Catherine Street
Formerly Brydges Street
When this street was first laid out by the fourth
Earl of Bedford in the 1630's it was closed at its
southern end a few yards north of the present
junction with Exeter Street and Aldwych by the
wall of Exeter House garden and the back
premises of the White Hart Inn in the Strand.
Until the nineteenth century it was named
Brydges Street, after the family of the fourth
Earl's wife. In 1657 ground south of the street
was bought from the fifth Earl by the tenant of
the White Hart, (ref. 113) and new or improved access
provided to the Strand from Brydges Street via
the inn yard. (ref. 114) In 1673 a new street was made
by the Commissioners for Highways and Sewers
across the site of the White Hart, joining Brydges
Street to the Strand. This new street was called
Catherine Street after the Queen (see page 35).
Almost all of it lay outside the parish of St. Paul,
Covent Garden. In 1872 the name Catherine
supplanted Brydges over the whole line of street.
In 1899–1905 the making of Aldwych curtailed
this street at its southern end, restoring it to
approximately the limits of the original Brydges
Street. At the same period York (now part of
Tavistock) Street, which had from the beginning
opened into Brydges Street from the west, was
extended across Catherine Street to Drury Lane
on the east. This part of Tavistock Street lay
almost entirely outside the parish of St. Paul and
is not described in this volume: the Strand
Theatre is also excluded.
Brydges Street filled up with its first inhabitants
in the years 1632–40. The building leases on the
west side, running from 1631 or 1632, are
tabulated on pages 296–7. The street was made
immediately west of the wall built by the third
Earl in c. 1610, which was demolished to allow
the construction of its east side. On this side
about half the ground was granted away in fee
farm by the fourth and fifth Earls of Bedford in
1635–6 and 1657–8. (ref. 115) All of the west side
(together with both sides of York Street) was
settled on Edward Russell in 1640–1 and sold by
him to John Athy by c. 1671 (probably in 1663).
Possibly the street was not altogether satisfactorily built, at least on the west side. In 1635 a
'gentleman' briefly resident in one of the houses
there, which had been built under the auspices of
the partners John Ward and Richard Harris,
brought a complaint in Chancery against them.
He sought a reduction in rent because 'yt raynes
into every roome of ye said house and he bee much
annoyed with currents and floods of water which
in tyme of wett wether dooth issue out of the yard
of one other tenement of theires next adioyning'. (ref. 116)
A rather similar complaint made fifteen years
later by John Donne's son, Doctor John Donne
the younger, suggests that the termination of
Brydges Street at its southern end left the
intended drainage system imperfect. He was
living in a house where the Duchess Theatre now
stands. His complaint, made against Edward
Russell as freeholder and against the owner of the
leasehold interest, was that no effective sewer had
been made to carry off southward the drainage
brought down to his house from those above.
This made it 'very offensive and noysome to him,
all sorts of his neighbors fowle water resting upon
his howse and decaying the foundations of the
same'. (ref. 117)
One or two people of title occur in the early
years as residents on the east side but they were
not numerous and the social character of the
street was probably harmed by the taverns for
which it became noted, and the Theatre Royal
which had an entrance from the street from 1663.
