Princelet Street West of Brick Lane
No street is shown here on Gascoine’s map of
1703, but the easternmost four houses on its north
side (Nos. 21–25 (odd) Princelet Street and No. 65
Brick Lane) and buildings at the eastern end of the
south side, on the site of No. 26 Princelet Street
and No. 63 Brick Lane, were probably built in
about 1705–6 (see below).
The first known designation of this short
eastern part of the street was in April 1713, as
’Princesse Street’. (ref. 62) The same form of the name
occurs in September and October 1718, and May,
July and September 1719, and occasionally after
wards. There seems to be no obvious reason for
this form of the name. In January 1717/18 this
end of the street was described as ’laid out for a
new street called or then intended to be called
Princes Street’, the name by which it was sub
sequently known. (ref. 63) The first building by Wood
and Michell probably began in the summer of
1718 on the north side of the street, the south side
being completed by January 1723/4. (fn. a)
Nos. 2 and 4 Princelet Street
Formerly Nos. 1 and 2 Princes Street
These two houses, on the south side of the
street, were the last of the original houses to be
built in Princelet Street. The builder was Samuel
Worrall of Spitalfields, carpenter, under ninety-nine-year leases granted by Wood and Michell on
27 January 1723/4, the houses having by then
been built. (ref. 64) The site had been vacant in Feb
ruary 1721/2. (ref. 65) The leases also included No. 6
Wilkes Street, which was built at the same time.
The lease of No. 2 was witnessed by Marmaduke
Smith, carpenter.
In June 1724 Worrall assigned his leases of
No. 2 and of No. 6 Wilkes Street to a glover for
£756. (ref. 66) No. 4 was occupied in 1724 by Benjamin Truman. (ref. 43)
No. 2, the south-west corner house,contains three
storeys and a roof loft. The building is one room
deep and has a frontage four windows wide, with
the doorway in the second opening from the left.
Although the original fenestration pattern remains, the front has been refaced, or altered, and
covered with stucco, probably around 1860. The
ground storey is channel-jointed and the upper
part coursed in imitation of stonework. The door
way, and the one opening on to Wilkes Street,
have cornice-hoods resting on moulded consoles.
The interior appears to be largely original. The
hall is lined with plain rebated panelling finished
with a box-cornice, and the dog-leg staircase has
closed strings, turned balusters, column-newels,
and moulded straight handrails.
As originally built, No. 2 was uniform with
No. 4 which survives in a much less altered state.
Each of the upper two storeys of No. 4 has four
evenly spaced windows, with a blind window
against the party wall to complete the even
rhythm across the two fronts. The ground storey
has a stucco facing of about 1820, with Doric
pilasters supporting a plain entablature. The rest
of the front is of yellow brick, with red brick
jambs and high segmental arches to the windows,
which now contain wooden casements with
hoppers. A brick bandcourse underlines the
parapet which is finished with a stone coping. One
small hipped-roofed dormer lights the loft. The
interior finishings are similar to those in No. 2,
but in far better order.
Nos. 6 Princelet Street
Formerly No. 3 Princes Street
Rebuilt
This was the only house on the estate to have
been built by William Goswell, the carpenter who
was so prominent on the Tillard estate (but see
Nos. 23 and 25 Fournier Street). Wood and
Michell granted him in February 1721/2 a
sixty-one-year building lease of the site, on which
he had erected a house with a ’work house’ behind
it. (ref. 65) The site had in August 1721 been agreed to
be let to Goswell. (ref. 67)
In June 1722 he assigned the lease to a framework knitter. (ref. 68)
In 1846 the occupant was rated
for both house and warehouse. (ref. 43)
The house has been rebuilt together with-Nos. 8 and 10 as a single building of no interest.
Nos. 8–12 (even) Princelet Street.
Formerly Nos. 4 and 5 Princes Street
Nos. 8 and 10 rebuilt with No. 6
Nos. 8 and 10 were originally one house. The
two houses were built by John Edding (or Eding),
citizen and carpenter of London, to whom Wood
and Michell granted sixty-one year building leases
in August 1721, he then having built the houses,
with a warehouse behind No. 8/10. (ref. 69) No. 12
at least was already built in May 1721. (ref. 70) In
January 1724/5 Edding assigned his lease of No.
8/10, together with land in Bunhill Fields, to a
cutler. (ref. 71)
In 1831 and 1846 No. 8/10 was used as a
police station. (ref. 43)
No. 12 (Plate 70a) is a single-fronted house,
two rooms deep, with cellar-basement, three
storeys, and a roof garret. The ground storey,
with the doorway on the left of two windows, has
been faced with stucco to the same Doric design
as No. 4, but the upper two storeys are original
and faced with yellow brick. Each storey has three
evenly spaced windows, with jambs and gauged
flat arches of red brick, and exposed flush frames
containing sashes with slender glazing bars. The
vertical face of the garret storey is entirely windowed.
