Southampton Street
The 'great street' from the Piazza to the Strand,
mentioned in the proposals for building over the
site of Bedford House (see page 37) was laid out
between December 1706 and May 1710 under
the Bedford building leases tabulated on pages 312–
315. Five houses at the north end of the east side
(Nos. 15–17 and 19–20 on fig. 32) were built and
paid for by the second Duke, who then let them for
short terms. Some of the new houses were occupied as early as 1707 and by 1709 the street was
completely filled up. (ref. 16) The original appearance
of the street may be judged from the only two
surviving houses, Nos. 26 and 27, although the
fronts of both have been altered. The width of
the houses varied considerably, the largest being
at the north end near the Piazza.
Most of Southampton Street was built to a
width of 50 feet, but at the southern end, below
Nos. 5 and 37, the width was reduced to only 40
feet. Where the break occurred the Duke of
Bedford put up a gate across the street to keep out
the heavy vehicles which would otherwise have
passed along Southampton Street to and from the
market. (ref. 17) The gate-keeper was appointed and
paid by the Duke. (ref. 18) Until 1861 the gatekeeper's lodge was a small 'wooden structure' in
the middle of the street, (ref. 19) where it can be seen in
one of Tallis's views of the Strand of c. 1838–40.
The gate was removed in September 1872. (ref. 20)
Figure 32:
Bedford Ground (site of Bedford House and grounds), plan of layout 1706–14. Each plot represents one building
lease; broken lines indicate subdivisions of plots. Based on the original leases and a plan of 1795, from which the house
numbers are derived
The narrow southern end of the street had
been widened in 1830, partly by the sixth Duke
of Bedford but mainly by the Commissioners of
Woods, Forests and Land Revenues, acting under
the statute of May 1826 for improving Charing
Cross and the West Strand area. (ref. 21)
By that time some of the original houses were
already rebuilt and in 1900 only two remained.
Of those nineteenth-century buildings which also
no longer survive two are of some interest. No.
14, on the corner of Tavistock Street, was rebuilt in 1855–7 by the architect Charles Gray, (ref. 22)
some of whose work can be seen elsewhere in
Covent Garden at No. 22 Henrietta Street and in
Burleigh Street. In this building, called Tavistock
Chambers, Gray used coloured bricks to demonstrate that the cost of even elaborate brickwork
was not greater than that of imitative cement. (ref. 23)
At Nos. 28–29 a Gothick shop front, inserted in
1873 for Messrs. Cox and Sons, the ecclesiastical
suppliers, enlivened an otherwise dull building of
1832: it was demolished in 1893 for the widening
of Maiden Lane (ref. 24) (Plate 58b).
The Dukes of Bedford appear to have been
particularly concerned to prevent any deterioration in the appearance and social character of
Southampton Street. When in 1739 the proprietor of the Bedford Head tavern erected a
small portico to his house projecting 5 feet above
the footway and supported by two pillars, the
residents complained to the fourth Duke that it
'not only interrupts the View of the Neighbouring Inhabitants, but is also an Offence & Eye sore
to the whole Street'. At the same time they took
the opportunity to remind him that 'this street in
particular, by the Vigilant & prudent care of his
Grace's Ancestors, has been constantly kept free
from the passage of heavy and burdensome
Carriages which are permitted upon sufferance
only, & that upon extraordinary occasions.' (ref. 17) An
example of the latter occurred in 1764 when the
street was opened to all traffic for three weeks while
Half Moon Street (now part of Bedford Street)
was being repaved. (ref. 25)
From c. 1708 there was a tavern at the south
corner with Tavistock Street called the Bedford
Head (ref. 26) (No. 14 on fig. 32). In 1745 it was used
for masonic lodge meetings (ref. 27) and in November
1749 'The Grand Clubb for promoting the Arts
of Drawing painting etc' met there 'to settle
the preliminaries for the Establishment of an
Accademy in London' but nothing materilaized
from the meeting. (ref. 28)
The Dukes' policy for the street seems to have
been successful during the eighteenth century.
Unlike some neighbouring streets there appear to
have been few shops; only one of the six inhabitants listed in Mortimer's Universal Director for
1763 being described as a shopkeeper—Gervase
Leverland, a prosperous woollen draper who lived
at No. 26. (ref. 16) The residents may be described as
respectable rather than fashionable.
