Holborn and Bloomsbury Part 5

As this is no guide-book, no attempt is made to cla.s.sify the departments of the Museum or to indicate its riches. These may be found by experiment, or read in the official guides to be bought on the spot.

On the east is Montague Street, running into Russell Square.

Southampton House, the ancient manor-house, celebrated for the famous lime-trees surrounding it, stood on the ground now occupied by Bedford Place. Noorthouck describes it as "elegant though low, having but one storey." It is commonly supposed to have been the work of Inigo Jones.

When the property came into the Bedford family, it was occasionally called Russell House, after their family name. Maitland says that, when he wrote, one of the Parliamentary forts, two batteries, and a breastwork, remained in the garden. The house was demolished in 1800, and Russell Square was begun soon after. A double row of the lime-trees belonging to Bedford House had extended over the site of this Square.

All this ground had previously been known as Southampton Fields, or Long Fields, and was the resort of low cla.s.ses of the people, who here fought their pitched battles, generally on Sundays. It was known during the period of Monmouth's Rebellion as the Field of the Forty Footsteps, owing to the tradition that two brothers killed each other here in a duel, while the lady who was the cause of the conflict looked on.

Subsequently no gra.s.s grew on the spots where the brothers had planted their feet.

Southey, in his "Commonplace Book," thus narrates his own visit to the spot:

"We sought for near half an hour in vain. We could find no steps at all within a quarter of a mile, no, nor half a mile, of Montague House. We were almost out of hope, when an honest man, who was at work, directed us to the next ground, adjoining to a pond. There we found what we sought, about three-quarters of a mile north of Montague House, and 500 yards east of Tottenham Court Road. The steps are of the size of a large human foot, about three inches deep, and lie nearly from north-east to south-west. We counted only seventy-six; but we were not exact in counting. The place where one or both the brothers are supposed to have fallen is still bare of gra.s.s. The labourer also showed us where (the tradition is) the wretched woman sat to see the combat." Southey adds his full confidence in the tradition of the indestructibility of the steps, even after ploughing up, and of the conclusions to be drawn from the circ.u.mstance (_Notes and Queries_, No. 12).

A long-forgotten novel, called "Coming Out; or, The Field of the Forty Footsteps," was founded on this legend, as was also a melodrama.

Russell Square is very little inferior to Lincoln's Inn Fields in size, and at the time of its building had a magnificent situation, with an uninterrupted prospect right up to the hills of Hampstead and Highgate, and the only house then standing was on the east side; it belonged to the profligate Lord Baltimore, and was later occupied by the Duke of Bolton. The new Russell Hotel, at the corner of Guilford Street, and Pitman's School of Shorthand, in the south-eastern corner, are the only two buildings to note. A bronze statue of Francis, Duke of Bedford, executed by Westmacott, stands on the south side of the Square; this faces a similar statue of Fox in Bloomsbury Square.

The Square seems to have been peculiarly attractive to men high up in the profession of the law. Sir Samuel Romilly, the great law reformer, lived here until his sad death in 1818; he committed suicide in grief at the loss of his wife. In the same year his neighbour Charles Abbot, afterwards first Baron Tenterden, was made Lord Chief Justice. He was buried at the Foundling Hospital by his own request. In 1793 Alexander Wedderburn (first Baron Loughborough and first Earl of Rosslyn), also a resident in the Square, was appointed Lord Chancellor. After this he probably moved to the official residence in Bedford Square.

Frederick D. Maurice was at No. 5 from 1856 to 1862. Sir Thomas Lawrence lived for twenty years at No. 65, and while he was executing the portrait of Platoff, the Russian General, the Cossacks, mounted on small white horses, stood on guard in the Square before his door.

Bloomsbury Square was at first called Southampton Square, and the sides were known by different names--Seymour Row, Vernon Street, and Allington Row. The north side was occupied by Bedford House. It is considerably older than its large neighbour on the north, and is mentioned by Evelyn in his Diary, on February 9, 1665. In Queen Anne's reign it was a most fashionable locality. The houses suffered greatly during the Gordon Riots, especially Lord Mansfield's house, in the north-east corner, which was completely ruined internally, and in which a most valuable library was destroyed, while Lord and Lady Mansfield made their escape from the mob by a back-door. Pope refers to the Square as a fashionable place of resort. Among the names of famous residents we have Sir Richard Steele, Richard Baxter, the Nonconformist divine, Dr. Akenside, and Sir Hans Sloane. The elder D'Israeli, who compiled "Curiosities of Literature," lived in No. 6; he came here in 1818, when his famous son was a boy of fourteen.

