CHAPTER VIII
Rupert Street Area: Vesey's Garden and Watts's Close
Between the site of Panton Square and
Colman Hedge Lane (now Wardour Street)
lay a plot of ground bounded on the south
by the lane leading from the Military Yard to
Piccadilly (now Coventry Street), and on the
north by Knaves' Acre. On the plan of 1585
(Plate 1) it is marked as part of the Burton Saint
Lazar lands acquired by Henry VIII, and a
parliamentary survey made in 1650 describes it as
'commonly called the Leastall' and then in the
tenure of Christopher Vernon of Hertingfordbury, Hertfordshire, gentleman. (ref. 1) In the previous
year Vernon (whose title seems to have been
questioned) in association with 'Auditor Povey'
had sub-leased the ground to the trustees of the
parish of St. Martin in the Fields, and they in
turn had sub-let part of it to John Watts and John
Pheps for fifteen years. (ref. 2) The map of 1664 marks
the whole plot as 'parish Land'. (ref. 3)
After the Restoration the whole of the Bailiwick of St. James, of which this ground formed a
part, was leased by Queen Henrietta Maria and
her trustees to the trustees of Henry Jermyn, Earl
of St. Albans. (ref. 4) In 1676 Charles II granted the
freehold of the plot to St. Albans in exchange for
the surrender by the latter of his leasehold interest
in Nell Gwynne's house in Pall Mall. (ref. 5) The
ground was then described as a long slip of three
and a half acres divided into three parts called 'the
lay soyle veseys garden and Watts Close' (ref. 6)
(fn. a) (see
fig. 2).
The Earl of St. Albans appears to have immediately disposed of the ground for building, for
'some grant or conveyance' was made to John
Duckett, John Rowley and Dr. Nicholas Barbon. (ref. 7)
The layout consisted of a straight street, now
Rupert Street, which was connected to Colman
Hedge Lane by two narrow side streets. No
attempt was made to relate the layout with that of
Colonel Panton on the west or of Sir William
Pulteney on the north.
Ogilby and Morgan's map (Plate 3a) indicates
that the development of the estate was finished by
1681–2. By this time Duckett, Rowley and
Barbon had sold the freehold of some of the
houses to Sir Anthony Deane for £3600. (fn. b) By
1687 the latter had sold this property to Richard
Bourne, by whose family much of it was rebuilt
in the 1720's and 1730's. (ref. 7)
Rupert Street
Rupert Street is first mentioned in the ratebooks
in 1677, when building development began;
'Vesies Garden', the previous name of part of the
site, is also mentioned in this year. The street
was evidently named after Prince Rupert, for the
adjacent part of Colman Hedge Lane (now
Wardour Street) became known as Princes Street
at about the same time. A similar association of
the names of two adjacent new streets to honour
a member of the blood royal is to be found in
another part of the Earl of St. Albans's estate in
Duke and York Streets (the latter now Duke of
York Street); this similarity perhaps suggests that
the names were bestowed by the Earl rather than
by the builders or speculators to whom he disposed
of the land.
In 1720 Strype described Rupert Street as 'a
pretty handsome, well built Street', (ref. 9) but both the
ratebooks and a number of enrolments in the
Middlesex Land Register indicate that much rebuilding took place in the 1720's and 1730's. The
White Horse public house at the corner of Archer
Street has existed under that name since at least
1739. (ref. 10)
As originally laid out Rupert Street came to an
end at the northern boundary of the Earl's estate
(Plate 6). Its extension (as a foot-way only) to
Brewer Street took place in 1873–4 at the instigation of the St. James's vestry, assisted by the
Metropolitan Board of Works. (ref. 11) The formation
of Shaftesbury Avenue a few years later involved
the demolition of a number of buildings in the
central part of the street. None of the present
buildings in Rupert Street to the north of Shaftesbury Avenue dates from before 1880, but to the
south there are traces of early eighteenth-century
residential buildings, early nineteenth-century
shops and late nineteenth-century hotels and
restaurants.
