CHAPTER IV
Swallow Street to Glasshouse Street: Swallow Close and Round Rundles
This irregularly shaped area (fig. 6),
bounded on the north by Vigo Street and
Glasshouse Street, on the south by Piccadilly and on the west by the backs of the houses on
the east side of Sackville Street, formed part of the
land acquired between 1531 and 1536 by Henry
VIII, and is still owned by the Crown.
The western portion, consisting of some five
acres of pasture, had until its surrender to Henry
VIII belonged to Thomas Hobson, but by 1540
had been leased by the Crown to Thomas Swallow, from whom its name Swallow Close was
derived. (ref. 1) In 1568 Queen Elizabeth leased
this ground to Christian Golightly, widow, for
twenty-one years, (ref. 2) and in 1575 a further term of
thirty-one years from Lady Day 1589 was
granted to Nicholas Golightly. (ref. 3) The plan of
1585 marks it as in the possession of Widow
Golightly. In 1610 it was included in a Crown
lease of extensive lands to John Eldred and
William Whitmore for sixty years but in 1618 it
was assigned to Michael Pulteney (ref. 4) who in turn
assigned the residue of the term to Edmund
Hopper in 1619. (ref. 5)
The eastern triangular portion, bounded on the
north-east by Shugg Lane and on the south by
the road from Colnbrook to London, is marked on
the plan of 1585 (Plate 1) as containing three
closes. The centre close is marked as the 'Rounde
ringill' and in the occupation of Mr. Poultney,
and by 1650 the strip on the west (which was
formerly part of the lands of the Abbot of
Abingdon) had been incorporated with it. At this
date a 'tenement strongly built with bricke
walles', described as in the occupation of Samuel
Morris, had been erected on the easterly close
(whose site corresponds with that of the present
Piccadilly Circus), and as well as a number of
substantial outbuildings there was a garden enclosed by a brick wall. (ref. 5) All three of these closes
had formed part of the lands leased by the Crown
in 1610 to Eldred and Whitmore, and in 1676
they were all referred to as 'Round Rundles'. (ref. 6)
Figure 6:
Swallow Close and Round Rundles, layout plan.
Based on the Ordnance Survey, 1870–5
After the Restoration both Swallow Close and
Round Rundles were leased by Queen Henrietta
Maria's trustees to those of Henry Jermyn, Earl
of St. Albans, by whom the area was developed in
the 1660's.
Piccadilly
Only the northern side of Piccadilly between
Great Windmill Street and the west side of
Burlington Arcade lies within the area covered by
the present volumes. The rest of the north side is
in the parish of St. George, Hanover Square. The
south side between the Haymarket and St.
James's Street has been described in volume
XXIX of the Survey of London; the rest of this
side is in the parishes of St. George and St. Martin
in the Fields. The origin and early history of
Piccadilly is described in the present volumes in
Chapter II, and the rebuilding of the Circus,
Swan and Edgar's and the Piccadilly Hotel in
Chapter VI.
Ogilby and Morgan's map of 1681–2 (Plate
3a) shows that from just east of Air Street to just
west of Ship Yard (on the line of Sackville Street)
the houses in Piccadilly were not built right out to
the street frontage but stood back probably behind
small gardens.
Further west it may be noted that the streetwalls of the large houses built in Stone Conduit
Close—Burlington House, Sir Thomas Clarges's
house and Lord Townshend's house—seem to
have been set back to leave a broad foot-path along
the southernmost part of their properties. At
Burlington House this was about twenty feet
wide. (ref. 7) The present building-line and pavementwidth west of Sackville Street still preserve
approximately these late seventeenth-century
boundaries.
The evidence of early views of Clarendon and
Burlington House is that the outer edge of the
foot-path was bordered by posts and rails and a line
of trees. The path was limited to pedestrians by
transverse posts and rails. In front of Burlington
House these last were not renewed after about
1737. (ref. 7) In 1723 Macky noted the existence of
'large grown trees' before the gate of Sunderland
House and of Lord Townshend's former house.
He nevertheless remarked how 'naked' the lengths
of 'dead wall' made this part of Piccadilly. (ref. 8)
By 1767 the paving commissioners were
claiming the twenty feet in front of Burlington
House wall as part of the public way, alleging that
its tenure as private property had been relinquished. (ref. 7) But as late as 1836 the owner of
Burlington House evidently considered his property extended sufficiently far south of the streetwall to accommodate an intended row of small
shops, (ref. 9) which was not, however, built.
In 1898 the London County Council considered the widening of Piccadilly on the north
side between the Circus and Sackville Street, and
in 1903 an agreement was reached with the Commissioners of Woods and Forests (who owned the
freehold of almost all the land required) for the
implementation of the scheme by stages as the
rebuilding took place. (ref. 10)
The first stage was carried out in 1908, when
the building of the Piccadilly Hotel was completed, and the front of Denman House at Nos.
