Leicester Place
Leicester Place (see Frontispiece) and the buildings
on both sides of it stand on part of the site formerly
occupied by Leicester House and its garden and
outbuildings. The site was acquired in 1791 or
1792 by Thomas Wright of Henrietta Street,
Covent Garden, (ref. 175) a banker in the firm of Wright,
Selby and Robinson, and Leicester House was
demolished at about the same time. Wright
extended Lisle Street eastward across his vacant
ground to join Little Newport Street, and
Leicester Place joined this extension of Lisle
Street with Leicester Square.
Eleven of the leases which Wright granted of
land on either side of Leicester Place have been
traced. All of them were for terms of ninety-nine years or slightly less and all except one are
dated between 22 December 1792 and 1 June
1795. The lessees were Philip Norris of Castle
Street, St. Andrew's, Holborn, builder (four leases,
all of ground on the east side), (ref. 348) William Brooks
of Castle Street, St. George's, Bloomsbury, mason
(two leases), (ref. 349) and (one lease each) Thomas
Jefferies of Carnaby Street, painter and glazier, (ref. 350)
Richard Day of York Street, Covent Garden,
linen draper, (ref. 351) Lawrence Nicholl of St. Anne's,
Soho, physician, (ref. 352) and Robert Barker, the promoter of the panorama, described as of Castle
Street, St. Martin's, gentleman. (ref. 353) There was a
short cul-de-sac known as Duncan Place on the
west side of the street; its site is now occupied by
part of Queen's House. Wright intended that
there should be a similar cul-de-sac on the east
side, but this plan evidently did not materialize (ref. 354)
and by a lease dated 27 June 1797 the vacant site
in the now otherwise completed street was leased
to William Brooks for the erection of Charles
Dibdin's Sans Souci Theatre. (ref. 355)
Only one of the houses erected at this time—
No. 3 on the east side, the lease of which has not
been traced—now survives. It has a plain brick
front of four storeys, each three windows wide.
The sashes are recessed in plain openings, which
have stone sills and flat arches of gauged brickwork, and are proportionate to the storey heights
although the front generally has an attenuated
appearance. The tall first-floor windows have
not been lengthened, the raised cement band on the
piers between the openings being an original
feature of all the houses. The front is finished
with a narrow stone cornice and a plain brick
parapet, the latter partly concealing the two dormers in the slated mansard.
The rest of the ground on the east side of the
street is occupied by Charles House and the
Prince Charles Theatre, the Roman Catholic
Church of Notre Dame De France and the return
front of Victory House. The west side is occupied
by the return fronts of Queen's House and the
Empire Theatre.
No. 12 Leicester Place, on the west side, was
occupied from 1805 until 1844 by Honoratus
Leigh Thomas, surgeon. (ref. 322) In 1812 the
French émigré general, Charles François Dumouriez, was living at a house in Leicester
Place. (ref. 356)
The Sans Souci Theatre,
Leicester Place
Demolished
The Sans Souci Theatre in Leicester Place was
built in 1796 by Charles Dibdin, the dramatist
and song-writer, and stood on the site of the
northern part of Victory House. Dibdin had
previously given recitals of his own songs at his
theatre or rooms of the same name near Southampton Street, Strand, but these premises had
proved unsatisfactory. In his autobiography he
states that 'By the time I proposed leaving the
Strand, the whole of Leicester-Place had been
built up and finished, except a chasm which
seemed to answer my purpose perfectly well, and
which, indeed, I had almost bargained for five
years before'. (ref. 357) The 'chasm' to which he refers
was a vacant plot of land on the east side of
Leicester Place which Thomas Wright had not
leased in 1794. By 1796 houses had been erected
on either side of this plot, and Dibdin therefore
'had no walls to erect, except one in front of the
house, another at the back, and to give a greater
altitude to that at the back of the theatre, for
every other part of the brick work had been dry
and seasoned for more than three years'. Dibdin
also relates that when he 'came to measure the
ground, its dimensions were to an inch, as far as it
regarded the theatre, exactly the same as those of
the premises I was about to quit, so I had nothing
to do but remove my materials as a frame, and
refix them'. (ref. 357) Dibdin's licence from the Lord
Chamberlain for his rooms near Southampton
Street expired on 19 March 1796 (ref. 358) and 'only
twelve weeks passed between the period of laying
the first stone' (ref. 357) of the new theatre in Leicester
Place and the opening night there, which took
place on 8 October 1796. (ref. 359) A colonnade was
added a year later. The building, which seems to
have included a shop for the sale of Dibdin's
music, with living quarters above, 'was executed
entirely under the direction of Mr. Dibdin, at the
total expence of little less than £6,000. It is calculated to hold 500 persons'. (ref. 360)
The unsigned and undated watercolour reproduced on Plate 27b shows the exterior of the
Sans Souci Theatre. Four storeys high and five
windows wide, the front projected slightly from
the flanking houses on the east side of Leicester
Place. The ground storey was embellished with a
colonnade of five bays, alternately narrow and
wide, forming a porch to the theatre and musicshop entrance, centred between wide windows
with elliptical cobweb fanlights, and an archheaded doorway at either end. The slender
unfluted Doric columns rose from plain pedestals
and carried architrave-blocks below a plain
unbroken frieze and cornice. A simple iron
railing surrounded the flat roof of the porch,
forming a balcony for the first-floor windows.