Nos. 22–28 (even) Rupert Street, Nos. 27–31 (odd) Wardour Street: Rupert Court
Nos. 22–28 formerly Nos. 11–14 (consec.) Rupert Street,
Nos. 27–31 formerly Nos. 51–49 (consec.) Princes Street:
Rupert Court formerly George Court
On 20 February 1728 (?/9) George Bourne,
esquire, of Enfield granted fifty-one-year leases of
all of this site (except perhaps Nos. 22 and 24
Rupert Street) to George Whetton, described as of
Marylebone, builder or bricklayer; in three of the
leases John Whetton of St. George's, Hanover
Square, bricklayer, was co-lessee. (ref. 12) No leases for
Nos. 22 and 24 Rupert Street have been found,
but the freehold of their site was also owned by
Bourne. One of the leases mentions that it 'is
intended shortly to be erected and built a Court
leading from Princes Street [i.e. Wardour Street]
to Rupert Street and four new Messuages or
Tenements on each side of the same together with
the passage or Entrance into the said Court at each
End of the same'. (ref. 13) The new court first appears,
with eight names, in the ratebook for 1729, and
as George Court in the following year. It is
evident that the adjoining houses at either end
were rebuilt at the same time.
Rupert Court is entered through a two-storey
archway and passage under part of the Blue Posts
public house at No. 28, which has existed here
since at least 1739. (ref. 10) The premises in Rupert
Court have been combined to provide two shops
on the north side and three on the south side;
these have partially reconstructed mid nineteenthcentury shop-fronts. The two upper floors have
been reconstructed with warehouse windows,
probably in this century.
Nos. 22 and 24 Rupert Street, their brickwork
painted yellow, are each two windows wide, with
three storeys and garret. Each has a nineteenthcentury shop-front with display window centred
between house door and shop door, and the two
shop doors are adjacent. The first- and secondfloor windows are flat-headed with modern sashes
in concealed frames. Each house has two dormers
in a blue slate mansard roof. No. 22 has some plain
panelling in the entrance passage which leads to a
cramped open-well staircase with closed strings,
turned balusters and column newels. No. 24
has a dog-legged stair with open strings and thin
square balusters.
No. 26, also of three storeys, two windows
wide, of brickwork painted yellow, has a modern
shop-front. The first floor has flat-headed
windows with box-frames and a bandcourse runs
immediately below the sills; part of another bandcourse extends from the north end to the north
first-floor window, two-thirds of the way up the
window; comparison with the Wardour Street
entrance to Rupert Court suggests that this is
possibly an impost band remaining from the
eighteenth-century archway to Rupert Court.
The second-floor windows have segmental heads
and box-frames. The stone-coped parapet now
conceals the roof, but the line of the former
mansard roof is clearly visible against the side of
the Blue Posts next door. Part of the back of No.
26 at second-storey level is visible from Rupert
Court, including a narrow segmental-headed
window with a box-frame and a narrow bandcourse one quarter of the way up the window. A
closet projects at the south end. There is a plain
side wall to Rupert Court with one doorway.
In the southern part of the four-storey front of
No. 28 (the Blue Posts), an archway two storeys
high gives access to Rupert Court. The ground
and first floors of the public house have been
modernized with neo-Georgian woodwork. The
second floor, with the archway under part of it,
has three windows with moulded stucco frames
carrying an entablature, and a deep sill-course with
an egg-and-dart moulding on the lower edge; this
floor has a heavy entablature with modillion
cornice and paired end-brackets. These first three
floors are faced with cement, scored to imitate
stone. The top floor, above the first heavy
cornice, also has three windows and is faced with
red painted brick, bounded by raised cement
quoins, and carries a crowning entablature with
THE BLUE POSTS incised on its frieze, a dentilled cornice and plain blocking-course. The
two-storey passage into Rupert Court is the depth
of the house and is flat-headed except at the front
where a round-headed arch has been made, perhaps when the first two floors of the public house
were modernized. From Rupert Court the back
wall of the upper two storeys over the passage is
seen to be of stock brick and one window wide,
the windows flat-headed with concealed frames,
the roof slanting downwards from south to
north.