During the nineteenth century the private residents and other tradesmen gradually gave way to
the offices of newspapers and magazines and the
headquarters of various societies. The first and
most famous of the newspaper offices was that of
William Cobbett's daily paper The Porcupine,
which was printed at No. 3. The first edition
appeared on 30 October 1800 and within five
weeks orders for it rose to 1,500. (ref. 29) The paper
pursued an independent and often unpopular line
and when in October 1801 it opposed the preliminaries of the Peace of Amiens the printing
office was attacked by the mob. (ref. 30) In the following month Cobbett sold the paper to John Gifford
although he continued to be the ratepayer for
No. 3 until 1803. (ref. 31)
Societies with offices in the street have included
the Surrey Archaeological Society at No. 6 from
c. 1856 to 1860, (ref. 32) and The Society for the
Abolition of Capital Punishment at No. 36 in
c. 1865–6. (ref. 33) From 1884 to 1887 the Hobby
Horse circle of artists and designers displayed
examples of their work at No. 28—the office of
the architect A. H. Mackmurdo. (ref. 34)
Until 1899, when the eleventh Duke agreed to
allow No. 26 to be used by a market salesman, no
lessee had ever been permitted to carry on any
market business in the street. (ref. 35) The effect of this
policy is still apparent, for none of the present
buildings are occupied by market businesses,
although the north end of the east side of the
street has been part of the market area since
1886–7, when the houses there were demolished
to make way for market improvements. (ref. 36)
Ratepaying occupants in Southampton Street
include: Ambrose Godfrey, 1707–41, chemist;
Dr. William Gardner, 1709–15; 'Mrs. Oldfield', 1709–13, Ann Oldfield, actress; Robert
Wilks, 1709, actor; Major Ward, 1710–29;
Colley Cibber, 1714–20, actor and dramatist;
Lady Anna Maria Barrington, 1715–17; Lady
Brown, 1715–23; Captain James Price, 1715;
Dr. Thomas Pellatt, 1717–18, 1723–31, physician; John Fitz William, Viscount Milton, later
second Earl Fitz William, 1718; Lady Wyndham,
1720–8; Captain Broughton, 1721–5; Dr. Edmund Packe, 1728–30, chemist; Dr. John Beaufort, 1730–44; Dr. Charles Coats, c. 1736–43;
Sir Rowland Hill, 1737; Dr. William Douglas,
1739–45; Dr. Robert James, 1745, physician;
David Garrick, 1749–72, actor; Anthony Relhan,
1758–67, physician; Dr. Henry Krohn, 1769–
1797; Frances Abington, 1771–3, actress;
Thomas Linley, 1789–95, musical composer and
part owner of Drury Lane Theatre; Dr. Melville,
1791–9; Charles Smith, 1794–7, ? painter;
Dr. John Wright, 1798–1800; Thomas Cook,
1807–11, ? engraver. <W. S. Gilbert was born at No. 17 in 1836; also, Vincent Van Gogh worked at No. 17 for the art dealers Goupil & Co., 1873–4.> J. H. MacDonnell,
member of the London County Council 1928–55,
and actively associated with the Survey of London
for thirty-six years, practised as a solicitor in
Southampton Street from 1915 to 1941. In
1942 he removed to Maiden Lane, where he continued to practise until his death in 1964.
Southampton Court (now part of Maiden Lane)
The proposals for building over the site of Bedford Ground (see page 37) included a short street
to join Southampton Street with Maiden Lane,
the east end of which had hitherto been blocked
by part of Bedford House. This was laid out in
1706–7 (see leases on pages 320–1 and fig. 32),
not as a street but as a narrow foot passage which
until c. 1800 was called Southampton Court. It
was widened together with Maiden Lane between
1872 and 1893. (ref. 37) One of the original lessees was
Ambrose Godfrey Hanckwitz, the chemist, who
built his laboratory here (see below). (ref. 38)
Nos. 25 Southampton Street
and 1 and 2 Henrietta Street
See page 232.
