The Strand District Part 3

No. 9 is now the home of the Portland Club.

No. 12 has also its string of names, but, for fear of degenerating into a mere catalogue, we will only mention a few of the most important, Sir Cyril Wyche was the first owner in 1676, and he was succeeded in 1678 by Aubrey de Vere, twentieth Earl of Oxford. The Dukes of Roxburgh were in possession from 1796 to 1812, and at the latter date the famous Roxburgh Library was sold. The last private occupier was J. W. Spencer Churchill, seventh Duke of Marlborough. After this the house was used successively by the Salisbury Club, the Nimrod Club, and the Pall Mall Club, the last of which remains here at present.

No. 13, the corner house, has pa.s.sed through many hands, and is now in the occupation of the Windham Club. The London Library is well known to all book-lovers.

Wheatley states that Philip Francis lived at No. 14 until his death in 1818, but the houses have been renumbered since then, and his 14 is now 16.

No. 15 is known as Lichfield House from its former owner. It was built by Stuart (known as "Athenian Stuart") in 1763-65. In 1855 it was the home of the Junior United Service Club. In 1856 it was bought by the Clerical, Medical, and General Life a.s.surance Society. The chief event in its history took place on June 28, 1815, when the Prince Regent displayed the trophies and banners just brought from Waterloo to the crowd below.

No. 16, which is now amalgamated with 17, is occupied by the East India United Service Club.

Nos. 17 and 18 formed old Halifax House. Many political intrigues and meetings must have taken place here, for Lord Halifax gained the name of always being on the winning side. In 1725 Halifax House was demolished and the present buildings erected. In 1820 Queen Caroline stayed in No.

17 during her trial. The house was afterwards used by the Colonial Club.

No. 18 boasts such names among its tenants as the fourth Earl of Chesterfield, the first Lord Thurlow, and Viscount Castlereagh, afterwards second Marquis of Londonderry. It was used by the Oxford and Cambridge Club and the Army and Navy Club.

At the south-east corner of King Street, in the square, was Cleveland House, which has been demolished and replaced by "mansions."

Apsley and Winchester Houses follow. The former was rebuilt by Robert Adam in 1772-74, and follows the well-known lines of his work, with fluted pilasters rising from above the bas.e.m.e.nt to an entablature. The entrance has the fan-shaped gla.s.s above the door so characteristic of Adam's work.

Winchester House was from 1826 to 1875 occupied by the Bishops of that see, and was later a branch of the War Office, several departments of which are still here. The next magnificent building, which really faces George Street, but was formerly considered to be in the square, is one of the palatial clubs evolved by the demands of modern luxury. The house which formerly stood here was used by the Parthenon Club from 1837-41, and was subsequently pulled down to make way for the present clubhouse, opened 1851, and built from designs by Parnell and Smith. The exterior is a combination of Sansovino's Palazzo Cornaro and the Library of St.

Mark at Venice. The lower part follows Sansovino's beautiful work very closely. On the site of this stood formerly a house belonging to Nell Gwynne, of which Pennant writes: "The back-room of the ground-floor was (within memory) entirely of looking-gla.s.s, as was said to have been the ceiling; over the chimney was her picture, and that of her sister in a third room." He describes this house as the "first good one on the left hand of St. James's Square entered from Pall Mall."

The south side of the square has never been held in such esteem as the remaining three-fourths. But the Junior Carlton Club, facing Pall Mall, has removed this stigma; it is a fine specimen of architecture.

Demolition, previous to reconstruction, has already begun next to it.

After this as far as John Street is a row of comparatively insignificant narrow houses of various heights and styles. Some of the houses on the north side of Pall Mall were built before the completion of the square, so that there was no room for large mansions here. At the corner of John Street and Pall Mall is what is called "Ye Olde Bull Tavern," a square box-like stuccoed house. This is probably contemporary with the first building of Pall Mall, and may have been the subst.i.tute of the seventeenth century wits and men of letters for the magnificent clubs of the present day.

Charles Street was built about 1671, and was, of course, named after the King. Burke and Canning are numbered among the former residents.

York Street was named in compliment to the Duke of York, afterwards James II. It may be noted that the four streets surrounding the square form the names King Charles and Duke of York.

Bury Street was named after a Mr. Berry, who was landlord of many of the houses; the spelling is a corruption. Sir Richard Steele lodged here, also Thomas Moore and Crabbe, the poet, during one of his later visits to London, when contact with cultured men had rubbed off his early boorishness.

"St. James's Street is much more remarkable for the natural advantages and beauty of the ground, than from any addition it has received from art," so says Ralph ("Critical Review of Public Buildings," 1783 edition). In the very earliest maps of the parish a road is marked on this site, leading northward from the palace. The street was built about 1670, and was first known as Long Street. In the time of the Stuarts it shared the aristocratic tendency of the square, and had a list of n.o.ble occupiers. It was levelled and made uniform in 1764, having previously descended from Piccadilly by steps.