The College of Preceptors stands on the south side. The Pharmaceutical Society, established in 1841, first took a house in the Square in that year. It was incorporated by royal charter two years later, and in 1857 the two adjacent houses in Great Russell Street were added to the premises, which include a library and museum. There is also at No. 30 the Inst.i.tute of Chemistry of Great Britain and Ireland.

In Southampton Street Colley Cibber, the dramatist and actor, was born.

Silver Street, which is connected with Southampton Street by a covered entry, is described by Strype as "indifferent well built and inhabited"--a character it apparently keeps up to this day.

Bloomsbury Market Strype describes as "a long place with two market-houses, the one for flesh and the other for fish, but of small account by reason the market is of so little use and so ill served with provisions, insomuch that the inhabitants deal elsewhere." In Parton's time it was still extant, "exhibiting little of that bustle and business which distinguishes similar establishments." Though it was cleared away in 1847, its site is marked by Market Street, which with Silver and Bloomsbury Streets forms a cross.

Southampton Row is a very long street, extending from Russell Square to High Holborn. It includes what was formerly King Street and Upper King Street, which together reached from High Holborn to Bloomsbury Place.

Gray, the poet, lodged in this Row in 1759.

The Church of St. George is in Hart Street. St. George's parish was formed from St. Giles's on account of the great increase of buildings in this district. In 1710 the proposal for a new church was first mooted, and in 1724 the parishes were officially separated. The church stands on a piece of ground formerly known as Plough Yard. It is the work of Hawkesmoor, Wren's pupil, and was consecrated in 1730. It cannot be better described than in the words of Noorthouck: "This is an irregular and oddly constructed church; the portico stands on the south side, of the Corinthian order, and makes a good figure in the street, but has no affinity to the church, which is very heavy, and would be better suited with a Tuscan portico. The steeple at the west is a very extraordinary structure; on a round pedestal at the top of a pyramid is placed a colossal statue of the late King [George I.], and at the corners near the base are alternately placed the lion and unicorn, the British supporters, with festoons between. These animals, being very large, are injudiciously placed over columns very small, which make them appear monsters." The lions and unicorns have now been removed. This steeple has been described by Horace Walpole as a masterpiece of absurdity.

Within, the walls rise right up to the roof with no break, and give an impression of great s.p.a.ciousness. There is a small chapel on either side, that on the east, of an apselike shape, being used as a baptistery. The western one contains a ponderous monument erected in memory of one of their officials by the East India Company. There are other monuments in the church, but none of any general interest. The Communion-table is enclosed by a wooden canopy with fluted columns, said to be of Italian origin, and to have been brought from old Montague House.

In Little Russell Street are the parochial schools. These were established in 1705 in Museum Street, and were removed in 1880 to the present building. They were founded by Dr. Carter for the maintenance, clothing, and education of twenty-five girls, and the clothing and education of eighty boys. The intentions of the founder are still carried out, as recorded on a stone slab on the front of the building, which is a neat brick edifice, with a group of a woman and child in stone in a niche high up, and an appropriate verse from Proverbs below.

Allusion has already been made to New Oxford Street. It extends from Tottenham Court Road to Bury Street, and is lined by fine shops and large buildings, chiefly in the ornamental stuccoed style. The Royal Arcade--"a gla.s.s-roofed arcade of shops extending along the rear of four or five of the houses, and having an entrance from the street at each end"--was opened about 1852, but did not answer the expectations formed of it, and was pulled down (Walford).

At the corner of Museum Street, once Peter Street, is Mudie's famous library. The founder, who died in 1890, began a lending library in King Street in 1840, and in 1852 removed to the present quarters. In 1864 the concern was turned into a limited liability company. The distribution of books now reaches almost incredible figures.

Great Russell Street Strype describes as being very handsome and very well inhabited. Thanet House, the town residence of the Thanets in the seventeenth century, stood on the north side. Sir Christopher Wren built a house for himself in this street. Among the inhabitants and lodgers have been Sh.e.l.ley and Hazlitt, J. P. Kemble, Speaker Onslow, Pugin the elder, Charles Mathews the elder, and, in later years, Sir E.

Burne-Jones.