19–20 Piccadilly was set back in 1912–13. (ref. 11) The
section east of Air Street was widened in 1925–7
with the rebuilding of the Regent Street
Quadrant, (ref. 12) and that between Sackville
Street and Piccadilly Place was completed in
1956. (ref. 13)
William Lawson or Larson, 'statute-maker',
lived on the north side of Piccadilly, between
Sackville Street and Swallow Street, from 1670
until his death in 1692. (ref. 14) He was presumably the
sculptor who was paid for a statue of Diana for
Chatsworth in 1692. (ref. 15) In May 1693 there is a
reference to the nuisance caused by a house lately
erected behind Lawson's widow's house 'for the
melting of Mettall for the Casting and makeing
of Brasse Guns and Brass Mortars'. (ref. 16)
The St. James's Hall, Piccadilly
Demolished
In 1853 Charles Moreing of No. 14 Regent
Street (ref. 17) , architect, entered into articles of agreement with the Commissioners of Woods and
Forests whereby he undertook to repair or rebuild
No. 28 Piccadilly and the extensive workshops
situated behind. Subsequently Moreing acquired
several adjacent small houses in Vine Street and
George Court (both now Piccadilly Place) and
in 1855 he was negotiating for the sale of his
interest to a public company which was to be
formed for the purpose of erecting a large concert
hall there. (ref. 18) The provisional committee of the
St. James's Hall Company, which was formed
about this time, included William Chappell and
T. F. Beale, musical publishers, (Sir) Julius
Benedict, conductor, and John Ella, violinist and
concert director. In its prospectus the company
stated that 'The growing taste for Musical Performances of a high order, and upon an extensive
scale, renders it necessary that some suitable provision should be made at the West End of London
for such entertainments'. The need for a hall had
long since been supplied in Liverpool, Birmingham and elsewhere, but 'the Metropolis remains
singularly deficient in proper accommodation for
such performances. . . . The proposed building will
be expressly designed with a view to aid the effect
of instrumental and choral performances.' (ref. 19)
In November 1855 the company's architect,
Owen Jones, submitted designs for a public
building to be called St. James's Hall, and in
February 1857 the Commissioners approved
them. Shortly afterwards the company acquired
the leases of Nos. 69, 71 and 73 Regent Street,
which abutted on the north side of the site of the
hall. This valuable addition was used to provide
an extra entrance to the hall, and a first-class
restaurant. (ref. 19)
The St. James's Hall, which for nearly half a
century was to be London's principal concert hall,
was erected in the centre of the block now occupied by the Piccadilly Hotel, and possessed access
to Piccadilly on the south and Regent Street on
the north (fig. 7). On the ground floor there
were two small halls, above which stood the great
hall. (ref. 20) Owen Jones had been superintendent of
the works at the Great Exhibition of 1851, (ref. 21) and
it was therefore not surprising that, in the opinion
of The Builder, his design displayed novelties of
construction which may 'be found to belong to the
commencement of an alteration in the current
practice of building. We refer especially to the
use of iron, less as an auxiliary than as a main
element in the framework of a structure.' (ref. 22) The
builders were Messrs. Lucas. (ref. 23) The St. James's
Hall was opened on 25 March 1858, with a
charity concert in aid of the Middlesex Hospital. (ref. 24)
The three concert halls were contained in an
oblong building some 140 feet in length from east
to west, and 75 feet in width, including the corridor along the south side. In the ground storey
were two halls of similar size, the east hall being
planned in the form of a wide but short-armed
cross with galleries in its east, north and south arms.
The west hall was an oblong with a gallery on its
long east side and a platform recessed into the west
wall. The oblong body of the great hall on the
first floor was some 95 feet long and 57 feet wide.
A straight-fronted gallery extended along the
north and south sides, and across the east end.
Each long side wall was divided by piers into eight
equal bays, and in each end wall was a great arch,
38 feet wide, the west opening to an apse containing choir seating and an organ, and the east
opening to the back stalls and the gallery.
