The Strand District Part 5

Where's Troy--and where's the Maypole in the Strand?"

Mrs. Inchbald lived by the side of the New Church in the Strand.

The immense changes taking place in the Strand begin to be very noticeable opposite Somerset House. At the time of writing a few houses at the corner of Wellington Street are still standing, but will soon disappear.

On the south side of the Strand, just beyond the east end of St. Mary's Church, is a narrow entry called Strand Lane. This was formerly Strand Bridge, over one of the rivulets running down to the Thames, and later it still retained the same name, meaning the bridge or landing stairs at the river end.

Some way down this lane there is a notice pointing out a Roman bath which is still in existence and well worth seeing. The bath now belongs to Messrs. Glave, drapers in New Oxford Street, and is open free of charge for anyone to inspect between eleven and twelve o'clock on Sat.u.r.day mornings. It is a rough vaulted chamber which has wisely been left without any attempt at decoration, and the bath itself measures about six yards by one and a half. It is four feet in depth, and is fed by a spring which continually flows in. Subscribers are allowed to use it on the payment of two guineas per annum. There was formerly a companion bath quite near, but this was done away with at the building of the Norfolk Hotel. The slabs of white marble which form the pavement of the existing bath were taken from it. It is curious that such a relic, computed to be perhaps 2,000 years old, should survive hidden and almost unnoticed, where so many buildings long anterior in date have utterly vanished. The bath is not mentioned by Stow or Malcolm in their accounts of London, and probably was not discovered when they wrote.

In Surrey Street Congreve died in 1729. The greater part of this and the neighbouring streets has been very recently rebuilt. Huge modern red-brick mansions with all the latest conveniences of electric light and lifts replace the old mansion which once stood here. These are carefully built and not unpicturesque; they are let in flats, and house a mult.i.tude of offices, clubs, etc. They are called by the names of the n.o.ble families who once lived here--Arundel House, Mowbray House, and Howard House. In Norfolk Street there are hotels and a small ladies'

club, the Writers', the only women's club in London which demands a professional qualification from its members. Peter the Great lodged in this street, and William Penn, the Quaker, was at the last house in the south-west corner.

In Howard Street Mrs. Bracegirdle, the actress, once lodged, and a wild attempt was made by an admirer to carry her off one night as she returned from the theatre. The well-known duellist, Lord Mohun, took part in the outrage which ended in the death of the actor Mountford.

Congreve was also a resident in Howard Street, removing afterwards to Surrey Street. The old Crown and Anchor Tavern stood in Arundel Street, in which was the Whittington Club, founded by Douglas Jerrold, who was the first president. At the corner of Arundel Street is the depot of W.

H. Smith and Sons, the largest book and newspaper business in the world, having the monopoly of the station bookstalls.

St. Clement Danes Church, at the east end of the Strand, is said to have been so called because the Danes who remained after Alfred's final victory were made to live in this quarter. The church is of extreme antiquity. That which was taken down in 1680 was certainly not the earliest. In its churchyard lie the remains of King Harold. The new church was built by Edward Pierce, under the superintendence of Wren.

The present tower and steeple were added by Gibbs. St. Clement's has long been famous for its bells, commented on in the children's game:

"Oranges and lemons Say the bells of St. Clement's."

Oranges and lemons used to be distributed among the parish poor at certain seasons. The bells, ten in number, still peal as merrily as of old. In the gallery a bra.s.s plate with an inscription marks the spot where Dr. Johnson regularly sat in his attendance at service. The body of the church is filled with high old-fashioned pews, and the pulpit is a peculiarly rich bit of work attributed to Grinling Gibbons, though it does not altogether follow the usual type of his designs. Several monuments hang on the walls and pillars, but none of any general interest. In the church are buried Otway and Nathaniel Lee. The plate belonging to the church is very handsome and valuable, of silver, and some pieces date back to the time of Queen Elizabeth. The registers also commence at 1558, and contain several interesting entries. One of the earliest is the baptism of Robert Cecil, June 6, 1563, son of the High Treasurer, who was himself Prime Minister under Elizabeth and James I.