The upper part of the front was plain except for
the pedestal beneath the second-floor windows,
and the cornice below the parapet. A large splaysided dormer window, placed centrally, lit the
garret storey.
Van Assen's engraved view shows the small
auditorium, simply and elegantly decorated
(Plate 27a). The pit was surrounded by two tiers
of boxes, framed in tall elliptically arched
openings. What appear to be small oval mirrors
were fixed below the upper box fronts, and from
the narrow piers projected brackets with pendant
candelabra. The proscenium was dressed like a
tent, with draperies suspended from a semidomed canopy.
The lease of the site was dated 27 June 1797
(sic) and was granted by Thomas Wright to
William Brooks of Castle Street, St. George's,
Bloomsbury, builder. The land was leased 'with
the Messuage or Dwelling house thereon newly
erected and built with the Exhibition Room or
Place of Public Entertainment at the back of the
same called the New Sans Souci'. The plot had a
street frontage of 46 feet and on its north side a
depth of 64 feet; the east end measured 37 feet,
and the south side (which was not straight) 62
feet. The lease was to run for ninety-four years
from 29 September 1796, and the rent was
£40. (ref. 355) On 16 December 1797 Brooks assigned
the lease for an unspecified price to Dibdin at a
rent of £98. (ref. 361)
A newspaper of the time stated that 'The
Sans Souci is fitted up in a shewy style, but with
very humble pretensions to what may be called
classical taste. Mr. Dibdin, however, if not a man
of genius, is a man of much ingenuity. He writes
ballads, sets them to musick, plays and sings them
himself; and he now even engrosses the painter's
art, and has embellished the Sans Souci with pictures from his own pencil'. (ref. 362)
The Gentleman's
Magazine recorded after Dibdin's death that 'The
influence of his songs upon our gallant Tars has
long been known, and probably has contributed
to stimulate their heroism, and inculcate submission to the hardship of their profession, and to
the will of Providence'. (ref. 363)
From October 1796 to April 1804 Dibdin
gave three performances a week during the
winter months. (ref. 364) In his autobiography he states
that his first season 'upon the whole was very
productive; but I soon found I had removed too
far from the city, whence I had ever drawn my
most substantial support'. (ref. 365) In February 1799
he mortgaged the theatre for £970. (ref. 366) He had
intended to retire after the season of 1801–2,
but 'out of all the numerous bidders for this
property' he had 'not met with a single offer
worthy the smallest attention', so he decided to
continue. (ref. 367)
In December 1804 Dibdin mortgaged the
theatre, which was evidently now closed, for a
further £230. (ref. 368) The ratebooks indicate that
the 'Theatre and Shop' were empty in 1805–7,
but the Lord Chamberlain granted a licence to
Frederick Schirmer for the performance of
'Musical and Dramatical Interludes in the
German Language' there for one year from
22 June 1805, (ref. 369) and a playbill of December
1805 shows that these performances did take
place. (ref. 370) The Lord Chamberlain also granted
a licence to Henry Francis Greville of the Argyll
Rooms, Little Argyll Street, (ref. 371) for 'Plays and
Entertainments performed by Children', and
for music and dancing, for one year from 1 March
1806. (ref. 369) A playbill of 22 May 1806 records that
the theatre was then known as 'The Academical
Theatre, Leicester Place (late Dibdin's)' and was
used on that date for a benefit performance for
Mr. Waldkron's four children. (ref. 260)
On 4 July 1807 Dibdin, described as of Cranford, Middlesex, esquire, leased the premises to
Thomas Cane of the Strand, hosier, for sixtythree years at an annual rent of £298. (ref. 372) Dibdin
subsequently became involved in financial difficulties and died in 1814. (ref. 373)
The ratebooks show that from 1808 to 1828
the premises were occupied as a warehouse by
B. Carder and Company, (ref. 9) army clothiers and
tailors. (ref. 194) In the early 1830's the theatre and
shop appear to have been occupied by a Mr.
