CHAPTER VIII - Bow Street and Russell Street Area
Bow Street
Plates 52a, 52c, 54b
Few Streets in Covent Garden have
changed their original character more since
the late eighteenth century than Bow
Street. The present aspect of the street is determined by two factors: its function as part of a
through-route from Waterloo Bridge to St.
Giles's and Bloomsbury, and the public or semipublic nature of the large buildings that front
upon it. Originally, however, the street did not
form part of an important line of communication,
having no northward opening into Long Acre
(Plate 7), and until the building of Smirke's
Covent Garden Theatre in 1809 was essentially
the usual street of houses, shops and taverns.
Its first occupants appear in the parish ratebooks in c. 1633. The west side, which was
developed under the Bedford leases running from
1631–3 tabulated on pages 294–7, was the first to
be completed, by 1635–6.
On the east side the northern half of the
frontage was formed by the brick wall built in
c. 1610 by the third Earl of Bedford (see page
24), and the ground behind this, which had been
granted on long lease by the second Earl in 1574
to Sir Edmund Carey, (ref. 1) remained undeveloped
for the time being, as did a piece of fee-farm
property immediately to its south. The rest of the
eastern frontage, southward to Russell Street,
turned slightly westward from the wall, and the
building-up of this part was completed three or
four years after the west side. (ref. 2)
Unlike the other main streets in Covent Garden Bow Street did not take its name (which it
bore by 1638 (ref. 2) ) from the Russell family or the
royal family. No doubt, as Strype supposed, the
name derived from its shape. (ref. 3)
The ratebooks suggest that the first houses in
the street varied considerably in value, and the
occupants were also diverse. Some people of
title occur from the beginning. The first residents also included the building speculator,
Richard Harris, who, when not in gaol, weathered
out the vicissitudes of his career at No. 4 (on the
site of the Russell Street market): further north
one of the first residents was a schoolmaster,
Thomas Haywood or Howard. (ref. 4) The street
seems never to have achieved uniform residential
respectability; nor was it quite as much a superior
tradesman's street as Bedford Street or King
Street. Perhaps it was more animated than they
were and more attractive to lively or talented
people. By the late 1690's the residents included
Grinling Gibbons, William Wycherley (probably, in lodgings (ref. 5) ), Doctor John Radcliffe, Marcellus Laroon the elder, Doctor Humphrey Ridley,
the penman John Ayres, Lady Craven, and the
proprietor of Will's coffee house. (ref. 2)
This last had been established in 1671 in a
newly built house at No. 1, by a William Urwin,
from whom it took its name. It occupied part of
the site of a larger property which had previously
included, under the name of the Three Roses, the
corner house (No. 21 Russell Street, originally
the site of the Goat tavern) and No. 20 Russell
Street. (ref. 6) Under Dryden's patronage Will's
rapidly became famous, and by the 1690's had
been extended to take in the upper part of the
corner house. (ref. 7) At about this time, however,
Urwin was 'lapsed in his fortunes' and his mortgagee, Doctor William Oldys, the civilian, (ref. 8) had
to put in a manager. (ref. 9) In the 1720's it was
sufficiently prosperous to include the upper part
of No. 20 Russell Street. (ref. 10) No. 1 Bow Street
continued under the name of Will's coffee house
until at least 1730, (ref. 5) but in 1743 it was known as
Chapman's coffee house, and by 1751 the name
Will's had been transferred to a coffee house in the
Little Piazza. (ref. 11)
(fn. a)
The building-up of the street had been completed in 1673–7 with the erection of eleven
houses at the northern end of the east side, where a
garden is prominently shown in Hollar's view
(Plate 1). In 1659 the leasehold interest here,
acquired by Sir Edmund Carey, had passed to the
Honourable Arthur Annesley (ref. 13) (who was created
Earl of Anglesey in 1661), but by 1673 all or
most of the street frontage was again in the fifth
Earl of Bedford's hands, (ref. 14) and had been built
upon by 1675. (ref. 2) The lessees from the fifth Earl
included (Sir) Richard Blake, a 'gentleman', and a
'chirurgeon'; another is known to have been a
building tradesman, Thomas Thurban, bricklayer.