Ess.e.x Street recalls the fascinating and unhappy Ess.e.x, favourite of Queen Elizabeth. Ess.e.x House was built on the above-mentioned piece of ground called the Outer Temple which never belonged to the lawyers, but had been annexed by the Bishops of Exeter in the reign of the second Edward. This was then known as Exeter House. It was sacked by the populace in the same reign, and the unlucky prelate Walter Stapledon, who had taken the side of the King in his disputes with the Queen, was carried off and beheaded. The house was rebuilt, and continued to belong to the See until the reign of Henry VIII. But it seemed to have some malignant influence, for nearly all its successive owners suffered some unhappy fate. Lord Paget, who occupied it during Henry VIII.'s reign, narrowly escaped being beheaded. Thomas Howard, fourth son of the Duke of Norfolk, who succeeded, died in the Tower after many years of imprisonment. Dudley, Earl of Leicester, followed, and during his period of residence the house can claim a.s.sociation with the name of Spenser, who was a frequent visitor. Leicester escaped the malevolent influence of the house, which he left to his son-in-law, Robert Devereux, Earl of Ess.e.x. During the Earl's occupancy the mansion went through some stormy scenes. It was here that he a.s.sembled his fellow-conspirators which he left to his step-son, Robert Devereux, to arouse the people to aid him to obtain possession of the Queen's person, but he found his popularity unequal to the demand. The people turned against him, and he was driven back to his own house, which he barricaded. But his resistance was useless. Artillery was employed against him, and a gun mounted on the tower of St. Clement's Church. He was forced to surrender, and being found guilty of high treason, was executed. After the Restoration the house was let in tenements. It was pulled down about the end of the seventeenth century, but the Watergate at the end of the street is said to have been a part of it. The street was built in 1862. Dr. Johnson established here a small club known as the Ess.e.x Head Club.

The Ess.e.x Street Chapel, which was the headquarters of the Unitarians in London, was built upon part of the site of the house; Smith says it was part of the original building. The Cottonian Library was kept here from 1712 to 1730. A lecture-hall now stands on the site of the chapel. The Ethical Society give lectures here on Sunday evenings.

With Temple Bar the City of London, or, rather, the Liberties thereof, begin, and it is here that on great state occasions the Lord Mayor meets his Sovereign and hands to him the keys of the City. The first building on this spot was a timber house, but the exact date of its erection cannot be ascertained. It was probably put up for the decoration of a pageant, and, being found useful, was kept up. The gate has been often taken to have been part of the defences of the City, which it certainly was not, being protected or strengthened with neither moat nor drawbridge, nor being strong enough for the mounting of cannon. The Bar, a simple arrangement of chain and rails, is mentioned as early as 1301, but it cannot be ascertained that there was any building upon it. In 1502 the custody of the Bar, together with that of Newgate and Ludgate, is a.s.signed to Alderman Fabian and others.

In 1533 it would seem that a gate was standing here, because for the reception of Anne Boleyn Temple Bar was newly painted and repaired, "whereon stood divers singing men and children." Again in 1547, for the coronation of Edward VI., the Bar was painted and fashioned with battlements. In 1554 the "new gates" of Temple Bar were a.s.signed to the custody of the City. Aggas's map shows the Bar as a covered gate. The gateway was very c.u.mbersome, blocking up an already narrow street. Among other ceremonies it witnessed the progresses of Queen Elizabeth and Queen Anne respectively, to return thanks in St. Paul's Cathedral, the one for deliverance from the Armada, and the other in grat.i.tude for Marlborough's victories. Inigo Jones, when he was engaged upon the Restoration of St. Paul's, was invited to furnish a design for a new arch. He complied, but his design was never carried out. It was engraved in 1727.

The Great Fire was checked before it reached Temple Bar. In 1670, however, the old gate was removed and its successor built by Wren. The familiar gate, still (1902) remembered by everybody who has reached manhood, was removed in the year 1878, and a monument with the City Dragon, colloquially known as the Griffin, was put up on the site of the Bar. The stones of the ancient building were preserved, and have been rebuilt in the park of Sir H. Meux at Cheshunt. One of the decorations of the later gateway consisted of iron spikes on which the heads of traitors were displayed, notably those of the men incriminated in the rebellions of the eighteenth century. When a high wind arose, these heads were sometimes blown down into the street below, a sight better to be imagined than described. From this circ.u.mstance Temple Bar was sometimes called the Golgotha of London.

Here we turn westward, and resume our perambulation in the part lying along the northern side of the Strand, which has not yet been described.

