CHAPTER III
Great Windmill Street Area
Within a few years of the death of Mary
Baker in c. 1665 most of her family's
property passed to speculators, and building development began. Much of this work was
of poor quality, and on 7 April 1671 a royal proclamation was published against unlicensed building in Windmill Fields, Dog Fields and Soho (ref. 1)
(see page 7).
Colonel Thomas Panton, the speculator, had
already started building on his ground on the east
side of the Haymarket, and in the summer of 1671
he obtained a licence to complete his works there
under the direction of the Surveyor General of
the King's Works, (Sir) Christopher Wren. (ref. 2) In
the same year he also petitioned the Privy Council
for permission to continue Windmill Street northwards; to build 'On the East Corner towards the
Haymarkett about 140 foot in front more or less.
Also on the same side about 200 foot more or less
over against Windmill Yard. Also to build on
both sides a short street leading from out of Windmill Street over against Windmill Yard towards
St. Giles. On the west side of Windmill Street
between Counduit Court and Windmill Yard,
a parcell of Back Ground with about fourtyfive foot of front to the sd. street.' John Brown
and Salter (probably Burrage or Burgage Salter)
had begun buildings on the west side of Windmill
Street, and they too craved leave to finish
their work. All the buildings were to be erected
in accordance with Wren's directions. (ref. 3)
Panton's petition was evidently successful (although no record of any licence to him has been
found). The precise disposition of all the sites
mentioned is not entirely clear, but the west part
of Archer Street and at least the eastern part (and
perhaps the whole) of Queen (now Denman)
Street were certainly built under the authority of
this licence.
Panton Square
(Part later known as Arundel(l) Street). Demolished
Colonel Panton began to build the street later
known as Panton Square in 1673, when nine
names appear in the ratebooks under the heading
'Coll Panton's Buildings'. The street occupied the
southern portion of the long strip of land which is
marked on the plan of 1585 as formerly belonging
to the Mercers' Company and then in the possession of Thomas Wilson, citizen and brewer,
and which formed part of the ground bought by
Robert Baker from Richard Wilson in 1618/19.
In 1675 the street appears in the ratebooks as
'Panton Street by ye Laystall'. Ogilby and
Morgan's map of 1681–2 and Blome's map of
1689 (Plates 3a, 4) both describe it as Panton
Yard and show that it consisted of three interconnected yards, the southernmost having access
to Coventry Street.
In 1720 Strype described it as 'a very large
Place for Stabling and Coach-houses, there being
one large Yard within another. This place is designed to be built into Streets, taking up a large
Piece of Ground, and, according to Probability,
will turn to better Advantage than at present.' (ref. 4)
This expectation was evidently already in course
of fulfilment, for the ratebooks for 1720 give
several persons of title, including the Duke of St.
Albans, as resident there, and Rocque's map of
1746 (Plate 6) shows that the yards had given
place to a straight street leading to a small enclosed square at the north end of the site. The
houses, several of which were occupied in the
1720's and 1730's by army officers (ref. 5) , are illustrated
in a drawing by T. H. Shepherd on Plate 122c.
In 1762 the Moroccan Ambassador lived in
Panton Square. We are informed that when
'One of his attendants happened to displease him:
he had him brought up to the garret, and there
sliced his head off'. An eye-witness relates that a
violent crowd subsequently gathered before the
house; 'they broke into it, demolished the
furniture, threw everything they could lay their
hands on out of the window, and threshed and
beat the grand Moor and his retinue down the
Haymarket, and afterwards attacked them wherever they found them.' (ref. 6) It is not known whether
this story is true, but the State Papers contain
numerous references to the irregular behaviour of
the ambassador and his staff at about this time. (ref. 7)
Benjamin West, the painter, lived in Panton
Square from 1768 to 1775, (ref. 8) and in 1863 the
French poet Stéphane Mallarmé stayed for a short
while at No. 9; (ref. 9) by this time many of the houses
were used as boarding houses or hotels.
Colonel Panton died in 1685. In 1691 his
daughter Elizabeth married Henry Arundell,
fifth Baron Arundell of Wardour, (ref. 10) and the estate
remained in the possession of the Arundell family
until 1919, when it was sold by the Arundell
Settled Estate to J. Lyons and Co. (ref. 11)
(fn. a) A private
Act of Parliament of 1913 had authorized the
closure of the street, (ref. 14) and in the early 1920's the
buildings were demolished and replaced by the
westward extension of Messrs. Lyons' existing
Corner House in Coventry Street (see page 43).
Coventry Street
This street is marked on the plan of 1585 as a
highway leading (in terms of the modern streetnames) from the Haymarket to the junction of
Whitcomb and Wardour Streets. At its eastern
end there was a gate leading into St. Martin's
Field, but at that time there was no further direct
communication towards St. Martin's Lane. In
1613 this part of St. Martin's Field was bought
for use as a military exercise ground and was
known as the Military Garden or Yard; it was
enclosed by a brick wall. (ref. 15) Thus the eastward extension of the line of Coventry Street was effectively blocked, and it was not until 1844 that the
houses which were subsequently built upon the
site of the Military Garden were demolished to
provide direct access from Piccadilly to St. Martin's
Lane. (ref. 16) Between 1877 and 1881 the Metropolitan Board of Works widened the whole
length of Coventry Street by setting back the line
of frontage of the southern side. (ref. 17)
Coventry Street takes its name from Henry
Coventry, Secretary of State 1672–9, who from
1673 to 1686 lived in the building at the northeast corner of the Haymarket which had formerly
been Simon Osbaldeston's gaming house. In the
1630's the latter had been nicknamed Shaver's
Hall, but had subsequently come to be known as
Piccadilly Hall—the name originally applied to
Robert Baker's house nearby (see page 37n.)—and
was so called during Coventry's residence there. (ref. 18)
The street is first mentioned by name in the ratebook for 1682, and Ogilby and Morgan's map
(Plate 3a) shows that buildings stood along the
length of both sides in 1681–2.
The ground on the north side of the street
between Great Windmill Street and a point
some 50 feet west of Rupert Street was part of
the land which Colonel Panton had acquired
from the Bakers while the rest belonged to the
Earl of St. Albans and was developed by Nicholas
Barbon and others (see fig. 2). All the ground
on the south side of the street is in the parish
of St. Martin in the Fields and its history has
been described in volume XX of the Survey of
London.
Coventry Street now possesses a theatre, a
cinema and several restaurants and has evidently
always been noted as a centre of entertainment,
for in 1846 J. T. Smith commented that 'There
is a considerable number of gaming-houses in the
neighbourhood at the present time, so that the bad
character of the place is at least two centuries old,
or ever since it was built upon'. (ref. 19) In his London
Street Views of c. 1839 Tallis described Coventry
Street as 'entirely composed of retail shops'. Today (1962) only the cement-faced upper part of
No. 16 remains to show what the house fronts
above those shops were like. Three or four
storeys high, some with garrets, and two or three
windows wide, these fronts were probably of
stock brick or finished in stucco, although an
earlier back wall in red brick survives at No. 16.
Nos. 10–12, to the east side of now-vanished
Arundell Street, were demolished in 1920 to make
way for the extension of Lyons' Corner House.
Until then they retained the typical early nineteenth-century shop-front of Messrs. Lambert,
the gold and silversmiths (Plate 137c). Except for
the three plain doorways, this consisted of a
continuous band of small-paned display windows,
between low stall-boards and a narrow fascia with
a meagre cornice. It was a shop-front of the
plainest sort, with a canted angle and no curves
in its windows.
A more elegant shop-front at No. 17 had smallpaned display windows projecting on each side of
the central doorway, and a fascia finished with a
pediment. It was designed by J. B. Papworth for
Messrs. Clarkson and Turner, furniture-printers,
1822–7. (ref. 20) The carcase of this building still
survives, but is now unrecognizable.