St. James's Street has been noted from the very beginning for its clubs, gaming-houses, and convivial gatherings. Its proximity to the Court attracted all the fops and beaux, and it was the resort of fas.h.i.+onable and gay young idlers. Many anecdotes are related of the street, but chiefly in connection with the clubs, for which it is still famous.

White's (37 and 38) is one of the oldest; it was established about 1698, and was at first a chocolate-house. It stood near the low end of the street, on the west side. It was burnt down in 1733, and the present building, designed by Wyatt, was erected in 1755, and altered nearly a century later by Lockyer. The gaming-room of the old house forms the scene of the sixth plate of Hogarth's "Rake's Progress," where the gamblers are represented intent on their cards, though the flames are bursting out. It was after the fire that the house became a private club, and it was long noted as a gambling-house for high stakes and reckless betting. It is of White's that the story is told that a man dropped down before the door insensible, and was taken inside. The members immediately began to bet whether he were dead or not, and when the physician came to bleed him, those on the affirmative side protested.

"Brooke's" is now No. 60, on the opposite side of the street from White's, at the northern corner of Park Place, and was as notorious a gaming-house as White's. It was of later origin, dating from 1764, and was originally in Pall Mall. It began life under the name of Almack's.

The play was prodigiously high. Timbs says that it was for rouleaux of 50 each, and there was generally 10,000 in specie on the table.

"Boodle's," is another celebrated club, which was also named the "Savoir Vivre." This is now No. 28.

The Cocoa-tree Club recalls by its name an old chocolate house of Queen Anne's time, a favourite resort of the Tories, often mentioned by Addison. Lord Byron was one of the members. The old house was situated nearer to the south end of the street than the present club.

"Arthurs," south of St. James's Place, was founded by the proprietor of White's in 1765. The present building was erected in 1825 by Hopper. The Conservative Club house (74) was built in 1845 from designs by Smirke and Basevi. The building is large, with slightly projecting wings, and a stone balcony extending uninterruptedly across the frontage.

Next door is the "Thatched House" Club, which originated in the Thatched House Tavern, in which the dilettanti and literary societies used to meet. Wheatley describes a row of low-built shops standing before the tavern, one of which was that of the hairdresser Rowland, who made a fortune by his maca.s.sar oil.

St. James's Coffee-house, a celebrated Whig rendezvous from the reign of Queen Anne until the beginning of the nineteenth century, was at this end of the street. In this street there are also many other clubs of later origin. It was at the foot of St. James's Street that the Duke of Ormond was attacked in his coach in 1670, by the notorious Colonel Blood. The Duke had been responsible for the execution of some of Blood's a.s.sociates in Ireland, and Blood determined to take him to Tyburn and hang him in revenge. He actually succeeded in dragging him from his coach and mounting him on horseback behind one of his men. When they had proceeded as far as Devons.h.i.+re House, the Duke succeeded in unhorsing his companion, and in the delay that followed his servants made their appearance and rescued him. For this outrage Blood was never punished. Sir Christopher Wren died in St. James's Street in 1723, and Gibbon, the historian, in 1794. The names of Waller, the poet, Wolfe, C.

Fox, and Lord Byron, are among the residents. It was here that the last named was lodging when his "Childe Harold" created such an extraordinary sensation. Alexander Pope was also a resident.

McLean, the famous highwayman, lodged opposite "White's." He was hung in 1750, and the first Sunday after he was condemned 3,000 people went to see him in gaol. St. James's Street at present is sufficiently noticeable because of its width, in which the old palace gateway at the foot is framed.

Park Place was built in 1683. William Pitt came to live here in 1801.

St. James's Place is a medley of old and modern buildings, some having been built in the last decade. Wheatley speaks of it because of its tortuous course, as "one of the oddest built streets in London." Wilkes and Addison, and Mrs. Delaney, at whose house Miss Burney stayed, have been among the residents. Samuel Rogers lived for fifty years at No. 22, which looked out over the park.

Cleveland Square is an open s.p.a.ce before the Duke of Bridgewater's House. The house was restored, as an inscription over the doorway tells us, or in other words rebuilt, in 1849. This house has a history. It was originally Berks.h.i.+re House, and belonged to the Howards, Earls of Berks.h.i.+re. Charles II. bought it in 1670, and gave it to that "beautiful fury," Barbara, d.u.c.h.ess of Cleveland. She pulled down the house and sold part of the site before rebuilding. In 1730 the first Duke of Bridgewater bought it, and it was alternately known by the names of Cleveland and Bridgewater. The third Duke died unmarried in 1803, when the t.i.tle became extinct. He left the house and the magnificent collection of pictures to his nephew, the Marquis of Stafford, afterwards Duke of Sutherland, with reversion to the Marquis's second son. This son was created Earl of Ellesmere in 1846. He rebuilt the house, still retaining the old name. The famous collection of pictures within, includes works of Raphael, t.i.tian, Vandervelde, Turner, Rembrandt, Cuyp, and others, and is one of the finest private collections in England.