The parish of St. Clement Danes has changed very greatly since ancient times, when a large part of it, stretching from Lincoln's Inn Fields to the Strand, was known as Fickett's Field, and was the jousting-place of the Templars. This portion became gradually covered with houses and courts, which were at first fashionable dwelling-places, and were a.s.sociated with n.o.ble names. These degenerated until, at the beginning of the present century, a vast rookery of noisome tenements, inhabited by the poorest and most wretched people, covered the greater part of the parish to the north of the Strand. The erection of the new Law Courts, 1868, entirely swept away numbers of these tenements, and opened out the parish to the north of the church. The change thus effected paved the way for further reformation, and though the streets about the site of Clare Market are poor and squalid, they show a beginning of better things, and no longer own such an evil reputation as they did.

Further north, beyond King's College Hospital, is Portugal Street, called by Strype "Playhouse Street." In the times of the later Stuarts it was a very fashionable locality. It is said that women first performed on the stage in public at the King's Theatre, in this street.

The players were often patronized by Pepys. In 1717 the first English opera was performed here, and in 1727 the "Beggar's Opera" was produced with unprecedented success; but in 1835 the theatre in Portugal Street was taken down to make room for the enlargement of the museum belonging to the College of Surgeons.

Portsmouth Street contains a quaint, low, red-tiled house purporting to be the Old Curiosity Shop of d.i.c.kens' novel. The Black Jack Tavern, of some notoriety, stood here. It was the resort of the actors and dramatists of the adjacent theatre, and was the scene of a famous escape of Jack Sheppard from the Bow Street officers. It is said to have been a meeting-place of the Cato Street conspirators.

Shear or Shire Lane formerly ran from the east end of Carey Street to the Strand, and formed the parish boundary. This was a narrow, dirty lane of the vilest reputation before its demolition, but it had known better days. A very famous tavern stood in the lane, first called the Cat and Fiddle, later the Trumpet, and still later the Duke of York's.

The well-known Kitcat Club met here originally. This was a society of thirty-nine gentlemen or n.o.blemen zealously attached to the Protestant succession in the House of Hanover, and originated about 1700. Addison and Steele, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and others of celebrity, besides the Dukes of Somerset, Devonshire, Marlborough, Newcastle, etc., and many others, t.i.tled and unt.i.tled, were of the society. The bookseller Tonson was the secretary, and he had his own and all their portraits painted by Sir G.o.dfrey Kneller, who was also a member of the club. Addison dated many of his famous essays from this address. The lane was known in the reign of the first James as Rogues' Lane.

The south side of Lincoln's Inn Fields only is within our boundaries, but the square is worth seeing. It is the largest in London, and was partly designed by Inigo Jones, who built the west side, called the Arch Row; the east side was bounded by the garden wall of Lincoln's Inn; on the north was Holborn Row; the south side was Portugal Row. The history of Lincoln's Inn Fields is a curious combination of rascality and of aristocracy. The rascals infested the fields, which were filled with wrestlers, rogues and cheats, pick-pockets, cripples and footpads; the aristocrats occupied the stately houses on the west side. Among the residents here were Lord Somers, the Duke of Newcastle, Lord Kenyon, Lord Erskine, and Spencer Percival. In the fields Babington and his accomplices were executed, some of them on the 20th, and some on the 21st, of September, 1586. Here also on July 21, 1683, William, Lord Russell was beheaded.

East of Drury Lane there lies a curious district mainly made up of lanes now rapidly disappearing, such as Clare Market, Wild Street, and a network of narrow courts. In 1657 Howell speaks of the Earl of Clare as living "in a princely manner" in this neighbourhood. It was in Clare Market that Orator Henley had his chapel. The market was one chiefly for meat, and the shops and sheds were mainly occupied by butchers. Dr.

Radcliffe frequented a tavern in this place, and Mrs. Bracegirdle, the actress, used to visit the market in order to a.s.sist the poor basket-women. The place is now almost gone. There was a notorious burial-ground, closed at last after its enormities had been exposed over and over again. King's College Hospital is built upon a part of the slums. Clement's Inn will be swept away by the Strand improvements. New Inn is still standing; Danes' Inn is a modern court with offices and residential chambers. Wych Street itself has still some of the old houses left. In Newcastle Street was Lyons' Inn, cleared away to make room for a theatre.

Drury Lane derives its name from the family mansion of the Druries which stood on the site. The brave Lord Craven bought this house and rebuilt it. It is stated that he married privately the Queen of Bohemia, daughter of James I. Timbs says that she occupied the house adjoining Craven House, which was connected with it by a subterranean pa.s.sage.

Craven Buildings were built in 1723 upon the site of the house; Hayman, the artist, and Mrs. Bracegirdle, the actress, both had rooms in these buildings. The Olympic Theatre is also partly on the site of Craven House.