Smythson, a dramatic agent and theatrical general
factotum. Occasional benefit and other performances were given, the theatre being sometimes
called the Sans Souci and sometimes the 'Vaudeville Subscription Theatre'. (ref. 374) The ratebooks
for this period give the occupant as Benjamin
Palmer, but in 1835 he is described as 'Lost
Insolvent'. (ref. 9) In the following year the theatre
was bought by Isaac Newton, a linen draper
occupying adjoining premises in Leicester Square,
who intended to use it as an annexe to his shop. (ref. 260)
In 1841 it was occupied by a restaurateur, and
from 1844 to 1857 it was known as the Hôtel
de Versailles. (ref. 194) It was demolished in or before
1898, when Victory House was erected on the site
(see page 471).
Notre Dame De France Roman Catholic Church, Leicester Place
Formerly The Panorama
The main circular body of this church stands
upon the site of the panorama erected here by
Robert Barker in 1792–3. It is said that while
sketching on Calton Hill, Edinburgh, Barker
was struck with the idea of painting a picture on a
large cylindrical surface to represent the entire
scene around him. (ref. 18) With financial assistance
from Lord Elcho he was able to conduct experiments (ref. 375) and in 1787 he obtained a royal licence
for the exclusive use of his invention for fourteen
years. The patent stated that 'after much Study,
Labour and Expence he hath Invented an entire
new contrivance or Apparatus which he calls
La Nature a coup d'œil for the purpose of
displaying views of Nature at large by Oil
painting … or drawing, [and] that he is the first
and true Inventor thereof'. (ref. 376) The principal
problem which he had to overcome was that the
drawings 'being made on flat surfaces, when
placed together in a circle the horizontal lines
appeared curved instead of straight, unless on the
exact level of the eye; and to meet this difficulty
Mr. Barker had to invent a system of curved lines
peculiarly adapted to the concave surface of
his picture, which should appear straight when
viewed from a platform at a certain level in the
centre'. (ref. 377)
In 1789 he exhibited a view of Edinburgh in a
large room at No. 28 Haymarket, and subsequently his son, Henry Aston Barker, made
drawings of the view of London from Albion
Mills, Blackfriars Bridge, which were exhibited in
1792–3 in a rough building at the back of Robert
Barker's house in Castle Street, Leicester
Square. (ref. 378)
(fn. a)
At about the same time Robert Barker acquired
a plot of ground on the east side of Leicester
Place, together with a large site at the rear with
access to Leicester Square, and here he erected a
circular building specially designed for the
exhibition of his panoramas (Plates 41b, 42a). The
first subject to be shown here was 'A View of the
Grand Fleet regularly moored at Spithead', and
the new building was opened on 25 May 1793. (ref. 379)
Barker's lease of the site was granted by Thomas
Wright, the owner of most of the ground on the
north side of Leicester Square, and was dated
20 October 1794; his term was for ninety-six
years from Michaelmas 1794 and the rent was
£137. (ref. 353)
The architect of the panorama building was
Robert Mitchell, who described it in his Plans,
and Views in Perspective … of Buildings erected
in England and Scotland, 1801. The rotunda
(Plate 42a), which was 90 feet in diameter and
57 feet high, was 'divided into two compartments,
which are concentric circles: this contrivance
gives a double exhibition, by presenting for view
two distinct pictures, an invention that happily
has produced the most beneficial effects, not
merely in pecuniary advantage, but in having at all
times a picture to exhibit whilst the other is in
painting.' The upper picture was suspended
from the roof, and 'As the circle of the upper
picture is much less than the under, an advantage
is attained, that the under picture without interruption can occupy, if requisite, almost the whole
height of the sides of the building.' (ref. 380) It is said
that a joint stock company (in which Lord Elcho
took a prominent part) was formed to help Barker
to pay for the new building, but that the profits of
the exhibition soon enabled him to buy all the
shares. (ref. 381)
Robert Barker was assisted by his son, Henry
Aston Barker, in the production of a long series of
panoramas. In 1799 Henry Aston Barker went
to Turkey to make a view of Constantinople, and
during the short-lived Peace of Amiens he visited
Paris. The battles of the Napoleonic Wars
provided admirable subjects, and those of the
Nile, Copenhagen, Salamanca, Vittoria, Badajoz
and finally Waterloo were all presented at the
panorama in Leicester Square, many of the
drawings being made by the Barkers' assistant,
John Burford. (ref. 382)
After the expiry of Robert Barker's fourteenyear patent in 1801 his eldest son, Thomas
Edward Barker, who was not an artist but
had assisted his father, and Ramsay Richard
Reinagle (later R.A.), who had been employed as
a painter by Robert Barker, entered into partnership and erected a rival panorama building in the
Strand, a few doors west of Surrey Street.