The pre-lease articles of agreement were very
specific in respect of materials and scantlings and
included a requirement that the roof-timbers,
first floor and external woodwork should be of
oak. The clear room-heights on the ground,
first and second floors were 10, 10½ and 9
feet respectively. The elevations were to be
uniform, to a design approved by the Earl's
surveyor. (ref. 15)
At the extreme northern end of the east side
two 'uniform' houses were built at this time by the
same Blake who was the Earl of Bedford's lessee,
but seemingly as lessee of the Earl of Anglesey, or
by right of tenure from the two Earls together.
His building-work included a gateway high
enough to take a laden hay-cart, probably
communicating with the Red Lion Inn: (ref. 16) maps
of the 1680's show Red Lion Court opening into
Bow Street here from Drury Lane.
It was the Earl of Bedford's intention to make a
communication northward also, to Long Acre,
and his leases of 1673 included provision for the
payment of an additional ground rent if this was
effected. Nothing more was done, however, than
the creation of a northward cul de sac, where a
carpenter, Thomas Chaplin, was the Earl's
building lessee in 1675. (ref. 17)
Immediately south of the Earl's houses two
others (Nos. 29 and 30) were put up on sites that
were no longer part of his estate. (ref. 1) The builder
was the bricklayer, Richard Frith, who evidently
took advantage of a looser control than was
exercised over the Earl's houses to employ bad
materials. The Tylers' and Bricklayers' Company
fined him for using defective tiles supplied to him
by the Deptford fishmonger, Thomas Pitcher, (ref. 18)
and some twenty-six years later, in 1702, one of
these houses, which was at that time inhabited by
Grinling Gibbons, fell down. (ref. 19) Gibbons thereupon moved to an adjacent site southward, and
built himself a new house under a lease from the
first Duke of Bedford. (ref. 20)
In 1720 the street found favour with Strype—
'open and large, with very good Houses, well
inhabited, and resorted unto by Gentry for
Lodgings'. (ref. 3) A few years later, however, the
parish had a poor-house or nurses' house in the
street, (ref. 21) and 1739 saw the disappearance of the last
private titled ratepayer. In the following year Sir
Thomas De Veil appears in the ratebooks, at
the site of Laroon's old house, No. 4, but the
establishment of his magistrate's court here (see
page 188) no doubt spoilt the street residentially.
By 1743 there were eight licensed premises in
Bow Street. (ref. 22) The making of Broad Court in
1745–7 on the site of Red Lion Court gave a dull
orderliness of appearance to this vicinity, but
despite the eminence of the building tradesmen
employed by the fourth Duke the scale and social
character of the development was quite humble
(see page 40 and Plates 52b, 59a).
Since 1732 there had been a small pit-entrance
to Covent Garden Theatre on the west side. A
larger entrance was made a few doors further
south, perhaps about 1776. (ref. 2) By the end of the
eighteenth century columned porches had been
built, but the theatre still had no façade of its own
to Bow Street.
The fifth Earl's intention of making a way
through into Long Acre was finally brought
about by the fifth Duke in 1792–3, and the
passage which he then made was surrendered to
the Paving Commissioners of St. Martin in the
Fields as a public highway. At first it had a bar
across it. (ref. 23) The extension to Long Acre was
widened nearly to its present breadth in 1835 by
the Commissioners of Woods, Forests and Land
Revenues. This was in conjunction with the
construction of Wellington Street (see page 226)
and was of great importance in opening Bow
Street for the first time to heavy through-traffic.
By this period Bow Street was nearing the end
of its history as a residential street. Proximity to
the theatre seems to have made the northern end
of the street particularly disreputable. When the
Commissioners of Woods, Forests and Land
Revenues were negotiating in 1833 for the purchase of ground here they found that the Duke of
Bedford's lessee, James Robinson, owned a
brothel on part of the desired site at the northern
corner of Hart Street, as well as another opposite,
on the east side of Bow Street. During the lengthy
negotiations Robinson's solicitor accused the
Commissioners' surveyor, J. W. Higgins, of
prejudice against 'my client's profession', while
another of the Commissioners' officers voiced the
conviction that Robinson was prolonging his
tenure of 'the naughty house in Hart Street'
until 'the Rutting Season is over'. (ref. 24)
(fn. b) The
clearing of the site evidently made little difference
to the character of the locality. In 1844 the
occupant of a building at this northern corner of
Hart Street complained to the parish vestry that he
had 'numerous Brothels situated around my
house', and suggested that the notorious name of
Bow Street should be changed to Wellington
Street. (ref. 25)
Whatever its social character the appearance
of this northern end of the street had been transformed by the building of Robert Smirke's
Covent Garden Theatre in 1809. (fn. c) The subsequent visual history of the street is that of the
large buildings which now dominate it—the
Opera House and Floral Hall (1856–60), the
Police Station and Magistrates' Court (1879–
1880), the Broad Court rebuilding (1897, by
R. S. Wornum (ref. 27) ), and the Telephone Exchange
(1964–7).