Drury Lane was once a fashionable quarter, but lost that reputation before many of its contemporaries, and since the time of the third William has borne a more or less vile character. Nell Gwynne was born in Coal Yard, which opens off on the east side.

The Drury Lane Theatre has many interesting a.s.sociations. It was built by Killigrew in 1663, and was called the King's House, under which t.i.tle Pepys recalls many visits to it. In 1671 it was burnt down. It was rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren, and opened 1674. Among the list of patentees we have the names of Rich, Steele, Doggett, Wilks, Cibber, Booth, and also Garrick, who began here his Shakespearian revivals.

Sheridan succeeded Garrick as part proprietor, and in 1788 John Kemble became manager. The old theatre was demolished in 1791, and a new one opened three years after. This was also burned down in 1809, and the present theatre opened three years later. J. T. Smith takes the origin of the theatre still further back, saying that even from the time of Shakespeare there had been a theatre here, which had been a c.o.c.kpit. The site of the c.o.c.kpit, however, is on the other side of Drury Lane, where Pit Place now is.

North of the theatre was a disused burial-ground, later asphalted and turned into a public playground. It was less than a quarter of an acre in extent. It is now built over by workmen's dwellings of the usual kind. It was an additional burial-ground to St. Mary's le Strand, and is mentioned by d.i.c.kens in "Bleak House."

Crown Court recalls the Crown Tavern where _Punch_ was first projected.

The south end of Drury Lane, running into Wych Street, is now completely altered. New Inn and Booksellers' Row, otherwise Holywell Street, are wiped off the map, and the semicircular arm of the great new street connecting Holborn and the Strand will come out near St.

Clement's Church. The name Holywell referred to a holy well which stood on the spot. There were, apparently, several of these wells in the vicinity; one was on the site of the Law Courts (_Times_, May 1, 1874).

The street was a survival of old London, with its houses picturesquely old, with pointed gables, and it is a cause for regret that it had to go down in the march of modern improvements (see _frontispiece_).

Butcher Row ran round the north side of the church. It was so named from a flesh-market established here by Edward I. Numerous small courts opened off in the north side. Among these were Hemlock, Swan, Chair, Crown and Star Courts. The Row and its vicinity had for many years a notoriously bad reputation. One of the courts off Little Shear Alley was Boswell Court, not, as some have imagined, called after Johnson's biographer. This court was at one time a very fashionable place of residence; Lady Raleigh, the widow of Sir Walter, lived here for three years.

In Butcher Row the houses were picturesque, of timber and plaster. In one of them the great de Rosny, afterwards Duc de Sully, lodged for one night when he came to England as the French Amba.s.sador.

Turning westward, we see what is left of Newcastle Street, which was named after John Holles, Duke of Newcastle, who owned the ground (1711).

The work of demolition is going on as far as Catherine Street, where the Gaiety theatre still stands, though not for long, for the second great scimitar sweep of the new street will join the Strand here.

The parish of St. Paul's lies like a leaf on the parish of St.

Martin's-in-the-Fields, by which it is wholly surrounded. Its southern boundary runs most erratically, zigzagging in and out across the streets which connect Maiden Lane and Henrietta Street with the Strand. The eastern line keeps on the east side of Bow and Brydges Street. The north pa.s.ses along the north side of Hart Street, and the west cuts across the east ends of Garrick and New Streets, keeping to the east of Bedfordbury.

The name Covent is a corruption of Convent, and is taken from the convent garden of the Abbey of Westminster, which was formerly on this site. It was written Covent, as taken from the French _couvent_ more immediately than the Latin _conventus_.

At the dissolution of the monasteries, Westminster Convent Garden became Crown property. In the first year of his reign Edward VI. granted it to the Duke of Somerset. On the fall of that n.o.bleman it reverted to the Crown, and in 1552 was granted to the Earl of Bedford with "seven acres, called Long Acre." The Earl of Bedford built a town-house on his newly acquired property, and devoted himself to the improvement of the neighbourhood.

Though the parish is so small, it is full of interesting a.s.sociations, chiefly of the last two centuries. Wits, actors, literary men, and artists, frequented its taverns and swarmed in its precincts. The contrast between its earlier days, when it was a quiet retreat where the monks slowly paced beneath the sheltering trees, and its later vicissitudes, when the eighteenth-century roisterers and gamesters made merry within its taverns, could hardly be more striking.