Nos. 14–24 (even) Princelet Street
Formerly Nos. 6–11 (consec.) Princes Street
No. 24 rebuilt
All these houses, with the possible exception of
No. 18, were built by Samuel Worrall under building leases granted him in 1721 by Wood and
Michell (Plate 70a). Those of Nos. 14 and 16
were granted in May for sixty-one years and those
of Nos. 20–24 in August for ninety-nine years, in
all the leases the houses being described as already
built. (ref. 72)
In May of 1723 Worrall surrendered his lease
of No. 14 to Wood and Michell who granted it to
the occupant, a dyer. (ref. 73) In October 1726 Worrall
assigned his leases of Nos. 20 and 24 for £600 to a
physician (ref. 74) who in 1736 was granted the freehold
of these houses and of No. 22 by Wood and
Michell. (ref. 75)
No. 16 was occupied in 1736 and 1750 by
John Sabatier, who in the latter year also occupied
No. 14 (ref. 43) (see page 217). In 1825 its basement
area was said to be lined with Dutch tiles. The
house was doubtless refronted by H. J. Tolley of
17 Hanbury Street, a builder, shortly before he
was granted the lease of it in November 1825, to
run from 1822, he having been at the expense of
’repairing and improving’ the premises.
No. 20 was occupied in 1783 and 1793 by the
Rev. François Gauteral, minister of the French
Churches of La Patente and the Artillery. (ref. 76)
Nos. 14, 16, 20 and 22 were built as a uniform
range, but No. 20 alone preserves to a marked
degree its original appearance. All are single-fronted houses, two rooms deep, but No. 20 is
wider than the others as its upper part extends
over the passage entrance to No. 18, which lies
behind No. 16. Each house contains three storeys,
Nos. 14 and 16 have weavers’ garrets, and all,
except No. 20, have cellar-basements. The fronts
of Nos. 14 and 22 have three windows in each
upper storey, and No. 20 has four. The facing is
of yellow brick relieved by the red brick jambs and
gauged flat arches of the windows, those of the
second storey having raised brick keyblocks. The
windows have wooden sills and exposed flush
frames, but the sashes at No. 20 are modern. The
wooden doorcase of No. 20 resembles that of
No. 9, on the north side, and its architrave head,
plain frieze and cornice-hood are carried across
the passage entry to No. 18, originally linking, no
doubt, with a similar doorcase at No. 16, a house
refronted in the style of the 1820's, with only two
windows in each upper storey of its yellow brick
face. At No. 16 all the windows have gauged
flat arches, but those of the second storey are set
in shallow recesses with arched heads and underlined by a stucco bandcourse. The ground storey of
No. 14 is faced with channel-jointed stucco, with
triple keyblocks to the door and window openings.
The original front door remains, surmounted by a
later metal fanlight. The upper part is unchanged
and the windows have sashes with slender glazing
bars. The same applies to No. 22, where the
ground storey is faced with plain stucco and the
door has a simple doorcase of wood, probably of
early nineteenth-century date. The interiors of
all these houses were finished in the same style as
No. 2, noted above.
No. 18, which was occupied in 1723 and 1759
as a dwelling-house by Samuel Worrall and in
1773 by Elizabeth Worrall, (ref. 77) stands at the back
of these houses, approached by a doorway and
passage between Nos. 16 and 20. It looked east
on to a yard which in 1738 ’ was heretofore and is
in part now used’ by Worrall as a carpenter's yard.
When Church (now Fournier) Street was built to
the south, a passageway was also made into the
yard from that side, between the present Nos. 33
and 35 Fournier Street (ref. 78) (fig. 58). In Rocque's
map of 1746 the yard is shown as a timber-yard.
The gateway, passage and yard were included in
the building lease of No. 20 in August 1721: (ref. 79)
the house is not then mentioned but was occupied
by Worrall by April 1723. (ref. 80)
It is a free-standing house, similar in size and
plan to the average double-fronted house in this
neighbourhood, containing a cellar-basement and
three storeys, each with one room on either side of
the staircase. The east-facing front has been refaced with yellow brick, but the original pattern
remains, with two windows on each side of the
doorway and five windows in each upper storey.
The doorway retains its wooden doorcase, a Doric
example with plain-shafted columns supporting a
triangular pedimented entablature. The back
wall is without windows other than the small
ovals lighting the staircase. The rooms inside are
finished in a simple style, with plain rebated
panelling and chimneypieces of wood or stone.