Of the original street, only the range from
No. 35 to the corner of Russell Street retains the
old site-divisions, with unremarkable buildings of
comparatively recent date. They include, however, two public houses, the Globe (at No. 37)
and the Marquis of Anglesea (at No. 39 Bow
Street and No. 23 Russell Street), which occupy
sites where licensed premises were situated at
(though not uninterruptedly back to) an early
date. On the site of the Globe a victualler was in
possession by 1682, (ref. 28) while the Marquis of
Anglesea occupies the site of a victualler's premises in the same year (at No. 39), (ref. 28) and of
Edward Miles's coffee house at the corner of
Russell Street in 1663. (ref. 29)
Ratepaying occupants in Bow Street include:
Lady Dorothy Fowles, 1633–41; Dr. Robert
Gifford, 1633–41; Sir Edward Payton, 1633–9,
parliamentary pamphleteer; Sir Egremont
Thynne, 1633–6; Lady Milleson, 1635; Thomas
Savile, first Viscount Savile of Castlebar and later
first Earl of Sussex, 1635; Sir Thomas Sherley,
1635–6; Sir Richard Tichborne, 1636; Lady
Arthurlong, 1637; Dr. Lawrence, 1638; Christopher Lewtener, 1637–9, ? Christopher Lewkenor, member of the Long Parliament; 'Monsieur Amy Merriott', ? Paul Amyraut, 1639–
1640, divine; Lady Carey (Carewe), c. 1640–3;
Captain Daniel Goodriche, 1640–4; Sir William
Mountick, c. 1640–1; Countess of Castlehaven,
1641–3; Colonel Vaviser, 1643; Captain Welby,
1643; Sir William Lister, c. 1645, member of the
Long Parliament; Brian Stapleton, 1645–52,
member of the Long Parliament; Dr. Walter
Charleton, c. 1651–6, physician; Thomas Wharton, c. 1651,? physician; William Clarke,
1653–5,? (Sir) William Clarke, later Secretary
at War; Edmond Waller, 1654–6, poet, member
of the Long Parliament; 'Doctor Whitacre',
1654–7,? Tobias Whitaker, physician; 'Thos
Blunt Esq', 1657, ? Thomas Blount, author;
Lady Coveley (Covell), 1658–60; Sir George
Wakeman, 1663–4, physician to Queen Catherine of Braganza; 'Lovelace Esq', 1664,? John
Lovelace, later third Baron Lovelace of Hurley,
Whig; Sir Richard Corbett, 1666; William
Denton, c. 1667–79, physician and political
writer; Charles Howard, Viscount Andover and
from 1669 Earl of Berkshire, 1667–70; Sir
Thomas Ashton, 1668; John Austin, 1668–9,
Catholic writer under pseudonym William
Birchley; Major Michael Mohun, 1671–6, actor;
Dr. Richard Lower, 1672–81, physician; Dr.
Edward Duke, c. 1675–81; Thomas Hawker,
c. 1675–82,? portrait painter; Henry Powle,
c. 1675–8, later Master of the Rolls and Speaker
of the Convention Parliament; Thomas Jordan,
1676–80, poet; Grinling Gibbons, 1678–84,
1689–1721, wood carver and statuary; William
Longueville, 1679–81, lawyer and friend of the
poet Samuel Butler, who often visited him in Bow
Street; Marcellus Laroon the elder, 1680–1702,
painter and engraver; Dr. Charles Conquest,
1682–92; Charles Sackville, sixth Earl of Dorset,
c. 1684–5, poet and courtier; Colonel Sackville,
c. 1684–93; Captain David Lloyd, c. 1686–8,
naval captain and Jacobite agent; Dr. John Radcliffe, 1686–c. 1702, physician; Edward Cooke,
1688,? dramatic poet; Lady Colliton, 1691;
Dr. Humphrey Ridley, 1691–c. 1702, physician;
John Ayres, c. 1698, penman; Lady Craven,
c. 1698; Captain David Overy, c. 1702; Dr.