Two of the three taverns marked on Lacy's
map of 1673 (Plate 3), the Fleece and the Rose,
dated from the first building of the street. In
1632 the Fleece, on the south corner of York
Street (now the site of No. 42 Tavistock Street),
was already in the hands of a vintner, Thomas
Gough, (ref. 2) but he was one of the Covent Garden
vintners or victuallers to be put out of business by
the Privy Council in 1633–4, and was succeeded
in occupation of the premises by William Clifton,
who after being in a similar predicament had
emerged as one of the two permitted vintners in
Covent Garden. (ref. 118) Clifton's previous tavern in
Russell Street, the Goat, does not seem to have
been a very staid place, and although he subsequently figures in chapelry matters in respectable
guise the Fleece itself was to become notorious for
the murders committed there. (ref. 119) It was burnt
down in 1688 and rebuilt as a private house. (ref. 120)
One of Clifton's rivals ran the Rose tavern
from 1633, at the north-east end of Brydges
Street on the corner with Russell Street. He was
William Long, against whom Clifton was complaining in 1634. The Privy Council ordered his
tavern to be suppressed in 1635 but in the following year he was still trading, and the ratebooks
make it evident that he remained continuously in
occupation of the property. (ref. 121) The ratebooks do
not make it clear where the entrance was, indeed
Long himself confessed at that time that he could
not 'in the precise forme of a Mathematticall
Descripsion sett foorth the site or scituation of the
said Messuage hee … haveinge noe Skill therein', (ref. 122) but there is no doubt that the tavern was
on the corner. The premises enjoyed a long and
well-patronized existence, as tavern or coffee
house, until at least the reconstruction of the
Theatre Royal in 1775–6, (ref. 123) and perhaps until
their demolition for the theatre's rebuilding in
1791. (fn. *)
A third tavern shown on Lacy's map was the
Windmill. In 1681 this was taken on lease by
Stephen Lupton, who renamed it the Duke of
York's Head, and subsequently (or so it was said)
'brought the said Tavern into disgrace and
disrepute by reason of notorious and disorderly
persons frequenting and entertained there'. (ref. 124)
True or false this complaint seems to reflect the
social character of the street by that period. In
c. 1707–12 a Captain William Bradbury kept a
gaming house at the north&-west corner. (ref. 125)
The proximity of the Theatre Royal affected
the street socially but until the reconstruction of
the theatre in 1775–6 it had no frontage of its
own directly on the street. From 1791 to 1811
there was a derelict open space between the theatre
and the street, but thereafter the theatre has again
fronted on the street, and dominated it visually.
In 1787 four of the ten disorderly taverns or
coffee houses found in the parish were in this
street and in 1794 three were prosecuted as
'common Nuisances'. (ref. 126) The renewed concern
with public decency that is expressed in the parish
committee minutes in the 1840's found Brydges
Street much as before: in 1847 inhabitants in that
street and York Street complained that the behaviour of prostitutes drove away trade and
prevented the letting of apartments to respectable
people. (ref. 127) By this time another nuisance was the
smoke drifting eastward from Bielefeld's papiermâché works in Wellington Street. (ref. 128) In the
1850's the Post Office directories show the street
mainly in the occupation of a miscellany of small
tradesmen and artisans.
Apart from the Theatre Royal, nothing in the
present street is significantly earlier than the late
nineteenth century, although the plain building
at No. 27 may have vestiges of an eighteenthcentury house behind its stucco front. On the
east side of the street the eleventh Duke of Bedford made great changes in 1899–1905, when the
eastern part of York Street (now part of Tavistock Street) was laid out, the Catherine Street
frontage set back a few feet, and most of the old
courts lying between Catherine Street and Drury
Lane swept away (see page 48). But on the
west side, where the land had long ceased to belong to the Bedford estate, the old house-sites
still survive north of Tavistock Street. South of
that street most of the old sites have been covered
by the Duchess Theatre.
When the Duchess was opened in 1929 The
Era commented that the name of Catherine
Street was too little known to be a good address
for a new theatre. (ref. 129) It is still much less well
known than it would be if the Theatre Royal
took its common designation from the street on
which it fronts.
Ratepaying occupants of Catherine Street include: Captain Bayley, 1635–6; Richard Delamaine, 1637–9, mathematician; Sir Thomas
Walsingham, 1637–8, member of the Long
Parliament; Dr. John Donne, 1639–62, miscellaneous writer, son of Dr. John Donne, Dean
of St. Paul's; Dr. Hinsloe (Hinchloe), 1639–c.
