CHAPTER XI
Kingly and Carnaby Street Area: Six Acre Close
This close was probably formed soon after
1590, when two small adjoining fields,
until then in different occupations, both
came into the leasehold possession of Thomas
Poultney. The western of these two small fields
had belonged to the Provost and College of Eton
(as custodians of St. James's Hospital) until its
surrender to the Crown in 1531. At some time
before 1575 Thomas Poultney became the subtenant, and on the plan of 1585 (Plate 1) it is
marked as 'The Queene Mr. Poultney'. The
other, eastern, field had belonged to the Abbot and
Convent of Abingdon until its surrender to the
Crown in 1536, and in 1590 Thomas Poultney
acquired the lease. (ref. 1) It was probably soon after this
date that these two adjoining parcels of land, now
both held by the same tenant, were united. The
new close was known as The Six Acres or more
usually Six Acre Close (ref. 2) and remained part of the
Pulteney leasehold estate until 1692/3, when it
was sold to pay the debts and legacies left by Sir
William Pulteney. (ref. 3)
In 1668 Sir William had obtained from the
Crown the grant of a further term which extended his leasehold interest in Six Acre Close and
other lands to 1722/3. (ref. 4) In the years immediately
following this extension, Six Acre Close reverted
to its former condition as two separate fields. In
the 1670's Sir William Pulteney granted subleases of both parts, the dividing line being the
foot-path to Marylebone which had run northsouth through the original close. In 1679, when
part of it had been used for brickmaking and three
small tenements had been built, the whole of Six
Acre Close was valued at only £30 per annum. (ref. 5)
During the next fifteen years both parts of the
close were separately laid out with streets of small
houses and the foot-path which ran between them
became known as King (now Kingly) Street (fig.
23).
Figure 23:
Six Acre Close, layout plan.
Based on Horwood's map of 1792, with Regent Street superimposed
The Western Field
The leasehold of the southern extremity of the
western half of Six Acre Close had by 1673 come
into the leasehold possession of Ralph Wayne, (ref. 6)
who erected there a messuage known as 'the
Waterhouse.' By c. 1685 this ground, comprising
about half an acre, had been purchased by Thomas
Beak(e), together with twenty 'mean Tenements
and some small shedds' which had been erected
there. Beak, from whom Beak Street took its
name in 1689, (ref. 7) was one of Queen Anne's
Messengers in Ordinary, (ref. 8) and at some unknown
date he acquired the leasehold of all of the rest of
the land in the western half of Six Acre Close to
the south of the modern Tenison Court. (ref. 9) He
died in 1710. (ref. 10)
In 1671 Sir William Pulteney leased to Roger
Looker, gardener, all of the land in the western
half of Six Acre Close to the north of Tenison
Court. This grant, which was for forty-five years
at an annual rent of £8 5s., comprised a parcel of
two acres and ten square perches and can be
approximately identified as all the ground at
present lying between Foubert's Place on the
north, Tenison Court on the south, Kingly Street
on the east and Regent Street on the west. In
addition it included ground used when the footpath was widened into King Street and also a
narrow strip of land now laid into the roadway of
Regent Street and which, until the construction of
that street, had been part of the site of houses on
the east side of Swallow Street. (ref. 11)
At the northern end of his ground Roger
Looker built himself a house. The remainder of
the land was evidently enclosed with a wall and
laid out as a market garden. In order to carry out
these improvements he borrowed £500 from
William Carter, vintner. (ref. 12) Looker died in
March 1684/5 and the house and land in Six Acre
Close passed to his widow, Bridgett. (ref. 13) Shortly
afterwards the latter (possibly realizing the potential value of her inheritance as building land)
obtained from Sir William Pulteney a five-year
extension of her current sub-lease, agreeing to pay
an increased rent of £50 per annum for the
additional years. (ref. 14) After this extension of her
interest in the western portion of Six Acre Close
to 1721, she quickly disposed of her sub-lease to
three purchasers.
One small parcel was assigned on 17 November
1687 to the rector of the parish, Dr. Thomas
Tenison, for the erection of a chapel and school.
This plot fronted on to the west side of the old
foot-path, now Kingly Street. On the same day
Edward Wilcox, carpenter, bought Bridgett
Looker's leasehold interest in a parcel adjoining
Tenison's land. He probably began to build a
house there but in February 1689/90 sold it while
still unfinished to Dr. Tenison as a residence for
the schoolmaster. (ref. 14)
The residue of her ground, to the north of
Tenison's plots and amounting to one and a half
acres, was assigned to Lewis Maidwell. The date
of this third sale is uncertain but it was probably
also made in or shortly before November 1687 and
certainly before January 1692/3. (ref. 15)
Maidwell's School: Foubert's Academy: The Parish School of Industry
Demolished
Lewis Maidwell (1650–1716) was the son of a
Northamptonshire lawyer. He was educated at
Westminster and St. John's College, Cambridge,
and was at first a tutor in the family of Sir Stephen
Fox. In 1680 he turned unsuccessfully to drama
and wrote a comedy, The Loving Enemies. (ref. 16) In
1687 he established himself as a schoolmaster in
what had by this time become King Street. (ref. 7)
The one and a half acres of land which Lewis
Maidwell had purchased consisted of all the
western portion of Six Acre Close to the north of
Dr. Tenison's land. Part of the ground had been
used when the foot-path was widened to become
King Street, and another strip of land on the
northern edge of Maidwell's new property was
intended as a passage (now Foubert's Place) into
Swallow Street. It is likely that parts of the remaining land had already been laid out for building
and that in some instances, notably in Looker's
Court, the erection of a number of small houses
there had already begun before Bridgett Looker
sold the property. By 1692/3 there were thirteen
houses there. (ref. 17)
Maidwell himself laid out £2000 in building 'a
substantial brick house and inclosed to the same a
convenient garden with outhouses and stables',
and also a riding school for his pupils, (ref. 18) or, as it was
then called, an 'Academy for the Great Horse'.
These buildings were probably erected on the site
of the house which Looker had previously built.
Here Lewis Maidwell 'for severall years followed the imployment of a Schoolmaster to the
great satisfaction of the Nobility and Gentry in
the Education of their sons'. (ref. 19) His school was of the
boarding variety and was run on what were then
advanced lines. As well as the usual classical subjects, the curriculum included French and Italian,
mathematics, 'Merchants Accounts', navigation,
astronomy and geography, history and chronology,
as well as dancing, fencing and riding. (ref. 20) Music
also seems to have been taught for in 1689 a new
work by Henry Purcell, 'A Welcome Song at the
Prince of Denmarks Coming Home' was performed at the school. (ref. 21)
<Purcell's ode 'Celestial Music', was first performed at Mr Maidwell's, 5 August 1689.>
Maidwell claimed to provide a comprehensive education never previously
practised in any English school, (ref. 22) and attracted a
very fashionable clientèle. In 1706 the poet
Nahum Tate wrote of 'the Happy Education of
many Persons of Quality, very eminent in both
Houses of Parliament' which Maidwell had
provided. (ref. 23)
In March 1692/3 Maidwell obtained from the
Crown a reversionary lease of his property for
ninety-nine years from 1722/3, when his existing
term expired. (ref. 24) He seems to have owed this extension to the interest of his neighbour, William
Lowndes, whose son he had educated and who
then enjoyed a similar limited interest in the
eastern part of Six Acre Close. (ref. 25) Unlike Lowndes,
Maidwell never succeeded in obtaining the freehold of his land, which still remains Crown
property.
The school continued to prosper and in February 1699/1700, for seemingly altruistic reasons
which some contemporaries doubted, Maidwell
petitioned the House of Commons for leave to
bring in a Bill which would, if passed, have turned
his private school into a public institution. He
proposed 'the beneficial Design of a publick
Academy' to be set up at his school for the free
education of forty scholars in 'Languages, Arts
and Exercises'. He elaborated his scheme in a
pamphlet and undertook to settle his premises in
King Street for this purpose. He also suggested
that the school should be supported by the proceeds of a tax on all printed books, pamphlets and
papers. (ref. 26)
Maidwell's petition was unsuccessful, as were
his subsequent attempts in 1703 and 1704, which
were also supported by active pamphleteering. (ref. 27)
He made a final unsuccessful effort to arouse public
interest in his Academy in 1705 with an Essay
upon the Necessity and Excellency of Education.
