Old and New London, A Narrative of its History, its People and its Places. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings from the Most Authentic Sources. vol 3
Thornbury, Walter
1872-78
Chapter XVIII: The Strand:--Northern Tributaries.
Chapter XVIII: The Strand:--Northern Tributaries.
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That the Strand, especially that part of it which lay nearest to the royal theatres, bore no good reputation in the days of our great-grandfathers, may be gathered from Gay's The poet, who speaks of the dangers of the purlieus of , gives an equally bad character to the inhabitants of , in spite of the derivation of its name from the Greek word denoting The street, it may be added, is now chiefly devoted to -class eating-houses, and the shops of newsvendors and advertising agents. About half-way down the street, on the eastern side, at No. , is the office of the , a newspaper which in worthy of record here, since the publication of its number, in , marked an era in the history of the cheap press, as being the halfpenny daily paper started in London. | |
In were published the and , the , the , the , and also the in the last days of its existence. The also was published here for many years. The upper part of the thoroughfare was formerly called , but the were made into -and called by the authority of the Board of Works in . | |
Before going further westward we may notice | |
p.111 | that at No. , Strand, opposite , now the office of the published for many years prior to its decease in , at the age of more than a century, the . This was the organ of the Whig party in the days of Fox, and afterwards in those of Lord Grey, Lord Melbourne, and Lord John Russell; and under the successive editorships of Mr. J. Perry and Mr. John Black it obtained a leading position such as that now held by the . Among the contributors of literary and political articles who, during the years of its existence, were frequent visitors to the editor's inner room, were Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Professor Porson, Jekyll, the wit and M.P., David Ricardo, James Mill, the historian, Lords Erskine and Durham, Fonblanque, Horace Smith, Mr. Poulett Thompson (afterwards Lord Sydenham), Harry Brougham, Lord (then ) Campbell, Joseph Hume, Mr. J. R. M'Culloch, Sir John Bowring, Mr. Charles Buller, and Mr. N. W. Senior. The supposed ghost of Sir Philip Francis also haunted the editorial sanctum, and it will not be forgotten that it was as a reporter on the staff of the that Charles Dickens earned some of the -pound notes which afterwards flowed into his pocket so freely. |
The following story will serve to illustrate at once the character of Mr. Black (who died in ) and the position of the in its palmy days:--Mr. Black was a great favourite with Lord Melbourne when the latter was Prime Minister. His lordship esteemed him not only for his great learning, his wonderful memory, his apt illustration of every topic of discourse by an apparently inexhaustible fund of anecdote derived from the most recondite sources, but for his simplicity and . John Black was a modern Diogenes in everything but his ill-nature. On occasion Lord Melbourne said to him, The editor opened his eyes with astonishment. Mr. Black was about to apologise, but the Premier continued, added his lordship,
said Mr. Black,
said the peer,
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On the west side of , and covering the ground now occupied by the Gaiety Theatre and Restaurant and the adjacent buildings, formerly stood Wimbledon House, a noble mansion built at the close of the or early in the century by Sir Edward Cecil, son of Thomas, Earl of Exeter. He was an eminent military character in the reigns of James I. and Charles I., by the latter of whom he was created Viscount Wimbledon; but, as he died without issue, the title ceased at his death. This mansion was burnt down, as we learn from John Stow, in , the next day after its noble owner's country seat at Wimbledon had been accidentally destroyed by an explosion of gunpowder. Strange to say, the name of Wimbledon House is entirely forgotten in this neighbourhood, its memory not being perpetuated even by a court or an alley. | |
Part of the site of Wimbledon House was afterwards occupied by a shop which has never been outdone in name and fame even in these days of monster establishments. The following account of it we take from the :-- To this gentleman it is that the alludes in of its papers, when it says that In another paper (No. ) the gentleman who was so fond of striking bold strokes in dress characteristically observes: In Vanbrugh's , in the scene in , Lady Fanciful says to Mademoiselle, pointing to Lady Brute and Belinda,