1645; Lady Norton, 1639–c. 1647; Captain
Daniel Goodricke, 1644; Dr. Hopton, 1644;
Lady Spencer, 1647; Lady St. John, 1651;
Dr. 'Lodowick' (or John) Wembs, 1652–5; 'The
Lord Howard', 1659–60, ? Edward Howard, first
Baron Howard of Escrick, member of the Long
Parliament; Mountjoy Blount, Earl of Newport,
1661–4; Dr. Torlesse, 1667–8; William
Wintershall, 1670, actor; Colonel Mouldsworth,
1676–8; Sir John Franklin, 1679–91; John
Bancroft, 1680–5, dramatist; John Freeman,
1694, ? painter; Captain William Bradbury,
1707–12; Captain Bernard, 1718; Captain
Bryan, 1719; John Mills, 1720–6, actor;
Benjamin Victor, 1721–4, theatrical manager and
writer; John Harper, 1732–4, 1737–41, actor;
Samuel Johnson, 1735–6, ? dancing master and
dramatist; Charles Fleetwood, 1738–43, coproprietor of Drury Lane Theatre; John Cooke,
1759–74, ? bookseller; 'James Jos. Sowerby',
1787–9, ? James Sowerby, naturalist and artist;
Robert Bissett Scott, 1799–1800, ? military
writer; Joseph Zaehnsdorf, 1855–86, bookbinder.
The Theatre Royal,
Drury Lane
This is described in Survey of London volume
XXXV.
Nos. 2–6 (even) Catherine Street
These buildings (Plate 71b) were erected in
1902–5 to the elevational designs, followed with
varying degrees of faithfulness, of H. H. Statham,
editor of The Builder.
The Builder magazine had had its office at the
centre site, No. 4 (previously numbered 46 and
before that No. 25 Brydges Street), since its
removal from No. 1 York Street (now No. 42
Tavistock Street) in 1874. The architects of the
1874 building were Habershon and Brock. (ref. 130) In
1899–1900 York Street was extended eastward
to Drury Lane some 18 feet southward of The
Builder office, to form what is now the easternmost part of Tavistock Street, and the east side
of Catherine Street was set back a few feet. The
buildings on both sides of The Builder office were
demolished, (ref. 131) and it was necessary to provide the
office with a frontage on the new building-line.
Statham's elevational design was approved by
the Bedford Office in April 1902, (ref. 132) and the
completed front (which bears the date 1902) was
described by him in The Builder in November.
'An entirely stone front was too costly, so that I
had to endeavour to get a certain degree of effect
with a front largely constructed in plain brick.
The bricks are Bracknell red, of medium colour;
the stone, selected white Portland. The front
doors and woodwork of the ground storey are
in wainscot oak; it was intended to use English
oak, but it is curious to record that it was impossible in all London to get English oak, at the
moment, in sizes sufficient for the purpose; and
as the work had to be carried out by a certain date,
the English oak had to be abandoned, though
some fairly fine wood was obtained in lieu of it.
The attempt has been made to give some originality of character to the stone details … The
profile of the main cornice, of slight projection in
comparison with its depth, was dictated by the
desire to have a fairly rich cornice, but to keep its
return within the centre line of the party-wall, so
that it should not be interfered with by any
adjacent building.' (ref. 133)
Colls and Sons were the general contractors,
the stone-carving was executed by Messrs. Daymond, and the 'gun-metal lettering on the front,
and the letter-box front and other bits of decorative
metal work' (now removed) by George Wragge.
The entrance-doors, forming 'rather a fine piece
of joiner's work', were illustrated. 'The whole
of the details of every kind were made from the
architect's full-size drawings.' (ref. 133)
Statham's front was a self-contained unit. He
stated, however, that after its erection the Bedford
Office decided that the buildings on either side
should be designed by him, at least in respect of
their elevations. (ref. 134) The Bedford Office agreed
in January 1904 to grant a building lease of No.
2, the corner site, to Messrs. Trollope and
Messrs. Colls, builders, and in January 1905 of
No. 6 to W. B. Howard, builder. (ref. 135) The latter
front bears the date 1905.