The dog-leg staircase has closed strings, turned
balusters of simple profile, column-newels, and
moulded straight handrails.
No. 26 Princelet Street and No. 63
Brick Lane
Formerly No. 12 Princes Street and No. 188 Brick Lane
Rebuilt
The corner house was occupied in 1706 by Henry Coates, a dyer, who in that year was given
leave to make a drain for his house and dyehouse
in Brick Lane. (ref. 81) The house was probably newly
built at that time, like those on the opposite side of
Princelet Street. In 1717 Coates was said lately
to have erected a ’mancion house’ and dyehouse
on the site: in that year he granted a mortgage
lease of it, the further assignment of which in 1727
was witnessed by Samuel Worrall. (ref. 82) In 1721
Coates's garden occupied the site of No. 26, between his house and the easternmost house built
by Wood and Michell. (ref. 83) On Rocque's map the
garden is built over but with a passageway to a
yard at the back. The premises were occupied by
dyers until at least the 1830's. The site is now
occupied by buildings of no interest.
Nos. 1–5 (odd) Princelet Street
Formerly Nos. 26–24 (consec.) Princelet Street
These houses are on the north side of Princelet
Street; like Nos. 8–12 (even) Wilkes Street to
their north, they were built by Marmaduke
Smyth (or Smith), citizen and blacksmith of London, under ninety-nine-year building leases granted
to him by Wood and Michell in February 1721/2,
the three-storeyed brick houses being then already
built. (ref. 84)
Marmaduke Smith, a carpenter, who was
active elsewhere on the estate, and who is perhaps
identifiable with this lessee, lived at No. 5 in 1724
and 1725. (ref. 53)
In 1743 and 1750 both Nos. 3 and 5 were
occupied by clergymen.
No. 1 is a double-fronted house, one room deep
and four storeys high, the fourth being, presumably, a mid-nineteenth-century addition, replacing the original roof garret. The front, which
is five windows wide, appears to have been rebuilt
on the lines of the original work, in yellow brick
with gauged flat window arches of red brick, but
the face has been stuccoed up to the cornice below
the fourth storey. The original front door is
framed by a Victorian Classical doorcase in
cement.
Nos. 3 and 5 are paired single-fronted houses,
two rooms deep, with rebuilt fronts of yellow
brick, three storeys high and three windows wide.
The original weather-boarded face of the garret
storey can be seen rising behind the parapet.
Nos. 9–19 (odd) Princelet Street,
including Synagogue (No. 19)
Formerly Nos. 23–18 (consec.) Princes Street
No. 11 rebuilt
These six houses were built under contracts
each relating to an individual house, between
1718 and 1720. They were, with the houses on
the south side of Hanbury Street, on to which
they backed, the first to be built on the estate. The
easternmost two houses, Nos. 19 and 17, formed
part of the only two plots that ran back to include
a northern frontage on Hanbury Street, and were
disposed of by Wood and Michell outright
instead of in the usual manner by a building lease
to the person responsible for erecting the house
who would then assign it to the occupant or to a
mortgagee.
No. 9 was leased in August 1720 by Wood and
Michell for ninety-nine years to Samuel Worrall, (ref. 85)
who in July 1724 assigned the lease to Michell's
son and heir, Richard Michell. (ref. 86) In 1750 and
1759 it was occupied by Peter Lewis Saubergue, a
silk broker and a trustee under the Local Act of
1772. (ref. 87) In 1812 and again in 1831 it was
occupied by ministers, probably of the French
Church in Brown's Lane. (ref. 43)
It is a three-storeyed house, one room deep,
with a roof garret. The front, probably refaced,
is of yellow brick with red brick jambs and segmental arches to the windows, of which there are
two in the ground storey, on the right of the door,
and four evenly spaced in each upper storey. The
wooden doorcase has a moulded architrave flanked
by narrow panelled pilasters with fluted consoles
supporting a cornice-hood. There is a similar
doorcase at No. 20 on the south side of the street.
No. 11 was in part erected by Daniel Bray,
citizen and painter of London, in June 1719
when he was granted a sixty-year building lease by
Wood and Michell. In September Bray made a
mortgage assignment to a soapmaker of St.
Martin in the Fields, to secure £105. (ref. 88) In 1724
the house was occupied by a clergyman, probably
the minister of the French Church in Brown's
Lane, on which its back garden abutted, and in
1766 was occupied by Alexander Christie, perhaps
the carpenter who proposed to rebuild Nos. 37–41
(odd) Hanbury Street in 1750. (ref. 43)
The house has been rebuilt and is of no interest.