Nos. 27 and 29 Wardour Street (Plate 127c) are
a pair of houses four storeys high with the twostoreyed entrance passage to Rupert Court between them. Each house is three windows wide,
at No. 27 increased to four in the two upper storeys
above the passage. The roof, now hidden by a
stone-coped parapet, may have been heightened in
the early nineteenth century and the present third
floor substituted for garrets. No. 31 is also four
storeys high and three windows wide. All three
houses have flat-arched windows with exposed
box-frames, set in a cemented face. The entrance
to the passage leading to Rupert Court has an
elliptical arch with keyblock and impost bands. At
both No. 27 and No. 29 access to the main staircases is from the side in Rupert Court. No. 27
retains its early nineteenth-century shop-front, the
display window and shop door filling the whole
width of the front. At either end is a pilaster with
a voluted capital supporting an entablature having
an enriched architrave and a cornice with acanthus
leaves on the cyma moulding. The shop-window
projects slightly, with rounded angles, and the
entablature is carried round it at one end and over
the modern door at the other. The back walls of
both No. 27 and No. 29 are partly visible from
Rupert Court, cement-faced with flat-headed
windows, some with concealed frames.
The interior of No. 27 was inspected in 1950,
when the first-floor front room was found to be
panelled in two heights with moulded dado-rail
and box-cornice. The floors above were found to
have been altered in the early nineteenth century,
but the staircase above the first floor retained
the eighteenth-century closed strings, square
newels and turned balusters with moulded
handrail.
The staircase at No. 29, with a narrow open
well, has open strings, thin square balusters and a
continuous handrail ending in a spiral at the
bottom. The dog-legged staircase at No. 31 has a
closed moulded string, much mutilated; the firstfloor landing has sunk ovolo panelling in two
heights with a moulded dado-rail.
Wardour Street, South End
Wardour Street and Whitcomb Street are marked
on the plan of 1585 as a highway leading from the
Uxbridge Road to the Mews; the former is called
'Colmanhedge lane'. In 1679 the portion of the
street between Brewer and Coventry Streets
appears in the ratebook for the first time as Princes
Street, (ref. 14) a name which with Rupert Street was
chosen in honour of Prince Rupert. In 1878 this
name was abolished, and the whole street between
Oxford and Coventry Streets became known as
Wardour Street. The boundary of the parishes of
St. James and St. Anne runs down the centre of
the street, and only the western side comes within
the area to be described in the present volume.
All of the ground on the west side between a
point a little north of Winnett Street and Coventry
Street formed part of the Laystall, Vesey's
Garden and Watts's Close, and building began soon
after the grant of the freehold to the Earl of St.
Albans in 1676 (see page 111). Blome's map
shows that this development had been completed
by 1689; much of it was evidently of poor quality,
and some rebuilding took place in the 1720's and
1730's. The present aspect of this part of the
street is very similar to that of Rupert Street.
Nos. 7–11 (odd) Wardour Street
Formerly Nos. 61–59 (consec.) Princes Street
On 10 November 1725 George Bourne of
Enfield, esquire, leased the site on which these
three houses stand to Henry Parsons of the parish
of St. James, watchmaker, for forty-two and a
half years from midsummer 1727. There were
then only two houses on the site. (ref. 15) The ratebooks
show that they were demolished in 1726, and that
the three houses which replaced them were first
occupied during the second half of 1727; No. 11
has subsequently been drastically altered. The
first inhabitants were, respectively, John Neville,
Richard Mulford and William Moore.
No. 9 was built with No. 7 as a mirrored pair
with a uniform front and adjacent house doors
(Plate 127b). Each has three storeys and a garret
and is two windows wide. On the ground floor
at No. 9 the shop door is next to the house door;
the display window is modern. The two upper
storeys are fronted with yellow stock brick
formerly stuccoed, with red brick segmental arches
over the windows, which have flush frames. There
are two dormers in the mansard roof, which is
covered with blue slate (at No. 7 with red tile).