At No. 2 Statham provided plans and elevations, at No. 6 an elevation only. At both, some
departures were made from his designs, and the
illustrations which he published, with his comments, in The Builder in May 1906 (No. 2) and
June 1907 (No. 6) show his designs as intended,
not as built. (ref. 136)
In regard to No. 2, Statham dwelt on his
utilization of the decreased wall-thickness above
first-floor level, permitted by the Building Acts,
to make an external feature of the chimney
stacks on the York (Tavistock) Street elevation.
On each of the three buildings Statham intended the crowning balls and finials to be
gilded. He regretted the substitution at Nos. 2
and 6 of 'the usual style of shop-front woodwork'
for his inter-related designs.
The Builder magazine (now Building) still
occupies No. 4 and the Building Group also
occupies No. 2, acquired in 1945. The ground
floor of No. 2 was destroyed by bombing in the
1939–45 war. (ref. 137)
The tall and relatively narrow front of No. 4
contains four storeys, the first having a shop
front of three bays set in a wide elliptically
headed arch of stone, its moulded arris broken
only by a small keystone. Flanking the arch
are vertically moulded pilasters which rise from
rusticated pedestals to support a cornice of cymaprofile, reeded top and bottom, and underlined
between the pilasters by guttae. The second and
third storeys alike contain a slightly projecting bay
window, divided by moulded stone mullions and a
transom into two tiers of three lights, all furnished with leaded casements. The stone apron
between the two windows is plain below a band
of billet ornament, but above the middle light
is a carved cartouche bearing a cypher composed
of the date 1902. There are three small windows
in the fourth storey, above a moulded sill-band
and an apron-panel of brick and stone chequers.
The windows, which have flat arches of gauged
brick and tall narrow keystones, are set in a face of
brick banded with stone. Paired pilaster-strips, of
plain brickwork in the second and third storeys
and stone-banded brick above, flank the front and
rise to support an entablature of highly individual
design. The stone architrave is broken by the
keystones of the fourth-storey windows, the
frieze is divided into vertical panels by projecting
ribs, and the cornice has a high ovolo moulding,
carved with formalized foliage, below a dentil
course. The front is effectively finished with a
curved and stepped gable, rising between paired
dwarf pedestals finished with stone balls. The
gable face is decorated in the lower concave-sided
part with stone bands, and in the semi-circular
pediment with brick and stone chequers. The
coping rises to finish in a pair of volutes, linked
by a garland below the baluster-like finial.
The Catherine Street front of No. 2 is generally
similar in width, composition and details to that
of No. 4. Again, there is an oak-framed shop
front recessed within an elliptically arched opening, the flanking piers being basically similar to
those at No. 4 except that their profiled shafts are
banded with flat courses. The second, third and
fourth storeys each have a stone mullioned-andtransomed window, with two tiers of three lights,
uniting to form a shallow canted bay which is
flanked by plain brick margins and broad projecting piers of brick, banded with stone through
two storeys and chequered with stone above. The
frieze of recessed brick panels is repeated below a
stone cornice of simpler form than that at No. 4.
The fifth storey, containing two windows below
a wide band of chequerwork, rises into a semicircular gable, divided and flanked by narrow
buttresses, the middle one rising to support a
twisted baluster finial. The paired buttresses on
either side of the gable are finished with plain
blocks and balls of stone.
The three large shop windows in the return
front to Tavistock Street are a departure from
Statham's original design, where he proposed
having a plain brick face with three small roundarched openings. This was to form a substantial
base for the three wide buttress-like stacks
dividing the upper face into narrow bays. The
stone bands and chequers of the Catherine
Street front are repeated in the bays, and the
stacks are linked by the downward semi-circular
sweeps of the parapet.