No. 13 was said to be ’in building’ by Edward
Buckingham in February 1718/19 (ref. 89) and to be in part erected by or at the charge of Buckingham,
who was a mason of St. Clement Danes, in June
1719, when he was granted a sixty-year building
lease by Wood and Michell. (ref. 90) In 1728 the lease
was assigned to a tailor by Jeremiah Buckingham,
Edward Buckingham's son, also a mason of St.
Clement Danes. (ref. 91) It was occupied in 1850 by a
clergyman, probably a minister of the French
Church in Brown's Lane. (ref. 43)
Like No. 15, the house was perhaps rebuilt
shortly before 1812. (ref. 43) A single-fronted house,
two rooms deep, it has a front of three storeys,
three windows wide, that has been rebuilt in hard
red brick. The segmental-headed windows have
modern or refaced flush frames with modern
sashes. The interior retains some plain rebated
panelling and the hall ends with a plain arch rest
ing on consoles. The dog-leg staircase has closed
strings, turned balusters and newels with similar
profiles, and moulded straight handrails.
No. 15 was said in September 1718 to be newly
built by Worrall, (ref. 92) but the uncertainty about the
actual responsibility for building is very apparent
here. Like No. 17 it was still said to be partly
erected in February 1718/19, when a sixty-year
building lease of it was granted by Wood and
Michell to ’John Vunmandine’ (elsewhere
Ummandine), citizen and glazier of London. (ref. 89)
In May 1719 it was still said to be in part erected
when Ummandine mortgaged it, to secure £272,
to Worrall and Samuel Phipps, the mortgage
being discharged in November. (ref. 93) It was still
said to be ’in building’ by Ummandine in June. (ref. 90)
In September he assigned the lease to a vintner
who in January 1719/20 assigned it to Peter
Bourdon, the weaver who was responsible for the
building of No. 27 Fournier Street. (ref. 89) In 1724 and
1759 it was occupied by Daniel Pilon, who in
1745 undertook to raise a body of forty-nine of
his workmen to resist the Young Pretender. (ref. 94)
It has a rebuilt front of about 1800 in yellow
brick with gauged flat arches of red brick to the
two windows of each upper storey. The original
six-panelled door, surmounted by a metal fanlight,
is framed by a Victorian doorcase of cement,
set against the stuccoed ground storey.
No. 17 was said in September 1718 to have
been built by Samuel Phipps, bricklayer, who then,
together with Wood, Michell, Haulsey, Hatton
and Worrall, conveyed it by a lease and release
to Daniel Lee of Stepney, weaver. The site at the
back, including No. 28 Hanbury Street, also built
by Phipps, was included in the conveyance. The
house was apparently built by Phipps under an
agreement with Worrall made in September 1717,
Worrall having come to an agreement with Wood
and Michell probably relating to the whole or
greater part of the estate in the previous month. (ref. 95)
The house was, however, still described as ’in
building’ by Phipps in February 1718/19. (ref. 89) In
1724 Daniel Lee was the occupant. (ref. 43) In 1769,
1773 and 1783 the house was occupied by Samuel
Ireland, junior, a weaver, (ref. 96) whose uncle was in
1769 a member of Christ Church Vestry. The
occupant was probably a relation of the Samuel
Ireland of Wheler Street, bricklayer, who is
known to have been active in Spitalfields in about
1738–58, and also of Samuel Ireland (d. 1800),
the engraver, collector and topographical author,
who began life as a weaver in Spitalfields. (ref. 97)
The easternmost house, No. 19, abutting east
on the houses already built by Joseph Truman on
his part of Joyce's Garden, was said in September
1718 to have been built by Samuel Worrall, (ref. 92) to
whom it was conveyed in July 1719 by a lease and
release from Wood and Michell together with
their trustees, Edward Haulsey and Richard
Hatton of Lincoln's Inn: the conveyance also
comprised a site at the back, including No. 30
Hanbury Street, likewise built by Worrall. (ref. 98) In
February 1721/2 Worrall conveyed the ground,
probably as a mortgage, to a drugster, a draper and
a glover, (ref. 99) and these, together with Worrall,
made a further conveyance to a needlemaker in
December 1722. (ref. 100) In 1743 and 1750 it was
occupied by Peter Abraham Ogier who in 1745
undertook to raise a body of twenty-eight of his
workmen to resist the Young Pretender. (ref. 94) This
house, with a building at the back, is now a
synagogue (see below).