The architectural scheme and decoration of the
great hall, designed by Owen Jones, must have
been impressive and in many ways beautiful (Plate
30b). There was probably little of interest below
the gallery, which had a railing of cast iron, with
geometrical frets in panels, rather Moorish in
character. In every bay of the side walls was a tall
round-arched recess, containing a decorative panel
below a 'Florentine' window of two lights, the
marginal frames of these recesses being decorated
with 'flowing scroll ornaments, on a ground of
orange-chrome yellow'. The round arches were,
in turn, set in recesses with two-centred arches,
forming tympana that were modelled with 'groups
of figures in bold relief, holding scrolls on which
are inscribed the names of Mozart, Handel,
Beethoven, Haydn, Auber, Meyerbeer, Spohr,
Weber, Gluck, Purcell, Rossini, Cherubini, and
other eminent composers'. On the piers between
these pointed arches were slender colonnets, supporting the ribs outlining the groins over the recesses, and traversing the surface of the great
semi-circular barrel-vaulted ceiling, forming a
pattern of lozenge-shaped panels over which
smaller lozenges were placed, the whole being
decorated with arabesques 'rich in colour and
gilding; the smaller panels . . . Alhambran gold on
a red ground'. The wide marginal surrounds of
the great east and west arches were simply treated,
being divided by ribs into three concentric bands,
and the semi-dome of the western apse was
divided by interlacing ribs into a pattern of lozenges, diminishing in size towards the crown. The
hall was 'not lighted at night by a central chandelier, but by gas stars of seven jets each, suspended
from the ceiling. The figures in the various designs were modelled by [Raphael] Monti; the
other enrichments, by De Sarchy, are of plaster
and canvas run into moulds'. The floor of the hall
was of marqueterie. (ref. 25)
Figure 7:
St. James's Hall, Piccadilly, ground- and first-floor plans. Redrawn from plans by Owen Jones in the Crown Estate Office
The narrow front towards Piccadilly, designed
by Owen Jones, was a highly original composition,
decidedly eclectic in style (Plate 30a). The twin
doorways, and the two windows of the first and
second floors, were recessed within a tall round-headed arch with a strongly moulded reveal. This
arch was set in a plain face finished with a Graeco-Egyptian cornice and crested with anthemion
ornament. The infilling of the arch was very
elaborate, with 'Florentine' windows of cast iron,
their arched heads springing from curiously detailed colonnets. Below the upper pair of windows
were apron panels with a high relief decoration of
putti, and in the tympanum of the arch was a
relief symbolizing music.
Many famous musicians appeared at the St.
James's Hall, including Dvorák, Grieg, Liszt,
Paderewski, Saint-Saëns, Sullivan and Tchaikovsky. The acoustics of the building were extremely good, but the seats were uncomfortable
and kitchen odours from the restaurant sometimes
floated into the auditorium. Worse still, the
sound of the Moore and Burgess Minstrels (who
performed in one of the smaller rooms for over
twenty years) could sometimes be heard upstairs
in the main hall. (ref. 26)
The catering side of the business was greatly
enlarged in 1874–5 by the acquisition and rebuilding of Nos. 24–26 (consec.) Piccadilly, with
a street-frontage of some forty-five feet. The new
building contained buffets, grill-and dining-rooms
and offices, and could be entered from the concert
halls. (ref. 27) The dining-rooms are said to have been
'notable as having been perhaps among the first in
the metropolis to possess each a small kitchen of its
own—an indispensable adjunct to hot and rapid
service'. (ref. 28) The building was designed by Walter
Emden and was in the Venetian Gothic style, the
materials used for the Piccadilly elevation being
red brick, Dumfries stone, red terra-cotta and
mosaic on a gold ground. The general contractors
were Lucas Brothers of Lambeth; the masonry
and stone carving was by William Plows, the
mosaics by Alexander Gibbs, and the terra-cotta
by Messrs. Johnson and the Ditchling Potteries. (ref. 27)
The Piccadilly front was four storeys high, not
counting the mezzanine, and must have been very
colourful with its wide variety of materials employed. The windows of the ground, first and
second floors were grouped in pairs on each side of
a single light, and all were dressed with slender
colonnets and, apart from the ground-floor lights,
with cusped arches. The third-floor windows
were recessed behind a 'Ca'd'Oro' gallery.
The main entrance to the hall from Piccadilly
was entirely rebuilt in 1882–3, with a slightly
wider frontage. The architect was again W.
Emden, whose designs on this occasion were 'after
the Early English style, without any very strict
adherence to old examples'. The front may more
accurately be described as curiously French in
character, with its trio of gabled doorways, and the
high attic above the central feature, flanked by
tourelles and crowned with a steep 'chisel' roof.
The top of the building stood over a hundred feet
above the pavement (Plate 31a). The contractor
was Herbert Lea of Warwick Street. (ref. 29)
In 1885 the Metropolitan Board of Works
decided that the hall was 'so defective in its
structure that special danger from fire may result
to the public frequenting the same', and therefore
required the company to make thirty modifications,
mostly in order to improve access. In 1899 the
London County Council required a further
twenty-nine alterations. (ref. 30) At about the same time
the Council was also considering the widening of
the north side of Piccadilly between the Circus
and Sackville Street, and the company therefore
decided to modernize their premises and make very
extensive alterations. In 1901 the company signed
an agreement with the Commissioners of Woods
and Forests whereby it was to undertake heavy
structural expenditure in return for a new lease of
all its property. (ref. 31)
But the St. James's Hall no longer enjoyed its
old pre-eminence in musical affairs—the Queen's
Hall had been opened in 1893 and the Wigmore
(then called the Bechstein) Hall in 1901—and it
was probably not making a large enough profit to
justify the high rent which the Crown would have
demanded after the renewal of the lease. In 1903
the company therefore sold the benefit of their
building agreement of 1901 with the Office of
Woods to the P. and R. Syndicate, whose intention was to demolish the hall and erect a large
first-class hotel. (ref. 32)
The St. James's Hall continued in use until
February 1905, when it was demolished to make
way for the Piccadilly Hotel (see page 87). (ref. 33)
The Great Room at No. 22 Piccadilly
Demolished
Between 1779 and 1809 there are occasional
references to a public hall at the back of No. 22
Piccadilly. The building stood upon a small part
of the site now occupied by Swan and Edgar's
shop, and was later renumbered as 12 Piccadilly.