Maidwell blamed his lack of success on the
jealous opposition of the universities. A contemporary Oxonian, Dr. John Wallis, the mathematician, wrote of Maidwell as 'a person who
talks high, and keeps high company, and had
perhaps lived higher … than his estate would well
bear', and who by criticizing the contemporary
system of education was seeking to better his
fortunes by Act of Parliament. (ref. 28) The printers,
booksellers and publishers were also actively opposed to Maidwell's schemes, which were largely
dependent upon the proposed tax on their merchandise. In January 1704/5 they petitioned the
House of Commons against his current Bill, on
behalf of themselves 'and many others, exercising
those Trades in the several Cities and Towns in
England'. They claimed that they would all 'not
only be hindered in carrying on their Trades, …
but be liable to vexacious Suits, and Penalties' if
the Bill became law. (ref. 29) When a tax on newspapers
and pamphlets was eventually imposed in 1712
the proceeds were not used for educational
purposes.
The only success which Maidwell achieved
was in February 1701/2 when William III
granted a charter of incorporation to the school as
the 'Royal School of King William the Third'.
The charter also appointed 'Six discreet, religious
and honourable persons' (including the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chancellor) as
governors, with Maidwell as the first master. No
endowment was provided. (ref. 22)
After the failure of his efforts to obtain financial
support Maidwell vacated the school premises in
King Street in 1704, (ref. 7) and after an unsuccessful
attempt to sell them to the Earl of Carbery in
1706, (ref. 30) he finally disposed of them to Henry
Foubert. (ref. 31) He did not continue hisschool elsewhere
and, after some years of ill-health, died in 1716. (ref. 32)
Henry Foubert was the proprietor of a school of
arms which had originally been founded in Paris
by his father, Solomon de Foubert, a Huguenot
fencing-master. This school had been popular
with English families, and when it and other
Protestant academies were closed Solomon de
Foubert and his family migrated to England, where
they arrived in 1679. (ref. 33)
De Foubert is said to have been allowed the use
of the Military Yard near Leicester House for
riding and fencing instruction, (ref. 34) but if this was
indeed so his tenure must have been very short, for
in 1676 Lord Gerard had been granted a licence
to build there, and Gerrard Street, which runs
through the centre of the site of the Military
Yard, was in existence by 1681. (ref. 35) John Evelyn
must therefore have been referring to premises
elsewhere when he noted in his diary in December
1684 that 'Mr. Foubert having newly railed in a
Manage & fitted it for the Academy, I went with
my Lord Cornwallis to see the Young Gallants do
their Exercise: There were the Dukes of Norfolk
and Northumberland, Lord Newburghe, and a
nephew of the Earle of Feversham'. (ref. 36) It has been
conjectured that these exercises took place in the
fields adjoining Sherwood and Brewer Streets, (ref. 37)
and this would accord with the evidence of the
ratebooks, which show that in 1689 and 1690
de Foubert kept stables in Great Windmill Street
nearby. (ref. 7)
From 1691 until his death in the winter of
1695–6 de Foubert received an annual pension of
£500 from William 111. (ref. 38) He was succeeded by
his son Major Henry Foubert, who had 'signalised himself at the Battle of the Boyne'. (ref. 39) In
1695–6 he vacated the premises in Sherwood
Street, (ref. 7) but in 1697 the payment of the royal
pension was continued to him 'for the support
and maintenance of our Royal Academy which is
now under … [his] care, inspection and government.' (ref. 40)
The ratebooks show that in 1699 and 1700
Henry Foubert occupied premises in Coventry
Street, and from 1702 until at least 1707 in
Rupert Street. He also had a house, possibly his
private residence, in Old Spring Gardens, and in
1701 he tried to obtain the grant of a parcel of
Crown land in the vicinity for the erection of a
riding-house. If this additional property were
granted to him rent free he promised 'to entertain
one of the King's Pages without the present charge
of £136 per annum' and claimed that 'ever since
his father came over it was always promised that
he would have a house rent free and a pension, as
is allowed in all the Courts abroad'. His petition
was unsuccessful, (ref. 41) and in 1702, when he appears
to have been considering the establishment of
another 'Academy' at Oxford, his pension was
reduced to £250 per annum. (ref. 42) The payment of
even this reduced allowance, and of his wages as a
royal equerry, were frequently in arrears, (ref. 43) but
the pension is said to have been later restored to
the full amount. (ref. 44)
The actual date of the move from Rupert Street
to Maidwell's former premises in King Street is
uncertain for the poor ratebooks for the years
1708–1715 inclusive are missing, but the first
reference to Major Foubert in the sewer ratebooks appears in 1710. (ref. 45)
The academy remained in King Street until its
closure in 1778. It was managed by Henry
Foubert until his death in 1743 (ref. 46) and subsequently
by his nephew Solomon Durrell until 1771 and by
the latter's son-in-law, Thomas Evans, who took
the name of Durrell, until 1778. (ref. 47) The academy
declined in fashion and in its later years became
merely a riding-school and stables. It does not
seem to have included in its curriculum 'the comprehensive education' provided by Maidwell, or
to have maintained the fashionable connexions of
the first Foubert.
Two years before its closure in 1778 Thomas
Durrell procured from the Crown a new fiftyyear lease. The premises then consisted of a long
'Ride' or covered riding-school, running the length
of the Swallow Street frontage, a stable-range
fronting on to Foubert's Passage and a house in the
court-yard behind these two buildings (Plate 38a). (ref. 48)
In April 1782 Thomas Durrell sold his lease
of the riding-school to Samuel Mettayer for
£2200, (ref. 47) the purchase being made in trust for the
vestry of St. James. In the 1760's the parish overseers of the poor had adopted the practice of
boarding out the younger pauper children with
nurses in Wimbledon and the acquisition of the
old riding-school in King Street in 1782 was for
the accommodation of the older children from the
workhouse. (ref. 49)
Part of the old premises, including the 'Ride'
and the stables fronting on to Foubert's Passage,
were let to a livery stableman; (ref. 50) the rest was
fitted up as the parish school of industry for 'the
maintaining, educating and employing the poor
children of the parish'. (ref. 51) The parish spent £728
on repairs and alterations, and later a further
£6687. (ref. 52)
Here the pauper boys and girls were separately
lodged, fed and taught, the boys shoemaking and
the girls household work; both also received some
formal schooling. In 1797 there were 270
children in the school. Living conditions were
comparatively healthy, for only six of the children
who had entered during the previous five years had
died. (ref. 49) In the early nineteenth century the
children were apprenticed at about the age of
thirteen or fourteen, often to factory owners in
Derbyshire and Manchester. (ref. 53) Some of the pauper
boys were also taught navigation and seventy-five
'promising boys' were sent into the Navy during
the wars with France. (ref. 52) In peacetime other boys
were apprenticed in the fishing industry. (ref. 54)
In 1820 the construction of Regent Street compelled the parish authorities to give up all their
premises in King Street, which were then taken
over by the New Street Commissioners and
demolished. Some of the children were removed
to the already over-crowded workhouse, but
others returned to their homes because their
parents refused to allow them to go there. (ref. 55)
St. Thomas's Church, Kingly Street<demolished>
This church was erected as a proprietary chapel
in 1702 by Dr. Thomas Tenison, then Archbishop of Canterbury, on the site of an earlier
wooden tabernacle or oratory which he had
erected some fifteen years previously whilst rector
of St. James's. The chapel, to which a small
charity school was annexed, was first vested in
trustees but became a district church in St. James's
parish in 1869 and was then dedicated to St.
Thomas.
In the 1680's the rapid increase of population
had led to the division of the parish of St. Martin,
the two new parishes of St. James and St. Anne
being established, each with its own church.
These additional churches soon proved insufficient
and it was to remedy this situation that Dr.
Tenison, the first rector of the parish of St.
James, began to erect in 1687 a temporary chapel
in King (now Kingly) Street, in the northern and
less fashionable quarter of his large parish.
As well as being in need of additional church
accommodation, the poorer inhabitants of St.
James's parish were, with the exception of the
Boys' Offertory School, without free schools.
Dr. Tenison possessed an enthusiasm for education and whilst rector of St. Martin's had
founded a small 'perfectly Free' school in that
parish, from which 'great Benefit hath arisen …
both in relation to the ease of poor House-Keepers,
and the Learning of Good Manners of their
Children'. (ref. 56) With the creation of St. James's, the
poor of the newly established parish could no
longer send their sons to this school and it was
perhaps with this in mind that Tenison decided to
found a charity school for boys alongside his new
chapel.