The house opposite was the home of Grenville, First Lord of the Admiralty in 1806, and here he collected the magnificent library which is now at the British Museum. Admiral Rodney lived in Cleveland Row in 1772.

On Pall Mall the game of the same name was originally played. On both sides of the open s.p.a.ce were rows of elm-trees. But being such an obvious route from the palace to Charing Cross it was soon used as a thoroughfare, and after the warrant for "building of the new street of St. James" Charles II. laid out the new mall in the park. The street, when built, was at first called Catherine, in honour of the Queen, but the older name soon returned into favour.

It early became fas.h.i.+onable. Nell Gwynne was one of the first residents.

She had a house numbered 79, near the War Office, afterwards, by the irony of fate, occupied by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and since rebuilt. Evelyn records an occasion on which he attended King Charles II. in the park, when he heard "a familiar discourse between the King and Mrs. Nellie as they call an impudent comedian, she looking out of her garden on a terrace at the top of the wall, and the King standing on the green walk under it."

During Wyatt's insurrection in 1554, the mob pa.s.sed along this road, and the Earl of Pembroke planted artillery on the high ground of Hay Hill and Piccadilly, when a piece of the Queen's ordnance, we are told, "slew three of Wyatt's followers, in a rank, and after carrying off their heads pa.s.sed through this wall into the park" (Jesse). In 1682 Thynne was murdered at the instigation of Count Konigsmarck in what is now Pall Mall East, because he had married the heiress of the Percys, whom the Count wished to marry himself. The princ.i.p.al was acquitted, but his three accomplices or tools, who had actually committed the murder, were executed, according to the poetic justice of the time, at the scene of their offence, in 1682.

The Star and Garter Hotel, nearly opposite the War Office, was a fas.h.i.+onable tavern in the time of Queen Anne. Here took place the famous duel between the fifth Lord Byron and Mr. Chaworth in 1765. They fought in the house by the light of only a single candle. Byron killed his opponent, and was found guilty of manslaughter by his peers. However, he claimed benefit of a statute of Edward VI., and was discharged. The original dispute was merely as to which gentleman had the larger amount of game on his estate.

Among other famous taverns in this street are mentioned the King's Arms, under the Opera Colonnade in Pall Mall East. Also the Rumpsteak Club, which consisted of five Dukes, one Marquis, fifteen Earls, three Viscounts, and three Barons, all in opposition to Sir Robert Walpole.

The King's Head, the George, the Smyrna Coffee-house, Giles'

Coffee-house, Hercules Pillars, and the Tree, were among the ancient places of resort in this street--a foreshadowing of the palatial mansions of Clubland.

The north side of the street is the poorer of the two. Beginning at the western end on the south side, we have the New Oxford and Cambridge Club, the Guards, and the Oxford and Cambridge University Clubs. The first of these has a very ma.s.sive entrance; the house has only a north aspect, the windows at the back being glazed with ground-gla.s.s so as not to overlook Marlborough House. A little further on is an old red-brick house with a portico on which is a female figure in bas-relief with palette and brushes. This is in great contrast to its neighbours; it is what remains (centre and west wing) of Schomberg House, built about the middle of the seventeenth century. The first Schomberg came over in the train of William of Orange; he was Count in his own country, bore several French t.i.tles, and was created an English Duke. He was killed at the Battle of the Boyne. The house was later occupied by c.u.mberland of Culloden, George III.'s uncle, and subsequently by Astley the painter.

Astley divided it into three parts, reserving the centre for his own use. Among the tenants who succeeded him we find the names of Cosway, Paine the bookseller, and Nathaniel Hone. In the western wing Gainsborough lived, so the building has every right to its distinguis.h.i.+ng panel of palette and brushes. During Gainsborough's occupancy everyone of wealth, beauty or fas.h.i.+on in the society of the day resorted here to have their features immortalized. This house is now part of the War Office, which, in a previous stage of its career, was the Ordnance Office.

The entrance to the War Office stands back behind a courtyard in which is a statue of Lord Herbert of Lea. The War Office was originally at the Horse Guards, and since its removal has gradually extended its premises by absorbing one house after another. We now come to a long series of clubs. The Carlton is rich in ornament, with polished granite columns decorating a front of Caen stone. The design was by Sydney Smirke, and is said to be founded on that of a Venetian palace. It contrasts with its neighbour, the Reform, which presents a breadth of plain surface broken only by little pediments over the windows. This was the work of Sir Charles Barry, and was copied from the Farnese Palace at Venice, of which the upper storey was the work of Michael Angelo. It is a dull, heavy-looking piece of work. On part of its site stood the house of Angerstein, a Russian merchant, whose collection of pictures formed the nucleus of our National Gallery.