The Crown lease of Nos. 21 and 22 Piccadilly
was renewed in 1767, and there was certainly no
hall at that time. (ref. 34) In 1779 the rate assessment
for No. 22 was increased from £60 to £82; the
ratebook mentions 'backhouses' for the first time,
probably in reference to the new hall.
During the winter of 1778–9 Philip Astley,
the showman and circus proprietor, was roofing in
his riding school at Lambeth, and during these
alterations he hired 'the Large Room, No. 22
Piccadilly' for a temporary exhibition. Advertisements in the newspapers stated that the programme
would include 'Ombres Chinoises, or Chinese
Shadows. . . . Signor Rossignoll will play a Concerto on the Violin without strings; also imitate
the Notes of Birds. . . . Likewise Mr. Astley will
exhibit and discover tricks of Legerdemain; and
the Horse and Dog will, by way of Prelude, perform as usual'. (ref. 35)
In c. 1785 the room appears to have been used
as a chapel. In his history of dissenting churches,
published in 1814, Walter Wilson mentions an
auction room on the north side of Piccadilly which,
some thirty years earlier, had been 'converted into
a place of worship . . . by some persons of the
Baptist persuasion'. Their minister, Joseph
Gwennap, 'was very popular, and continued to
preach there for several years with much apparent
success', but in about 1798 'he was deserted by his
flock, and the church in consequence became
dissolved'. (ref. 36)
(fn. a)
From 1802 to 1808 the ratebooks list the hall
as empty. The Microcosm of London contains an
aquatint dated 1808 showing one of the sessions
of the Debating Society, whose meetings were
'usually held in a large room at No. 22 Piccadilly,
under the appelation of The Athenian Lyceum'
(Plate 39b). (ref. 37) In January 1807 the Lord
Chamberlain had given licence to 'Mrs. Henry to
deliver lectures for her Benefit at the Athenian
Lyceum, Piccadilly' on Wednesday evenings. (ref. 38)
In 1809 William Bullock removed his museum
from Liverpool to 'the Great Room, No. 22
Piccadilly, London, Which has been fitted up for
the Purpose in a Manner entirely new'. (ref. 39) The
collection probably remained there until its
removal to the Egyptian Hall in 1812. (ref. 40)
The Crown lease of No. 22 Piccadilly expired
in 1817, (ref. 41) and with the formation of Regent
Street the hall ceased to exist shortly afterwards.
Swallow Street
Swallow Street is first mentioned in the ratebooks
in 1671, (ref. 42) when building began in Swallow Close,
which takes its name from its sixteenth-century
tenant, Thomas Swallow. Ogilby and Morgan's
map of 1681–2 (Plate 3a) shows that its course
had been extended northwards into Mulghay
Close or Dog Field, at whose northern boundary
it joined the western extremity of Beak Street.
The latter formed part of the ancient highway
which is marked on the plan of 1585 as leading (in
the terms of the modern layout) from Piccadilly
Circus to Oxford Circus. When building continued northward from Beak Street along this
highway it, too, became known as (Great) Swallow
Street, which until the formation of Regent Street
was an important avenue of communication
between Piccadilly and Oxford Street. The
greater part of the site of Swallow Street is now
taken up by Regent Street, and only the short
stretch between Piccadilly and the Regent Street
Quadrant still survives. (fn. b)
By 1691 some 117 yards of its course were
'adjudged fit to be paved with stone', (ref. 43) and in
1720 Strype described it as 'very long, coming out
of Pickadilly, and runneth Northward to Tyburn
Road, against Neb's Pound, but of no great
Account for Buildings or Inhabitants'. Stables
and coach-houses abounded; a little north of Beak
Street 'this Street endeth, and falleth into a lane
that leadeth to the high Road'. (ref. 44) Northwards
from the backs of the houses on the south side of
Conduit Street it formed the boundary of the
parishes of St. James and St. George, Hanover
Square, and Rocque's map of 1746 shows that
building here had been completed.
