenty
feet wide, containing shops and having living
accommodation in two upper storeys and a
mansard garret (Plate 53). Many of the houses
had good shop fronts of varying design (Plates
134a, 134c), below an upper face of yellow stock
bricks dressed with a narrow sill-band of Roman
cement to the second-floor windows, and a
modillion cornice of stone below the brick parapet. With a few exceptions, every house had two
windows in each storey, furnished with barred
sashes recessed in plain openings having thinly
stuccoed reveals, and flat arches of gauged brickwork. Nos. 17, 18 and 19, on the north side,
form a closing feature to the vista along Leicester
Place. The middle house, No. 18, is broken
slightly forward from its neighbours and was
originally enriched with Roman cement. This
was used for the moulded architraves of the firstfloor windows, and for the apron tablet, frieze and
dentilled cornice taking the place of the secondfloor sill-band. The apron tablet, which extended
above the two first-floor windows, had lugged ends
dressed with guttae, and was boldly lettered
LEICESTER HOUSE. The narrow frieze on
either side was decorated with paterae. Above the
main cornice is a triangular pediment, its brick
tympanum containing an oblong tablet inscribed
NEW LISLE STREET MDCCXCI. (fn. a) Although the
flanking houses were generally similar to the
rest of the terrace, they were finished with an
open balustrade. No. 18 has lost much of its
ornament and the brickwork has been crudely
painted, while the cornice and balustrade of each
flanking house has been replaced with a plain
parapet. Many of the original shop fronts have
been replaced and those remaining have been
mutilated. On the south side only two houses
survive—Nos. 34 and 35.
No. 41 Lisle Street
Demolished
The original house on this site was the largest
in Lisle Street; it adjoined the garden wall of
Leicester House on the east and Ailesbury House
on the south. Like the house opposite, it was
probably originally let to Andrew Card. (fn. 48)
The first known occupant was Sir Richard
Temple, the third baronet and politician, in
1691–4. He was followed by John Jeffreys,
second Baron Jeffreys and son of the judge, from
1694 until his death in 1702. He obtained the
public funeral for Dryden which occasioned the
story mentioned on page 410 n. Lady Jeffreys
continued to live here until 1703. (fn. 322)
Later occupants included: (fn. 9) the Danish envoy,
Ivar Rosencrantz, (fn. 323) 1704–5, who subsequently
lived at No. 10–11 Leicester Street; Lady Anne
Popham, daughter of Ralph Montagu, first Duke
of Montagu, widow of Alexander Popham of
Littlecote, Wiltshire, 1706; (fn. 324) her cousin, whom
she married in 1707, Lieutenant-General Daniel
Harvey, M.P., (fn. 325) 1707–32; Lady Harvey,
1733–42; Henry Dillon, eleventh Viscount
Dillon, 1745–6; and Thomas Hayter, Bishop of
Norwich, preceptor to the Prince of Wales
(George III), (fn. 18) 1751–61.
In 1783 the house became a shop; (fn. 9) its site now
forms part of the Empire Theatre.
Nos. 42–44 (consec.) Lisle Street
Demolished
The site of No. 42 was originally the entrance
to the stable-yard of Ailesbury House. Occupants of interest of the two other fairly small
houses included: (fn. 9) (No. 43) Dr. Vernon, 1706–
18; Lord John Kerr, 1720–5; Sir George Walter,
1740–2; Lady Walter, 1743–52; (No. 44) Lady
Browne, 1691; Lady Fairborne, widow of Sir
Palmes Fairborne, (fn. 18) 1694; James Craggs, c.
1697–1700,? the elder James Craggs, Postmaster-General, M.P., promoter of the South
Sea Company; (fn. 18) Sir Stafford Fairborne, son of
Sir Palmes, knight, admiral of the fleet, (fn. 18)
1701–8; and Lady Gillmore, 1756.
The three sites are now occupied by the Empire
Theatre.
Swedenborgian Meeting-room,
Lisle Street
In 1813 the congregation of Swedenborgians
led by Dr. Joseph Proud relinquished the chapel
in York Street, St. James's Square, (fn. 326) and 'removed to a small and obscure room in Lisle-street,
…which was fitted up at a great cost'. Dr.
Proud retired to Birmingham in the following
year, and the congregation in Lisle Street dwindled. (fn. 327) The situation of the meeting-room in
Lisle Street is not known.