D'Oyley's warehouse, however, was celebrated not for this article alone, but in general for its woollen manufactures. Steele, it may be remembered, speaks in the (No. ) of his and Dryden in place mentions but if we may believe Gay's these articles were more elegant than useful in winter, and but a sorry protection against the cold. | |
It was only at some date between and that the name of disappeared from the annual issues of Messrs. Kelly's Post . The site of this famous warehouse is now the printing and publishing offices of the , and newspapers. | |
has witnessed some of those early struggles which either make or mar the lives of literary men. It is well known to every reader of Boswell that it was in this street that Dr. Johnson, on his arrival in London, lodged and dined at a staymaker's, paying for his keep the large sum of fourpence-halfpenny per day; and that he was living here when he and his friend Garrick
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Running obliquely from the bottom of to was formerly a small arcade, built by the late Marquis of Exeter-a lineal descendant of the great Lord Burghley, whose family still own the property--with the view of resuscitating the glories of old Exeter 'Change. He entrusted the work to Mr. Sydney Smirke, the wellknown architect, who designed a polygonal compartment at each end of the arcade, which comprised neat shops with dwellings over them. There were But the place, as a business speculation, was a total failure; the public gave the arcade the shops were mostly tenantless, and an air of solitariness and desertion seemed to take possession of it. The site was in the end considered eligible as part of the design for .alarge music hall, fronting the Strand; and within the year , after a short and struggling career, the arcade disappeared. The Strand Music Hall, which rose upon its site, does not appear to have been much more successful than its predecessor, for in a very short time. the company, under whose auspices the music hall was erected, collapsed, and the building underwent another transformation. An elegant and fashionable theatre--the with a commodious and, well-appointed restaurant adjoining, has taken its place. | |
The which was opened in , will seat persons. It was built from the designs of Mr. C. J. Phillips, and in the Gothic style of architecture. The entrance in the Strand leads by a few steps to the level of the stalls, and by a spacious staircase to the balcony or grand tier, and the upper boxes. Another entrance in , designed as a private entrance for the Royal Family, is available as an exit way in case of a sudden panic, there being a stone staircase from the doorway to the highest part of the theatre, with communications on every level. The entrances to the pit and gallery are in , and the stage entrance is in . The columns supporting the various tiers of boxes, &c., are carried up to a sufficient height above the gallery, and from the cap springs a series of pointed arches, supporting cornice and coved ceiling, in the centre of which is a sun-light burner. There is a- depth of some feet below the stage, for sinking large scenes, and a height of feet above. The decoration of the interior is striking and effective, a very noticeable feature being the frieze over the proscenium, which was designed and painted by Mr. H. S. Marks. It represents a king and queen of mediaeval times, with surrounding courtiers, watching a which is being performed before them. The deserves the | |
p.113 | credit, be it great or small, of having been the to acclimatize in London what is known as the
of Paris. The pieces played. on the night of the opening were the operetta of and a comedy drama, entitled , in the last of which pieces the veteran Mr. Alfred Wigan displayed some admirable acting. The opening night closed with the extravaganza of . The entertainment given at the consists of drama, farce, operetta, extravaganza, &c.; and there is a constant change in both programme and actors. A cafe, on the French model, was attached to the theatre at starting; but it was afterwards separated, owing to the stringency of a clause in the Licensing Act. |
In has been printed and published, for nearly half a century, the recognised daily organ of the fashionable world, the number of which appeared on the , years before the establishment of the . The paper was origin nally published at No. , but it was removed to the Strand, and subsequently to its present site in . Its earliest editor, the. Rev. Henry Bate Dudley, an eccentric clergyman, who was at once a man abbut the town of fashion, an Essex rector, a Cambridgeshire magistrate, and a political and dramatic writer. At time he held a deanery in Ireland. Whilst editor of the he inserted an article which happened to give offence to a Captain Stoney, and, on refusing to give up the writers' name, he received a challenge, which he accepted. The parties adjourned to the Tavern, in the Strand, hard by, and called for a private room and a brace of pistols. These having failed, the combatants resorted to swords, and, both being wounded, they were separated with some difficulty. Dudley (who, having made the acquaintance of the Prince Regent, in after life was created a baronet) soon after this quarrelled with the proprietors of the , and established the as its rival. In a pirated editioff the was brought out, but soon suppressed by an affidavit sworn at that the paper established in was