During its rebuilding in 1801–4 the Scots
chapel on the west side of Swallow Street opposite
Little Vine Street was re-aligned (see below), and
John Fordyce, the Surveyor General of the
Crown's Land Revenue, obtained the authority
of the Treasury to take down the four houses
between the chapel and Piccadilly in order to
widen the street. This improvement appears to
have been carried out in or soon after 1815, the
width of the street at its junction with Piccadilly
being increased from only 17 to 30 feet. (ref. 45)
Scottish Presbyterian Chapel, Swallow Street
Demolished
In the early months of 1694 it appears to have
become clear to the French Protestant congregation in York Street, St. James's Square, that they
would have to find other accommodation. At a
meeting on 7 March, the ministers and elders
decided that a new chapel should be built, to be
financed initially by the ministers, who would be
repaid later out of collections and pew-rents. At
what seem to have been the final meetings in
York Street, on 8 and 9 April, plans were prepared for the removal of certain fittings, regarded
by the church as its personal property, and allowed
to them by Lord Dover, the ground landlord.
The new church was opened on 1 July 1694,
having been built at a cost of £348 1s. 2d. (ref. 46) The
site on the west side of Swallow Street (now
occupied by Nos. 7 and 9) was held on a lease for
thirty-five years. In addition, it included a narrow strip of Pulteney property along its western
side. (ref. 47) The buildings seem to have included a
chapel of about the same size as that in York
Street, and an adjoining house, perhaps intended
as church offices or a school. (ref. 46) The church now
seems to have adopted the name L'Eglise de
Piccadilly, the title formerly used by the Glasshouse Street French church (ref. 48) (see page 341).
The French congregation does not seem to
have prospered in its new home (ref. 46) and by 1707 its
membership had declined to such an extent that in
November the consistory was united to that of Le
Quarré in Berwick Street (ref. 49) (see page 225).
Nevertheless, the church carried on in Swallow
Street for a further two years. The last entry in its
registers is dated 11 August 1709, (ref. 50) and in
February 1709 (?/10) the lease of the property
was bought by the congregation of Scottish
Presbyterians which then occupied the chapel in
Glasshouse Street. (ref. 51)
The minister, Dr. James Anderson, collected a
large congregation in what was described by a
contemporary writer as 'a part of the town where
Dissenters are very little in fashion'. (ref. 52) Their
number included the members of Richard
Baxter's former meeting-house in Swallow
Street (ref. 53) (see below). In 1729 the church was
described as 'a Slight Building, much out of Repair', (ref. 54) but it is said to have been rebuilt before
1734, when a new Crown lease was granted. (ref. 55)
In the same year, after a disagreement within the
church, Dr. Anderson left Swallow Street with
part of the congregation. They settled in Lisle
Street, and this group later established the Scottish
Church in Peter Street (ref. 52) (see page 228).
The Crown lease was renewed in 1769 by the
remaining members of the church, (ref. 56) but in 1796
there was another split. Part of the congregation
followed Thomas Stollerie, the assistant minister,
to the former French Church in Chapel Street,
Soho, where they established themselves as Independents. (ref. 57)
In 1798 the minister, Dr. John Trotter, began
negotiating with the Crown for the grant of a
ninety-nine-year lease 'with a view to rebuild the
Premises, which have long been in a decayed
State, and only kept from falling by the Galleries'.
The existing building stood some way back from
the street, and was approached by a passage
through a house which stood in front of the south
end of the chapel, while the north end was masked
by a stable and coach-house. On the advice of
John Fordyce, Surveyor General of the Crown's
Land Revenue, the congregation acquired the
leases of these premises, and in 1801–4 a new and
larger chapel was built, in line with the rest of the
street-frontage. The architects were probably
Fordyce's assistants, John Marquand and Thomas
Leverton, who included the design for the elevation to the street in the report which the Surveyor
General directed them to prepare. (fn. c) A ninetynine-year lease commencing in 1801 was granted
in 1804. (ref. 58) The new building contained three
galleries, and was 'fitted up with great neatness'. (ref. 53)
For a time the church flourished, but in the
1840's it was disturbed by the Free Church secession movement in Scotland. The congregation
appears to have remained within the established
Church of Scotland, but it now seems to have
suffered increasingly from the shift of population
to the suburbs. In 1880, despite the protests of
those members still living in the area, the lease
was sold to Colonel Somers Lewis of the 4th
Middlesex Rifle Volunteers. By the autumn of
1880 the building had been converted into a drill
hall, the architect being J. M. Brydon of 98
Gower Street. The two side galleries were removed at this time.
In 1885 Colonel Lewis sold the lease of the
property to a congregation of the Theistic Church,
led by the Rev. Charles Voysey. It was altered
and refitted for their use by C. F. A. Voysey of
Broadway Chambers, Westminster. His work
included the removal of the upper gallery, the
insertion of 'Cathedral glass' in all windows,
'painting, papering and colouring throughout',
and a new entrance at the north end of the façade.