Lyons' Corner House, Coventry Street
Designs by W. J. Ancell for Messrs. J. Lyons'
premises at the west corner of Coventry Street and
Rupert Street were approved by the London
County Council in 1907, and the building was
erected shortly afterwards. The westward extension, which stood upon the site of Panton
Square, was erected in 1921–3 to the designs of
F. J. Wills (ref. 21) (Plate 138d).
In 1907 the new impervious preformed facing
materials were much in use and were being applied
to other large buildings, such as Debenham and
Freebody's store. It is, however, the Corner
Houses and hotels controlled by J. Lyons and Co.
which form the most important group of London
buildings having exteriors faced with white glazed
terra-cotta.
Ancell's building, at the corner of Rupert
Street, has four main storeys, the main cornice
being below the third floor, in line with the
Georgian roofs of former neighbours. The
Coventry Street and Rupert Street elevations are
crowded compositions, with blocked columns,
balconies on consoles, and high pediments cleft to
admit windows. Between the heavy attics of each
front is a circular belvedere, crowned by a low
gadrooned cupola with a small tapered column as a
finial. The ground floor has been modernized,
but the design of the original windows, with small
glass-domed projecting bays, is perpetuated in the
west extension, built in 1921–3.
The extension designed by F. J. Wills, built on
the site of five small houses and over the former
Arundell Street, is much larger in scale and simpler
in character than the earlier Corner House.
Ancell's main cornice line was ignored and the
line of his roof parapet coincides with the base of
the open loggia that fronts the third storey of
the extension, so lofty are the two lower storeys.
Altogether the building contains nine storeys, including two basements and two top floors (planned
for the manufacture of chocolates). The subbasement was to contain machinery and storage
space, and there were to be extensive cloak-rooms
on the fourth floor. The dining-rooms on the
other five floors, all with kitchens, were planned
to offer accommodation for 3000 people at one
sitting. (ref. 21)
A comparison of the two buildings shows that
the Lyons 'house style' became progressively
simpler, with a greater regard for architectural
propriety.
Nos. 18–20 (consec.) Coventry Street: Scott's Restaurant
In 1872 Charles Sonnhammer and Emil Loibl,
the proprietors of the London Pavilion Music
Hall, opened an 'oyster warehouse' at No. 18
Coventry Street. (ref. 22) Two years later the partnership between Sonnhammer and Loibl at the London Pavilion was dissolved, (ref. 23) and in 1875 the
former became the sole proprietor of the oyster
business; by the following year, however, the
ownership appears to have passed to other hands.
Another change of ownership took place in 1891,
when Nos. 18 and 19 Coventry Street became
known as Scott's Oyster and Supper Rooms. (ref. 22) In
1892–4 they and No. 20 were rebuilt to the designs of Treadwell and Martin (ref. 24) (Plate 138c).
Unlike most of the new buildings in Shaftesbury Avenue, Scott's was built of Bath stone, in a
style then described as Early French Renaissance.
It is typical of Treadwell and Martin's work, and
before it lost various finial ornaments from gables
and turret, and acquired electric signs on the
Coventry Street front, it provided a festive stop to
the view from the bottom of the Haymarket.
Wine and coffee bars, 'lobster-boiling rooms',
etc., were planned for the basement, oyster bars
and a grill-room for the ground floor, with three
floors of dining-rooms above, and pantries and
sculleries on the top floor. The two façades on
this corner site are related, each having a gable
(one dated 1892, the other 1894) and there is
an octagonal oriel-turret at the angle, with carved
panels containing scallop-shells. Bands of carved
vegetation are still visible on the Great Windmill
Street front. The plinth and stunted columns of
polished dark Labrador granite, and the unpolished Kemnay granite up to the first-floor sills
have been coloured black and the Bath stone
above appears to have been painted. (ref. 25)
Great Windmill Street
All of the ground on the east side of Great Windmill Street between Coventry Street and a point
opposite Smith's Court is marked on the plan of
1585 (Plate 1) as in the possession of Widow
Golightly; it is not known when it was acquired
by her family. It was 570 feet long and some 100
feet wide, and its shape (like that of the adjoining
strip to the east, which later formed the site of
Panton Square) may have derived from the medieval open field system of cultivation. In c. 1612
Robert Baker acquired this ground for building;
'Piccadilly Hall' was erected there shortly afterwards, and its history has been described in the
previous chapter. The ground at the northern extremity of the east side of Great Windmill Street
is described on pages 117, 120.
All of the ground on the west side of Great
Windmill Street between Coventry Street and
Smith's Court is marked on the plan of 1585 as
formerly part of the lands of the Mercers' Company, which were acquired by Henry VIII in
1536. It formed part of the ground granted in
January 1559/60 by Queen Elizabeth to William
Dodington, and in 1561 purchased by Thomas
Wilson, brewer. In January 1618/19 it formed
part of the twenty-two acres of land sold by
Richard Wilson to Robert Baker, the builder of
Piccadilly Hall (see page 25).
The windmill marked on the plan of 1585 is
mentioned in the will, proved in 1590, of Thomas
Wilson, citizen and brewer, who was probably
responsible for building it, as it is not mentioned in
earlier descriptions of the land. (ref. 26) The representations of the mill on Faithorne's map of 1658
(Plate 2) and a map of 1664 (ref. 27) show that it was
of the post type. A parliamentary survey of 1651
describes it as 'well fitted with Staves and other
materialls' and mentions a granary 'strongly built
with Bricke and covered with Tile lofted over and
commodiously divided for Corne'; there was also
'one old decayed dwelling house' and a stable and
coach-house. To the south there was a range of
six small tenements. (ref. 28) The mill stood upon the
site of Ham Yard, (fn. b) which until the middle of the
eighteenth century was called Windmill Yard. A
considerable amount of rebuilding took place there
in the 1690's (ref. 30) and the mill is unlikely to have
survived. Strype, writing in 1720, describes
Windmill Yard as a 'Place for Stablings' and does
not mention a mill. (ref. 4)
In 1651 the way to the windmill from the
south could still be described as only a foot-path, (ref. 28)
but surreptitious building was probably already
proceeding along much of its course. Soon after
the death of Mary Baker in c. 1665 Colonel
Thomas Panton obtained possession of much of
the ground, and in 1671 the Privy Council
granted him a licence to build (inter alia) along
200 feet of the east side of Great Windmill Street
opposite Windmill Yard, and on the west side on a
piece of back ground with a street frontage of
about 45 feet. John Brown and Burrage Salter, (ref. 31)
who were already building on this side of the
street, appear to have been allowed to continue. (ref. 3)
Ogilby and Morgan's map of 1681–2 shows continuous building along the length of both sides.
Builders or speculators who took part in this
development included Abbott Newell, brickmaker,
who died in c. 1675 'possessed of a very considerable personal estate', and whose daughter married
Burrage Salter; (ref. 31) and James Supple, gentleman,
who from 1655 paid a fine for the Lammas land
that was formerly Sir Henry Vane's. (ref. 32) Supple's
ground lay at the corner of Windmill Street and
Shugg Lane, upon the site later occupied by Conduit Court, of which he was probably the builder,
and which first appears in the ratebooks in 1664.
His daughter, Ann, married White Tichborne of
Aldershot, esquire, (ref. 33) whose family retained possession of this property until after the death of Sir
Henry Tichborne in 1845; part of the site is now
occupied by the London Pavilion. (ref. 34)
Paul de Lamerie, silversmith, lived from 1712
to 1737 in a house in Great Windmill Street on
this estate. (ref. 35) The Red Lion public house, at the
north corner of Archer Street, has been in existence since at least 1793. (ref. 29)
When Shaftesbury Avenue was formed the line
of frontage of the east side between the new street
and Dr. Hunter's house (see page 48) was set
back a few feet. The rest of Great Windmill
Street is, by modern standards, narrow, and it is
therefore interesting to note that Strype, in 1720,
had described it as 'indifferent good, and broad'. (ref. 4)
The northern two-thirds of Great Windmill
Street have been visually divorced from the
southern third by the construction of Shaftesbury
Avenue. In this southern portion, the entire west
side is taken up by the back elevation of the London Pavilion, and the east side begins at the south
end with the return front of Scott's Restaurant
(see pages 43, 81) and ends with the return front of
the Trocadero Restaurant (see page 83). Between these buildings is a small early nineteenthcentury house and shop, No. 3, and the car park
on the site of St. Peter's Church.