The great square called the Market was laid out by the Earl of Bedford in 1631; the Piazza ran along the north and east sides; the church and churchyard formed the west side; on the south was the wall of Bedford House, and by a small grove of trees in the middle stood a sundial. The place gradually grew as a market. In 1710 there were only a few sheds; in 1748 the sheds had become tenements, with upper rooms inhabited by bakers, cooks and retailers of gin.

The square itself is redolent of memories. When first built it was one of the most fashionable parts of London, and the names of the occupiers were all t.i.tled or distinguished. We read among them those of the Bishop of Durham, Duke of Richmond, Earl of Oxford, Marquis of Winchester, Sir G.o.dfrey Kneller, and the Earl of Suss.e.x. The arcade, or Piazza, as it was called, was a fashionable lounging-place, and many foundling children were called Piazza in its honour. One of the scenes in Otway's "Soldier of Fortune" is laid here, and also one in Wycherley's "Country Wife." Sir Peter Lely had a house in the square, and this house was successively occupied by Sir G.o.dfrey Kneller and Sir James Thornhill (Timbs). Coffee-houses and taverns abounded in and about the square. Of these the most famous were Will's, b.u.t.ton's and Tom's, well known by the references to them in contemporary literature. The first of these in point of time was "Will's," which stood at the north corner of Russell and Bow Streets (see p. 106).

The Bedford Coffee-house under the Piazza succeeded b.u.t.ton's, or, rather, came into vogue afterwards when Garrick, Quin, Foote and others used it. The house stood at the north-east corner. It is described as a place of resort for critics. "Everyone you meet is a polite scholar and critic ... the merit of every production of the press is weighed and determined." Apparently a place where the conversation was a continual attempt at smartness; it must have been most fatiguing. The weak point, indeed, of this public life was the demand it created for conversational display. The greater part of Johnson's pithy sayings were delivered in such a mixed company, and were prepared in sonorous English to suit the company.

An article in the _London Mercury_, January 13, 1721, states that there were twenty-two gaming-houses in the parish. Besides all these attractions, there was Covent Garden theatre opened in 1733 by Rich, though the first patent had been granted to Sir William Davenant. In 1746 Garrick joined Rich, but at the end of the season left him for Drury Lane, taking with him all the best actors. In 1803 Kemble became proprietor and stage-manager, but five years later the theatre was completely burnt. It was rebuilt under the directions of R. Smirke, and when re-opened was the scene of a singularly pertinacious revolt. The prices had been raised in consequence of the improved accommodation, and the people in the pit banded themselves together under the name of "Old Prices," and made such an intolerable uproar that the piece could not proceed. Smith says "the town seemed to have lost its senses." For weeks people wore O.P. hats and O.P. handkerchiefs, and interrupted every attempt to carry the play through. In the end a compromise was made. In 1840 Charles Kemble left the theatre, and the building was leased to C.

Mathews, Madame Vestris and Macready. In 1847 it was opened as an Italian Opera-House after being almost rebuilt. It was again destroyed by fire in 1856, but the facade was saved with its bas-reliefs and statues by Flaxman and Rossi. These were placed on the present building designed by Barry, which was opened two years later.

The Church of St. Paul, Covent Garden, was built by Inigo Jones in 1633 at the expense of the Earl of Bedford; consecrated by Bishop Juxon in 1638; destroyed by fire in 1795; rebuilt by John Hardwick in the place of the original building. And the story goes that when the architect heard the commission, "to build a church not much bigger than a barn,"

he replied it should be the handsomest barn in England.

Buried here are Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset; Sir Henry Herbert and Samuel Butler, author of "Hudibras," died 1680; Sir Peter Lely, died 1680, whose monument was destroyed in the fire; Edward Kynaston, actor; Wycherley, the dramatist; Grinling Gibbons, died 1721, sculptor in wood; Susannah Centlivre; Dr. Arne, musician, died 1778; Charles Macklin, comedian, died 1797 at the age of 107; John Wolcott, _alias_ Peter Pindar, died 1819. The registers begin at 1615, and among the baptismal entries are the names of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, May 26, 1689, and Turner, the painter, May 14, 1775.

The church is visible from the street on the east and the market on the west, but accessible only by a covered entry under the houses on the north and south. In Hogarth's picture of "Morning" we get a glimpse of the old church before its destruction, with clock-dial, and tiled roof, not so very dissimilar from what it is at present.

The election of members for Westminster formerly took place on a hustings before the church, when there were scenes of wild riot. The most memorable of these elections was that of Fox and Sir Cecil Wray in 1784.