Burleigh Street
The street laid out by Lord Burghley in 1673
extends northwards from the Strand only as far as
Exeter Street and no part of it lies within the
former parish of St. Paul. The short northern
arm of the present street, which does lie within the
parish, is a mid nineteenth-century extension. It
was laid out by the seventh Duke of Bedford in
1856–9, at a cost of over £6,000, to improve the
access to Covent Garden Market, (ref. 103) and was
opened on 16 August 1859. (ref. 104) Until 1872
there was a bar across the street at the entrance to
the new extension, where market tolls could be
collected. (ref. 20)
The buildings on the west side of the street
were designed and built by Charles Gray in
1859–60: (ref. 105) of these Nos. 11 and 13 still survive.
St. Michael's Church, Burleigh
Street
Demolished
St. Michael's was erected by the Church
Building Commissioners in 1831–3 on a site at
the south-west corner of Burleigh Street and
Exeter Street, (ref. 106) and was initially a chapel within
the parish of St. Martin in the Fields. The site
was conveyed by the Commissioners of Woods
and Forests to the Church Building Commissioners on 26 April 1831. (ref. 107) (fn. *)
St. Michael's was designed by James Savage in a
style he described as fourteenth-century Gothic
(fig. 40). The body of the church was faced with
white brick, with a corner spirelet and dressings of
Bath stone. A brick tower at the south-east
corner was surmounted by a Bath stone spire.
Inside, the north, south and west galleries were
supported by cast-iron girders, the aisle floors
were paved with Yorkshire stone, and the pews,
pulpit and desk were of painted deal. An organgallery and children's gallery were also built at
the west end.
The church was initially intended to accommodate 934 adults and children, and the cost was
estimated at some £5,534. In building, the
length was slightly reduced and accommodation
was provided for 877 persons. The bill of the
contractor, George Ward, amounted to only some
£4,760. (ref. 106) (fn. *)
The church was consecrated as St. Michael's
chapel, on 26 September 1833. (ref. 108) A district
chapelry was assigned to it in 1848 (ref. 109) and the
living became a vicarage in 1868.
Figure 40:
St. Michael's Church, Burleigh Street. Redrawn
from a photograph in the possession of the Trustees of the
Bedford Settled Estates
In 1903 a commission appointed by the Bishop
of London to enquire into the union of the parish
with that of St. Paul, Covent Garden, reported
that, the population of the two parishes having
declined from 5,947 to 3,085 in the period 1881–
1901, the union should be effected. This was
done by an Order in Council of 7 August 1905 (ref. 110)
and the closing service was held on 10 September
1905 (ref. 111) The site and fabric of the church were
sold by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners on 27
March 1906 for £20,500, which was more than
they had expected to obtain. (ref. 112) The church was
demolished and its site now forms part of the
Strand Palace Hotel.
At the time of demolition a photograph was
taken and survey-drawings made of the church for
the Bedford estate by P. E. Pilditch. An article in
Notes and Queries records that the east window
had been given by Baroness Burdett-Coutts and
some parishioners in memory of the Duke of
Wellington. The organ had been moved from
the west gallery to the north side of the sanctuary.
About £300 had been spent very recently in
restoring and beautifying the church. (ref. 113) Some
fittings were installed in the church of St.
Michael's, Sutton Court, Chiswick, which was
built with the aid of funds realized by the sale of
the old church. (ref. 114)
No. 14 Burleigh Street:
Rectory of St. Paul's, Covent
Garden
The present rectory of St. Paul's, Covent
Garden, was built by private subscription in
1859–60 as the clergy-house of St. Michael's,
Burleigh Street, at that time a district chapelry
in the parish of St. Martin in the Fields. (ref. 115) The
architect was William Butterfield. (ref. 116) In 1887
the vicar of St. Michael's said that the house had
been built in 1856. (ref. 117) This is too early for the
date of construction but possibly indicates when
the design was prepared, as it was in 1855 that the
seventh Duke of Bedford had agreed to donate
the site. (ref. 118) This he did by conveying it to the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners in March 1859. (ref. 119)
The Duke also gave £250 towards the cost of the
building. (ref. 120)
In 1905 the house became the clergy-house of
St. Paul's, Covent Garden, and in about 1934
the rectory of that parish. (ref. 76)
This small but conspicuous building, containing a semi-basement and four storeys, has an
L-shaped plan that ignores the curving frontage
line of Burleigh Street to produce a bold threedimensional effect, in striking contrast to its
orthodox neighbours (Plate 62b). The Victorian
Gothic exterior, so typical of its architect, is
built of red bricks partly diapered with white
bricks, stone being used for the weathered sillbands at each storey, for the plate tracery and
hood-mouldings of the ground-storey openings,
for the flush impost-bands and voussoirs of the
windows in the upper storeys, and for the copings
of the west and south gables. The ground storey
is the most richly treated, the doorway in the
south face of the north-west wing having a
segmental-headed opening recessed below a
tympanum of gauged brickwork in a wide twocentred arch. The west window of the wing is
framed by a similar arch, here enclosing two cuspheaded lancets and a foliated circle carved with a
bas-relief of St. Michael. In the main face,
south of the wing, are two windows with sashes
recessed in moulded and cusp-headed arches. All
the openings in this storey are dressed with simple
hood-mouldings. The second-storey windows,
one in the south face of the wing, and a group of
three in the main face, have straight-headed
sashes in openings with chamfered reveals and
straight-sided two-centred arches, their brick and
stone voussoirs being flush with the wall faces. In
the third storey the fenestral pattern is again
varied, with a window of two sashed lights in the
south face of the wing, and a pair of sashed
windows in the main face, their openings being
treated in a similar manner to those of the second
storey. In the low fourth storey interest is concentrated on the west gable of the wing, where the
window of two sashed lights is set in an opening
having a stone lintel-band and a flush tympanum
of brick below a relieving arch of brick and stone
voussoirs. The gable coping is moulded at the
apex to form a base for the iron cross. The south
gable of the main block is also finished with a
stone coping, but the slate roofs are finished with
an eaves gutter.
The restricted and irregular site has affected
the plan and the form of the southern rooms.
The staircase is in the north-east angle, with one
room at the back on each storey. The number of
rooms in front varies from storey to storey, the
ground and second each having one, and the third
and fourth having two. The simple finish of the
interior is evidence of a strict economy in the
building costs. The entrance-hall has two chamfered two-centred arches over the passage to the
staircase. This last has a railing of turned balusters and a moulded handrail, with newels and
pendants. The principal room is the L-shaped
apartment in the front of the second storey.
There are no cornices or decorative chimneypieces in the building.