North of Shaftesbury Avenue, as far as Archer
Street, the east side is heterogeneous in character,
comprising the wide return front of the former
Avenue Hotel, now a bank and offices, the much
altered front range of Dr. Hunter's house, and the
Windmill Theatre. The west side, from Denman
Street to Brewer Street, and the east side above
Archer Street, offer more evidence of the size and
character of the original houses. Nos. 29 and 30,
and probably Nos. 21 and 22, of three storeys,
and Nos. 31, 34 and 40, of four storeys, all with
two windows to each storey above modern shopfronts, are modest eighteenth-century houses. A
water-colour view of Dr. Hunter's house in
1879 (ref. 36) shows to the south of it a pair of early
eighteenth-century houses, originally Nos. 14 and
15, with two-storeyed fronts of stock brick and
red brick dressings to the windows, which had exposed sash-boxes.
St. Peter's Church, Great Windmill Street
Demolished
In August 1854 The Builder reported plans for
a new church, to be sited in Coventry Street,
between Rupert Street and Princes Street (now
part of Wardour Street). Among the subscribers
mentioned at this time were Queen Victoria and
the Bishop of London. (ref. 37) A year later the project
was mentioned again (ref. 38) and on 13 April 1858 the
Rev. George Smith was licensed by the Bishop of
London as an assistant curate in St. James's parish,
to officiate in the 'East Church District'. (ref. 39)
By 1860 the proposed site in Coventry Street
had been abandoned in favour of one on the east
side of Great Windmill Street, land formerly
occupied by Nos. 4, 5 and 6. The foundation
stone of St. Peter's Church was laid on 25 June
1860 by the fourteenth Earl of Derby (ref. 40) and the
completed building was consecrated on 12 July
1861. (ref. 41) The architect was Raphael Brandon
(best known for his design for the great cruciform
Catholic Apostolic Church in Gordon Square),
and the builder George Myers. The stone carver
was S. J. Ruddock. Glass was provided for the
east windows of the aisles by Messrs. Lavers and
Barraud. (ref. 42) Other windows in the church were
later filled with painted glass. (ref. 43) An organ by
Messrs. Gray and Davison was a later addition. (ref. 44)
The cost of the church was £5500 plus a
further £6000 for the site. Because of the poverty
of the new district, these funds had to be raised
from outside sources, the largest single contribution being £4500 from the Earl of Derby. (ref. 45) A
district was formally assigned to the church on
7 February 1865. (ref. 39)
St. Peter's Church was frequently attended by
Lord Salisbury, and W. E. Gladstone is said to
have worshipped there daily while living in London. (ref. 46) The latter may first have come into contact with St. Peter's through his support of the
work carried on there for the reclamation of
prostitutes. (ref. 47)
In 1953 St. Peter's was united with the combined parishes of St. Anne's and St. Thomas's,
Soho. The church was closed in April 1954 (ref. 48) and
demolished. (ref. 49)
Brandon's design for St. Peter's was dictated by
the cramped and enclosed site, with limited light
from the east and only the west end exposed to the
public view (Plate 11b, 11c). External expression was
therefore limited to a street façade, although a
south-east tower was intended, as shown in contemporary engravings. (ref. 50) The style of the building
was variously described as 'a Northern French
rather than an English edition of First Pointed',
or fourteenth-century, 'like the choir of some
Continental cathedral'. (ref. 51)
Constructed of brick but faced inside and out
with Bath stone, it was an aisled church with a
clerestoried nave and a short absidal chancel,
flanked by a vestry and the base of an intended
tower. The maximum dimensions were 100 feet
by 50 feet and the height was 55 feet. Daylight
was derived from three sources, the five tall
windows of the apse, the coupled lancets of the
nave clerestory, and the large west window with
four lights and a traceried head. The west front
with its large gable expressed the relatively lofty
nave and the meagre dark aisles. It was flanked by
buttress-turrets, square below and chamfered to
octagons above, which survive without their pinnacles on either side of the entrance to the present
(1962) car park. Also standing in part are the
aisle walls with their internal buttresses (there
having been neither space nor architectural justification for external buttresses). The arcades of
the nave were formed of pointed arches springing
from the carved capitals of cylindrical columns,
each of which bore small corbelled shafts of red
Mansfield stone on its east and west sides. A
braced open timber roof covered the nave, but the
roof of the sanctuary was rib-vaulted. (ref. 52)
The Trocadero Music Hall Site
In 1744 John Cartwright of the parish of St.
James, gentleman, leased a plot of ground on the
east side of Windmill Street to Thomas Higginson
of St. Giles in the Fields, gentleman, for ninety-nine years. The lease was granted in consideration
of the charges and expenses which Higginson 'hath
already been put to in erecting and building the
Tennis Court and Vaults' which were then
nearing completion. The ground had a frontage
of 49 feet and a depth of 116 feet. (ref. 11) It has been
said that the tennis court had been 'attached to a
gaming-house called Piccadilly Hall', (ref. 53) but the
lease makes it quite clear that in 1744 it was an
entirely new-built structure, and the ratebooks
indicate that the site had in 1742 been occupied by
half-a-dozen small cottages.
Thomas Higginson remained in occupation of
the tennis court, which had the second highest
rateable value of all the buildings in the street,
until 1761. Later occupants were Mary Rogers,
1763–8; James Ashley, 1769–83; Robert Handy
(Hendy), 1784–92; William Quentery, 1793–1803; and William Tyler, 1805–16. (ref. 5)
During the 1820's and two succeeding decades
the tennis court was used as a circus, a theatre and
a venue for miscellaneous exhibitions and entertainments. In January 1822 'Senior Christopher
Lee Sugg' practised ventriloquy and conjuring, (ref. 54)
(fn. c)
and a year later the Lord Chamberlain granted a
licence to Charles Adams 'to have Horsemanship
and Rope Dancing for his Benefit at the Tennis
Court' for four weeks. (ref. 55) The ratebook for 1829
describes the premises as 'house, tennis court and
billiard rooms', while that for the following year
contains a marginal note 'Part of these premises
converted into a Theatre.' In the summer of
1831 'Cooke's Royal Circus' was performing
there, but in December 1832 the premises were
advertised as the Royal Albion Theatre, where
burlettas, farces and dramas were to be performed.
The regulations governing the licensing of theatres
were evaded by the issue of subscription tickets, no
money being taken at the doors. (ref. 56)
Two water-colour drawings dating from about
this period (ref. 57) (Plate 28a, 28c) show that there were two
galleries extending round three sides of the hall and
resting on pillars; the pit was furnished with backless benches. The street front was a rather blank
screen-wall of stucco, or possibly stone, two storeys
high and equalling the three-storeyed house on its
north side. A triangular recessed porch on three
Doric columns formed the entrance to the boxes
and pit, and a modest door served the gallery.
In 1833 and 1834 it appears that the Lord
Chamberlain granted to Mr. W. Elliott, the
proprietor of the theatre, some kind of 'limited
temporary Permission' for dramatic performances, (ref. 58) but despite the high-sounding name of the
New Queen's Theatre the threat of closure was
never far away. (ref. 59) In November 1834 it became
the Theatre of Arts, but by the spring of the following year it had become the New Queen's
Theatre again, and in June (now as the Royal
Albion Subscription Theatre) the current production was 'a New Melo-Drama called Olga',
the programme being concluded with a 'New
Pantomime called Mother Shipton'. (ref. 60)
In August 1835 an informer drew the Lord
Chamberlain's attention to bills announcing a
series of performances by the famous Covent
Garden actress Sarah Booth, and the theatre was
closed by a Bow Street magistrate. Sarah Booth
subsequently petitioned unsuccessfully for a
licence, (ref. 61) but by December Thomas Cooke, who
had been in the circus business for thirty years and
had 'a family of forty children and grand children',
had become the lessee and was clamouring unsuccessfully for a licence. (ref. 62)
During the 1840's the building was used by
John Dubourg as an exhibition room for his
mechanical wax works and his 'Grand Centrifugal Railway'. (ref. 63) The premises were often referred
to as 'Dubourg's Theatre of Arts' but in 1846,
when he presented a programme of tableaux
vivants representing historical scenes, he called the
building 'The Ancient Hall of Rome'. (ref. 64)
In 1842 the freehold of the building, the ninety-nine-year lease of which was about to expire, was
bought by (Sir) John Musgrove of Austin Friars
in the City of London. Seven years later the
latter leased the exhibition and other rooms for
twenty-one years to Robert Bignell, wine merchant, who had been Dubourg's partner or employee. (ref. 11) By 1851 Bignell had opened assembly
rooms there called the Argyll Rooms, (ref. 65) a name
presumably taken as a reminiscence of the famous
rooms in Argyll Street whose career had come to
an end in 1830 (see page 301).