In November 1687 he purchased from Bridgett
Looker the sub-lease of a parcel of land on the
west side of King Street, as a site for the buildings
of his new foundation. The freehold of the
ground, which was part of Six Acre Close,
belonged to the Crown, by whom it had been
leased to Sir William Pulteney. (ref. 14) The exact size
and dimensions of Dr. Tenison's ground are uncertain, but it is clear that the plot fronted east on
to King Street and extended back to Swallow
Street, providing sufficient space for the erection
of the tabernacle with two flanking open passageways on the north and south sides and a yard to the
west. (ref. 57)
Building work began immediately after thecompletion of Tenison's purchase, for the chapel was
completed by April 1688. (ref. 56) It was built of
timber on a brick foundation at a cost of £900,
and consisted of one large room. This sum was
defrayed out of a large benefaction deposited in
Tenison's hands for charitable purposes. (ref. 58) At
first no separate school-room was provided and the
boys were probably taught inside the tabernacle. (ref. 59)
Apart from the fact that the tabernacle was
erected between November 1687 and April 1688,
there is no record of its consecration or first
opening, or of the inauguration of the charity
school.
In February 1689/90 Dr. Tenison purchased
the sub-lease of a narrow strip of adjoining land
on the north side of the tabernacle, fronting on to
King Street on the east and extending back to
Swallow Street. As with the first plot it had been
sub-leased by Sir William Pulteney to Roger
Looker and sold by his widow in 1687, to Edward
Wilcox, carpenter. (ref. 14) It is likely that Wilcox had
started to build a house on this second plot and
conveyed the unfinished building to Tenison, who
by September 1690 had completed it as a residence
for the schoolmaster. Tenison had already built a
smaller house behind the tabernacle for the underschoolmaster, and now proceeded to lay out
gardens for the two houses (one with a wide
'Tarras Walk'), and also a play-yard for the
charity school boys. (ref. 60)
By 1690 Tenison's property in King Street
consisted of these three new buildings standing
upon what had been two separate parcels, now
forming together a large plot of leasehold ground,
measuring approximately 200 feet from east to
west and 96 feet from north to south. (ref. 60) To
secure the continuance of his twin-foundation,
Tenison (who was by this time Bishop of Lincoln)
petitioned the Crown in August 1692 for a grant
of the freehold of both parcels. By letters patent of
January 1692/3 he was granted the freehold of the
site of the tabernacle and the two adjoining houses
and gardens 'for good and charitable causes', but
'the wast and unbuilt' land fronting on to Swallow
Street was only leased to him for ninety-nine
years from 1722/3 at a rent of twenty shillings a
year. (ref. 61)
Though not a place of such fashionable
devotion as the parish church, the wooden
tabernacle in King Street soon became an established centre of religious life. John Evelyn made
frequent references to it in his diaries; 'In the
Tabernacle neere Golden Square' he heard in
February 1692/3 'the Bishop of Lincoln
[Tenison] on 2. John. 25', and on a Sunday in the
following April 'Mr. Stringfellow preached in
the afternoone in the Tabernacle set up by the
Bishop of Lincoln … shewing the virtue of
fasting and prayers'. (ref. 62)
In September 1700 Dr. Tenison, who was now
Archbishop of Canterbury, executed a deed of
settlement vesting his freehold and leasehold
interests in the tabernacle and two adjoining
houses and gardens in nine trustees, among whom
were John Moore, Bishop of Norwich, William
Wake, then rector of St. James's and later
Archbishop of Canterbury, and (Sir) Isaac
Newton. He also presented £500 for the endowment of the tabernacle 'as a publique Chappell or
Oratory for divine service according to the
Liturgy and Orthodox Practice of the Church of
England, for the ease and conveniency of the Inhabitants of the said Parish of St. James'. The
rent of any property purchased with the £500 and
the profits from the pew-rents were to be used for
the upkeep of the chapel and its services and for
paying the stipends of the clergy. The trustees
also had to 'find and provide … one or more able
and sufficient Schoole masters or Schoole master,
to teach and instruct [sixteen] poore Boys Natives
& Inhabitants of the said Parish of St. James …
to Read, Write, Cast accounts, and such other
parts of mathematicks as may the better qualify
[them] to be put out Apprentices'. Tenison
reserved to himself and his successors at Canterbury
the rights of Visitor to the new foundation. (ref. 14)
By the beginning of 1702 the tabernacle had
become 'so very crazy and badd' that the newly
appointed trustees considered that 'it may be
dangerous to continue it any longer and that
money on repairs will be but thrown away'. They
therefore decided to demolish the chapel and the
adjoining house, then in the tenure of Ambrose
Warren, and to build a new chapel, 'more convenient and large', on this combined site. (ref. 63)
At their next meeting, held on 28 January
1701/2, the trustees selected (with some minor
modifications of the interior) one of four alternative plans for the new building. There is no
indication in their minutes of the name of the
architect responsible, nor has any evidence on this
point come to light. It is possible that 'Mr.
Ludby', carpenter (probably John Ludby),
whom the trustees appointed 'to manage the
whole' (i.e. the work of construction), (ref. 64) may have
had some responsibility for the design, under the
general supervision of Sir Christopher Wren. The
latter had already designed the parish church of
St. James, and in 1713 he was consulted over the
first major repairs carried out on the new chapel.
The other building tradesmen employed were
Mr. Hester as bricklayer, Mr. Carr as smith, Mr.
Jackson as joiner and Mr. Highmore as painter.
The latter was probably Thomas Highmore, who
had worked at the parish church. Captain John
Outing (one of the trustees and resident in King
Street) and Mr. Bryan Turbervill were to survey
the building work as it progressed. The cost of the
new chapel was to be met by calling in the Archbishop's gift of £500 (which had been lent at
interest for completing St. Paul's Cathedral), and
by raising a mortgage on the adjoining freehold
house belonging to the trustees in King Street. (ref. 65)
The last services in the wooden tabernacle were
held in February 1701/2. The congregation then
migrated to the French chapel in Swallow Street
(see page 63), where they remained during the
short period of rebuilding. (ref. 66)
Demolition began almost directly. On 5 March
the foundation stone of the new building was laid
by Captain Outing and Mr. Justice Tulley (another trustee). It was a block of Portland stone,
18 inches long by 14 inches broad and inscribed
'This chapel was rebuilt, 1702, Thomas, Lord
Archbishop of Canterbury being Founder and
principal Benefactor'. (ref. 67) This stone, which is at
the north-east angle of the church, is now concealed by cement.
The new building went up very quickly. By
mid-May 1702 the roof was on and the workmen
were given a 'raiseing dinner'. In July the interior
was being decorated, the trustees deciding that
'the compass ceiling [in the] chapel be ribed from
column to column in the plain mouldings only'.
At the same time an organ was ordered at a cost of
£230 from a Mr. Price. In August the trustees
desired one of their number, (Sir) Isaac Newton,
'to wait on my Lord Archbishop of Canterbury,
to know his Grace's pleasure relating to the consecration of the new chapel', but it was found that
great delay would ensure if the opening were
deferred until the consecration could take place.
The new chapel was therefore opened, without
that ceremony, on Sunday, 4 October, with
services at 'the usual hours of near Tenn and
Three'. (ref. 68) The trustees and congregation appear
to have been pleased with their new building,
which Dr. Burd, their preacher, pronounced to be
'a decent and pretty Chappel'. (ref. 69)
Furnishing and decoration continued into the
following year. In April 1703 a type (a soundingboard) was set over the pulpit. It was also decided
that 'Ye Altar Piece and place be in due season
painted with good cedar colour, and well varnished,
the oval Glory blew, and moulding well gilt.'
The cost was not to exceed £10, given by Tenison
for this purpose. In the next month the trustees
'Agreed that only part of the mouldings of the
Altar piece and door be gilt. And that in the
midst of the oval be drawn a large Bible opened,
with the following words in fair print hand inserted
"This do in Remembrance of Mee", with the
chap and verse.' Two altar cloths, one of velvet
and gold, the other of green serge embroidered and
fringed, were provided, and there were also two
silk tapestry-work cushions and a considerable
quantity of altar plate. Later embellishments
included 'A Dial set up in the chapel at the expense
of Sir Isaac Newton' in 1705, and in 1708,
following the Union with Scotland, the royal arms
of the United Kingdom. (ref. 70)
The new chapel covered the site of the wooden
tabernacle, the open passage-way which had
flanked it to the north and the site of the house of
Ambrose Warren formerly at the west end of the
old building. In addition a smaller building was
erected adjoining the west end of the new chapel,
to contain the vestibules and vestry, chapelkeeper's rooms and a small school-room for the
charity boys. The total expenses of the whole rebuilding amounted to £2072 18s. 8¼d. This sum
included only part of the cost of the organ. (ref. 70)
To the west of the former tabernacle the Tenison trustees owned a large plot of land, then 'wast
and unbuilt', with a frontage of 96 feet to Swallow
Street, (ref. 59) and which by the early years of the eighteenth century had become valuable for building.