The Travellers', next door, also the work of Barry, is in an Italian style. One of the rules of this club is that no person shall be eligible for members.h.i.+p who shall not have travelled out of the British Isles at least 500 miles in a direct line from London.

The Athenaeum is one of the most princely of clubs. It was established in 1823, and the present house was built about half a dozen years later.

Decimus Burton was the architect, and his work is Grecian, with a frieze copied from the famous procession in the Parthenon. The recently-added storey has been the subject of much criticism. Among those present at the preliminary meeting we find the names of Sir Humphrey Davy, Sir Francis Chantrey, Sir Thomas Lawrence, the Earl of Aberdeen, Sir Walter Scott, Thomas Moore and Faraday. Theodore Hook was one of the most popular members.

At the corner of Pall Mall East and Waterloo Place is the United Service Club built by Nash. It was inst.i.tuted after the Battle of Waterloo, and was at first at the corner of Charles Street, on the site of the Junior Club of the same name.

The Guards' Monument, in Waterloo Place, was put up in 1859 in memory of the Crimea. Three figures of guardsmen--Grenadier, Coldstream, and Fusilier--in full marching uniform, stand round a granite pedestal, on which are inscribed the names of the famous Crimean battles; a pile of Russian guns actually brought from Sebastopol completes the group.

The Church of St. Philip, on the west side of Lower Regent Street, is a quaint building with Doric portico and curious little cupola, the latter a copy of the Lanthorn of Demosthenes at Athens. It was built in 1820 by Repton, from designs by Sir W. Chambers, and has the merit of being almost continually open for prayer and meditation.

On the east side the most important building is the Junior United Service Club, erected in 1852 by Nelson and James.

Market Street and St. James's Market recall the market held "west of the Haymarket, mid-way between Charles and Jermyn Street." This originated in a fair held in St. James's Fields, before the square was built, and from which Mayfair partly derives its name. This fair was suppressed on account of disorder in 1651, but revived again, and was not finally stopped until the end of Charles II.'s reign. After having been suppressed in the Fields in 1664, it was held in the market. Strype describes this market as "a large place, with a commodious market-house in the midst filled with butchers' shambles; besides the stalls in the market-place for country butchers, higglers and the like, being a market now grown to great account, and much resorted unto as being served with good provisions." In a house at the corner of Market Street lived Hannah Lightfoot, said to have been married to King George III. when Prince of Wales. The market belonged to Lord St. Albans, whose name is preserved in St. Albans Place, which ends in a foot-pa.s.sage leading into Charles Street.

The Haymarket derives its name from a market for hay and straw which was held here until 1830, and was then transferred to c.u.mberland Market, Regent's Park, where it still continues. The market naturally involved many taverns in its neighbourhood, and the street was lined with them.

The names of some were Black Horse, White Horse, Nag's Head, c.o.c.k, Phoenix, Unicorn, and Blue Posts. The theatre and the old opera-house were the most important buildings in the Haymarket. The latter was on the site of Her Majesty's Theatre and the Carlton Hotel. It was called at different times the Queen's Theatre, the King's Theatre, and Her Majesty's Theatre, so the new name is but a revival of the old. The first theatre on this site was begun in 1703 as a theatre for Betterton's famous company, which had been performing in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Operas were subsequently performed here; in fact, nearly all Handel's operas were written for this theatre. Masquerades were held in the opera-house in 1749 and 1766, and were attended by all the rank and fas.h.i.+on of the day, and even by royalty in disguise. In 1789 the theatre was burnt down. It was rebuilt and completed only three years after the catastrophe. This house saw some fine performances of the Italian Opera Company, and in it the names of Grisi, Rubini, Tamburini, Lablache, Mario, and Jenny Lind, first became known to the public. In 1867 it also was burnt down. For about a quarter of a century a third theatre stood here, but had no success, and was pulled down. The present theatre is of great magnificence, and will seat between 1,600 and 1,700 persons.

The Haymarket Theatre opposite is dwarfed by the proximity of its gorgeous neighbour. The names of Fielding, Cibber, Macklin, and Foote are connected with various attempts to make the earliest venture on this site pay. Mozart performed here in 1765, when only eight years old. In 1820 the present building was erected by Nash, adjacent to the old theatre. The Haymarket in the last century was a great place for shows and entertainments.

In James's Street was a tennis-court much patronized by Charles II. and the Duke of York.