It was evidently in about 1850 that an Italianate front, probably in stucco, was grafted on to the
two-storeyed earlier building of the theatre (Plate
28b). The new front had lofty Florentine firstfloor windows and a prominent crowning cornice,
and the entrance was formed by recessed loggias,
later converted into vestibules. The interior
(Plate 28d) consisted of a large and lofty hall
which, except for a lobby, occupied the full site
depth of 116 feet. Around the four sides extended
a gallery, one end accommodating the musicians.
Behind them was a large gilt-framed mirror, reflecting the whole length of the hall and the tall
Florentine windows above the gallery level.
Gasoliers hung from the heavily moulded square
compartments of the ceiling, and gilt-framed paintings or mirrors, placed above long benches, lined
the walls below the gallery. (ref. 66)
The Argyll Rooms soon achieved notoriety,
and in 1862 Henry Mayhew, when describing
prostitution in London, mentioned that 'A drawing-room floor in Queen Street [now Denman
Street] . . . which is a favourite part on account of
its proximity to the Argyll Rooms, is worth three,
and sometimes four pounds a week'. (ref. 67) H. G.
Hibbert, who patronized the place in the 1870's,
compared it to 'a modern night club, without its
perfunctory condition of election to membership.
You just bought a ticket and went in—to mix
with the demi-reps and the demi-mondaines who
danced and drank till morning'. (ref. 68) Bignell made a
great fortune out of the place, and in 1864 he
acquired the freehold of it (ref. 11) but he was finally
deprived of his licence for music and dancing and
the Argyll Rooms closed on 30 November 1878. (ref. 69)
On 30 October 1882 Bignell re-opened his
premises, this time as a music hall called the Trocadero Palace. (ref. 64) The bar occupied almost the
whole length of one side of the auditorium, and
the two rooms were connected by a series of
arches. (ref. 70) 'For elegance and comfort' the Trocadero was said to be superior to any other music
hall in London, and its programmes were
'characterized by greater refinement, or perhaps
we ought to say less vulgarity' than those of its
rivals. (ref. 64)
Despite these advantages the Trocadero only
flourished during the fourteen months beginning
in July 1886 when Charles Coborn sang Two
Lovely Black Eyes, his famous parody of a forgotten Christy Minstrel song, My Nellie's Blue
Eyes. (ref. 71) In 1888 Bignell died, and his trustees then
leased the Trocadero to Samuel Adams, (ref. 11) an experienced music hall proprietor who ran it, without more success than his predecessor, until his
death in 1893. The hall was then acquired by
H. J. Didcott, the theatrical agent, who ran it
until March 1894 in partnership with Albert
Chevalier. (ref. 72)
(fn. d)
Meanwhile the construction of Shaftesbury
Avenue in 1885–6 had placed the north-west
corner of the Trocadero at the obtuse angle
formed by the junction of the new street with
Windmill Street (fig. 8). A narrow tapering
plot of building ground lay between the new
street and the north side of the hall—a thoroughly
bad piece of street planning by the Metropolitan
Board of Works, dictated no doubt by the desire
to avoid the heavy cost which the compulsory purchase of the Trocadero would have involved. A
block of shops and 'residential mansions' known
as Avenue Mansions had been erected upon this
most awkwardly shaped plot in 1888–9 (Plate 29a).
In 1895 Bignell's grand-daughter granted a
ninety-nine-year lease of the Trocadero to J.
Lyons and Co. Ltd., who converted it to its
present use as a restaurant. The principal entrance
was moved from Great Windmill Street to Shaftesbury Avenue by the acquisition of No. 8, the most
westerly of the shops in Avenue Mansions, and
the formation of openings in the party wall between it and the restaurant. (ref. 11) In 1899 Lyons and
Co. acquired the lease of the whole of Avenue
Mansions, and between 1900 and 1902 the building was extensively altered to suit it for use as a
restaurant (ref. 74) (Plate 29b). The history of Avenue
Mansions and the Trocadero Restaurant is
described in more detail under Shaftesbury Avenue
on page 83.
No. 16 Great Windmill Street: Dr. William Hunter's Anatomical Theatre And House
Demolished, except for the front to Great Windmill
Street
A few yards north of Shaftesbury Avenue there
stands upon the east side of Great Windmill Street
the façade of a large house (Plate 135b) which was
built by the famous Scottish physician, Dr.
William Hunter, in 1767. A plaque records this
distinguished origin, which might otherwise be
forgotten, for the façade no longer has much
distinction, extensive alterations having been made
to adapt the building to its present use as part of
the Lyric Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue. Its
position, slightly askew to Great Windmill Street,
rather than its present aspect, provides the clue to
the long history of the site, for the ratebooks show
that a large house has stood here since at least the
1670's, when higgledy-piggledy building along the
track to the windmill was proceeding. The occupants in 1675 were 'Doct. Thom Lee and Doct.
Disborough,' whose assessment of forty shillings,
several times larger than that of any other in the
street, proclaims the importance of their house at
that time. 'Doct. Disborough' was probably
Doctor James Desborough, the nephew of MajorGeneral John Desborough. From at least 1683
until 1698 the house was occupied by Colonel
Charles Godfrey, who married Arabella Churchill
after the termination of her connexion with James
II, and who became, through the influence of his
brother-in-law (the first Duke of Marlborough),
Clerk Controller of the Green Cloth and Master
of the Jewel Office. (ref. 75) In 1699 the occupant was
Charles Godolphin, esquire, and in 1700 Robert
Sutton, Baron Lexinton, envoy extraordinary at
Vienna 1694–7 and a lord of the bedchamber to
William III. For a few years the house was next
occupied by Hugh Boscawen, later first Viscount
Falmouth, whose wife Charlotte was the daughter
of Colonel Godfrey and Arabella Churchill. He
was probably succeeded by Sir John Shadwell
(son of the poet laureate Thomas Shadwell), who
was successively physician in ordinary to Anne,
George I and George II, and whose connexion
with the house lasted from at least 1716 until
1744, or possibly until his death in 1747. A series
of comparatively short tenancies then followed,
but it is interesting to note that from 1758 to
1766 there was yet another medical connexion,
when Dr. Thomas Pollock lived here. In 1767
the ratebooks give Dr. William Hunter and
describe the house as 'Empty Rebuilding'. (ref. 75)
William Hunter (1718–83) and his younger
brother John (1728–93) were two of the greatest
of the many famous physicians of Scottish extraction. The former came to London in 1740, and
gave his first course of anatomical lectures in 1746,
probably at a house in Covent Garden. (ref. 76) The
teaching of anatomy had been greatly facilitated
by the dissolution in the previous year of the United
Company of Barbers and Surgeons, which had
been able to control the dissection of human
bodies outside their Hall, and Hunter quickly won
fame in this field. (ref. 77) From 1755 to 1766 he lived
in Jermyn Street, (ref. 78) and it was probably during
these years that he began to form his collection of
anatomical specimens.