Nos. 17 and 19 are paired houses, single-fronted
and two rooms deep, with cellar-basements, three
storeys, and roof garrets. Above the altered and
stucco-faced ground storey the fronts are uniform
and resemble those of Nos. 12, 14, 20 and 22 on
the south side. They are of yellow brick, and the
three windows of each storey have red brick jambs
and gauged flat arches with raised keyblocks to
the first-floor windows only. The stucco-faced
ground storey of No. 19 has three rusticated
arches, contrived, no doubt, to provide an imposing frontispiece to the synagogue built at the back
of the house.
The synagogue is said to have been founded here in 1862 on migration from Fashion Street. (ref. 101)
It first appears in the Post Office Directory in
1871, as the United Friends' Synagogue. The
synagogue, built at the back, was reopened after
alterations in March 1893, and was thereafter
known as the Princes (now Princelet) Street
Synagogue.
Nos. 21–25 (odd) Princelet Street
Formerly Nos. 17–15 (consec.) Princes Street
These houses (Plate 70b), together with Nos.
32–38 (even) Hanbury Street and Nos. 65–79
(odd) Brick Lane, were originally built in 1705–6
by Joseph Truman, the brewer, on a piece of
Joyce's Garden bought from Samuel Hannott and
his wife Elizabeth in 1705. (ref. 102) In December 1705
the eight houses fronting Brick Lane were newly
built, when Truman applied to the Tower Hamlets Commissioners of Sewers for leave to make a
drain from the house-cellars into the ’Great
Sewer’ in Booth Street (now Princelet Street east
of Brick Lane). (ref. 103) The Princelet Street and
Hanbury Street houses were doubtless built at
the same time. This part of Princelet Street was
built by April 1713. (ref. 104)
No. 21 was occupied in 1750 by Daniel Gobbee, who in 1745 had undertaken to raise a body
of seventy of his workmen to resist the Young
Pretender. (ref. 94) In 1836 and 1841 it was used as a
police station. (ref. 43)
No. 23 was occupied in 1724 by Colonel
Thomas Exelbee, who had been admitted a member of the Honourable Artillery Company in
1714, as of Phoenix Street, Spitalfields, and who
was from 1724 to 1727 a lieutenant-colonel in
the Tower Hamlets Trained Bands. (ref. 105) In 1729
he was warden of the Weavers' Company. (ref. 106)
No. 25, the largest house of the three, was
occupied between at least 1743 and 1793 by a ’ John
Baker’, described at the earlier date as’Esquire’. (ref. 43)
This name probably represents successive occupants. John Baker was described in 1740 and 1744
as a merchant (ref. 107) and in 1763 as a gold and silver
brocade and flowered-silk weaver. (ref. 108) He was a
trustee for the Spitalfields almshouses in 1744, (ref. 38)
and a John Baker was a trustee or commissioner
under the Local Acts of 1753, 1772 and 1782.
The occupant of No. 25 in the 1740's was
probably the John Baker of Spitalfields who undertook in 1745 to raise a body of seventy-five of his
workmen to resist the Young Pretender and who,
as ’Mr. Alderman Baker’, presented to the King a
declaration of loyalty by a Spitalfields association. (ref. 39) <The identification of John Baker as the Alderman Baker who presented the declaration to the King is incorrect. The latter was William Baker (information supplied by the V and A Textiles Department, May 1958).>
The group of houses in Princelet Street, Brick
Lane and Hanbury Street of which these form a
part was built in uniform style. Nos. 21 and 23
are single-fronted and two rooms deep, No. 25 is
double-fronted and one room deep, and all have
cellar-basements and four storeys. The fronts
were originally uniform and are built of yellow
brick, red brick being used for the bandcourses
between the storeys, and for the jambs and gauged
flat arches of the windows. These are evenly
spaced, the single-fronted houses having three in
each upper storey, and the double having five. In
addition there are narrow blind windows on the
extreme right of the second and third storeys of
No. 25. All the windows, except those in the
rebuilt top storey of No. 25, have exposed flush
frames, generally with modern sashes. There are,
however, some late eighteenth-century sashes
with slender glazing bars at No. 21. The front
was originally finished with a moulded wooden
cornice. (ref. 109) Wooden doorcases, still existing at
Nos. 21 and 25, were probably standardized for
all these houses. The tall rectangular door
opening has a moulded architrave frame, flanked
by narrow panelled pilasters with carved consoles
supporting the cornice-hood, this last being missing
from No. 21. The back elevation, also of yellow
brick, has bandcourses between the storeys, but
the flush-framed windows have segmental
arched heads. The interiors were simply finished,
the rooms being lined and partitioned with plain
rebated panelling.