No. 26 Southampton Street
This house and No. 27 adjoining, are the only
two surviving original houses in the street (Plate 76a, 76b, figs. 33–4). No. 26 was erected in c. 1707–
1708 under a sixty-one-year Bedford building
lease granted in October 1707 to William Farrer
esquire of the Inner Temple. (ref. 39) The builders
were probably the same workmen as those employed elsewhere on the site of Bedford Ground
(see page 39n.). Farrer himself was the first occupant, living there from 1709 until 1713. (ref. 16)
Succeeding occupants were Charles Eversfield
esquire, 1714; Lady Anna Maria Barrington,
1715–17; Lord Milton, 1718; and Thomas
White esquire, 1719–44. From about this time
the house seems to have been in some form of
commercial occupation:- Gervase Leverland,
woollen draper, 1745–74; Richard Woods, 1775–
1781; John Richards, laceman, 1782–1803; William and John Wright Pocock, upholsterers and
cabinet-makers, 1804–25; James Ruinart and
Sons, wine merchants, 1825–44; London Gaslight Company, 1847–86; Licensed Victuallers'
Gazette and the Licensed Victuallers' Mirror,
1887–93. (ref. 40)
In April 1893 the eleventh Duke of Bedford
granted a twenty-one-year lease of the premises to
W. H. Bingham Cox, a brewer: on Cox's death
in 1899 the premises were assigned to George
and Edward Coleman, both of Covent Garden
market, who obtained a relaxation of the restriction on market business which the Bedford
Office had maintained in Southampton Street. (ref. 41)
In 1903 the Colemans assigned their lease to
Messrs. Samuel French and Company, theatrical
publishers, who still occupy the building, and who
at the time of their entry replaced the original
ground-floor front with the present shop front,
designed for them by W. R. Phillips, architect. (ref. 42)
No. 26 is a large terrace house of conventional
plan, containing a basement and four storeys. The
wide hall and spacious staircase compartment are
on the north side of the ground storey, where the
rooms were remodelled in 1903. Except for the
ground storey, the crowning cornice and parapet,
the original front has not been substantially altered.
It is built of brown stock bricks dressed with fine
red bricks. These are used for the moulded
storey-bands and for the jambs and flat gauged
arches of the window-openings, of which there
are four evenly spaced in each storey, with a blind
half-window on the left side of the front. The
sashes are of various dates, but those of the upper
two storeys are set in exposed box-frames, slightly
recessed and moulded, above moulded sills. The
front was probably finished originally with a
wooden eaves-cornice, but now has a frieze,
boldly moulded cornice, and plain parapet of
painted stucco.
Inside the house, the hall retains an original
arch that opens to the staircase compartment.
The arch, which has a panelled soffit, moulded
archivolt and plain keyblock, is supported on
pilasters with simply moulded caps. The lunette
contains a fanlight with a hexagonal lantern
flanked on either side with three pear-shaped
lights. The opening below is now furnished with
a pair of three-panelled doors. The dog-legged
stair of wood has cut strings dressed with carved
brackets, and slender square balusters turned with
twisted shafts above urns, now arranged in pairs
as some have been removed for use in the upper
flight, which is of modern construction. The
service stair, which is of plain character, now
begins at second-storey level. Apart from the
staircases, little of interest remains in the upper
storeys.
No. 27 Southampton Street
This house (Plates 76a, 76c, 76d, figs. 33–8),
which is well known through its associations with
David Garrick, was erected in c. 1706–8 under a
sixty-one-year Bedford building lease granted in
December 1706 to Samuel Rolt esquire of Milton
Ernest, Bedfordshire. (ref. 43) The builders were
probably the same as those employed on No. 26
and elsewhere on Bedford Ground. Rolt himself
apparently occupied the house in 1708. (ref. 16)
Figure 33:
Nos. 26 and 27 Southampton Street, plans
Other occupants between 1708 and 1749 were
John Danvas esquire, 1710–19; Lady Wyndham,
1720–8; Mrs. Elizabeth Wyndham, 1729–34;
— Windham esquire, 1736; John Boulthy,
1737–9; and William Farr, 1741–8. (ref. 16)
Garrick bought the lease in July 1749, two
years after he had become joint proprietor of
Drury Lane Theatre. According to Mrs.