In 1762 or 1763 he addressed a memorial to
the Earl of Bute, then First Lord of the Treasury,
describing his plan to establish a permanent school
of anatomy 'under the royal protection', and asking 'to be allowed a proper piece of ground, that
he may forthwith lay out six, or even seven
thousand pounds, in erecting a building fit for this
purpose, under any condition that may be agreeable to the King.' (ref. 79) Shortly afterwards he
delivered a sketch plan of the proposed establishment, which shows that he envisaged a
small house, with a museum, library, circular
dissecting theatre and a burial ground. (fn. e)
In 1764 the Deputy Surveyor General of
Crown Lands reported that a suitable site might
be found in the Savoy or at the Royal Mews at
Charing Cross. By this time George Grenville
had replaced Bute as first Lord of the Treasury.
After much delay Hunter called at the Treasury
where he 'found that nothing was done', and he
therefore considered himself released from his
part in the proposal. (ref. 81) Shortly afterwards the
Earl of Shelburne proposed that the plan should
be carried out by public subscription, 'and very
generously requested to have his name set down
for a thousand guineas. Dr. Hunter's delicacy
would not allow him to adopt this proposal'. (ref. 82)
Hunter appears next to have briefly considered
returning to Scotland to establish, in conjunction
with Dr. William Cullen, 'a School of Physic
upon a noble plan at Glasgow'. (ref. 83) But in 1766 he
decided to proceed with his original scheme on his
own account, and bought the house in Great
Windmill Street. (ref. 84)
Rebuilding took place in the following year, (ref. 5)
the architect being a fellow Scot, Robert Mylne,
with whom Hunter was connected by marriage.
One of Mylne's plans for the building survives in
Sir Albert Richardson's collection, (ref. 85) and is
reproduced on Plate 135a. (fn. f) Mylne's plan shows
that the house itself was almost square, with three
rooms simply and conveniently arranged on either
side and at the east end of a passage hall, 8 feet
wide and 24 feet 4 inches deep, including the
small compartment at the east end. On the south
side was the dining-room, 17 feet 4 inches wide
and 24 feet 4 inches deep, with two windows
towards the street; at the east end was the study,
26 feet 6 inches wide and 17 feet 6 inches deep,
with three windows towards the garden; on the
north side was the parlour, 17 feet 4 inches square,
and behind it to the east were the principal and
service staircases. East of the staircases projected
a long wing, extending to the eastern boundary of
the site. Adjoining the house was the library and
museum, a great oblong room 51 feet long and
27 feet wide, including its lining of cases for books
and exhibits, presumably having a gallery and receiving daylight from roof-lights or a clerestory.
In the middle of the wing was a lobby and a staircase, reached from Great Windmill Street by an
open passage on the north side of the house and
library. East of the lobby and staircase was the
anatomical theatre, on the first floor over some
living accommodation, and beyond this last was a
yard leading to rooms for the preparation of
'subjects'. These were presumably stored in a
long room and a shed beyond the east end of the
garden. The Royal College of Surgeons possesses
an undated water-colour drawing by Rowlandson
of a dissecting room, but it is not known whether
this room was Dr. Hunter's or a similar establishment elsewhere.
The original appearance of the front is shown
in an unsigned and undated water-colour drawing
in the collection of the Royal College of Surgeons
(Plate 135c). From this it is evident that the house
contained a basement and three storeys, but no
garret. The design, although extremely simple,
had the amplitude and fine proportions that were
typical of Mylne's work. An amber stock brick
appears to have been used, the window openings
having gauged flat arches of the same colour
whereas the concentric arches of the doorway
were of fine red rubbers. A plain stone bandcourse, forming a sill to the first-floor windows,
divided the front into two stages. The lower contained the arched doorway with two widely
spaced windows on either side. A porch of Ionic
columns, clearly shown on the plan, projected before the doorway, below the fanlight within the
arch lunette. In the upper stage of the front were
two tiers of five windows, widely and evenly
spaced, those of the first floor being proportioned
to a double square, like those of the ground storey,
and those of the second floor being square. A bold
cornice and blocking-course of stone finished the
front. As late as 1879, when the premises were
known as the Café or Hôtel de L'Etoile, the front
appears to have remained unchanged apart from
the addition of some signs and lampholders. (ref. 88)
The first anatomical lecture took place at the
new house in Great Windmill Street on 1 October
1767. (ref. 89) A contemporary says that 'besides a
handsome amphitheatre and other convenient
apartments for his lectures and dissections, there
was one magnificent room, fitted up with great
elegance and propriety as a museum'. (ref. 82) Dr.
Hunter went to live there in the summer of 1768.
In a letter written to Dr. Cullen in the spring of
that year he wrote that 'I have already paid above
£6000 for my habitation in Wind-mill Street,
which will cost me at least two more'. (ref. 90)
Hunter lectured regularly for the rest of his
life, but in 1774 he took another Scot, William
Cruikshank, into partnership, and a few years
later he was joined by his nephew, Matthew
Baillie, who was first a pupil and then a lecturer. (ref. 91)
Hunter died at his house on 30 March 1783, and
was buried in St. James's Church, where he is
commemorated by a tablet on the south wall. In
1827 he was described as 'the father of the anatomical schools of London, and [he] bequeathed a
fame and character to his class, which has been
supported with undiminished lustre to the present
day'. (ref. 92)
By his will Hunter bequeathed his house,
museum and lecture theatre to three trustees who
were to permit his nephew to live there for thirty
years, (fn. g) and either by himself or with the help of
Cruikshank, to read lectures in anatomy. His
anatomical and other collections were similarly
disposed, but after thirty years the buildings were
to become Baillie's absolutely and the collections
were to pass to the Principal and Faculty of the
College of Glasgow for the use of themselves and
the students. (ref. 93)
Baillie and Cruikshank continued to lecture
until 1799, when the former retired in order to
give his whole time to his professional practice. (fn. h)
He was succeeded by James Wilson. Cruikshank
died in June 1800 and was succeeded by his sonin-law, Leigh Thomas, who demonstrated but did
not lecture. After Thomas's departure in 1805
Wilson was joined by (Sir) Benjamin Collins
Brodie, and three years later they bought the
building from Baillie for £4000. (ref. 91) Dr. Hunter's
collections were removed in 1807 to Glasgow
University, where they still remain. (ref. 95)
In 1812 Wilson sold the house and teaching
premises to (Sir) Charles Bell, (fn. i) who in a letter to
his brother written in June said 'It would delight
you to see me the proprietor of this museum,
which looks great, even now in its great confusion—a noble room nobly filled. It is a room admired
for its proportions, of great size, with a handsome
gallery running round; the class-room door opens
from the gallery. It would require a month to go
round the museum with a book in your hand.' (ref. 96)
(fn. j)
From 1815 part of the premises—possibly the
house—appears to have been used as a printing
office (ref. 5) but Bell continued to lecture there until his
appointment in 1826 as first professor of surgery
at the newly established University College. He
was succeeded by Herbert Mayo and Caesar
Hawkins, but in 1830 the former became professor of anatomy at King's College, London. The
school of anatomy in Great Windmill Street came
to an end in the following year. (ref. 97)
For some years the building was used for various
industrial purposes, including printing, although
in 1838 Dr. John Epps is given as the occupant of
the medical theatre. In 1860 part of the premises
was described as 'French dining rooms', and was
later known as the Hôtel de L'Etoile. (ref. 22) The
building was acquired by the Metropolitan Board
of Works for the formation of Shaftesbury
Avenue, but it was eventually not required for
this purpose, and in 1887 it was sold to H. J.
Leslie, the proprietor of the Lyric Theatre, of
which it has ever since formed part. (ref. 98)
The architect of the Lyric Theatre was C. J.
Phipps (see page 74), whose final plans indicate
the changes he made in Dr. Hunter's house to
adapt its three storeys for use as four storeys of
dressing-rooms, part of the stage occupying the
site of the back rooms of the house. (ref. 99) The front
door (later a window) was at first retained, with
the stage door added on the north side of the building. A staircase was inserted in part of a north
front room, the original staircase having been at
the back of the house; the only first-floor window
of original size lights the stairs. Presumably the
two ground-floor windows at the north end of the
front are of the original size, as are those of
the top floor. All the others date from 1887 or
after (Plate 135b).