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Among the contributors to the during the half century of its existence were Charles Lamb, Robert Southey, Sir J. Mackintosh, William Wordsworth, Arthur Young, and S. T. Coleridge. Lord Byron alludes to this latter fact in the canto of -- The connection of Coleridge with the paper dated from , when he began to supply and years later, as he tells us himself, he was of the paper. He ceased to write for the regularly in . More recently the paper numbered among its contributors William Jerdan, Thomas Moore, W. Mackworth Praed, and Mr. James Stephen, afterwards M.P., the father of the late Sir James Stephen. On account of the adherence of its managers to the side of George IV., in the trial of Queen Caroline, the office was more than once attacked by the Radical party; and its windows were broken with brickbats by the mob because the editor refused to illuminate his windows to celebrate the release of Sir Francis Burdett from the Tower. Lord Byron, in more than passage of his poems, mentions the Morning by name, and on occasion he records the fact that the literature of the Prince Regent at his breakfast table at Carlton House consisted of Elsewhere he couples it with the then brilliant and high-standing papers, the and the , and it is worth noting that editor of Byron commences his list of with an extract from
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On the site of Exeter House, and of its successor, the of the age of our grandfathers, antiquaries tell us that there once stood the rectory-house belonging to St. Clement Danes' parish, Such, at all events, was the case until a certain Sir Thomas Palmer, during the reign of Edward VI., came into possession of the living, which he lost by forfeiture for treason. Sir Thomas pulled down the house, and Sir. T. Palmer is called his mansion In the year of Mary it reverted to the Crown, in which it remained vested until it was granted by Elizabeth to Sir William Cecil, her Lord Treasurer, who enlarged and partly rebuilt it, and called it Burleigh or Cecil House. According to Pennant, Burleigh House was As appears from ancient plans, it faced the Strand, its gardens extending
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Cecil, when he became Lord Burleigh, was honoured in this house by a visit from Queen Elizabeth, who, knowing him to be a martyr to the gout, would allow him to sit in her presence. This was, of course, a great concession from such an imperious queen, even to such a favourite; and when he would apologise for the weak state of his legs, her Majesty would playfully remark, Allen remarks, in his that Lord Burleigh spent most of his days between this house and his country residence at Theobalds, in Hertfordshire. we learn from the
a very large sum indeed in those days, | |
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Lord Burleigh died here in . The house afterwards passed into the hands of his son Thomas, who, being created Earl of Exeter, gave it that name, which it retained almost to our own days. After the Fire of London it was occupied for some few years by the members of , and the various courts of the Arches, the Admiralty, &c., were carried on here. At last, being deserted by the family, it was divided, the lower part being turned into shops of various descriptions, while the upper part, containing a menagerie of wild beasts and reptiles, became known as
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Exeter 'Change, when it arose on the ruins of Exeter House, was in no sense externally beautiful, being designed wholly and solely. for busines purposes. It consisted of spacious floors, which contained apartments on each side fitted up as shops for milliners, sempstresses, hosiers, &c., and has been from time to time the home of many interesting exhibitions. It appears to have passed through several phases of existence during the last centuries. It is said by Malcolm to have been built, as it stood till lately, about the time of William and Mary, by a Dr. Barbon, who mortgaged it to the Duke of Devonshire and Sir Francis Child. In the lower storey comprised shops, mostly occupied by milliners, while the upper storey was tenanted by the In , John Gumley, of whom little is known beyond his name, rented the upper part of the building as a