In 1703 part of this site was leased to Ambrose
Warren, whose house adjoining the old tabernacle
had been demolished to make way for the enlarged
building; he was to provide himself with 'a new
and better house', and was also given the materials
of his former dwelling. The remainder of the
vacant land was leased to Ludby. At the same
time the passage-way which had flanked the south
side of the old tabernacle, was extended into
Swallow Street, the new houses of Warren and
Ludby being built on its north side. This became
Chapel Court, now Tenison Court. (ref. 71)
The speed with which the chapel was erected in
the six months between March and October 1702
was probably achieved at the expense of sound
building work. As early as 1713 a serious defect
was found in the south wall and roof, which the
trustees, under 'Absolute necessity', had to take
down and repair at considerable expense. The
damage seems to have been surveyed by the
Queen's Master Carpenter, John Churchill, with
three of his men. Their report and proposals were
submitted to Sir Christopher Wren. The repairs
were carried out by the ubiquitous Ludby, whose
faulty workmanship may have been responsible
here, as it was later for the partial destruction of
the newly built parish workhouse. (ref. 72) A contemporary account of the newly repaired chapel
describes it as 'now a very spacious, and beautiful
Chapel, wherein is an excellent and extraordinary
Organ, fine capacious Galleries on both sides, a
large Altar-piece, and Chancel, paved with
Marble, two large Branches, and other Ornaments'. (ref. 73)
The chapel and charity school were now firmly
established, with two preachers, a reader and
schoolmaster and thirty-six free scholars. There
were two services on Sundays and four on weekdays. The school hours were from seven to
eleven o'clock in the morning and from one until
five o'clock in the afternoon, with morning school
an hour shorter in winter. (ref. 74)
In this state Tenison's foundation continued for
the next century. No major work on the fabric
was put in hand, but in 1766–7 some repairs to
the roof and windows were carried out and the
interior was redecorated at a cost of £58 by Mr.
Pickering, probably the son of William Pickering,
the painter stainer and grocer of No. 3 St. James's
Street. Some changes were also made in the
chapel furnishings. The pulpit and reading desks,
which had previously stood in the middle aisle
towards the west end of the chapel, were now
moved to the east end and fitted out with new
hangings of purple velvet. New hangings were
also bought for the altar, all the old materials being
sold to the vestry of St. James's for use in the
Berwick Street Chapel. A new organ was bought
from Mr. Byfield, the old case being retained but
the original organ being likewise sold to St.
James's vestry for the Berwick Street Chapel. In
1791 the east window of the chapel was glazed
with ground glass. (ref. 75)
By the beginning of the nineteenth century the
chapel had become very much out of repair. In
1805 it was found that the timbers and boarding of
the floor were in a decayed state and that a number
of other repairs and alterations were necessary.
These were carried out at a cost of £3162. The
seating was also re-arranged and new velvet hangings again bought for the altar, pulpit and desk.
Two plain mahogany chairs with kneeling stools
were placed at the ends of the altar and, at the
same time, the altar plate regilded at an extra cost
of £34. (ref. 76)
In 1809 the Tenison trustees opened negotiations with the Treasury for a new lease of the
Crown land adjoining the chapel. This ground
had been granted to Tenison for ninety-nine years
from February 1722/3 and subsequently it had
been sub-leased by his trustees for the erection of
the small houses and stables in Chapel Court and
Swallow Street, which by 1809 had become 'very
much out of repair'. In 1814 the lease was renewed by the Crown and the trustees immediately
granted sub-leases at considerable profit. (ref. 77)
This lease had hardly been granted before the
formation of Regent Street involved the trustees
in fresh negotiations. The line of the street passed
very close to the chapel, and the New Street Commissioners needed to acquire part of the trustees'
ground. By an agreement which was not finally
reached until 1824 the trustees gave up a substantial part of the western portion of their land,
which is now part of Regent Street. They also
surrendered to the Crown their recently renewed
lease of the site of what later became No. 172
Regent Street (at the north corner of Tenison
Court) in exchange for a small annuity to be paid
to them by the Crown. They retained the freehold of the land to the north of No. 172, with a
valuable frontage of some ninety feet to Regent
Street, and immediately leased this ground to the
Crown for ninety-nine years from 1821. (ref. 78)
(fn. a)
These changes provided an opportunity to
make an entrance to the chapel from Regent
Street, and as part of the agreement the Commissioners undertook to build the façade. At the
same time the trustees decided to demolish the
building which had been erected in 1702 at
the west end of the chapel and contained the vestibules, vestry and school-room, and to erect in its
place a series of new rooms behind the Commissioners' façade. They could not build on all this
land, some of it being required as a play-ground for
the school. (ref. 79)
This plan was carried out by 1824. C. R.
Cockerell designed the Regent Street façade for
the Commissioners (ref. 80) and Thomas Hardwick the
new rooms behind for the trustees. The tradesmen
employed by the latter included Burt, bricklayer;
Mather, mason; Smith, carpenter; Prigg,
plumber; and Rogers, smith. The new additions
consisted of a vestibule leading from Regent
Street into an octagonal lobby and then through a
narrow passage into the church. The rest of the
ground floor was taken up by the new vestry,
the chapel-keeper's room, a few small closets and a
staircase leading up to the school-room placed
above the Regent Street entrance. Hardwick also
supervised the repair and redecoration of the interior of the chapel itself, (ref. 81) and the total cost to
the trustees of all these works amounted to
£3239. (ref. 82)
In the decades following these changes the size
of the congregation attending the chapel began
to decrease, despite its imposing new frontage to
Regent Street. The neighbourhood became increasingly commercialized, with few middle-class
residents and a great many poor householders; for
a chapel depending largely on pew-rents, these
social changes involved considerable loss of income. In 1847 the organ was repaired by Messrs.
Bevington and £720 was spent on painting the
chapel. This latter work was carried out by
Thomas Ponsonby, a Regent Street decorator,
supervised by Charles Mayhew, the trustees' surveyor. New hangings were also bought for the
chapel, but these were of cloth as the trustees
could no longer afford velvet. The present east
window of blue stained glass was inserted at this
time at a cost of £102 and was paid for by subscription. (ref. 83)
In 1849 economies and improvements were
made in the working of the charity school, and
the curriculum was extended in order to attract
more fee-paying pupils. In 1850 the stipends of
the clergy were reduced, and in 1851 two of the
congregation, Mr. Tombleson, carpenter, and
Mr. Burt, bricklayer, recoloured the gallery of
the chapel at their own cost, leaving it to the
trustees to pay them whenever possible. (ref. 84) But
despite these economies the income of the trustees
was still insufficient to meet current expenses.
In 1853 a new rector was appointed to St.
James's parish, the Rev. J. E. Kempe. At his
suggestion the Tenison trustees opened negotiations with the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for
the chapel to be converted into a district church of
the parish, with a defined cure of souls in the
adjoining streets. He also seems to have been
largely instrumental in persuading the trustees to
increase their income by converting the Regent
Street entrance to the chapel, with the schoolroom above, into a shop and dwelling house.
This work was carried out in the autumn of
1854, the remaining rooms behind the vestibule
being re-arranged to provide a new entrance lobby
from Chapel (now Tenison) Court. The interior of the chapel was repaired and redecorated
at the same time, Charles Lee of Golden Square
being the architect responsible for these changes
and Messrs. Saunders and Woolcott the building
contractors. A new organ was also built, by
Messrs. Gray and Davison, but was not completed until 1857. (ref. 85)
The loss of the Regent Street entrance aroused
protests in the newspapers and also from the clergy
and congregation. The rector of St. James's
replied to the former that the vestibule had never
formed an integral part of the original building but
was a modern annexe, and that the chapel trustees
had no other way of increasing their income. The
rector was less forbearing to the clergy and congregation who had protested that all hope of building
a more fitting church on the site was now lost.