In 1904 A. Blomfield Jackson of 26 Mecklenburgh Square (which had been Phipps's office
address) made further alterations, including the
addition of an outside iron staircase, since removed.
The arch over the former front door, if it still
exists, is now covered by a substantial sign-board,
and the entire front is painted red.
The Windmill Theatre
The greater part of this building was erected in
1897 for the Mutoscope and Biograph Syndicate
Ltd. (ref. 5) It is a plain stone structure, now painted at
ground-floor level, with four storeys, and broad
superimposed pilasters with each entablature
breaking over them, the cornices forming continuous sill-courses to bands of windows. There
was a rusticated entrance (now a theatre exit) in
Great Windmill Street.
The building was first licensed for cinematographic exhibitions in January 1910 (ref. 100) and shortly
afterwards became known as the Palais de Luxe
Cinema. It consisted of a basement, ground
floor and five upper storeys, and most of the floors
were of steel and concrete. The cinema accommodated about 350 people; the capacity was later
increased to about 600 by the construction of a
balcony. (ref. 101)
In 1930 the building was bought by the Windmill Theatre Company Limited and the cinema
was closed. (ref. 101) The effective owner was now
Mrs. Laura Henderson, the sixty-nine year
old widow of a wealthy jute merchant, who
at once set about 'gutting the building and constructing in the shell of it a really modern onepiece theatre'. (ref. 102) The architect was F. Edward
Jones, (ref. 101) and the theatre opened on 22 June 1931
with a play, Inquest!
(ref. 64)
Figure 4:
Windmill Theatre, Great Windmill Street,
plan in 1949
It was probably at this time that the present
distinctive south-west entrance to the theatre was
erected. This part, five storeys high over the
canted doorway, is faced with glazed white terracotta, the ground floor being painted. Two
prominent turrets were supposed to give it the
style of the traditional windmill. The theatre had
a small one-tier auditorium, with lounge bar and
dressing-rooms in the basement (fig. 4).
The capacity of the theatre was then only 312,
and by October the proprietors had reverted to
showing films. At about this time Mrs. Henderson met Vivian Van Damm, who had just been
offered a job at £80 per week, and persuaded him
to become general manager at a salary of £8 per
week. 'The theatre was there, waiting for a truly
great idea to make it a commercial proposition',
and after a few more weeks of films the idea of
non-stop 'flesh and blood vaudeville' was suggested
by Lucien Samett. Mrs. Henderson decided to
back the idea with £10,000, and the theatre
opened (ref. 103) on 3 February 1932. (ref. 104)
Non-stop revue is now in its thirtieth year at
the Windmill, and the comments of The Times on
4 February 1932 are of some interest. 'The
Windmill Theatre turned last night from talking
films to variety and revue turns. They will begin
every day shortly after lunch and continue until
shortly before supper. Mrs. Laura Henderson
hopes in this way to give employment to British
artists and to put into British pockets money that
would otherwise go to Hollywood. It is a deserving enterprise, and last night's audience
heartily applauded its gallantry; but it would have
a better prospect of success if the material available
were taken in hand by a producer with definite
ideas. He might make a revue, pointful rather
than spectacular, or try to fashion a variety programme with a character of its own. The
entertainment now depends on tricks rather
than ideas, on tricks, and on the dancing
girls. The girls achieve some pretty effects,
but the stage is really too small for this kind of
spectacle.' (ref. 104)
Apart from the astonishing longevity of the
form of entertainment with which it is associated,
the Windmill is also distinguished by the fact that
of all the theatres in London it was the only one to
remain open throughout the whole of the war of
1939–45. (fn. k) The building was frequently damaged
by the blast of several types of aerial bombardment,
and on one occasion the wall at the back of the
stalls was severely damaged. The Windmill's boast
that 'We Never Closed' was not lightly earned, and
has given the theatre its unique cachet in the world
of entertainment. (ref. 106)
Mrs. Henderson died in 1944 and bequeathed
the theatre to Vivian Van Damm (ref. 64) who in 1959
bought the freehold of the site. (ref. 107) Van Damm
died in 1960. (ref. 108)
St. James's and St. Peter's C. E. Primary School
St. Peter's Temporary Schools appear to have
been established in about 1860–1 at the same time
as the church. Their first home was an old building in a yard behind what was then No. 40 Rupert
Street, and is now part of the site of the Apollo
Theatre. (ref. 43)
In November 1870 the incumbent and churchwardens of St. Peter's obtained Nos. 23 Windmill
Street and 1–2 Queen's Head Court from the
Commissioners of Woods and Forests, and in the
following year new National Schools were opened
on the site. (ref. 109) These were built as a memorial to
the fourteenth Earl of Derby, who had been a
liberal benefactor to St. Peter's Church. (ref. 44) In
1877 the site of No. 15 Archer Street was acquired, and the school building extended by the
addition of a new wing. This was the gift of Lord
Francis Hervey, who had also been a liberal contributor to the earlier building, (ref. 110) and who laid the
commemorative stone for the new one on 10 May
1877. (ref. 111)
The main front of 1870 at No. 23 Great
Windmill Street is an attempt to compress an
imposing façade within the width of a small
Georgian house (Plate 12a). This front is three
storeys high and three windows wide, being built
of yellow stock brick dressed with stone and ornamental bands of cut brick. Over the centred
doorway is a round recess containing a small bust,
with a plaque inscribed 'Edward Geoffrey, fourteenth Earl of Derby'. Carved in a smaller recess
above the first floor are the crossed keys of St.
Peter.
All the available evidence seems to suggest that
the Archer Street wing of the school is an adaptation and Gothicising, carried out in 1877, of a
Georgian house. An old photograph and a watercolour drawing (ref. 112) show that in its original state
this was a brick-fronted house, with stone or
stucco bandcourses, and exposed window-frames
in segmental-arched openings.
Nos. 45 and 46 Great Windmill Street: St. James's Tavern
A public house has stood on this site since at
least 1733. Until the 1890's it was known as the
Catherine Wheel, (ref. 29) but after the present building
was erected in 1896–7, to the designs of W. M.
Brutton, (ref. 113) the name was changed to the St.
James's Tavern. (ref. 22)
Archer Street
This street first appears in the ratebook for 1675
as Arch Street. In 1720 Strype described it as
'Orchard-street, broad, but of no great Account', (ref. 4)
but Rocque's map of 1746 gives Archer Street.
In Colonel Panton's building petition of 1671 it
may be identified as the 'short street leading from
out of Windmill Street over against Windmill
Yard towards St. Giles.' (ref. 3) Rocque's and Horwood's
maps of 1746 and 1792 show that originally the
street came to an abrupt end at the eastern boundary of Panton's ground, and that it was only
connected to Rupert Street by a narrow passage
through a stable yard. By 1836, however, the
stable buildings had been demolished and Archer
Street extended to Rupert Street. (ref. 114)
Archer Street was lined for the most part with
modest houses. Old photographs and a topographical drawing show a pair of small-scaled
cottages of about 1700, such as may still be seen
in the old suburban villages of London. (ref. 112)
To-day, the north side has a public house at
each end, and the buildings between them include
a gaunt Victorian Gothic school (see above),
the relatively distinguished neo-Georgian offices
of a musical organization, a small factory and a
grey stretch of artisans' dwellings. The south side
is largely taken up by the backs of three theatres,
the Apollo, the Lyric and the Windmill.
Archer Street Chambers
No. 9 Archer Street and No. 9a behind it are
part of a complex of artisans' dwellings built in
1882–3, many years after Archer Street had been
extended as a thoroughfare to Rupert Street. (ref. 5) The
elevation is in the same grim style as those of the
corner public house (the White Horse) and Nos.
47–53 (odd) Rupert Street, at which point
Rupert Street originally ended. The grey brick
front (Plate 139a) has five similar storeys, each with
three windows, grouped as a pair and a single light,
on either side of the rusticated entrance archway
and the windows lighting the staircase halflandings. The incised and faceted brick segmental
arches of the windows, the narrow stringcourses of
nail-head ornament, and the bracketed main
cornice are all repeated on the public house and
the four houses in Rupert Street.