Robert Barker died on 8 April 1806 at his house
in West Square, Southwark, and bequeathed the
business in Leicester Square to his son Henry
Aston; Thomas Edward is not mentioned in his
will. (ref. 383) In 1816 Henry Aston Barker and his
assistant John Burford bought the rival establishment in the Strand for a considerable sum, and
conducted it in partnership until 1826; panoramas
continued to be exhibited here by John Burford
and (after his death in 1827) by his brother
Robert until 1830. (ref. 384) In 1831–2 the building
was converted into the Strand Theatre. (ref. 385)
The exhibition of the panorama of the Battle
of Waterloo at Leicester Square had proved so
successful that in 1826 Henry Aston Barker transferred the management of the business there to
John and Robert Burford and retired; he died on
19 July 1856. (ref. 386) After the death of John Burford in 1827 the business was continued by
Robert Burford, whose panoramas included views
of Bombay, Canton, Jerusalem and New York,
and later, of Sebastopol, Lucknow and Delhi. (ref. 387)
Robert Burford died in 1861. (ref. 18) His death was
lamented by John Ruskin, who wrote that
'Burford's panorama in Leicester Square … was
an educational institution of the highest and
purest value, and ought to have been supported
by the Government as one of the most beneficial
school instruments in London'. (ref. 388) The business
was continued by his son Robert William Burford
until 1864, (ref. 389) but in March 1865 the lease of the
building and of the adjoining house, No. 5
Leicester Place, was acquired by a French Marist
priest, Père Charles Faure. (ref. 390)
Some years previously Cardinal Wiseman had
foreseen the need for a centrally situated church
for French Roman Catholics in London (ref. 391) and
had asked the Marist Fathers at St. Anne's, Mile
End New Town, to undertake its establishment. (ref. 392) Père Charles Faure (1825–1888) was
placed in charge of the work, and in 1861 he
appealed for funds in France. (ref. 393) Soho was at this
time still the centre of the French colony in London, and Leicester Place therefore provided a
suitable situation for the new church. On 8
December 1865 a small temporary chapel was
opened in the former entrance to the panorama
at No. 16 Leicester Square, and a school and an
orphanage were established here in 1866. (ref. 394)
The conversion of Burford's panorama building
into a church with access from No. 5 Leicester
Place instead of No. 16 Leicester Square was
entrusted to the French architect Louis-Auguste
Boileau (1812–1896), who had made a study of
the use of iron ribs in church architecture. (ref. 395)
Boileau designed a cruciform church, to be constructed within the circular shell of Burford's
panorama, having a central space and four equal
arms, each of one square bay, the residual
spaces forming quadrant-shaped aisles containing
galleries (Plate 22a, fig. 105). Each bay was ceiled
with a groined vault, the cast-iron arches and ribs
rising from cast-iron bracketed capitals resting on
iron columns cased with marble to form a central
shaft with four engaged colonnettes. The ribs were
plain, with a thin moulding projecting between
the plaster panels of the vaulting, but the arches
linking the piers were strengthened with webs,
perforated with quatrefoils in square panels. The
quadrant aisles were screened from the arms of
the cross by three-bay arcades, all of cast iron, the
slender colonnettes supporting trilobed arches
having trefoil spandrels, below a gallery railing of
quatrefoils set in a lattice of convex-sided squares.
The conversion of the panorama building was
superintended by A. Sauvée (ref. 391) of 62 King William Street, who designed the porch of the church
in Leicester Place. (ref. 396) The builders were Messrs.