Bigg(s), c. 1705–12; Dr. Thomas Walker,
c. 1705–14; Dr. Thomas West, c. 1705–6; 'Mr.
Tonson', 1707, Jacob Tonson, publisher; Dr.
Richard Adams, 1708–15; Colonel Townsend,
1726–9; Robert Wilks, 1727–32, actor; Lady
Catherine Paul, 1729; Edmund Curll, 1730–1,
bookseller; George Douglas, fourth Baron
Mordington, 1730–4, Whig pamphleteer; Charles
Johnson, c. 1736–8, dramatist; Lady Oliphant,
c. 1736–9; (Sir) Thomas De Veil, 1740–6,
magistrate; John Hippisley, 1740–7, actor and
dramatist; 'Dr. Scott', 1740–6, ? Dr. Daniel
Scott, theological writer and lexicographer;
Dr. Coats Molesworth, 1742; Charles Macklin,
1743–8, actor; Spranger Barry, 1747–58, actor;
Colonel John Mostyn, 1748–51, later Governor
of Minorca; Henry Fielding, 1749–53, novelist
and magistrate; (Sir) John Fielding, 1754–80,
magistrate; John Rich, 1754–61, proprietor of
Covent Garden Theatre, succeeded in same
house by Mrs. Rich, 1761–7; Messrs. Harris and
Co., 1768–92; David Ross, 1755–60, actor;
Bonnell Thornton, 1759–62, miscellaneous
writer and wit; Richard Yates, 1764–79, comedian; Samuel Howard, 1765–77, ? organist and
composer; Daniel Dodd, 1772–3, ? painter;
Robert Carver, 1775, landscape and scene painter;
William Thompson, 1776–80, 1782, ? portrait
painter; Charles Lee Lewes, 1778–80, actor;
John Richards, 1781–90, ? John Inigo Richards,
R.A., landscape and scene painter; Sir Sampson
Wright, 1781–92, magistrate; William Thomas
Lewis, 1793–9, actor; William Smith, 1798,
? actor; Thomas Harris, 1808–20, co-proprietor
of Covent Garden Theatre; William Gilpin,
1811–14, ? William Sawrey Gilpin; William
Wycherley, dramatist, lodged in Bow Street in
1715 and earlier years.
Nos. 7 and 8 Bow Street and
52 Floral Street
See page 182.
The Royal Opera House
and the Floral Hall
These are described in Survey of London
volume xxxv.
Bow Street Police Court
and Police Station
Bow Street's association with the maintenance
of law and order dates from 1740, when (Sir)
Thomas De Veil, a justice of the peace for
Middlesex, acquired the lease of No. 4 Bow
Street and transferred his office there. (ref. 30) This
house stood on the west side of the street a few
yards to the south of the Royal Opera House on
the site now covered by sheds connected with the
market, and with the addition of the adjoining
No. 3 in 1813 it remained the court-house of the
Bow Street magistrates until the opening of the
present building on the east side of the street in
1880. The first Metropolitan Police Station in
Bow Street was opened in 1832 at Nos. 33–34
upon part of the site now occupied by the new
telephone exchange on the east side of the street,
where it remained until it too removed in 1880
to the present building adjoining the magistrates'
court.
De Veil's house had been built in 1703–4 by
John Browne, a surgeon. (ref. 31) The court was probably held in one of the principal ground-floor
rooms. (fn. d) Under De Veil the Bow Street office
began to acquire its pre-eminence within the
metropolitan magistracy, and two years after his
death in 1747 Henry Fielding, the novelist and
playwright, was appointed to the Bow Street
office. (ref. 33) Fielding was the originator of the
small band of 'thief-takers' which later became
known as the Bow Street Runners, (ref. 34) and after
his death in 1754 he was succeeded by his blind
half-brother, (Sir) John Fielding. In 1763
Fielding's court-room was described by Boswell
as a 'back hall', (ref. 35) and this no doubt was the high
narrow room with a public gallery depicted on
Plate 60d. (ref. 36)
On 6 June 1780 the house was attacked during
the Gordon riots but the damage was evidently
not extensive for on 14 June Sir John wrote to
Robert Palmer, the Duke of Bedford's agent,
'My lease is not of long duration. I shou'd be
glad to know from you how far it can be extended
by his Grace, so as to justify my repairing the old
office which I am inform'd may be easily done
and which I wou'd wish to do immediately in
order to establish the Public office.' (ref. 37) Sir John
died on 4 September 1780 but in April 1781 his
executors received a ten-year extension of the
lease from the fifth Duke of Bedford, in consideration of the cost of repairing the damage
sustained during the riots. (ref. 38)
By 1811, when the magistrate James Read
renewed the lease of No. 4, a new court-room
had been built in the yard behind (Plate 61a).