warehouse for pier-glasses, &c.; and it is worthy of note that Sir Richard Steele devotes part of of his papers in the Tatler to what looks much lke what Mr. Sneer, in would have called a in his favour In it was used by a Mr. Cany as an exhibition room for the display of a wonderful bed, eighteen feet in height, for the sight of which--still more wonderful-visitors paid half-a-crown! In the body of the poet Gay lay in state here before its interment in . In , Malcolm tells us and in the eccentric Lord Baltimore's body here lay in state before its removal in a hearse to Epsom. For some years after this it appears to have storing the printed volumes of the Rolls, and Journals of the . After this it became and as such it long contained a most place of resort, being constantly visited by The beasts were in cages and dens upstairs, the lower part being made a thoroughfare lined with shops on either side, like the Lowther and Burlington Arcades of our own day. | |
Thornton, in his in , describes it as
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In the early part of the present century the front of Exeter 'Change, projecting as it did over the pavement of the Strand, and daubed all over with pictures of monsters and wild beasts between its Corinthian pillars, must have presented a grotesque appearance not easily to be forgotten by the who came in shoals to see it; and its attractions were heightened in the eyes of the children by Mr. Pidcock's sham Yeoman of the Guard, stationed outside (like the Beef-eaters at the Tower), to invite the passers-by to step in and see the lions, tigers, elephants, and monkeys. | |
It appears that the wild beasts, which formed such an attraction to the Londoners and their at the commencement of the present entury, had not become domesticated in Exeter 'Change so early as . At all events, Northouck, in his published in that year, is silent on the subject, and speaks of it only as an old-fashioned building erected for the purposes of trade, and consisting of a long room with a row of shops on each side, and a large room above, The 'Change itself projected into the street so as greatly to narrow it; and Northouck remarks that in his opinion it ought to be taken down, the street being greatly contracted by its projection, and by and his opinion will be confirmed on referring to our engraving of its frontage (see page ). | |
The menagerie was successively occupied by Pidcock, Polito, and Cross; and some half a century ago the sight lover had to pay halfa- crown to see a few animals confined in small dens and cages in rooms of various size, the walls painted with exotic scenery, in order to favour the illusion; whereas now the finest collection of living animals in Europe may be seen in a beautiful garden for a shilling, and on Mondays for sixpence! The roar of the lions and tigers of Exeter 'Change could be distinctly heard in the street, and often frightened horses in the roadway. During Cross's tenancy, in , the elephant which had been shown here since , became ungovernable, as it is said, through the return of an annual paroxysm, and so greatly endangered the safety of the menagerie that it was deemed advisable to put the animal to death. For this purpose a file of soldiers was engaged, and bullets were fired before it fell. The elephant weighed nearly tons, stood feet in height, and was valued at . The skin, which weighed cwt, was sold to a tanner for ; the bones weighed lbs.; and the entire skeleton, sold for £, is now in the museum of the Royal in . had achieved some theatrical distinction: he had performed in the spectacle of , at Covent Garden; and he had kept up an intimate | |
p.117 | acquaintance with Edmund Kean, whom he would fondle with his trunk, in return for a few loaves of bread. |
Mr. J. T. Smith, in his tells us how he went late at night to the menagerie, accompanied by his friend, Sir J. Winter Lake, when they had the gratification of taking a pot of in company withChunee, whom they had met shortly before, being led by its keeper between ropes along the narrow part of the Strand. | |
The greatness of the Exeter 'Change departed with Chunee; the animals were removed to the , in , and years afterwards Exeter 'Change was entirely taken down. Previous to the opening of the in the , Exeter 'Change and the Tower were the only places in the metropolis where wild beasts could be seen alive, except in travelling menageries; and it was to those places that were taken on their arrival in London, so that to passed into a proverb. | |