Wood of Mile End Road, (ref. 391) and the total cost was
variously described as £2,000, (ref. 397) £4,000 (ref. 398) and
£8,000 excluding interior decorations. The high
altar, 'a handsome specimen of terra-cotta work',
was by M. Viribert of Toulouse. (ref. 391) The church
was blessed by Père Faure on 10 June 1868 (ref. 399)
and Archbishop (later Cardinal) Manning celebrated the first Mass there on the following
day. (ref. 391)
The orphanage was transferred to Norwood
in 1870. In 1890 the boys' school was removed
to No. 8 Lisle Street, and in 1911 to Nos. 34–35
Lisle Street. After the acquisition of Nos. 4 and
6 Leicester Place the entrance porch to the
church was enlarged in 1903. (ref. 400)
In November 1940 the church was severely
damaged by enemy action. (ref. 401) It was rebuilt after
the war to the designs of Professor Hector O.
Corfiato of Corfiato, Stewart Lloyd Thomson
and Partners, (ref. 402) the first stone, brought from
Chartres Cathedral, being laid by M. Maurice
Schumann on 31 May 1953. (ref. 401) The new church
was opened on 16 October 1955. (ref. 403) The contractors were C. P. Roberts and Company
Limited. (ref. 401)
The present church has an impressive front to
Leicester Place, designed in a style that might be
described as Beaux Arts Modern, and built of
fine narrow bricks sparingly dressed with stone.
The purpose of the building is proclaimed by the
entrance feature, with three doorways, the middle
one arched, set in a concave face projecting boldly
from the lofty first stage of two storeys (Plate
22b). The second stage contains two normal
storeys, each with seven windows, and above
there are three single-storey stages, successively
set back. French artists were responsible for the
sculptural decoration of the entrance. The panels
of scenes from the life of the Virgin, on the
rounded piers between the three doorways, are
by students of the Beaux Arts de Paris, and the
triangular relief of the Mater Misericordiae,
above the central door, is by Professor Saupique.
Figure 105:
Notre Dame De France Roman Catholic Church, Leicester Place, section and plan before rebuilding. Redrawn from drawings by Corfiato, Stewart Lloyd Thomson and Partners
The circular plan of the panorama was retained for the interior, a ring of twelve columns
being introduced to form a series of shallow
recesses, below a continuous gallery, surrounding
the central rotunda (Plate 23). The columns,
which have plain shafts and simplified Doric
capitals, support a series of plain arches, the spandrels decorated with circles. The ceiling is formed
in concentric rings, first a flat surface decorated
with shallow coffers, then a series of recessions
rising to surround a large oculus opening to a low
clerestoried lantern. The arch framing the high
altar is emphasized by the large panel of tapestry
decorating the wall behind, and each flanking arch
contains a formal grouping of organ pipes.
The church has been embellished with great
care, and the following items, some of which were
given by the French Government, may be noted:
the tapestry mentioned above, depicting the
Blessed Virgin, Queen of Creation, was designed
by Dom Robert, O.S.B., and made at Aubusson;
the walls of the Lady Chapel were decorated by
Jean Cocteau in 1960, and the statue of the Virgin
was copied from a fourteenth-century original by
L'École Boule of Paris; the font was cut from
Vosges sandstone by Les Ateliers de L'Œuvre
Notre Dame de Strasbourg, and the symbols of
the seven sacraments and episodes from the Gospels were carved by E. Stoll of Strasbourg. On the
south side of the church is a statue of Our Lady of
Victories, evidently a restoration of a statue in the
original church here.
No. 16 Leicester Square and the crypt of the
church are now occupied by the Centre Charles
Péguy, a club for young French men and
women in London. The schools were closed a
few years after the end of the war. (ref. 401)
Charles House and The Prince Charles Theatre, Leicester Place
The Prince Charles Theatre at the east corner
of Lisle Street and Leicester Place forms part of
an office block known as Charles House, which
was built in 1961–2 for Alfred Esdaile, chairman
of Atlas Securities, to the designs of Carl Fisher
and Associates. The builders were Richard
Costain (Construction) Limited. The foundation
stone of the theatre was laid by Dame Flora
Robson on 18 December 1961 and the theatre
opened on 26 December 1962 with the Canadian
revue, Clap Hands. It has seating for 420 persons
and was the first entirely new theatre to be
built in the West End since the Saville in 1931. (ref. 404)
The interior decoration was entirely transformed
in 1964, and in the following year the theatre
became a cinema.