The Theistic Church obtained a new lease of
the property in 1898, and the building was again
repaired by C. F. A. Voysey. (ref. 58) The spire was removed in or shortly after 1901. (ref. 59) The lease was
surrendered to the Crown in 1915, (ref. 60) and the
church was demolished during the summer of that
year. The erection of a block of show-rooms and
offices on the site was completed in the following
year. The architects were Messrs. Trehearne and
Norman and the builders John Marsland and Sons.
The new premises were first known as No. 23
Swallow Street, but later became Nos. 7 and 9
Swallow Street. (ref. 61)
No. 12 Swallow Street
Formerly the Swallow Music Hall
References to a music hall in this street probably
relate to a concert room at the Goat and Star
public house which formerly stood at the north-east corner of Swallow Street and Piccadilly Place
(formerly Little Vine Street). (ref. 62) In 1889 the
London County Council required the landlord in
the interests of public safety to make substantial
alterations, and in the following year the Goat and
Star was completely rebuilt on a slightly enlarged
site; the name was changed to the Swallow. The
new building, which was designed by Robert
Sawyer, again incorporated a concert hall. (ref. 63) In
1919 it was bought by a commercial firm for use
as offices, and the licence was discontinued. (ref. 64)
Swallow Street Chapel
Demolished
In A Breviate of the Life of Margaret . . .
Baxter, published in 1681, Richard Baxter describes his wife's attempts to establish a chapel for
him in Oxenden Street. When these were
frustrated by the authorities, she hired another
chapel 'ready built, for gain' in Swallow Street,
'that the poor people where I had begun . . . might
still be taught'. But here too he was prevented
from preaching 'by the Officers standing at the
door with the Justices Warrant Many Months together'. (ref. 65) Mrs. Baxter at last accepted the fact
that the authorities were objecting to her husband
rather than to the chapel itself, and she therefore
found 'a faithful painful self-denying man' to
occupy the pulpit. The arrangement seems to
have been a success, for in 1681 Baxter wrote that
the minister of the chapel had 'there done much
good, and still doth'. (ref. 66)
According to Walter Wilson, Baxter began his
attempt to work in Swallow Street in April 1676.
The name of his successor is not known, but later
ministers included Joseph Hill and a Mr. Carlisle
until 1699, and then a Mr. Stort, who was
thought to have died in about 1710. The congregation broke up, the greater number of them
joining Dr. James Anderson's Scottish Church,
then newly moved to the same street (ref. 53) (see above).
The site of Baxter's chapel is not known, but
Strype, writing in 1720, perhaps provided a clue
when he mentioned Baxter's Yard (on the east
side approximately on the site of the northern part
of the Regent Street Quadrant), which was then
'being made Use of by one Mr. Baxter, who there
kept his Riding-house, for the instructing young
Gentlemen to ride the managed Horse'. (ref. 67)
Vine Street
Rocque's map of 1746 (Plate 6) shows Vine
Street as a narrow continuation of Warwick Street
extending southwards towards Piccadilly. The
origin of the name is not known but it may well
have been derived from the Vine public house
which existed here in the eighteenth century and
very possibly earlier. (ref. 68) The street appears to have
been laid out in 1686–9 (ref. 69) and Strype recorded
that in 1720 most of one side was taken up by a
brewhouse and the other by a carpenter's yard. (ref. 67)
Vine Street was bisected by the building of
Regent Street in 1816–19. The northern part,
which was subsequently known as Great Vine
Street or Warwick Street, ceased to exist when the
Quadrant was rebuilt in the 1920's. The northern opening is marked by the north end of
Brown's Arcade, but the rest of the arcade is on
a different alignment. To the south of Regent
Street only a vestige of Vine Street survives as the
narrow passage between Regent Street and Piccadilly Place, now called Man in Moon Passage—a
name derived from the public house which stood
on the corner of Little Vine Street.
Peter Scheemakers, the Dutch sculptor, occupied premises on the west side of the street from
1741 or 1742 until his return to Antwerp in
1769. (ref. 70)
The Court of Request
Demolished
In 1750 an Act of Parliament established
Courts of Request for the recovery of small debts
in Westminster and part of the adjoining Duchy
of Lancaster. (ref. 71) The Act made no provision for
buildings for the courts and was defective in other
ways. It was therefore amended in the following
year and the area with which it dealt was divided
into two divisions, each with its own court
house. (ref. 72) One of these was built in 1751–2 on the
west side of Vine Street, next to the house on the
corner of Little Vine Street (now Piccadilly
Place); (ref. 69) it was apparently a two-storeyed building
with a sub-basement. (ref. 73)
In 1836 the court house was closed when the
area of jurisdiction of the Westminster courts was
changed. (ref. 74) It was subsequently occupied by
Edward Gaffin the statuary, whose firm 'poured
forth an apparently unceasing flood of tame, dull
and uninteresting monuments'. (ref. 15)
The lease of the building was assigned in 1850
to the Receiver of the Metropolitan Police
District and incorporated in Vine Street Police
Station (see below).