Speaking for the trustees he said 'By a more
"fitting" church, we presume is meant one of
better ecclesiastical architecture. But it seems to
us an unprecedented notion that, especially in
London, and in a parish and district of great
spiritual destitution, a church, which is substantial and needing only adequate repairs, should
be pulled down and replaced by a new one on such
considerations alone.' (ref. 86)
The part of the foundation which had most
cause for complaint was the charity school. It lost
both the school-room overlooking Regent Street
and the play-ground and was removed to other
premises taken for its accommodation at No. 6
Cambridge (now Lexington) Street. Here the
school re-opened after the summer holidays of
1854, still governed by the Tenison trustees. (ref. 87)
The negotiations with the Ecclesiastical Commissioners which had been opened by the trustees
in 1854 continued until July 1869, and the agreement then made ended the independence of both
the chapel and the school. The freehold of the
chapel building in King Street was conveyed to the
Commissioners to become a district church, and
the chapel clergy, previously the preacher and
reader, became the first vicar and curate respectively of the new district church. The school, which
had been linked with the chapel for the previous
one hundred and eighty years, was made a separate
institution and in 1871 was amalgamated with
Archbishop Tenison's other school in St. Martin's
parish, which is now at Kennington Oval. The
trustees retained their property, except for the freehold of the chapel, and in future were to pay one
quarter of their income for the use of the school
and the remaining three quarters to the church.
Finally in November 1869 the new district church
was consecrated under the dedication of St.
Thomas. (ref. 88)
The parochial responsibilities of St. Thomas's
have greatly increased since 1869. In 1937 the
church of St. John the Baptist in Great Marlborough Street was demolished and its parochial
district united with that of St. Thomas. With the
demolition of St. Luke's, Berwick Street, in 1936,
the destruction of St. Anne's, Soho, during the
war of 1939–45 and the subsequent demolition of
St. Peter's, Great Windmill Street, St. Thomas's
has become the only Anglican parish church in the
wide area formed by Regent Street, Oxford Street,
Charing Cross Road and Shaftesbury Avenue. (ref. 89)
The church fabric has changed little during the
last hundred years. Butterfield is said to have refitted the interior in the 1870's or 80's but it is
difficult to discern what changes he made. (ref. 90) It is
known that the church was put into a good state
of repair in 1884–5, under the supervision of the
architects, Messrs. Lansdown and Harriss. The
roof bell-turret and stone work were then repaired
and the interior walls and ceiling coloured, at a
total cost of £700. (ref. 91)
(fn. b) In 1903–4 a 'general
restoration' was carried out costing £3000. The
architect was W. J. Parker and the builders
Messrs. Patman and Fotheringham. The work
included the erection of the present entrance from
Tenison Court with the top-lit lobby behind, the
present gallery staircases, and repairs to the roof.
It is also likely that the memorial chapel at the
south-east end of the church was inserted at this
time. In 1919–23 £2000 was spent on repairs to
the organ and ceiling. (ref. 93)
The building sustained only minor damage
during the war of 1939–45 but in 1950 dry not
was discovered in the north-east corner. This was
quickly eradicated and later the exterior walls were
partly faced with cement, which covered the
foundation stone of 1702. St. Thomas's has
recently become a centre of liturgical experiment,
which has involved the re-arrangement of some of
the furnishings. The future of the church is at
present uncertain.
Architectural description
The church (Plate 10a, 10b, figs. 24–5) is a
plain brick building, oblong in plan with slight
rectangular projections at the east and west ends,
the western projection having attached to it a
small square tower. The nave is spanned by a
single, high-pitched roof and the aisles by lowpitched roofs with a hip at either end. The east
front, now covered with cement, has in its central
projection a tall, round-headed window, below
which is a blank rectangular panel contained in a
shallow recess. The projection is finished with a
triangular modillioned pediment of wood, sharply
pitched and with a small round opening in its
centre. At either side of the projection is a doorway with a moulded architrave, and beyond it, set
at a higher level, the round-headed window of the
aisle. The front has no other decorative features
except for a bandcourse, placed below the parapet
over the aisles, which extends as far as the central
projection. The west front is now entirely invisible from Regent Street and only a glimpse of
it can be obtained from Tenison Court. However, the upper part, which is not obscured by the
single-storey buildings erected in 1903–4, is
shown in a photograph (ref. 94) taken when the Regent
Street block in front of it was still in course of
erection. It is very similar to the east front, but
with a wide segmental-headed window, perhaps a
later insertion, on either side of the central projection. The tower is entirely plain with no
openings or adornments other than a moulded
wood cornice at the top, but surmounting it is a
hexagonal bell-turret of wood. Each face of the
turret is pierced by an opening with a shouldered,
semi-circular head, its lower part guarded by a
balustrade, and above it is an entablature with a
prominent cornice surmounted by an ogee-profiled
roof. From the apex of the roof rises a wroughtiron weather-vane inscribed with the date 1702.
The south front is very plain with two rows of
five segmental-headed windows set in a wall face
of purple-red stock brick, the eastern window of
each row being blind. The window-arches are of
red gauged brick, and above each row is a bandcourse. The brickwork beneath the lower row of
windows has been covered with cement and a
moulded sill-course introduced. Inset at the western end is a stone tablet recording that the outer
edge of the kerb, which runs down Tenison Court
at a distance of about six feet from the building,
is the southern boundary of the land owned by
the King Street Chapel Trust.
Figure 24:
St. Thomas's Church, Kingly Street, elevations and plan
Figure 25:
St. Thomas's Church, Kingly Street, sections
The interior of the church is pleasantly proportioned but very plain, and the piecemeal enrichments added to it in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries have merely tended to
detract from its unity of design. The nave is in
five bays, being divided from the aisles by two
ranges of superimposed columns, Ionic upon
Doric. The aisles are galleried, but at the east end
the galleries appear to have been cut back at some
time and now extend for only three bays on the
north side and four on the south. A narrower
gallery is carried across the west end of the nave,
being broken forward in the centre to accommodate the organ, where it is supported by two Ionic
columns. There is no chancel, but in the two
eastern bays of the nave is a series of steps,
alternately broad and narrow, leading up to the
altar, which is contained in the shallow central
recess. The Doric columns of the lower order,
and the two Ionic columns under the organ, are
solid tree-trunks, while the entablature above the
former disguises the heavy beam into which the
floor of the gallery is framed. The Ionic columns
of the upper order are probably of wood, but they
have been covered with plaster and then painted
and grained. They stand on rough octagonal
pedestals of wood, but these are deceptively concealed by a continuous panelled pedestal-course
which breaks forward in front of them; the
woodwork, however, appears to have been grained
like the columns. At the eastern end, where there
is no gallery, the entablature and pedestal-course
are not continued, being limited to a short length
between each pair of superimposed columns.
The gallery-staircases are now at the west end,
being imitations of early Georgian work, but there
are indications that the original ones were at the
east end. The columns of the upper order support
a moulded beam, from which springs the shallow
segmental arch of the nave ceiling. The panelled
transverse ribs of this ceiling, extending from
column to column, could be original, but the indifferent painted decoration probably dates from
1884–5. The whole of the west wall below the
gallery has been panelled in imitation early
Georgian style, probably in 1903–4, while the
gallery itself is probably a reconstruction of the
same date. At ground level the two eastern bays
of the aisles have been partitioned off in the present
century, that in the southern aisle as a chapel with
an ornate screen and interior panelling which
probably also date from 1903–4. The reredos in
this chapel contains an oil painting of the Madonna
and Child with the Infant St. John the Baptist,
said to be sixteenth-century Italian. (ref. 95) The north,
south and west walls of the church are otherwise
entirely plain, except, inexplicably, for some
stretches of re-used Jacobean panelling in the
galleries.
The east wall of the nave is fully panelled
in the lower stage with pilasters supporting an
entablature, but it is cheap flush panelling with
the mouldings painted on to it. The wooden
reredos behind the altar is of inconspicuous design,
the centre panel being flanked by scroll-buttressed
pilasters inlaid with mahogany, and the entablature
above finished with a segmental pediment. The
centre panel now contains an oil painting showing
St. Thomas touching Christ's wounds. Behind
the altar is a plain wooden face stopped at each end
by the panelled return of the lower stage, here
carried up to the underside of the cornicecapping. Upon this capping stand two tall Ionic
pilasters supporting the imposts of the east window.