The Lyceum Theatre, on the western side of what is now known as , stands on part of the site of old Exeter House, according to Newton's The ground whereon the theatre stands was purchased about the year , when the Society of Artists was incorporated, by James Payne, the architect of Salisbury House, and on it he built an academy or exhibition room, to anticipate the royal establishment then in contemplation;. and here several exhibitions took place. The apartments consisted of a large saloon, with a sky-light, and lesser rooms adjoining. Upon the insolvency of the society this place was deserted, and sold by auction to proprietors, who converted the back part of it into a theatre, and here Mr. Dibdin and Dr. Arnold exhibited their musical talents for some time. It was afterwards taken by a Mr. Porter for the exhibition of his The place was subsequently used for a variety of miscellaneous entertainments. Here, in , was shown Madame Tussaud's exhibition of waxwork figures, on her arrival in England from France. The theatre was rebuilt in , but destroyed by fire in . It was again rebuilt, and opened with English Opera in ; but although success at appeared certain, the losses of the lessee subsequently became so great that the theatre was closed in the following year. In the theatre was taken by the English Opera Company, under the management of Mr. Balfe; equestrian performances were introduced in ; and in the same yearit was re-opened with a dramatic company, under the. management of Mrs. Keeley. The Lyceum has since been under the management of, or had among its members, several theatrical celebrities, and has been used for the representation of English and Italian operas, and also for legitimate dramas. | |
Behind the scenes of this theatre are some rooms forming a sanctum unique of its kind, in which a society of noblemen and gentlemen, known as used to meet on Saturdays, from November to the end of June, to partake of a dinner of beef-steaks. writes Mr. Peter Cunningham in ,
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Among the members of this defunct association were George, Prince of Wales, and his brothers, the Dukes of York and Sussex, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Lord Sandwich, Paul Whitehead, David Garrick, Sir F. Burdett, Harry Brougham, John Wilkes, the Duke of Argyle, Alderman Wood, the Duke of Leinster, and Lord Saltoun. The club had its president and vice-president, its or chaplain, who said grace, and its as the steward or burser was called; and our readers may be amused at learning that the Dukes of Sussex and Leinster in their turn discharged the duties of Its evening for meeting was Saturday, and its festivals were of a somewhat bacchanalian character; the standing dish of from which it derived its name, being washed down by the best of ale and wine, to say nothing of stronger liquors. The wine, as it passed round the table, was always accompanied by songs; and the | |
p.118 | was the celebrated wit, Charles Morris, who in early life had been in the Life Guards, and who lived to be before he resigned his office and his life. of his effusions, composed for this club, has the following stanza:-- This song rendered Morris so great a favourite with the Prince that he adopted him into the circle of his intimate friends, and made him his constant guest both at Carlton House and at the Pavilion at Brighton. He was succeeded in his by Mr. C. Hallett. |
When the club was broken up in , the pictures of former members, which adorned the walls of the room where they assembled for dinner (mostly copies, however, not originals), were sold for only about . The plate, however, brought very high prices; the forks and table-spoons, all bearing the emblem of the club-viz., a gridironfetched about a sovereign apiece; but the grand competition was for a punch-ladle, with a handle in the shape of a gridiron, and inlaid with a Queen Anne guinea, which realised , and for the ribbon and badge of the president, a gridiron of silver, made in , and knocked down at pound;. Other articles fetched equally fancy prices, as souvenirs of a bygone institution. Thus a cheesetoaster brought pound;, a , the reputed work of B. Cellini, the gift of Dr. Askew, pound;; a brown jug of stone ware, silver mounted, pound;; a pair of halberts, pound;; an Oriental punch-bowl, presented by Lord Saltoun, pound; Some wine-glasses, engraved with the gridiron, realised from to a pair; while the pewter dishes, plates, and quart pots fetched nearly the price of silver. The chairs, which had been occupied by so many distinguished members, including that of the president, were knocked down at various prices between and apiece. The actual gridiron, which had for years been the centre of so much veneration and homage, plain as it was, fetched guineas and a half. Almost all the articles, in addition to being stamped with the gridiron, were labelled The marble bust of Wilkes, which formerly had adorned the dining-room, fell under the auctioneer's hammer for guineas. For the above particulars we are indebted to by W. Arnold, published by Messrs. Bradbury, Evans, and Co. | |