Piccadilly Place
Piccadilly Place is a T-shaped street. The north-south arm was originally known as Meggott's or
Maggott's Court after the Meggott family which
held ground there on lease from the Crown. (ref. 75) It
was subsequently known as George Court, and
was renamed Piccadilly Place in 1862. The westeast arm connecting Swallow Street and the south
end of Vine Street, was originally known as Little
Swallow Street and first appears in the ratebooks
of St. Martin's in 1675. Rocque's map of 1746
marks it as Little Vine Street, but after the formation of Regent Street in 1816–19 it became known
as Vine Street. In 1940 it was renamed Piccadilly
Place.
Aliens' Registration Office
Site formerly occupied by the watch-house, Offertory
School and Police Station
Soon after the constitution of the parish in 1685
a watch-house was built in the churchyard of St.
James's Church. A boys' charity school was
established at about the same time, and was
maintained out of the offertory money; hence its
usual appellation of the 'Offertory' school. For
many years after 1704 the school occupied a room
over the watch-house. (ref. 76)
By the 1760's the watch-house was no longer
large enough. Matthew Fairless, carpenter, acting
on behalf of the parish, purchased a house on the
north side of Little Vine Street, (ref. 77) to which, after
some alterations had been made in 1767, (ref. 78) both
the watch-house and the school were removed. (ref. 79)
In 1786 a fire destroyed several houses in
Swallow Street, Vine Street and Little Vine
Street, including the watch-house. (ref. 80) This was
rebuilt in 1786–7 under the supervision of William
Gowan. (ref. 81) A later survey of the building shows
that it had a basement in which the watch-house
keeper lived and where there were two arched
cells for 'the custody of either sex'. On the
ground floor was a watchmen's room, a room for
'the Beadle and Constable of the Night', with a
small lock-up room behind. The whole of the
upper storey consisted of one lofty room for the
Offertory School over which, in about 1816, another storey was added for the use of the schoolmaster. (ref. 82)
Under the provisions of the Act of Parliament
of 1829 which established the Metropolitan
Police District, the watch-house became known
as Vine Street Police Station. The school remained there until 1836, when the rector obtained a lease of Nos. 7 and 8 Swallow Street
(round the corner from the police station) and a
school was erected on the site. It was eventually
closed in 1881, though part of the premises was
used for some years for a Sunday school and other
parochial activities. (ref. 83)
The police station remained in (Little) Vine
Street from 1829 until the building of a new
station in Savile Row in 1939–40. During this
period it gradually absorbed almost all the buildings on the north side of the street. (ref. 84) In 1850 the
leases of No. 11 (Little) Vine Street and the
former Court of Request in Vine Street were
purchased by the Police Receiver and added to the
station for use as a section house. (ref. 85) No. 9 was
added to the section house in 1856 (ref. 86) and No. 12
in 1860. Rebuilding of all these premises took
place in 1869. (ref. 87)
In 1897 the school building at Nos. 7 and 8
(now No. 14) Swallow Street was purchased (ref. 88)
and in 1897–9 the station was largely rebuilt by
Messrs. Lathey Brothers. (ref. 89) The Man in the
Moon public house at the eastern extremity of
(Little) Vine Street was purchased by the Police
Receiver in 1931. (ref. 90) In 1940 the police station
was removed to new premises in Savile Row and
the old building was re-opened in the same year as
the Aliens' Registration Office.
Air Street
'Aire Street' (which in its southern part follows
the boundary of Swallow Close and Round
Rundles) first appears in the ratebooks in 1658,
its name being presumably derived from Thomas
Ayres, brewer, who held leases in the neighbourhood. The northern part of the street formed the
western boundary of the Sherard estate, and was
sometimes referred to as Francis Street, probably
after Francis Sherard. The St. Albans rent-roll of
1676 mentions twenty-three houses in the
street. (ref. 91)
Air Street is now arched over at first-floor level
by the buildings on the north and south sides of
the Regent Street Quadrant, which cuts across
the street near its southern end.
In 1803 there was said to be a nonconformist
chapel in this street. (ref. 92)
Glasshouse Street
Glasshouse Street is marked on Ogilby and Morgan's map of 1681–2 (Plate 3a) as extending
westward from the south end of Warwick Street
towards the northern boundary of the garden of
Burlington House; a map of 1720 (Plate 5)
shows that it stretched as far west as Bond Street.
Rocque's map of 1746 (Plate 6) and Horwood's
of 1792 show the western portion between Savile
Row and Bond Street as Vigo Lane. This part
of the street subsequently became known by its
present name of Burlington Gardens, and with
the formation of Regent Street in 1816–19 the
portion between Savile Row and Regent Street
became known as Vigo Lane or Street. Thus
only the very short portion between Regent and
Warwick Streets was still known as Glasshouse
Street. But in 1863 both Marylebone and Tichborne Streets were renamed as part of Glasshouse
Street. This section is concerned with the modern
Glasshouse Street, of which only a very small
portion formed part of the seventeenth-century
street of that name.