Their pedestals are linked to the reredos by a
panelled pedestal-course, and above them, upon
the imposts of the window, stand urns in low
relief. At either side of the altar recess the upper
stage has a blind, flat-headed window with a
moulded architrave standing on a panelled
pedestal.
There are no other original fittings now remaining in the church, the pulpit which was
described by the Royal Commission on Historical
Monuments in 1925 (ref. 95) having been removed; its
present whereabouts is unknown. The font cover
is probably contemporary with the building, but
the Commission make no mention of it, so that
presumably it is a recent importation. Constructed of carved wood, it has an octagonal pedestal
with a winged cherub-head in each face. Upon
the pedestal stands an ornate finial buttressed by
large foliated scrolls radiating outwards towards
the angles of the pedestal.
The confessional box was installed in recent
years; it is highly ornate, and perhaps of Italian
origin. It consists of a priest's cabinet flanked by
recesses for penitents. Between and at either side
of these three sections are narrow pilasters enriched with baluster-shafts, foliage and masks.
Above each pilaster is a short length of entablature, the architrave alone being continued.
Over the priest's cabinet the entablature is finished
with an open triangular pediment having a
flattened apex, the two sides of this pediment and
the entablature over the outer pilasters being
ornamented with carved finials on pedestals. The
priest's cabinet has a low, panelled gate and its
round-arched head has carved spandrels, while set
into the open pediment is a foliated cartouche
bearing a coat-of-arms, thought to be Franciscan,
and surmounted by a coronet. The side-compartments each have a trefoiled head carved with open
tracery, and above the continued architravemoulding is an overdoor composed of a scallopshell floating on a mass of foliage.
The organ dominates the west end of the
church, rising from the gallery almost to the ceiling. It is rectangular in plan, but with curved
angles, the pipe-casing, which is raised on a
panelled chest, being arranged in eight panels
flanking a projecting column of pipes in the centre.
At the foot of the pipe-casing is a panelled
pedestal-course and above it an entablature with
an enriched cornice, the head of each panel having
a carved valance. The projecting central column
is supported by carved brackets, its head, which
rises above the panels at either side, having the
same entablature and carved foliage and being
flanked by scroll-buttresses.
The Eastern Field
In the early 1670's the eastern half of Six Acre
Close appears to have been 'digged for Brickearth'
by Sir William Pulteney, but in 1674 he came to
an agreement with Ralph Wayne of St. Martin's,
who already occupied part of the western half and
seems to have wanted the land for farming. Wayne
was to have a sub-lease for forty years at an annual
rent of £14 and a fine of £12. After occupying
the land for a few months and spending £6 on new
fences and manure, he found that the ground
formed part of the parish Lammas land, and that
he had to open it to common pasturage from
Lammas Day (1 August) to Candlemas (2 February). Wayne therefore did not complete his
agreement and the land reverted to Pulteney. (ref. 96)
In March 1676 Sir William Pulteney again
sub-let the land, this time to Richard Bent,
gentleman. By 1679 Bent had built a house there
but three years later he surrendered the whole
property to Pulteney. (ref. 97) By this time the land had
become valuable for building, and in May 1682
Pulteney leased the whole of the eastern half of
Six Acre Close to Richard Tyler, bricklayer, for
forty years at an annual rent of £7.
Excepted out of this lease was a parcel of ground
upon which a windmill, with an adjoining well,
had formerly stood. Also excepted was a right of
way into this ground together with the privilege of
working the windmill should it ever be reerected. (ref. 25) This excepted ground may perhaps be
identified with the site of Kingly Court. Shortly
afterwards the land was laid out for building,
which was largely completed by 1693. The footpath, which had run north-south through the
middle of Six Acre Close and which now formed
the western boundary of Tyler's land, was widened
to become King Street. Parallel to this line on the
east, Carnaby Street was laid out, sufficient space
being left for small houses to be built between its
eastern side and the boundary wall of the adjoining
Pesthouse Close; between these two longer streets
Cross Street (now Ganton Street) and Tyler
Street (now part of Foubert's Place) formed
shorter connecting links.
Richard Tyler was presumably responsible for
this layout. The houses were built by him and his
associates, Davies, Horsnel, Hutchinson, Pym and
Richardson, (ref. 98) not in any very creditable manner.
As early as 1693 the Surveyor General reported
them to be very meanly built and inhabited by
poor people; some tenements were unfinished,
others already decaying and many uninhabited.
Those that were completed 'will hardly last out ye
30 year Leases in being'. (ref. 19) All this development
was financed by a mortgage to Thomas Crosse, of
Westminster, brewer, which was assigned to
Cesar Chamberlain in 1685, and re-assigned by
1692 to John Tompson. The latter may have
been John Thompson or Tompson, mason, who
worked on St. James's Church in 1687 and on
several of the City churches. (ref. 99)
The total ground-rent payable to Tompson as
mortgagee amounted to about £110 per annum.
All Sir William Pulteney received from these
hundred or so new houses built on this part of his
leasehold estate was an annual rent of £7, secured
to him by the lease which he had granted in 1682
to Tyler. (ref. 25)
Sir William Pulteney died in 1691, leaving a
will empowering his trustees to sell parts of his
property to pay debts and legacies. (ref. 100) In February
1692/3 his remaining leasehold interest in this
eastern portion of Six Acre Close was sold to
William Lowndes (ref. 101) for £400.
William Lowndes (1652–1724) was a financier
and politician. He had come to London from
Winslow in Buckinghamshire at about the age of
fifteen and by 1679 had obtained a place in the
Treasury. Subsequently he rose to become Secretary of the Treasury with a seat in the House of
Commons, where his financial skill and political
influence earned him the chairmanship of the
Committee of Ways and Means. The considerable fortune which he made was invested in land
in his native county and in London, one of his first
purchases being this leasehold estate in St.
James'. (ref. 102)
(fn. c)
The property was, however, of little immediate
value, for it yielded only the small rent reserved in
Pulteney's sub-lease of 1682 to Tyler. Moreover
there was little prospect of any increased return,
for the Crown lease originally granted to Pulteney
would fall in very shortly after the expiry of the
sub-lease. The only possibility of future gain was
therefore to obtain from the Crown an extension
of the current term. By reason of his office,
Lowndes was well placed to achieve this, and it
was probably this prospect that induced him to
pay £400 for a comparatively valueless lease. His
speculation succeeded, for in March 1692/3 a
reversionary Crown lease of ninety-nine years
from 1722/3 was granted to his two nominees. (fn. d)
His leasehold interest in the eastern moiety of Six
Acre Close was thereby extended to 1822, (ref. 103) but
there was still no immediate profit, for it was not
until February 1722/3 that Tyler's sub-lease terminated and Lowndes entered into de facto possession
of the property, now greatly in need of rebuilding.
At this time also, his possession was further
secured by the purchase from the Crown of the
freehold reversion of his ninety-nine year lease.
The Act (ref. 104) permitting this sale received the
royal assent on 22 March 1722/3. (ref. 105)
The redevelopment of what had now in effect
become the Lowndes freehold estate began almost
immediately. Although William Lowndes died
in 1724 the rebuilding was continued by his
executors and trustees (ref. 106) and was completed by
1726. (ref. 7) William Thomas, citizen and clothworker of London, and evidently also a property
speculator, undertook to dispose of many of the
sites for rebuilding. In this way most of the plots
were let to various building tradesmen on sixty-one
year building leases, though some of the properties
(possibly those difficult to dispose of) were taken
by Thomas himself. (fn. e)
The most notable feature of the layout was the
new Lowndes Market. In 1720 an inquisition
held at St. Clement Danes church-house had
found that a proposed grant by the Crown to
William Lowndes of the right to hold three
weekly markets for flesh, fish, vegetables and
other provisions on Tuesday, Thursday and
Saturday, on his estate in St. James's would not
be prejudicial to the interests of neighbouring
merchants and shop-keepers. In the same year
these market rights were granted to William
Lowndes by letters patent; the grant included a
licence to collect the market tolls and also to build
a market house. (ref. 140)
This grant was obtained before the date of
expiry of the sub-lease to Tyler and in anticipation
of the redevelopment of the estate. It was not,
however, until June 1725, after the death of
William Lowndes, that his executors came to an
agreement with William Thomas for the latter to
build 'a good and substantial market house with
shops and other conveniences'. This building was
erected by the following March, when Thomas
received a sixty-one-year lease of the newly completed market house, together with the sole right
to keep the market and collect the tolls. (ref. 106)
The market house was erected on the east side
of Carnaby Street on land which had been cleared
of small houses and which backed on to the wall
of Pesthouse Close. The site was large enough to
contain a free-standing building flanked by two
narrow streets or pavements. These have since
become Lowndes Court and Marlborough Court
and the position of the market house built in
1725–6 can be identified as the island site between
them (see Plates 6, 7). When the adjoining
Craven estate (hitherto known as Pesthouse Close)
was developed in the 1730's, the existing Lowndes
market house was enlarged by an eastward extension built on Lord Craven's land, an agreement
for this expansion having been reached between
William Lowndes's grandson, Richard, and Lord
Craven in February 1735/6. The freehold
ownership of the two portions of the enlarged site
remained unchanged and each estate owner retained the use and benefit of his own share of the
new market house. Soon after this extension the
name was changed from Lowndes to Carnaby
Market (ref. 141) (see page 198).