At a short distance westward of the Lyceum Theatre stands the building known to the religious and musical world as [extra_illustrations.3.118.1] . It was erected in the years -, by Mr. G. Deering, in the Graeco-Corinthian style of architecture, but has since been much improved. The Hall is feet in length by feet wide, and will contain upwards of persons. It was originally intended as a place for holding public meetings, but these are mainly confined to the month of May. At end of the Hall is a gigantic orchestra, in which, on some occasions, from to performers, vocal and instrumental, are seated. The Hall is let for the annual (above mentioned), and in other months of the year for the meetings of religious, charitable, and scientific institutions, and also for the concerts of the Sacred Harmonic and National Choral Societies, &c. | |
The sacred music performed here consists principally of oratorios by some well-known composer, and occasionally of purely church music, such as the anthems sung in Divine worship. Oratorios, like the sacred plays, are of ancient date, and, according to a writer in , were so called from the chapel or , the place where these compositions were performed. St. Filippo Neri, born in , has been considered as the founder of the oratorio. He engaged poets and composers to produce dialogues, on subjects from Scriptural and legendary history, in verse, and set to music, which were performed in his chapel or oratory on Sundays and Church festivals. The subjects were
and By far the greatest master of oratorio was Handel, who perfected that species of music, and was the to introduce it into England. On the occasion of the public performance of an oratorio in London, in the year , it was so complete a novelty that it was deemed necessary to give the following explanation in advertising it :-- The oratorio of had been privately given, some years previously, in the chapel at Cannons, | |
p.119 | the seat of the Duke of Chandos. The crowning works of Handel were and The former is considered to rank highest of all compositions of the oratorio class; but the latter has attained an even more universal popularity, and from the time when it was brought out down to the present day, it has been performed for the benefit of nearly every charitable institution in the kingdom. In Handel's time the orchestra was but very imperfectly developed; and since that period it was customary in London to have oratorios performed twice. a week during Lent in the various theatres, but these performances were given up on the institution of the oratorios at Exeter Hall. Here, and at the musical festivals throughout England, oratorios are now performed on a large scale, and with a power, a precision, and a perfection unknown elsewhere. The greatest oratorio performances, however, are now those of the Triennial Festivals at the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. At the of these festivals, in , the chorus amounted to voices, and there was an orchestra of performers; at the festival of the number exceeded . |
About half-way between Exeter Hall and and are the Vaudeville and the Theatres. The former, which was erected in the year , from the designs of Mr. C. J. Phillips, is a neat building internally, but has very little pretension to architectural display in its exterior It will seat about persons, and was built for the performance of comedy, burlesque, and farce. The pieces produced on the opening night were , a comedy by Mr. A. Halliday, and a burlesque, entitled Don . | |
The [extra_illustrations.3.119.1] stands opposite , and is the building of the kind that has stood here. Mr. John Scott, colour-maker, of the Strand, was the original architect, and it was built in under his superintendence. The old theatre was pulled down in the summer of , and the present edifice, the stone of which was laid by Mr. Benjamin Webster, in his Masonic capacity, was erected, and opened on [extra_illustrations.3.119.2] of the same year. The has been principally celebrated for melodramas, and for the attractiveness of its comic actors. . | |
Parallel with the Strand at this part, and to the south of , is , sometimes, though erroneously, supposed to have been so called from a sisterhood of nuns, attached to the abbey, whose sheltered it bounded on the southern side. In early rate-books of , Covent Garden, it is spoken of as , behind the Inn. Bullin Court, no doubt, marks the site of the inn here mentioned. In Voltaire lodged during his visit to London in , and in it lived Andrew Marvell, of whom we have already made mention as an honest member of Parliament, and whose name we shall again have occasion to record as a satirist, when we come . Here, too, at time, lived Archbishop Sancroft, the nonjuror, before he had taken his seat on the episcopal bench. No. in was a tavern called the a house which gained some notoriety in its day. It was a favourite haunt of Professor Porson, converted into a