Glasshouse Street first appears in the ratebooks
in 1678, (ref. 93) and perhaps owes its name to the
activities of Windsor Sandys in this neighbourhood. His name appears as a ratepayer for a tenement 'in the Fields' to the north of Piccadilly
between 1675 and his death in 1680; (ref. 94)
(fn. d) in 1675
and 1678 he also paid rates for a large area of land
including 'Crab-Tree ground', of which Glasshouse Street was the southern boundary. It is
known that in 1676 Sandys was the partner of
John Dwight, the Fulham potter, and in that
year they contracted to supply stoneware to the
Glass Sellers' Company. (ref. 95) As early as 1672
Sandys had been general undertaker for cleansing
the streets of the parishes of St. Martin and St.
Giles, (ref. 96) and it may be conjectured that he used the
potassium nitrate, or saltpetre, which was produced from night soil, as an ingredient for the
production of glass. In 1693 a complaint was
made on behalf of Lord Burlington to the vestry
of St. James about 'the place erecting behind the
said Earles house and Garden for the making of
Salt Peter', (ref. 97) and in 1694 there was another
complaint 'about the Place behind his Lordship's
House and Garden where they shoote the Night
Stuffe and Boyle for Salt Peter'. (ref. 98) These activities
may well have been started in the 1670's by
Sandys; taken in conjunction with his association
with Dwight this evidence, although inconclusive,
provides a likely explanation for the name 'Glasshouse Street'.
Warwick Street and the modern Glasshouse
Street mark part of the course of the highway
delineated on the plan of 1585 (Plate 1) as leading
(in terms of the modern layout) from Piccadilly
Circus to Oxford Circus. Until the eighteenth
century the southern portion of this highway was
known as Shugg Lane (Shrug, Sugg, etc.) and is
referred to as Suggen Lane in deeds of 1391. (ref. 99)
(fn. e)
It formed the boundary between Windmill Fields
on the north and Swallow Close and Round
Rundles on the south. Building seems to have
begun soon after the Restoration, and the St.
Albans rent-roll of 1676 mentions some seventeen
houses on the south side. (ref. 91) In 1720 Strype described it as 'but meanly built, neither are its
Inhabitants much to be boasted of'. (ref. 67) Horwood's
map of 1792 designates the southern portion of
the lane Tichborne Street, a name derived from
the Tichborne family, which owned property on
the north side. On all seventeenth- and eighteenth-century maps the northern portion of the
street, between Warwick and Sherwood Streets,
is described as Marybone or Marylebone Street,
but (as has been mentioned above) in 1863 both
Marylebone and Tichborne Streets were incorporated in Glasshouse Street.
In May 1796 John Fordyce, Surveyor General
of the Crown's Land Revenue, informed the
Treasury 'that the street called Tichborne-street
(late Shug-lane) with part of Marybone-street
(being a principal avenue from the middle and
lower parts of the town to Golden-square,
Hanover-square, Oxford-street, and the numerous
Streets and Squares in this vicinity, and forming a
part of the most direct communication from the
Houses of Parliament and Westminster Bridge, to
the principal streets in the upper part of Marybone)
is at present very narrow and incommodious, so as
not only to occasion frequent stoppages of carriages, and other inconveniences, but likewise to
affect the value of the property.' He emphasized
the need to widen the street, and shortly afterwards
the Treasury granted him the necessary authority. (ref. 100) A plan drawn up for Fordyce by John
Marquand and Thomas Leverton shows that
twenty-nine houses on the south side of Tichborne
and Marylebone Streets were to be set back; the
leases of nine of them had already expired, but in
five cases there were still over thirty years to
run. (ref. 101) Progress was therefore slow, and in 1812,
when the leases of three houses at the south end of
the street were about to expire, the scheme—one
of the earliest improvements to be made on the
London estates of the Crown—had evidently not
yet been fully completed (ref. 102) (Plate 136a).
When Regent Street was formed an opening
was made from the south-east end of the Quadrant
into Tichborne Street, leaving to its south a triangular island of buildings fronting north-east on
Tichborne Street and south-west on the new
Piccadilly Circus (or Regent Circus South, as it
was originally called). This island block was
subsequently acquired from the Crown by the
Metropolitan Board of Works for the formation
of the south end of Shaftesbury Avenue, and its
site was incorporated in the enlarged 'Circus'
(fig. 8). But the buildings on the north-east side
of Piccadilly Circus, and now numbered 2–8
(even) Glasshouse Street and 44–48 (even)
Regent Street, still stand on the unaltered northeast line of Tichborne Street, and therefore,
presumably, of the medieval Shugg Lane. The
diagonal course of Glasshouse Street in relation to
much of the modern street layout, and its oblique
entry into Piccadilly Circus have proved two of the
greatest difficulties confronting twentieth-century
attempts to replan the Circus to an improved design.