Garrick he paid 500 guineas for it, 'Dirt
and all; 'tis reckon'd a very good Bargain', she
wrote to Lady Burlington at the time. (ref. 44) Work
on refitting the house began at the end of the
month and was completed in October when the
Garricks moved in. (ref. 45) In December 1751
Garrick obtained from the fourth Duke of Bedford a twenty-one-year reversionary lease of the
house from 1767 at an annual rent of £24. (ref. 46)
The proximity of the house to the theatre was
not always an advantage: in November 1755 a
riot broke out in the theatre during the performance of a French ballet, which Garrick had
persisted in presenting despite public hostility, and
some of the audience 'went and broke Garrick's
windows in Southampton street—part of ye
Guard went to protect it'. (ref. 47) In December 1771
Garrick obtained another twenty-one-year reversionary lease of the house from the fifth Duke,
but in March 1772 he moved away from Southampton Street into the Adelphi. (ref. 48)
Between 1772 and 1800 the occupant was
William Sheldon, the lawyer involved with R. B.
Sheridan and T. Holloway in preparing a scheme
for the promotion of opera at the King's Theatre
in the Haymarket in 1791. (ref. 49) By 1801 James
Eastey, a hotel-keeper, had taken over the house,
which from then until 1863 was known as
Eastey's Family Hotel. (ref. 50) The next lessee was
A. C. S. Draper, a fruit salesman, who in March
1865 obtained a seven-and-a-half-year lease from
the eighth Duke at an annual rent of £160.
During the currency of this lease a number of
alterations were made to the front of the building,
giving it its present appearance. Details of the
alteration were prepared, and presumably carried
out, by M. Limbird of Long Acre, a builder, in
1871. (ref. 51)
Figure 34:
Nos. 26 and 27 Southampton Street, elevation
Figure 35:
No. 27 Southampton Street, section
Figure 36:
No. 27 Southampton Street, staircase detail
The bronze memorial tablet to Garrick over
the front door was erected in 1901 at the cost of
the eleventh Duke of Bedford's estate. It was
cast by Parlanti from a model prepared by H. C.
Fehr, the sculptor, after a sketch by C. Fitzroy
Doll, the architect. (ref. 52)
Four storeys high, with four windows evenly
spaced in each upper storey, the front of No. 27
Southampton Street is generally built in a tawnycoloured brick with dressings of fine red brick and
painted stone or, more probably, stucco. The
ground storey was faced with channel-coursed
stucco in 1871, the three windows being dressed
with moulded architraves, panelled friezes, and
cornices. The doorway, on the right of the
windows, has a moulded architrave and a cornicehood on consoles, above which is the tablet commemorating David Garrick's occupation of the
house. The second storey, where the windows
have Victorian sashes in straight-headed openings
dressed with red brick, is finished with a moulded
cornice of painted stucco or stone that is returned
across the straight rusticated quoins of red brick
flanking the front. The windows of the two
upper storeys have barred sashes in exposed boxframes, slightly recessed in openings having jambs
and gauged flat arches of red brick, broken by
slightly projecting triple keyblocks of brick.
Similarly finished window-openings were a
feature of some other houses in Southampton
Street, notably No. 35, now demolished (Plate 58c). Moulded sill-bands of painted stucco or
stone extend below the windows of both storeys
but stop against the straight quoins. The front is
finished with a disproportionately large entablature
and a low parapet, all finished in painted stucco.
The interior retains many of its original decorative features. The ground-storey front and
back rooms are finely panelled and finished with
heavily moulded dado-rails and bold cornices, the
raised-and-fielded panels in two heights being set
in ovolo-moulded framing. The hall is lined with
similar panelling and its ceiling is enriched with
moulded decoration in circles, scrolls and rosettes.
The door from the hall to the front room has a
fine doorcase, its moulded architrave, carved with
egg-and-dart and bead-and-reel ornaments, being
surmounted by a carved frieze of cyma profile and
a cornice. The altered door to the inner hall is
set in an arched opening having a panelled soffit
and moulded archivolt. The panelling of the
staircase compartment is similar to that of the hall,
except that the dado matches with the stair railing
and has small pilasters to correspond with the
Composite column-newels. The cut strings of
the staircase (Plate 76c, 76d) are dressed with
carved brackets, and the moulded and ramped
handrail, its sides enriched with carving, rests on
square-section balusters with turned twisted shafts,
three to each tread. From the second storey to the
third, the handrail is not carved and the walls
above the dado are not panelled (Plate 76d),
while the upper flights are more simply finished
with balusters of a coarser pattern, two to each
tread.