No. 9 was occupied for many years by Benjamin
Smart, goldsmith and dealer in bullion, and by
other members of his family; the house now bears
raised figures attached to the brickwork—'No. 9'
between the second-storey windows, '1798'
between the first-floor windows, and between the
two floors a cement tablet, almost as wide as the
house, bearing the words EXCHANGE AND
BULLION OFFICE in two rows of raised capital
letters.
Nos. 27–31 (odd) Wardour Street
See page 112.
Nos. 41 and 43 Wardour Street
This building, whose ground floor is now occupied by a restaurant, was built in 1904–5 for
Willy Clarkson, the famous theatrical wig maker
and costumier; the architect was H. M. Wakley. (ref. 16)
Inscriptions record that the wig-making business
was established in 1833, that Sarah Bernhardt laid
the foundation stone of the present building in
1904 and Sir Henry Irving the coping stone in
1905. Street directories show that Clarkson's
occupied the premises from 1905 until 1940.
The building contains four storeys and a garret.
The front, with a width of three broad windows,
is designed in a style combining Baroque and art
nouveau forms, realized in brick and green stone
with buff stone dressings. The doorway is centred
between display windows, and at either end of the
ground floor an Ionic pilaster with garlanded
capital supports a great bracket-stop upon which
stands a large urn with a tall conical top. The
outer windows of the three floors above are in
canted bays faced with green stone and contained
in tall recesses, three storeys high, with stone surrounds finished with segmental pediments broken
to receive small iron-railed balconies serving
a pedimented dormer behind, and beneath
each balcony is a large foliated cartouche. On
either side of the flat-headed central first-floor
window is a cartouche, one inscribed 'Estb. 1833',
the other 'Rebt. 1904'. From the centre of the
second floor is suspended on wrought-iron
brackets a great iron plaque inscribed 'Costumier
Perruquier' on both sides, with '41' on one dial
and '43' on the other. On either side of the door
metal plaques record the visits of Bernhardt and
Irving mentioned above.
No, 77 Wardour Street: The Duke of Wellington Public House
Formerly No. 28 Princes Street
In Tallis's view of Princes Street (c. 1839)
this was a building of three storeys and a garret,
two windows wide on the Princes Street front and
three windows wide on the Upper Rupert (now
Winnett) Street front; next to the latter was a
house two windows wide, now incorporated in
the public house. They now form a four-storey
stuccoed building surmounted by an arcaded
balustrade which conceals the roof; there is a sillcourse at third-floor level. The ground floor has
been refaced with modern woodwork. The
windows of the upper three floors have moulded
architraves, the second window from the east on
each floor on Winnett Street is blind, the firstfloor recess being framed in fluted Corinthian
pilasters carrying an entablature and blockingcourse. A dormer between the two west bays on
Winnett Street has a pediment with a monogram
HP in relief.
Coventry Street
The general history of this street is described on
page 42.
In 1810 the architect Matthew Habershon
exhibited at the Royal Academy a design for the
Royal Worcester Porcelain warehouse, for
Messrs. Flight and Barr, whose premises were at
the north-west corner of Coventry and Princes
(now Wardour) Streets. (ref. 17)
The Rialto Cinema and Café de Paris
No. 3–4, containing the Rialto Cinema and a
large basement restaurant, was built in 1912–13
and opened as the West End Cinema. The
structure, with a well-considered plan in the
Beaux-Arts tradition, was designed by Hippolyte
J. Blanc in partnership with his son, F. E. B.
Blanc, but it was completed and decorated by
Horace Gilbert. (ref. 18) The auditorium is formed as
an oval, with its long axis orientated to coincide
with that of the narrow entrance vestibule in
Coventry Street. The oval wall is visible from
Rupert Street, this elevation being unusually well
designed for the side of a theatre, with staircase
pylons flanking the curved wall face. The
Coventry Street entrance front is composed of a
tall arch, framing a large window, now partly
masked by signs, and the crowning feature is a
form of belvedere, rising in front of a gable. The
auditorium, with one gallery, was planned to hold
700 people, and the original decorations in cream
and gold were neo-Greek in style.
In 1941 a German bomb exploded in the Café
de Paris, killing a large number of people.
Lyons' Corner House
This building is described on page 43.