Nos. 13–14 Archer Street
Before the erection of the present buildings on
this site in 1912 there was a pair of cottages here,
dating from about 1700 and containing two low
storeys and a garret (Plate 123a). Both houses had
a single wide window in the ground storey, one
being a bay shop-front, but in the upper storey one
house had three evenly spaced windows while the
other had one of three lights. The simple brick
front, with a stone bandcourse between the
storeys, was finished with a modillioned eavescornice, and the tiled roof was broken by two
dormers of two lights, with hipped roofs. (ref. 112)
On the site of these cottages was built, in 1912,
the headquarters of the Orchestral Association,
designed by H. P. Adams and C. H. Holden. (ref. 115)
It is a building of four storeys, five bays wide with
the outside bays slightly recessed. Mildly early
Georgian in style, the front is of grey brick
sparingly dressed with stone. The rectangular
doorway is dressed with a flat cornice-hood, and
above the middle window of the first floor is a
relief carving of Euterpe, by Charles Pibworth.
Denman Street (FORMERLY QUEEN STREET)
Queen Street was laid out in the 1670's by Colonel
Thomas Panton, whose petition of 1671 (see
page 41) included a request for permission to
build upon 'a parcell of Back Ground with about
fourty-five foot of front' to the west side of Great
Windmill Street between Conduit Court and
Windmill (now Ham) Yard. (ref. 3) Queen Street is
first mentioned by name in the ratebook for 1678.
Strype described it in 1720 as 'a pretty neat, clean,
and quiet Street, with good Houses, well inhabited'. (ref. 4)
In 1862 the Metropolitan Board of Works
changed the name to Denman Street, presumably
in commemoration of Dr. Thomas Denman
(1733–1815), who had lived in a house on the
south side of the street. One of Denman's
daughters married Matthew Baillie, the nephew
and heir of Dr. William Hunter, the founder of
the school of anatomy in Great Windmill Street.
Denman's eldest son was born in the house in
Queen Street in 1779, and, as Lord Denman, was
Lord Chief Justice from 1832 to 1850. (ref. 116)
No. 10 Queen Street was occupied by Queen
Adelaide's Lying-in Hospital from 1837 until its
removal in 1852 to Coventry Street, and subsequently to Dean Street. (ref. 117)
The Queen's Head public house, adjoining the
Piccadilly Theatre, has existed under that name
since at least 1738. The Devonshire Arms, at
the south corner with Sherwood Street, has
existed since at least 1793. (ref. 29)
The Piccadilly Theatre
The Piccadilly Theatre stands on a corner site
on the east side of Sherwood Street at its intersection with Denman Street. It was built by the
Piccadilly Theatre Company, the first licensee
being Edward Laurillard. The joint architects
were Bertie Crewe and Edward A. Stone and the
general contractors were Griggs and Son. The
theatre opened on 27 April 1928 with Blue
Eyes, a romantic musical play by Jerome Kern,
with book and lyrics by Guy Bolton and Graham
John. (ref. 118) It was subsequently used as a cinema.
The theatre achieved its first success with Folly
to be Wise which ran for most of 1931, and in
1933–4 James Bridie's A Sleeping Clergyman ran
for 230 performances. (ref. 119) In 1935–6 there was an
unrewarding season of variety and the next success
was not until July 1941 with Noël Coward's
Blithe Spirit, which was soon transferred elsewhere. Post-war productions have included Peter
Ustinov's Romanoff and Juliet. The theatre was
entirely redecorated in 1955, and again in
1961–2. (ref. 120)
The auditorium lies on a south-west to northeast axis with its back wall parallel to Sherwood
Street and the stage at the easterly end of the
site. The obtuse angle formed by the junction
of Sherwood and Denman Streets is rounded by
the façade which is terminated in Denman Street
by a projecting wing, actually containing a
separate public house, the Queen's Head, treated
as part of the theatre front. The elevation is
mainly in four storeys divided one-two-one:
above the rusticated arcade of the ground floor
projects a continuous lettered canopy, while a
prominent cornice surmounts the series of giant
pilaster-strips of the first and second floors, the
walls of which are channelled; pairs of short
pilaster-strips are carried up the third storey to a
lesser cornice. A blank-walled protuberance from
the third storey, over the upper-circle entrance in
Sherwood Street, contains the film projection
room. The exterior, in Portland cement, was
praised by The Builder as 'modern in that it
carries no superfluous detail'. (ref. 121)
The elliptical entrance hall is panelled in walnut. The auditorium, with stalls, dress circle and
upper circle, but no gallery, was planned to seat
1200. The square-headed proscenium is framed
by a plain architrave and flanked by ornamented
pilasters. Messrs. Marc-Henri and Laverdet of
Paris designed a colour scheme of eau-de-nil
and gold, with stylized landscapes by Japanese
craftsmen on the fronts of the boxes and circles.
Nos. 3 and 4 Sherwood Street
This building was erected on the east side of the
street in 1905–6 to the design of J. Hatchard
Smith; the contractors were J. Greenwood Ltd.
It was used for many years as coffee rooms, and
since 1930 has been known as Snow's Chop House.
It will shortly be demolished in connexion with the
rebuilding of the north side of Piccadilly Circus. (ref. 122)
The triple-gabled street front is an evocation of
the 'olde London tavern' type in the terms of
1906. It is of four storeys. The ground floor
consists entirely of a small-paned, wood-framed,
flat strip of windows and doors under a plain
fascia with a modest cornice. The first and
second storeys, faced with matt-finished light buff
terra-cotta, are together canted back at the sides,
before swelling out in two curved two-storey bays
containing two mullioned-and-transomed windows on each floor. At third-floor level a balcony
with green terra-cotta railings runs in front of the
three gables, each of which contains a triple
window under a label moulding.
Tichborne Street
The general history of Tichborne Street is
described on page 66 with that of Glasshouse
Street, with which it was incorporated in 1863.
Weeks's Museum and the First London Pavilion Music Hall
Demolished
In 1797 Sir Henry Tichborne, of Tichborne,
Hampshire, baronet, leased to Thomas Weeks,
'perfumer and Machinest', Nos. 3 and 4 Tichborne Street and an adjacent dwelling house in
Great Windmill Street. The lease also included
'a large Exhibition or Shew Room as the same
had been recently erected and built at the
expence of the said Sir Henry Tichborne over the
Coachhouses or Standings for Carriages' in the
yard of the Black Horse Inn at No. 5 Tichborne
Street (ref. 123) (fig. 5).
Figure 5:
Weeks's Museum and the first London Pavilion, site plan. Redrawn from a plan in the possession of the London County Council
The exhibition room backed on to Nos. 5–9
Tichborne Street and was supported on 'Story
posts'. Access to it from the street was through
No. 3 Tichborne Street, while the entrance to the
yard was through a covered passage-way under the
western part of No. 4 Tichborne Street. (ref. 124)
The lease to Thomas Weeks, at a rental of
£210 per annum, was one of several sixty-year
leases granted in 1797 by Sir Henry Tichborne of
property in Tichborne Street. The lessee of the
Black Horse and its yard covenanted to 'keep and
preserve from damage or Injury . . . the Story
posts Plinths and Foundations supporting the
Building or Room erected over the Coachhouse or
Standings for Carriages', and to allow both Tichborne and Weeks access to the yard 'to repair or
rebuild the same'. (ref. 34)
It is not clear when the exhibition room had
been built, for the evidence of the ratebooks can
be taken to mean either that it was erected in
1784, when Weeks's name first appears as occupant, accompanied by a substantial increase in the
assessment, or (perhaps less probably) in 1797,
which would, however, accord more closely with
the statement in the lease of that year that the
room had been 'recently erected'.