says Mr. Peter Cunningham, Here also at No. , on the north side, was born, in , no less an artist than [extra_illustrations.3.119.3] , his father being at that time a hair-dresser and a householder. Here the great painter early began to draw direct from Nature, and from the scenery which came readiest to his hand and a front room in the old house in Malden Lane is said to have been his studio. The house has been rebuilt within the last few years. | |
was so called in compliment to Lady Rachel Russell, daughter of Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, and wife of William, Lord Russell, the patriot. At No. in this street Garrick resided before his removal to the . Mrs. Oldfield, the actress, also lived in . was the stable-yard to Bedford House; and where Tavistock and York Streets meet was
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In was a celebrated eatinghouse, known as which is several times mentioned by Pope and Walpole. Its exact site is not known, but it is recorded that the steps of its back door were on the south side of Denmark Court. Pope writes in his -- And again, in his he expresses himself in terms which would seem to imply that the house was well known for its good fare:-- And this is confirmed by the fact that Paul Whitehead ordered for himself and a party of gay roisterers a at the as Horace Walpole tells his correspondent, Sir Horace Mann, under date . There | |
p.120 | is now a in this street, but it is a new tavern, and does not inherit the traditions of the former house. |
In Exchange Court, on the north side, between Nos. and , Strand, near , are the head-quarters of the Corps of Commissionaires, a set of men who, having served in the army, the navy, or the police, and having good characters and being in the receipt of pensions, are willing to earn a livelihood by going on messages, delivering circulars, or being detailed off on private business. Some are permanently and others temporarily employed. They are all amenable to the authority of an adjutant, and wear a uniform. They have a mess-room, reading-room, &c., and also a military | |
| band. They were organised in the year , and at the end of their strength was a little under men, of whom all but were employed in various parts of London. | |
On what is now stood the ancient mansion of the Earls and Dukes of Bedford. It is described by Strype as having been This house and garden being demolished in , the site was covered by Tavistock, Southampton, and some other streets | |
p.121 | Before the Russell family built the town-house in the Strand they occupied, for a time, the Bishop of Carlisle's over against their newly-erected mansion, the site of which was afterwards built upon and called Stow speaks of it in as In they removed to Bedford House, Bloomsbury, of which we shall speak hereafter. |
At the corner of is now the publishing office of the . This journal was established in by [extra_illustrations.3.121.1] , who, as we learn from the and many years on the staff of the , was the son of a village farmer in Devonshire. As a boy he was of a restless disposition, and anxious to go to sea. He was apprenticed to an apothecary at Taunton, but finished his indentures with other gentlemen, at Henley-on-Thames, and the other at Beaminster. He became a student at the united hospitals of Guy's and St. Thomas's, where Sir Astley Cooper was then the popular lecturer on surgery. He passed the in , and from thence till he kept a shop in the Strand, at the east comer of . His old schoolfellow, Mr. Collard--the venerable head of the firm of pianoforte manufacturers of | |
| that name-assisted him in the or numbers of his new journal. After a time the was printed at the office of Mills, Jowett, and Mills, in Bolt Court, . was printed a, the same establishment, and Wakley, to some extent, made the style of Cobbett his model. At this time it was no uncommon occurrence for persons to meet in a little room in Mills's office. of them made themselves famous-William Cobbett, William Lawrence, and Thomas Wakley; the was a barrister of the name of Keen, who used to join the party on printing nights, probably with a view of determining whether the productions which were about to appear were libellous. The sanctum was seldom violated. The printer's boy was the only person admitted, and he in after life described the room as the scene of the utmost merriment. He could hear as he ascended the stairs the boisterous laugh of Cobbett above the rest; the loud, cheerful. good-humoured ring of Wakley; and on entering the room, could see the quiet, sneering smile of Lawrence, and hear the suppressed giggle of the lawyer. Lawrence left the when he achieved power, and his place was supplied by Wardropwitty, and able, and unscrupulous. The soon got into hot water, and the insertion of an | |