This was a single-storey building measuring
20 feet by 30 feet and connected to the house by a
narrow passage only 6 feet wide. Two years later
in 1813 Read acquired the lease of the next-door
house, No. 3 Bow Street, at the back of which
there was a 'felons room' which could be entered
from the room immediately behind the public
office at No. 4. (ref. 39) Later the yard behind No. 3
was converted into cells and a gaoler's room. (ref. 40)
A drawing reproduced on Plate 60a shows the
front of No. 4 in 1825 when it still retained much
of its early eighteenth-century appearance. The
court-room entrance, formed out of a window of
the ground storey, is on the left.
The establishment of the Metropolitan Police
by Sir Robert Peel's Act of 1829 did not affect
the Bow Street magistrates' office, but the ancient
parish watch-house in St. Paul's churchyard was
taken over by the Metropolitan Police Commissioners (see page 126). It proved quite inadequate for the needs of the new force, and in 1832
the headquarters of the Covent Garden police
division was transferred to a handsome 'new
Station House' which had been built in 1831–2
on the east side of Bow Street on the site of Nos.
33–34 (ref. 41) (Plate 60c). The sixth Duke of Bedford granted a sixty-one-year building lease of the
site to William Bucke, esquire (apparently the
builder), who granted a sub-lease of the finished
building to the Police Receiver. At first the
Receiver declined the lease because of a restrictive
covenant forbidding tenants to do anything on the
premises which might annoy any of the Duke's
tenants. He was no doubt apprehensive about the
noise to be anticipated from the prisoners in the
cells, which were grouped around an open courtyard behind the house. The Duke's agent eventually agreed to modify the covenant by inserting
the words 'otherwise than by the occupation of
the said premises as a police station and for the
temporary confinement of prisoners prior to their
confinement.' (ref. 42)
The police remained here until their removal
to the present station in 1880, when Nos. 33–34
were converted into a market warehouse: the
building has since been demolished.
Meanwhile the old magistrates' court at Nos.
3–4, opposite the police station, was beginning to
feel the pressures of increased business. In May
1840 the Receiver of the Metropolitan Police
Force (to whom responsibility for the maintenance of the magistrates' courts had been transferred by an Act of 1839) applied to the seventh
Duke of Bedford for permission to demolish and
rebuild both the houses used for the court. The
Duke's agent welcomed the proposal: 'on account
of the vicinity of the Market and the two
Theatres, I think it desirable that the Police
Court should be retained in Bow Street', he
wrote, (ref. 43) but the scheme was nevertheless dropped
and instead the Duke granted a repairing lease of
both houses. (ref. 40) Repairs included the refacing of
No. 4 with a suitably imposing stucco front incorporating the royal arms (Plate 60b), but the
court-room itself was not enlarged and in particular
nothing was done about the narrow passage into
it. Conditions in the court continued to deteriorate and in April 1860 The Builder described
them as 'in winter bad, but in the heat of summer
perfectly abominable'; the building should be
'entirely reconstructed'. (ref. 44)
Two years later the Bedford Office suggested
to the Receiver of the Metropolitan Police that
the leases of Nos. 3 and 4 Bow Street should be
surrendered in return for a building lease of a site
in Russell Street opposite Drury Lane Theatre.
The Receiver declined the offer on the grounds of
cost, despite being warned 'of the injury and inconvenience which the business of the Police
Court and Station are to the public as well as to
the Duke's tenants, and the strong and reasonable
objections that exist to the renewal of the lease of
No. 3 and 4 Bow Street when his Grace has to
consider and decide upon that subject'. (ref. 45)
Perhaps with this veiled threat in mind the
Receiver agreed in 1867 to rebuild the police
court on the east side of Bow Street alongside
the police station when the existing lease expired.
