The Strand District Part 6

Bow Street, Covent Garden, was built in 1637, and named after its shape, that of a bent bow. It is remarkable for the number of well-known persons who have lived in it. It was one of the most fashionable streets in the Metropolis, and Dryden wrote in the epilogue to one of his plays:

"I've had to-day a dozen billet-doux From fops and wits and cits and Bow Street beaux;"

on which Sir Walter Scott remarked a billet-doux from Bow Street would now be more alarming than flattering. The police officer began his reign here in 1749.

Henry Fielding, who was in authority in 1753, did much to suppress the unbridled license and open highway robbery of the Metropolis.

Will's Coffee-house was at No. 1, on the west side, the corner of Russell Street. The princ.i.p.al room was on the first floor. Dryden made the house the chief place of resort for the poets and wits of the time.

After his death Addison took the company across the street to b.u.t.ton's.

Ned Ward's notes on Will's are not respectful.

"From thence we adjourned to the Wits' Coffee-house.... Accordingly, upstairs we went, and found much company, but little talk.... We shuffled through this moving crowd of philosophical mutes to the other end of the room, where three or four wits of the upper cla.s.s were rendezvous'd at a table, and were disturbing the ashes of the old poets by perverting their sense.... At another table were seated a parcel of young, raw, second-rate beaus and wits, who were conceited if they had but the honour to dip a finger and thumb into Mr. Dryden's snuff-box"

(Cunningham, p. 555.).

Defoe, on the other hand, is more complimentary:--

"Now view the beaus at Will's, the men of wit, By nature nice, and for discerning fit, The finished fops, the men of wig and m.u.f.f.

Knights of the famous oyster-barrel snuff."

At b.u.t.ton's there was a carved lion's head, of which the mouth was a letter-box for contributions to the _Guardian_ and _Tatler_. This was set up by Addison in 1713, and attracted much attention. It was removed in 1731 to the Shakespeare Tavern, and later came into the possession of the Duke of Bedford. Tom's was the last of the three famous houses. It was started by a waiter from Will's, and managed to hold its own. It was on the north side of the street, nearly opposite b.u.t.ton's.

The literary a.s.sociations of the street are innumerable. Wycherley lodged here, and after an illness was visited by Charles II., who gave him 500 for a trip to France. The well-known c.o.c.k Tavern was just opposite his rooms, and when Wycherley had married the Countess of Drogheda he used to sit in the tavern with the windows open so that his jealous wife could see there were no women in his company. This tavern was the resort of the rakes and mohocks that for a while made the neighbourhood a terror to decent people. Henry Fielding wrote "Tom Jones" while living in this street. Grinling Gibbons died here. Edmund Waller, the poet, lived here during the Commonwealth, and Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, was born here in 1661. Radcliffe, the Court physician, was a resident in the beginning of the eighteenth century.

The streets opening out of the square can boast many interesting a.s.sociations.

Henrietta Street was named after Charles I.'s Queen. Samuel Cooper, miniature-painter, lived here. The Castle Tavern, where Sheridan fought with Mathews on account of Miss Linley, was in this street.

Maiden Lane can claim several ill.u.s.trious names. It was the birthplace of Turner; Andrew Marvell and Voltaire both lodged here.

Long Acre was originally an open field called the Elms, and later known as Seven Acres, from a grant of land made to the Duke of Bedford. A curious house-to-house survey of 1650 is preserved in the Augmentation Office. From this it would appear that the street at that date was full of small shops, grocers, chandlers, etc., with here and there a big house occupied by some t.i.tled person. Ever since the first introduction of coaches Long Acre has been particularly favoured by coachbuilders, and at the present time it is lined by carriage-works. Long Acre was the scene of many convivial gatherings in the Hanoverian times. It can claim the first "mug-house," an inst.i.tution which speedily became popular.

Oliver Cromwell lived on the south side of Long Acre, and Dryden and Butler in Rose Street, a dirty little alley half destroyed by the building of Garrick Street. Here Dryden was set upon by three hired bullies at the command of Lord Rochester, who was insulted by some satirical lines which he attributed to the poet.

Garrick Street was built about 1864, and the club of the same name was founded for the patronage of dramatic art.

St. Martin's Lane is one of the oldest thoroughfares in the parish. It was built about 1613, and was then known as West Church Lane. It ran right through to the front of Northumberland House, and prints are still extant showing the church peeping over the line of houses on the western side.

St. Martin's Lane claims many celebrated names, and was a favourite resort for artists. The house in which Inigo Jones lived is still pointed out--No. 31 on the east side. Almost exactly opposite this is the Public Library, built at the same time as the Munic.i.p.al Buildings; it contains a fine reference collection (see also p. 21.) The lane abounds with memories of the past. In St. Peter's Court Roubiliac established a studio, afterwards a drawing academy, which numbered Hayman, Cipriani, Ramsay, Cosway, Nollekens, Reynolds and Hogarth among its members; this was the predecessor of the Royal Academy. This court was two or three doors above the Free Library, and was eventually closed up at the west end by the Garrick Theatre. No. 114 is traditionally on the site of the mansion of the Earls of Salisbury, in which, also traditionally, the Seven Bishops were confined before being committed to the Tower. The names of Chippendale, Nathaniel Hone and Fuseli are a.s.sociated with the lane, also Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir James Thornhill.

Old Slaughter's Coffee-house alone is enough to redeem any street from oblivion. This was established in 1692, and stood on the spot where Cranbourne Street now crosses the end of St. Martin's Lane. It was a favourite resort of all the painters and sculptors of the time, not to mention the wits and beaux. Hogarth was a constant visitor, his house in Leicester Square being conveniently near. Roubiliac, Gainsborough, and also Wilkie, came to enjoy society at Old Slaughter's, and Pope and Dryden are known to have visited it. The first chess club in London was established here in 1747.

And now we have strolled around the chosen area, making Trafalgar Square the centre, and returning to and fro in two great loops eastward and westward, resembling a true lovers' knot. We have been in the company of King and courtier, rebel and wit. We have consorted with the gay fops of the eighteenth century in their club and coffee house life, and we have seen the haunts of men whose names are household words wherever the English tongue is spoken.

It has been chiefly seventeenth and eighteenth century life that has enchained us as we read the pages of the past, and in its richness and variety at least the eighteenth century would be difficult to rival.

Prosaic London, with her borough councils, her Strand improvements, and her immense utilitarian flats, still retains the glamour of her bygone days, and if her present buildings are without much attraction, they are glorified by the halo of their a.s.sociation with their fascinating predecessors.