Figure 37:
No. 27 Southampton Street, doorcase detail
The principal front room on the second storey
was formed in about 1945 and lined with unpainted pine panelling of early eighteenth-century
character. The remaining rooms on this level
have plain panelling in two heights, and plain
panelling in ovolo-moulded framing survives in
the third-storey front room. A feature of interest
in the basement is the lead water-tank, dated 1710
and ornamented with an embossed geometrical
design framing flowers, wreaths, a shell, and the
initials F. D. (fig. 38).
Nos. 31 Southampton Street
and 3 Maiden Lane
Ambrose Godfrey's chemist's shop and laboratory.
Demolished
At some time before 1680 Ambrose Godfrey,
or Godfrey Hanckwitz, was brought over from
Germany to assist the Hon. Robert Boyle, the
philosopher and chemist, in his scientific experiments. (ref. 53) From 1671 until his death in 1691
Boyle was living in Pall Mall, where he had a
laboratory, (ref. 54) and it was perhaps here that Boyle
in 1680 arrived at a method of preparing phosphorus. (ref. 55) Godfrey may have been concerned in
this work, for he later sold phosphorus at 50s.
an ounce. (ref. 56)
At first Godfrey lived with his wife and family
in lodgings, in a single room in Chandos Street,
Covent Garden. But during his travels in Germany Boyle had also met with a member of the
Rosicrucian sect who claimed to be able to produce gold from base metals and to be in possession
of the secret of the Philosopher's Stone. Boyle
brought this philosopher over to London, where
for a while he lodged in the Godfreys' already
overcrowded room in Chandos Street. Here a
'digesting furnace' was established and the philosopher set to work. Boyle, who provided all the
funds for this unconventional ménage, frequently
asked Godfrey for progress reports—'what news
etc ? and what has he done ? and what have you
seen? being continually the query'. (ref. 57) In later
life Godfrey confessed that the philosopher had
'bewitched' him, and matters went from bad to
worse when the philosopher's wife arrived from
Holland. By this time Godfrey had found separate lodgings for his unwanted visitor, but the ungrateful philosopher had turned against his distracted compatriot: 'he even sent his troublesome
wife to me at my door', Godfrey long afterwards
recalled, 'who scolded in the German tongue and
made people stare … saying you are my ruin, you
brought me over, or else I was well in Holland;
and this railing was by his [the philosopher's]
consent, and it was then he began to question my
fidelity, whether I delivered all what Mr. Boyle
gave. I was now teased almost out of my life,
with the continued song, money, money, sometimes he, sometimes his wife, a terrible bawling
creature.' (ref. 57)
Figure 38:
No. 27 Southampton Street, lead cistern
The dénouement of this domestic fracas is
not recorded. Boyle died in 1691, and the next
that is known of Godfrey is that in December
1706 he took a building lease of two adjoining
plots on Bedford Ground, one on the west side
of Southampton Street (No. 31 on fig. 32) and
the other on the south side of Southampton Court,
now Maiden Lane (No. 3). (ref. 38) In Southampton
Street he built himself a house and used the site
in Southampton Court for his laboratory. (fn. *) The
latter, which measured 97 feet by 16 feet
6 inches, was described on a Bedford estate
plan as 'a low building with a Cockloft
at one end', (ref. 58) and it had an entrance from the
back yard of No. 31 as well as from Southampton
Court. The interior is illustrated in the set of
engravings made in or after 1728 and reproduced
on Plate 56. Plate 56b shows the east side of the
laboratory, with the door into Southampton
Court on the left, the entrance from the yard of
No. 31 Southampton Street in the centre, and on
the right a door into the garden of a house in the
Strand which was also owned by Godfrey. (ref. 59)
Plate 56a shows the apparatus used for the preparation of phosphorus which was apparently carried
out on the west side of the laboratory, with a door
from Southampton Court on the right. The
laboratory was still in use in 1859, when one of
the original furnaces was making charcoal. (ref. 60) In
1862 the building was converted into a potato
warehouse, (ref. 61) and in 1872 it was demolished for
the erection of Corpus Christi Roman Catholic
Church, part of which now occupies the site. (ref. 62)
In his new laboratory Godfrey was able to
make a wide variety of chemical experiments, and
to sell his products at his shop in Southampton
Street. (ref. 56) A visit there in October 1710 is described by Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach, the
German book collector and connoisseur, who
was then in England. 'We went to the house of
the well-known German chemist Gottfried …
we bought from him a supply of English salt, etc.
and saw his incomparably handsome laboratorium,
which is both neatly and lavishly appointed, being
also provided with all manner of curious stoves.