The site was to extend back from Bow Street
and then turn at a right angle to include the same
area as had been offered by the Bedford Office in
1862. (ref. 46) But this scheme was also abandoned and
despite its obvious inadequacy the old court was
still in use when the lease expired in 1872. By
this time the Commissioners of Works and
Public Buildings had become responsible for the
provision of police court buildings, (ref. 47) and they
were obliged to apply to the Bedford estate for a
temporary tenancy of the building until a suitable
alternative site could be found. The Bedford
estate agreed to grant a lease on a year-to-year
basis at a greatly increased rent. (ref. 48) Towards the
end of 1873 the Commissioners proposed to move
the police court away from Bow Street altogether
to a site on the east side of Castle Street (now
Charing Cross Road). (ref. 49) The necessary Parliamentary Bill was prepared, but again the scheme
was abandoned. (ref. 50)
The problem of finding a suitable site was
eventually solved in 1876 when the ninth Duke
agreed to the suggestion of his steward, Thomas
Davison, that the Office of Works should be
offered a new site on the east side of Bow Street
opposite the Opera House for a building to house
both a new police court and police station. (ref. 51) The
proposed site was bounded by Bow Street, Broad
Court and Cross Court on its west, north and east
sides respectively and on the south by No. 29 Bow
Street, a property not owned by the Duke. (fn. e) At
this time the site was covered by nineteen individual houses, the leases of which had to be
acquired by the Office of Works at their own
expense before the site could be redeveloped. (ref. 53)
In July 1876 an agreement was reached between the Duke and the Commissioners of
Works and Public Buildings for a ninety-nineyear lease at an annual rent of £1,100. The
lessees agreed to secure the surrender of all the
existing leases and to extinguish the right of way
through Duke's Court, a passage from Bow
Street into Cross Court through No. 27. (ref. 53) The
lessees also agreed to give up a triangular piece
of ground fronting Bow Street in order to set the
frontage of the new site back from its original line
by about 20 feet at the north end with a view to
the ultimate widening of the north end of Bow
Street. (ref. 54) This agreement of 1876 was ratified in
the same year by the Bow Street Police Court
(Site) Act which authorized the Commissioners to
proceed with the building. (ref. 55)
By April 1877, when work began on clearing
the site, over £100,000 was said to have been paid
for the purchase of the existing buildings and in
compensation to the dispossessed tenants. (ref. 56) A legal
dispute over the boundary of the site delayed the
start of building-work until March 1879 when
the contractors, George Smith and Company,
began to excavate for the foundations. (ref. 57) The
building was completed towards the end of 1880.
Its cost was £38,400, exclusive of the architect's
fees and legal charges. (ref. 58) The architect was (Sir)
John Taylor of the Office of Works. (ref. 57)
The old court at Nos. 3–4 Bow Street was
vacated at Midsummer 1881: six years later these
two houses were demolished to allow for the expansion of the market. (ref. 59)
Since the demolition of No. 29 Bow Street and
re-alignment of Martlett Court in 1905 (ref. 60) the
site of the Police Court and Station has been completely isolated from surrounding buildings. At
ground level the plan is divided into two parts by the
van entrance from Bow Street, the courts occupying the north part of the site and the police
station the south. Two blocks of cells form the
south and east sides of the internal quadrangle.
Apart from the placing of the entrances, the disposition of the plan is not clearly expressed in the
principal elevation, the architect being concerned,
according to The Builder, that the Bow Street
front should 'be of rather ornamental character, so
as to harmonize to some extent with the opera
house opposite'. (ref. 56) The engaged order in the central
feature faintly reflects the Corinthian portico of the
Opera House, but otherwise the eclectic treatment,
combining Graeco-Roman and Renaissance elements, suggests the influence of C. R. Cockerell
and James Pennethorne (Plate 61b). The composition is, in fact, reminiscent of Pennethorne's
University of London building at No. 6 Burlington
Gardens. Portland stone is used throughout the
Bow Street front, the splayed north-west face, and
for the dressings of the short return front in Broad
Court.