At the west end Great Russell Street runs into Tottenham Court Road, a portion of which lies in the parish of St. Giles. Toten Hall itself, from which the name is taken, stood at the south end of the Hampstead Road, and an account of it belongs to the parish of St. Pancras. There is little to remark upon in that part of the Road we can now claim. At the south end is Meux's well-known brewery, bought by the family of that name in 1809. In 1814 an immense vat burst here, which flooded the immediate neighbourhood in a deluge of liquor. The Horseshoe Hotel can claim fairly ancient descent; it has been in existence as a tavern from 1623. It was called the Horseshoe from the shape of its first dining-room. A Consumption Hospital stands midway between North and South Crescent.

Bedford Square also falls within St. Giles's parish, but it belongs by character and date to Bloomsbury. The Square was erected about the very end of the eighteenth century. Dobie says that "Bedford Square arose from a cow-yard to its present magnificent form ... with its avenues and neighbouring streets ... chiefly erected since 1778," while it appears in a map of 1799 as "St. Giles's Runs." The official residence of the Lord Chancellor was on the east side. Lord Loughborough lived there, and subsequently Lord Eldon, who had to escape with his wife into the British Museum gardens when the mob made an attack on his house during the Corn Law riots.

The streets running north and south are all of the same prosperous, substantial character. About Chenies Street large modern red-brick mansions have arisen.

Woburn Square is a quiet place, with fine trees growing in its pleasant garden. In it is Christ Church, the work of Vulliamy, date 1833. It is of Gothic architecture, and is prettily finished with b.u.t.tresses and pinnacles, in spite of the ugly material used--namely, white brick. It was at first designed to call the Square Rothesay Square, but it was eventually named Woburn, after the seat of the Duke of Bedford.

Great Coram Street was, of course, named after the genial founder of the Foundling Hospital. In it is the Russell Inst.i.tution, built at the beginning of the century as an a.s.sembly-room, and later used as inst.i.tute and club. It was frequently visited by d.i.c.kens, Leech, and Thackeray, the last named of whom came here in 1837, and remained until 1843, when the house had to be given up owing to the incurable nature of his wife's mental malady. He wrote here many papers and articles, including the famous "Yellow-plush Papers," which appeared in _Fraser's Magazine_; but his novels belong to a later period.

We have now wandered over a district rich in a.s.sociation, containing some of the oldest domestic architecture existing in London, but which, taken as a whole, is chiefly of a date belonging to the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries--a date when ladies wore powder and patches, when sedan-chairs were more common than hackney cabs, and when the voice of the link-boy was heard in the streets.

BOUNDARIES OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISHES.

ST. GILES-IN-THE-FIELDS.

This parish is bounded on the south by Castle Street; east by part of Drury Lane, Broad Street, and Dyott Street, thence by a line cutting diagonally across the south-east corner of Bedford Square, across Keppel Street and Torrington Mews, and touching Byng Place at the north-west corner of Torrington Square; on the north by a line cutting across from this point westward, and striking Tottenham Court Road just above Alfred Mews; on the westward by Tottenham Court Road and Charing Cross Road to Cambridge Circus, thence by West Street to the corner of Castle Street, and so the circuit is complete.

ST. GEORGE THE MARTYR.

Bounded on the south by Theobald's Road, on the east by Lamb's Conduit Street (both included in the parish), on the north by Guilford Street, and on the west by Southampton Row (which are not so included).

ST. ANDREW, HOLBORN.

Bounded on the east by Farringdon Street from Charterhouse Street to No.

66, which is just beyond Farringdon Avenue; on the north by Holborn and High Holborn from the Viaduct Bridge to Brownlow Street; on the west by a line drawn from the upper end of Brownlow Street across High Holborn, cutting through No. 292, and through part of Lincoln's Inn (taking in Stone Buildings, and as far as a few yards south of Henry VIII.'s gateway); on the south by a line from Lincoln's Inn across Chancery Lane, along Cursitor Street, cutting across Fetter Lane, down Dean Street to Robin Hood Court, across Shoe Lane to Farringdon Street.

ST. GEORGE, BLOOMSBURY.

Bounded on the south by Broad Street and High Holborn to Kingsgate Street; on the east by Kingsgate Street, and a line behind the east side of Southampton Row (including it), coming out at No. 54, Guilford Street; on the north by a line across the north side of Russell Square and along Keppel Street; on the west from thence by a diagonal line, which cuts off the south-east corner of Bedford Square to Dyott Street, and so to Broad Street.

HATTON GARDEN, SAFFRON HILL.

Bounded on the west by Leather Lane; on the south by Holborn and Charterhouse Street to Farringdon Road; on the east by Farringdon Road; and on the north by Back Hill.

THE END

_IN THIS SERIES._