In this condition the Lowndes estate in St.
James's remained until the later eighteenth
century. In 1774–5 the then owner, another
William Lowndes, disposed of numerous small
freeholds, the purchaser of much of this property
being the sixth Baron Craven, who in 1774 purchased Lowndes's share of Carnaby market house
and a number of small adjoining freeholds. In
this way he was able to extend his estate, previously
Pesthouse Close, into the eastern portion of what
had been Six Acre Close. His purchases covered
all the land east of Carnaby Street between what is
now Foubert's Place (then Tyler's Court or
Street) in the north and Ganton Street (then
Cross Street) on the south (ref. 142) (fig. 23). By 1801
only three small freehold sites remained unsold out
of the three and three-quarter acres first purchased
in 1692/3 by William Lowndes in this eastern
moiety of Six Acre Close. (ref. 143)
Carnaby Market was closed in 1820 and almost
the whole of the area bounded by the modern
Foubert's Place, Marshall, Ganton and Carnaby
Streets was rebuilt under leases granted by Lord
Craven shortly afterwards. Many of the buildings
erected then still survive, and are described on
page 202.
Kingly Street
This street was known as King Street until 1906.
It was developed out of the foot-path from
Piccadilly to St. Marylebone, which ran through
Six Acre Close and which marked the boundary
between William Lowndes's land to the east and
that of Lewis Maidwell, Dr. Tenison and Thomas
Beak to the west (fig. 23). Writing about thirty
years later William Lowndes described the footpath thus: 'I (who in the year 1667 came from
Winslow the place of my birth to the City to abide
there) can well remember this footpathway by
which we used to walk to and from Marybone,
which footpath, as I take it, was afterwards layd
into King Street.' (ref. 101) The houses on the east side
of King Street, on the Lowndes estate, were built
by Richard Tyler between 1688 and 1693 and rebuilt in the 1720's as part of the redevelopment of
the Lowndes estate.
The west side of the street was built up soon
after 1687, following the extension of Bridgett
Looker's leasehold term and her subsequent disposal of the land for building. As well as a number
of houses, the west side of the street contained a
large building at the upper end which housed
Lewis Maidwell's academy and further south
stood Dr. Tenison's wooden tabernacle.
King Street first appears by name in the ratebooks in 1686. It was described by Strype as
being in 1720 'a pretty good Street, having divers
very good Houses fit for Gentry'. (ref. 144) These houses
were probably on the west side, those on the east
side of the street being then in a bad state of repair
and shortly to be rebuilt.
Kingly Street is very narrow and now looks
rather drab, since the whole of the west side, except for St. Thomas's Church, is occupied by the
backs of the tall blocks fronting on to Regent
Street. However, a focal point has been provided
by the arch with its gabled, timber-framed superstructure which spans the north end, linking the
two blocks of Messrs. Liberty and Company on
either side. The east side retains much of its
original scale and only in a few cases have two of
the narrow-fronted plots been absorbed by a single
large block in the late nineteenth or twentieth
century. Much rebuilding has taken place, however, from the early nineteenth century onwards,
and there is now little external evidence of anything previous to that date. Up to about the
middle of the nineteenth century the rebuilding
seems to have taken the form of houses with
shops in the ground storey but since then the new
buildings have been mostly warehouses and
offices.
The Blue Posts public house at the corner of
Ganton Street has existed on this site since at
least 1737. (ref. 145)
Nos. 1 and 2 Kingly Street
These houses stand at the south end of the east
side of the street and formed part of Gelding
Close; for convenience they are described here.
Nos. 1 and 2 Kingly Street were probably rebuilt or refronted in the early nineteenth century,
but the front of No. 1 has been elaborately stuccoed,
possibly in the 1860's. Both are four-storeyed
with fronts two windows wide. No. 1 has a shopfront, now altered, in the ground storey, and flatheaded windows with moulded architraves above.
The second and third storeys are flanked by fluted
Doric pilasters enriched on the necks of the
capitals, and upon these rest an entablature with a
bracketed cornice, the brackets being arranged in
groups of three. No. 2 has an entirely plain front
of yellow brick with slightly cambered gauged
arches to the windows. In the ground storey, to
the north of a later shop-front, is a narrow roundarched doorway, the altered door having above it a
fanlight with radial glazing-bars.
Nos. 7–11 (consec.), 24 Kingly Street
Nos. 7 and 8 have been stuccoed externally but
they date from the rebuilding on the Lowndes
estate in the 1720's. Each has a three-storeyed
front three windows wide and a garret contained
in a mansard roof. No. 8 has in the entrance
passage some plain rebated panelling finished with
a small wooden cornice, and at the back a dog-legged staircase with moulded closed strings,
turned balusters and column newels.
Nos. 9, 10 and 11 are all four-storeyed houses
with fronts two windows wide. They may be
basically of the 1720's, but their main interest lies
in the fronts, which have been stuccoed in the early
or mid nineteenth century to form a single design.
In the ground storey is a row of shops, now much
altered, forming a basement for an order of pilasters
embracing the second and third storeys. The two
middle pilasters, flanking No. 10, are Ionic and
the two end ones Doric with enriched capitals, the
entablature, which lacks an architrave, breaking
forward above the Ionic pilasters. In both the
second and third storeys the windows have moulded
architraves and in the latter they are further
adorned with keyblocks and moulded, bracketed
sills. In the fourth storey each house has only one
wide, low window with a shouldered architrave;
and this is set in a shallow semi-circular recess
spanning the distance between the pilasters below
and flanked by sunk spandrel-panels. Above this
storey is a small moulded cornice, upon which, in
the middle of No. 10, is a panelled pedestal buttressed by scrolls and finished with a triangular
pediment. Beneath the north end of No. 10 is a
wide, open passage into Kingly Court.
No. 24 also dates from the 1720's; it contains
four storeys and has a front three windows wide.
The front has now been stuccoed, but the
windows have recessed box-frames and there is a
raised bandcourse above the third storey. In the
ground storey the original wooden doorcase
survives to one side of a mid nineteenth-century
shop-front. The moulded architrave, partly
renewed, is flanked by panelled pilasters and above
these are carved consoles supporting a moulded
cornice.
Foubert's Place
In 1882 Foubert's Passage or Place, Tyler Street,
Tyler Court and the western arm of Marshall
Street were all designated under the one name of
Foubert's Place. The latter had originally been a
narrow passage connecting Swallow and King
Streets; it had been laid out in the late 1680's, and
subsequently took its name from Major Henry
Foubert's riding-school, which stood on the south
side (see page 179).
Tyler Street and Tyler Court were in the
eastern part of Six Acre Close and took their
name from Richard Tyler, bricklayer. Building
seems to have progressed slowly, and Tyler Street
does not appear by name in the ratebooks until
1716.
The depths of the houses on the north side of
Foubert's Place become progressively shallower
towards the west end, following the boundary
between Six Acre Close and Millfield; this
boundary dates from medieval times when it
divided the lands of the Mercers' Company from
those of the Abbot and Convent of Abingdon.
The influence of the boundary in restricting the
house-plots may be seen at No. 31 Kingly Street,
which stands on the north-east corner of Foubert's
Place, where the third storey of the return front
is set back at an acute angle following the line of
the old division (Plate 159).
The eastern extremity of Foubert's Place was
previously the western arm of Marshall Street and
formed part of Pesthouse Close (see Chapter XII).