The Bow Street front has a central feature,
four storeys high and three bays wide, its second
and third storeys dressed with an engaged Corinthian order of plain-shafted columns. This is
flanked by projecting pavilions of one wide bay,
and three-storeyed wings, each three windows
wide and on the same plane as the central
feature. The ground storey is coursed with
channelled joints, as are the clasping piers of the
pavilions and the wide piers terminating the front
laterally, all of which have stone courses with
raised faces. A simple architrave and cornice
finishes the ground storey, below the pedestalcourse which underlines the lofty second storey and
incorporates the panelled pedestals of the columns
and piers, the balustrades of the middle windows,
and the panelled aprons of the wing windows. A
moulded sill-band, broken only by the Corinthian
columns, underlines the windows of the third
storey. Above this extends the main, Corinthian,
entablature, its frieze having raised panels in the
projections above the piers. The central feature
and projecting pavilions are surmounted by the
attic storey, and the wings are finished with open
balustrades stopping at each end of the front
against pseudo-belvederes of Vanbrughian inspiration, arcaded on each face and surmounted,
above the entablature, by acroteriae of scrolls and
palmettes. This Grecian note pervades the central attic, where the central face is divided into
three bays by boldly projecting piers with panelled
faces. The pavilions are similarly treated, and the
crowning balustrade is broken by projecting dies
in the centre, and above the piers of the pavilions
by tall pilastered pedestals bearing acroteriae.
The fenestration is of a restrained Renaissance
character, the main feature being the series of tall
windows in the second storey, all finished with
pediments. Those of the pavilions are emphasized
by triangular pediments, the rest being segmental,
and all are supported on decorated consoles rising
from plain jambs flanking the moulded architraves.
The third- and fourth-storey windows have plain
architraves, the sides lugged top and bottom, with
small foliage-flanked cartouches above the heads.
The two entrances in the ground storey of the
pavilions are markedly different, breaking the
symmetry of the design, but expressing the disposition of the plan. The police station entrance
is approached by steps flanked by stone pedestals
supporting iron lamp-standards. The door surround is of Mannerist character, and its large
segmental pediment, which rises against the
second-storey pedestal, is supported on paired
carved consoles. The northern, van, entrance,
also flanked by pedestals and lamps, is comparatively plain, having a segmental arch of channeljointed voussoirs with a scrolled keystone below
the pedestal-course. A sturdy iron railing protects
the area between the entrances. The splay to the
north-west corner contains the main entrance to
the courts. It is flanked by the angle piers to the
wings already described, and has a doorway like
that of the police station, but with a straight
entablature instead of a pediment. There is a
pedimented three-light window at the second
storey and above this a semi-circular arch with a
solid tympanum carved with the royal arms. The
spandrels are carved with Tudor roses in light
relief. The parapet contains a panel with the date
1879. The Broad Court front is faced in white
Suffolk bricks with Portland stone dressings. The
windows and the magistrates' door have simple
stone architraves. A central feature to the front is
provided by a pedimented three-light window to
the second storey. The elevations to Crown and
Martlett Courts, like those to the internal
quadrangle, are of stock brick and except for a
length of red brick facing to Martlett Court,
where the cell windows have eared stone architraves, are of utilitarian design.
The Builder stated that 'Dannett and Co.'s fireproof construction' was to be used for all the floors
except a few where brick arches were necessary,
and that 'Claridges Seysell asphalte' was to be
applied to the floors of the cells, corridors and
'rooms requiring frequent washing'. It also
stated: 'Internally, with the exception of the
Courts and a few of the more important rooms
on which some slight degree of ornamentation is
bestowed, the building has been kept quite plain.' (ref. 61)
Telephone Exchange
This extension to the Russell Street telephone
exchange is one of only two completely new
buildings to have been erected in the area described in this volume since the war of 1939–45.
It was begun in 1964 and opened in 1967. The
designer was G. R. Yeats, then Senior Architect
in the Ministry of Public Building and Works. (ref. 62)
It is a reinforced-concrete framed building containing a basement and five lofty storeys (Plate
63c). The Bow Street front, with a recessed
ground storey, is divided into four wide bays by
five slender columns of square section, rising the
full height of the building and faced externally
with polished black composition slabs. The three
central columns are partly concealed in the second
storey by a projecting curtain wall of vertical concrete panels, finished with grey stone chippings,
leaving a series of clerestory windows to light the
interior. Each third-storey window has an apron
of concrete panels, projecting and stopping short
of the columns. The four-light windows fill the
openings and have narrow return lights and, above
a heavy transom, clerestory lights. The fourthstorey windows are similar to those of the third,
each being surmounted by a narrow concrete
fascia that forms the sill of the tall window above.
Deep aprons of concrete panels, like those of the
lower storeys, form the finish of the front.