p.122 | account of a defective operation for the stone, by Mr. Bransby Cooper, the nephew of Sir Astley, led to the latter bringing against it an action for libel, which created a great sensation at the time. In addition to the report, leading articles of an exciting kind, and squibs and epigrams--some in the worst taste--were inserted. The following is given as a specimen :
Mr. Wakley defended himself on his trial, and the verdict for the plaintiff, damages, was considered to be in his favour. Outside Hall there was a large crowd who cheered him vociferously, and the newspaper kept up its type till o'clock at night in order to record the verdict. The reporter of the case, the late Mr. Lambert, was expelled the hospitals, and a board was placed in the hall of Guy's, cautioning all students against reporting for the . This restriction, however, is no longer in force, and the bitterness of the contest is almost forgotten. |
Among the many scenes enacted in the Strand, we may be pardoned for mentioning in which some of the personages whom we have already mentioned were concerned, including General Monk and the Duchess of Albemarle. On the news of Monk being called upon to concert the measures towards the restoration of royalty, in , Pepys tells us, in his that the Strand was blaze of bonfires, and that he himself counted no less than near . A day or afterwards he records a very different sight-
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Pepys has the following entry in his under date :-- (Mr. Cooling)
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Aubrey says that the mother of this low-born and low-bred duchess was of belonging to the locality, thus celebrated in a ballad of the day:--
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As Aubrey published his as early as , he is probably to be trusted on a fact which would be within his own knowledge. And he identifies the site of the blacksmith's forge with and Mr. John Timbs adds, that
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In spite of her low birth and vulgar habits, however, the Duchess of Albemarle is credited with having had a considerable hand in bringing about the Restoration. She was a great loyalist, and Monk, though not afraid of an enemy in the field, was terribly afraid of her and of her tongue; so that it is not improbable that in his case and that it was at her suggestion that he put himself at the head of the movement for bringing King Charles And yet this was the woman of whom Pepys could write in his --
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The Duchess of Albemarle seems to have been anything rather than attractive personally, but Pepys seems to have regarded her with positive aversion. He never has a good word to say for her, and calls her a and a very Could ill-nature well go further? | |
Next to , the thoroughfare of the Strand has been during the present century the chief home of that Muse who presides over the newspaper press. Here, or else in the streets leading out of it, have been published not only the , the , and the , and the , as mentioned already, but the , the , the , the , the , the , the , the , the , and the besides a host of other inferior journals, the list of whom and whose obituaries are well-nigh forgotten. It may be worth recording that in , the year prior to the reduction of the Newspaper Duty, the gross amount of duty on newspapers in the United Kingdom was . | |
p.123 | The reduction of the Newspaper Duty took effect on the . In the half-year ending , the number of newspapers stamped in Great was , and the net amount of duty received was . In the half-year ending , the number of newspapers stamped in Great was , and the net amount of duty received was ; showing an increase in the number in the last halfyear, as compared with the corresponding half-year before the reduction, of , and a loss of revenue of . Of the above number of stamps taken out in the half-year ending , stamps were issued since , when the distinctive die came into use; whereas only were issued in the months ending . |
Before quitting the literary associations of the Strand, we may note that the publisher of Samuel Rogers was Mr. Cadell, in the Strand. It was in that the former appeared in print with his The author called and left his MS. in Cadell's shop with a short note containing a bank-note to cover any possible loss that might arise from publication. Mr. Rogers lived down to the end of . [extra_illustrations.3.123.1] | |
Footnotes: [extra_illustrations.3.118.1] Exeter Hall [extra_illustrations.3.119.1] Adelphi Theatre [extra_illustrations.3.119.2] Boxing Night [extra_illustrations.3.119.3] Joseph Mallord William Turner [extra_illustrations.3.121.1] Mr. Thomas Wakley [extra_illustrations.3.123.1] An Exchange |