In The Picture of London for 1802 'Weeks
Museum' is described as follows: 'This Museum,
on the plan of the celebrated Mr. Cox's, (fn. l) when
complete, will form an interesting object to the
curious. The grand room, which is 107 feet
long, and 30 feet high, is covered entirely with
blue satin, and contains a variety of figures, which
exhibit the effects of mechanism in an astonishing
manner. The architecture is by Wyatt; the
painting on the ceiling is by Rebecca and Singleton' (ref. 126) (Plate 32a). This is presumably a reference to the artist Biagio Rebecca, who worked
with both James and Samuel Wyatt. (ref. 127) 'Singleton'
was probably Henry Singleton (1766–1839), a
prolific painter of the time. (ref. 128)
In 1802 the museum was not yet entirely ready,
for the account already quoted continues 'Previous
to its opening, by way of specimen, two temples
are exhibited, nearly seven feet high, supported by
sixteen elephants, embellished with seventeen
hundred pieces of jewellery, in the first style of
workmanship'. (ref. 126) These temples were in fact
'two magnificent clocks, engaged for the Emperor
of China, at nine thousand pounds'. (ref. 129)
Other attractions included mechanical models
of a bird of paradise and a tarantula spider; (ref. 126) the
latter was 'formed of steel' and 'darts out by itself
from a box . . . and, in fact, performs all the appropriate movements of the insect which it represents'. (ref. 130) The price of admission to view the
temples was half-a-crown; 'the Tarantula and
the Bird are shown at one shilling each'. (ref. 126)
Writing in 1815, Brayley commented that 'this
pleasing exhibition does not meet with its merited
notice and success'. (ref. 131) Nevertheless it continued
until Weeks's death in or shortly before 1834.
The business then passed to his son, Charles, and
his son-in-law William Jenkinson, (ref. 132) who appear to have used it for private concerts, balls,
picture exhibitions, auctions and parish meetings. (ref. 133)
From 1837 until 1850 (ref. 5) the exhibition room
was used by Brameld and Co. as a glass and china
warehouse. (ref. 22)
In 1850–1 Henry Robin adapted it for use as 'a
Theatre or Room for public diversion'. A raised
platform, boxes and a gallery were constructed,
and the Office of Metropolitan Buildings required the supports in the yard to be strengthened.
The room had seating capacity for about 170
persons and was known as the 'Salle Robin'. (ref. 133)
In 1855 the Tichborne trustees sold the freehold of No. 3 Tichborne Street and the exhibition
room to which it gave access, the Black Horse Inn
at No. 5 and the yard behind, and other property
in the area, to William Williams of Tichborne
Street, wine merchant. Four years later the latter
leased No. 3 and the 'Salle Robin' to Joseph Kahn
of Harley Street, physician. (ref. 34) Dr. Kahn was the
proprietor of an anatomical museum which he had
exhibited on the Continent as well as in England.
In 1851 it had been housed at No. 315 Oxford
Street, and more recently at No. 4 Coventry
Street. The Lancet had described it as 'a splendid
scientific collection'. (ref. 134)
In 1859–60 Emil Loibl and Charles Sonnhammer acquired the lease of the yard and stables
of the Black Horse Inn, and after roofing in the
open space they opened a place of entertainment
there which they named the London Pavilion. (ref. 34)
(fn. m)
The character of the place was described by the
magistrate in a legal action in which Loibl and
Sonnhammer were involved at this time: 'The
defendants took an old coach-house and stables in
Titchbourne-street, painted the walls, covered an
intervening court-yard with a glass roof, obtained
a license to sell beer by retail on the premises, and
converted the whole into a large apartment, or
coffee-room, for the sale of refreshments: with a
view to enticing customers they added the attractions of a musical performance, a skittle-alley, and
a rifle-gallery. . . . Here, the principal object of
the defendants' occupation is the sale of refreshments: the music, skittles, and rifles are merely
accessories to lead to the consumption of viands
and liquors.' There were no galleries, the piano
was on the ground floor, and a few singers attended, under engagement, for the amusement of
customers. (ref. 136)
The London Pavilion quickly prospered,
despite (or perhaps because of) its decrepit buildings (Plate 32b) and unsophisticated origin. An
advertisement of 1860 describes the establishment
as 'The Finest Rooms in London. Open
Every Evening at 7 o'Clock. Operatic Selection
from all the favourite Operas. . . . Admission:
By Refreshment Ticket, 6d. Six Splendid American Bowling Alleys open daily at 12 o'clock.' (ref. 64)
The refreshment ticket entitled the customer to
free refreshment in drink or tobacco up to the
value of the ticket. (ref. 137) By 1862 a gallery had been
built round the north and east sides; the south side
was of course overlooked at first-floor level by the
windows of Dr. Kahn's museum, (ref. 138) while at
ground-floor level the proprietor of the Black
Horse Inn at No. 5 Tichborne Street enjoyed a
right of light by way of a window looking into the
hall. (ref. 137)
It was in these splendidly bibulous surroundings
that British Jingoism began its chequered career
during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877, when in
October G. H. Macdermott first sang G. W.
Hunt's 'By Jingo'. (ref. 64)
Meanwhile the fortunes of Dr. Kahn's
museum had declined, possibly because the windows of the exhibition room no longer commanded any direct light. In 1862 Dr. Kahn sold
his lease to William Beale Marston of Berners
Street, gentleman, who also bought the anatomical
collection and 'the Goodwill thereof and the Hand
Book for the Museum with the work called
"Marriage"', all for £1500. Four years later
Marston sub-let the museum, (ref. 34) which seems to
have finally closed its doors in 1868–9. (ref. 22)
In 1870 Loibl and Sonnhammer bought the
freehold of their premises for £8000; four years
later they dissolved their partnership, Loibl paying
Sonnhammer £10,000 for his half-share. The
latter, who now described himself as shell fishmonger of Coventry Street, (ref. 34) established Scott's
Restaurant in that street. (ref. 137) By this time the need
to rebuild much of the tumble-down property in
the area had become urgent, and in November
1876 Loibl bought the freehold of the exhibition
rooms and of No. 3 Tichborne Street, thereby
increasing the space available for his auditorium
and greatly improving access to it. In 1878 he
bought out the sitting tenant, a granite merchant
who for the previous two years had run 'the Empress Rink' in the exhibition room, (ref. 34) and the way
was now clear for the expenditure of a considerable
sum of money in either improving or completely
rebuilding the existing music hall. Unfortunately,
however, the Pavilion stood on land required for
the intended new street from Piccadilly to
Bloomsbury (fig. 8), and although they had no
immediate need of it the Metropolitan Board of
Works decided to acquire Loibl's ground before
he could rebuild. In September 1878 Loibl was
awarded £109,300 as compensation, (ref. 139) and
the conveyance to the Board of the London
Pavilion, No. 3 Tichborne Street and certain
contiguous ancillary property took place in July
1879. (ref. 34)
Legal difficulties postponed the construction of
the new street (see Chapter V) and the Board
therefore had to find a lessee for the Pavilion.
Loibl himself refused to give substantial guarantees
for the seemly conduct of this publicly owned
establishment and in August 1879 the Board
leased it to R. E. Villiers, the proprietor of the
Canterbury Music Hall, for £7000 per annum.
The agreement contained stringent provisions as
to how the entertainments were to be conducted,
and the Board had power to appoint an inspector
to see that the conditions were obeyed. This duty
was entrusted to F. W. Goddard, the Board's
chief valuer, who after a few months indicated to
Villiers that in return for favourable reports he
expected 'something for himself'. Goddard subsequently received £50 per quarter from Villiers
during the whole of the latter's tenancy of the old
Pavilion building (see page 72). (ref. 140) In 1883
£1500 was spent on rebuilding the staircase and
improving access, under the superintendence of
George Vulliamy, architect to the Board. (ref. 141)
By the end of 1884 the Metropolitan Board of
Works was able to start the construction of the
new street. The corrupt means whereby Villiers
obtained the lease of the triangular site bounded by
Shaftesbury Avenue, Piccadilly Circus and Great
Windmill Street, upon which the new London
Pavilion was erected, is described on page 72.
The last performance in the old hall took place on
25 March 1885. (ref. 142) The new London Pavilion
erected in that year is described on page 81.