No. 6 has a front of three bays, wide between
narrow. The elliptically headed arch framing
the shop front is here flanked by two roundarched doorways, each set in a plain face below a
segmental pediment. Above the ground storey,
the wide middle bay is treated as a lofty roundarched recess, embracing the canted bay containing the second- and third-storey windows, each
divided by stone mullions and a transom into two
tiers of four lights. The head of the arch, formed
of brick and stone voussoirs, frames the lunette
window of the fourth storey. In the narrow side
bays the windows all have segmental arches of
brick with triple keystones. The entablature,
with its vertically ribbed frieze of brick panels, is
another variant of that at No. 4, and the fifth
storey is finished with a parapet profiled with
four concave-curving sweeps like those of the
Tavistock Street frontage of No. 2.
Duchess Theatre
This theatre was built in 1928–9 by F. G.
Minter Limited to the design of the architect
Ewen Barr. (ref. 138) His client was Arthur Gibbons (ref. 139)
but the lessees of the site are described as the West
End and Country Theatres Limited. (ref. 140) The
ground rent was £1,500 per annum. (ref. 141) The site
had stood vacant for some years, in the ownership
of Willy Clarkson, the theatrical costumier, as the
problem of ancient lights had hitherto frustrated
schemes for the erection of a theatre here. A
solution was found by constructing a deep basement containing the stalls, which extended beneath the entrance hall and foyer (fig. 31). These
last were contrived within the void space beneath
the steppings of the dress circle, which was contracted to less than the full width of the site. In
consequence The Era was able to report that
'there are fewer steps to the seats than in any
theatre in London'. As built the seating capacity
was 492, distributed between stalls (314), dress
circle (158) and four boxes (20). The same
journal calculated that 'the house will hold about
£200 a performance'. (ref. 142)
Figure 31:
Duchess Theatre, Catherine Street, section and plan. Redrawn from The Builder, 29 Nov. 1929, pages 915, 923 15–S.L. XXXVI
The exterior, faced with Portland stone, is
vaguely Elizabethan in style, with a series of
canted bay windows in the upper storeys. The
interior decorative scheme, originally in mauve,
blue and silver, illuminated by concealed lights,
was the work of Marc-Henri and Laverdet, but
about 1935 a warmer colour-scheme of 'rust and
old gold' was introduced. (ref. 141) The standing
figures at circle-level were carved by Arnold
Auerbach, (ref. 143) and the bas-reliefs between the
proscenium and auditorium by Maurice Lambert. (ref. 141)
The theatre opened on 25 November 1929
with a performance of Tunnel Trench, a war-play
by Hubert Griffith: the leading role was taken by
Brian Aherne, and Emlyn Williams appeared as a
minor character. (ref. 144) A successful production in
November 1933 was Laburnum Grove by J. B.
Priestley, who in the following year became
associated with the management of the theatre:
other plays by the same author were subsequently
staged here. (ref. 145)
No. 23 Catherine Street: The Opera Tavern
This public house was built (together with No.
21) in 1879 to the design of the architect George
Treacher, most of whose work lay in this field. (ref. 146)
The narrow front is a design of extremely eclectic
character, the wilful distortions of standard
Italianate and neo-classical motifs made even more
striking by the present application of bold colour.
The ground storey, bounded by partly rusticated
piers, is divided into three bays by slender castiron columns, supporting an orthodox Corinthian
entablature that extends between the pedimented
consoles above the piers. The upper face of three
storeys is faced with brick but elaborately dressed
with stucco. Each storey has a three-light window, the first dressed with a 'Greek Doric' order
and finished, above the middle light, with a triangular pediment. The second window is appropriately dressed with an Ionic order and has a
segmental pediment, while the third window, its
lights divided by Corinthian columns, is flanked
by tall fluted consoles supporting projections of the
crowning cornice. The parapet rises in the form
of a segmental pediment above the window,
framing a small tympanum modelled with a
garlanded lyre. The frieze and cornice of each
window is extended, in a different form, across the
brick face on either side, to meet the tall Ionic
pilasters, their shafts cinctured and partly fluted,
and the short rusticated piers above, which
terminate the front laterally.