Foubert's Place is a very narrow street that can
never have contained much of architectural
interest, and now the western end is entirely
occupied by the sides of buildings fronting on to
Regent Street while the eastern end has been rebuilt with warehouses and offices. Between
Kingly Street and Carnaby Street, however, the
original, narrow-fronted plots remain, occupied by
buildings with nondescript fronts ranging in date
from the early nineteenth to the early twentieth
century but with busy shops and cafés in the ground
storeys which give this part of the street a more
lively air. The sections between Regent Street and
Kingly Street, and between Carnaby Street and
Newburgh Street have been covered with pavingflags and are reserved to pedestrians. None of the
interiors of the existing buildings has been investigated, but No. 22, which has exposed boxframes in the windows, may date from the early
eighteenth century. The Shakespeare's Head
public house at the west corner of Foubert's
Place and Great Marlborough Street was probably
established in 1735, and evidently takes its name
from Thomas and John Shakespear, who were the
licensees until 1744. (ref. 145)
Carnaby Street
This street takes its name from Karnaby House, a
large building on the east side of the street,
erected in 1683 by Richard Tyler, the bricklayer
responsible for the development of the eastern
moiety of Six Acre Close, and by Pym, one of his
associates. (ref. 98) It is not known why the house was
so called.
The street was probably laid out in 1685 or
1686 and first appears in the ratebooks in 1687.
It was almost completely built up by 1690 with
small houses, though there were also a number of
stable buildings and a riding-house built on the
site of the present Pugh's Place. The most
conspicuous element among the early inhabitants
were the Huguenot residents and more than one
house in the street was noted in the ratebooks as
being 'filled with french Protestants', who appear
to have lived there rate-free. (ref. 146)
Later, from 1700 to about 1721, one of the
houses in the street was occupied by the girls'
charity school which later moved to Boyle Street
and is now the Burlington School, Shepherd's
Bush (see page 539).
All these first houses in Carnaby Street
(described by Strype in 1720 as 'ordinary') (ref. 144)
were rebuilt in the 1720's as part of the redevelopment of the Lowndes property which followed the
termination of the original building lease to Tyler
and the grant of the freehold reversion of all the
eastern moiety of Six Acre Close to William
Lowndes in March 1722/3. Despite these large
improvements Carnaby Street did not become a
place of fashionable residence. The eighteenthcentury inhabitants were undistinguished and in
the nineteenth century the houses were nearly all
in commercial occupation. A considerable amount
of rebuilding took place in 1820–5, after the
closure of Carnaby Market, when most of the
property which Lord Craven had bought on
the east side of the street between Ganton Street
and Foubert's Place, was rebuilt by or under the
supervision of Thomas Finden (see page 202).
The south end of the street has now been rebuilt with offices and warehouses in nondescript
styles, and the first building of character is on the
east side, in the station of the former St. James
and Pall Mall Electric Light Company (Plate
140c). The southernmost part of this building is
the earliest, a curious structure of yellow brick
with red dressings, designed in a strange mixture
of Victorian Gothic with Baroque details. To the
north of Ganton Street on the east side are two
much altered houses (Nos. 22 and 23) of early to
mid eighteenth-century date, which were evidently not rebuilt after the closure of Carnaby
Market; they are both four storeys high and two
and three windows wide respectively. The rest of
the east side of the street is occupied by two groups
of buildings erected as part of the redevelopment
of the market in the 1820's. On the west side
there are a number of much altered Georgian
buildings.
Nos. 5 and 6 Carnaby Street
Demolished
These houses were erected in the 1720's and
were of some interest, No. 5 for the unusual
features of its plan, and No. 6 for its elevation
(Plate 131d). No. 5 was the larger house, with a
three-windows-wide room in front. At the back
was a dog-leg staircase, sandwiched between a
narrow closet on the south and a small room on
the north, the latter having a chimney-stack projecting between the two windows. The front,
with an altered ground storey and two tiers of
segmental-arched windows in the brick face
above, was unremarkable save for the placing of
the windows with a wide pier at the south end and
a narrow one at the north. The plan of No.
6 was conventional, with a wide front room and
the stairs to the south of the back room. The
front, however, was distinguished by having a
single large window in each upper storey, Venetian
on the first-floor, with panelled pilasters between
the lights and a fan-shaped tympanum within the
framing arch, and a three-light segmental-headed
window on the second floor. Both houses had
some simply panelled rooms in their much altered
interiors.
Nos. 30, 31 Great Marlborough Street
Formerly Nos. 29, 28 Great Marlborough Street,
previously Nos. 28, 29 Carnaby Street
Nos. 30 and 31 Great Marlborough Street
appear to be, on the evidence of the fenestration
pattern, early eighteenth-century houses, four
storeys high and each four windows wide, No. 31
having a return front of four windows (one blind)
to Foubert's Place. A modern shop fills the ground
floor of both houses, and the rest of the exterior
has been stuccoed, with joints imitating stonework, the windows being dressed with moulded
architraves. The interiors have been completely
modernized.
Nos. 37–39 (consec.) Carnaby Street
No. 37 is the most interesting of the older
houses in the street (Plate 131b). On the ground
floor of the three-storeyed front is the picturesque
shop of an ironmonger and oilman, and at the south
end is a passage to Pugh's Place, a rather squalidlooking enclave. The upper part of the front is
of stock bricks, with four irregularly spaced
windows in both storeys, the second window from
the south being blind. The flush frames survive
on the first floor, where they are set in openings
with flat arches and flush keyblocks of red brick.
The second-floor windows have exposed frames
recessed within the plastered reveals of openings
with plain gauged flat arches.
Nos. 38 and 39 are paired houses, probably late
eighteenth century, with shops below the three
storeys of living accommodation. Each shopfront is finished with an entablature having a
dentilled cornice, but that at No. 38 is straight and
rests on simple Doric antae, whereas that at No.
39 breaks into a gentle bow and is supported by
slender pilasters with elongated consoles. Presumably an original bowed shop-front window
has been replaced by the present commonplace
flat one. The upper part of each house front is
of yellow stock bricks, with the windows, two
to each storey, recessed in plain openings with
stone sills, plastered reveals, and flat arches of
gauged red bricks. At No. 38 the sashes still
have their slender glazing-bars.
Nos. 44–48 (consec.) Carnaby Street
No. 44, a three-storeyed house with a return
front in Ganton Street, is an early eighteenthcentury structure that has been crudely refronted
and much altered inside. The only obvious sign of
antiquity is the roof of old tiles, with three hipped
dormers above the Ganton Street front.
Nos. 45 and 46 are probably mid nineteenthcentury houses, yet their fronts retain a late
Georgian flavour. The three-storeyed face above
the simple shop-fronts is of pinkish stock bricks,
with flat arches of gauged yellow bricks to the
windows.
No. 47 (with 47A) is four storeys high and
four windows wide. Above the simple shopfronts is a plain brick face, apparently of late
eighteenth-century date but now painted red
and mock-pointed. The sashes, which retain
their glazing-bars, are recessed in plain openings
with stone sills, plastered reveals, and flat arches
of gauged bricks, presumably red.
No. 48 is a commercial building with a pleasant
front of red brick with stone dressings, a simple
design in a style stemming from the Queen Anne
revival, dated 1906. It is four storeys high and
the three middle windows of the three upper
floors are grouped within a high arch, slightly
recessed.
Ganton Street
In 1886 Cross Street, Cross Court and South
Row, extending from Kingly to Marshall Street,
were renamed Ganton Street. Cross Street connected Kingly and Carnaby Streets; it first appears
by name in the ratebooks in 1686 and was laid out
by Richard Tyler, the bricklayer responsible for
the development of the eastern part of Six Acre
Close. When building began in Lord Craven's
Pesthouse Close in the 1730's the street was extended eastward, its eastern extremity being known
as South Row from the fact that the houses on its
south side also formed the south side of Carnaby
Market. The houses on the north side between
Newburgh and Marshall Streets date from the
redevelopment of the site of Carnaby Market in
the 1820's, but Nos. 10 and 12 Ganton Street and
No. 17 Newburgh Street appear to be older; they
are described on page 202.
Nos. 24 and 26 Ganton Street
Formerly Nos. 6 and 7 Cross Street
Nos. 24 and 26 Ganton Street appear to be of
mid eighteenth-century date, with plain fronts,
four storeys high and two windows wide. Both
houses have modern shop-fronts and the upper
face of No. 24 has been slightly altered and
painted. No. 26 seems little changed, with an
amber stock brick face and windows with slender
glazing-bars, recessed in plain openings having
stone sills and flat arches of gauged brickwork,
probably red.