For an ounce of salt we had to pay a shilling, but
for the essence of lavender that goes with it …
five shillings. We also purchased phosphorium at
eight shillings, a drachma.' (ref. 63)
Some years later Godfrey invented 'a new
Method of Extinguishing Fires by Explosion and
Suffocation', in which containers holding water
'impregnated with a certain preparation an Enemy
to Fire' were exploded within the burning buildings. This device was first demonstrated on a
specially built house in Belsize Park in April 1723
before a distinguished audience, but it was not
entirely successful. A second attempt was made in
May in Westminster Fields, with more satisfactory results, (ref. 64) and in November 1727 The
Weekly Miscellany reported that Godfrey's 'Fire
Watches', as these extinguishers were called, had
been remarkably successful in preventing the
spread of fires in London. (ref. 65) In 1730 he was
elected a fellow of the Royal Society.
Ambrose Godfrey died in 1741. His eldest
son, Boyle Godfrey, who lived in Tavistock
Street from 1731 until 1753, (ref. 16) had dabbled in
alchemy and 'squander'd away in a very profuse
manner' the large sums of money which his
father had already given him. He therefore only
inherited a pension of 10s. a week 'that he might
not want bread', and the house, shop, laboratory
and business passed to Godfrey's two other sons,
Ambrose II and John. (ref. 66) But they did not inherit
their father's commercial acumen, and within
five years both were declared bankrupt. (ref. 67) The
business itself survived, managed now by Ambrose
II with the help of his nephew, Ambrose Godfrey
III, who was Boyle Godfrey's son. (ref. 68)
Ambrose Godfrey III inherited the business
from his uncle in 1756, (ref. 68) and on his own death in
1797 he bequeathed it jointly to his son Ambrose
Towers Godfrey and his assistant Charles Gomond Cooke, on condition that they should form a
partnership to be called Godfrey and Cooke. (ref. 69)
The two parties signed their articles of partnership in May 1797. (ref. 70) In the following July they
took a repairing lease of the premises (ref. 71) and it was
probably at about this time that they inserted the
elaborate colonnaded shop front into the ground
floor of No. 31 Southampton Street which can be
seen in Plate 57a.
Ambrose Towers Godfrey neglected the business and squandered his fortune. (ref. 72) After his
death in 1807 and of his younger brother (who
was not connected with the firm) in 1812 the
male line of the Godfreys came to an end, and
the business was managed by Cooke. (ref. 73) In 1826–7
he opened a second shop in Conduit Street, Mayfair. (ref. 74) After his death in 1842 the business was
carried on under the management of William
Ince, who had been Cooke's assistant for twentysix years, and who later became President of the
Pharmaceutical Society. (ref. 75) The firm remained at
No. 31 Southampton Street and No. 3 Maiden
Lane until 1862, but thereafter it was continued
at the shop in Conduit Street until 1913, when
it removed to the Royal Arcade off Old Bond
Street. There it finally closed its doors in 1916. (ref. 76)
After the removal of the firm from No. 31
Southampton Street in 1862 another of Charles
Gomond Cooke's assistants, William Dart,
started a chemist's business on his own account in
the next door house at No. 30, (ref. 77) where he displayed the name Godfrey and Cooke on the fasciaboard of his shop. Both Nos. 30 and 31 were
demolished in 1893. (ref. 78) A photograph taken
shortly before their demolition (Plate 57a) shows
the parapet of No. 31 surmounted by a stone
phoenix, the sign by which the business had been
known in the eighteenth century, and a tablet
bearing the date 1680. This date may perhaps
have been intended to commemorate Robert
Boyle's success in the preparation of phosphorus,
or, erroneously, the date of the establishment of
Godfrey's business in Southampton Street.