Old and New London, A Narrative of its History, its People and its Places. Illustrated with Numerous Engravings from the Most Authentic Sources. vol 4
Thornbury, Walter
1872-78
The Haymarket.
The Haymarket.
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The broad street denominated the , connecting with the eastern end of , was a place for the sale of farm-produce as far back as the reign of Elizabeth; and in Aggas's plan it appears under its present name. It was then evidently a rural spot, as there were hedgerows on either side, and few indications of habitations nearer than the
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p.217 | At that time, as may be gathered from an inspection of the plan referred to, the air was so pure and clear, that the washerwomen dried their linen by spreading it upon the grass in the fields, as nearly as possible on the spot where now stands Her Majesty's Theatre. Down to the reign of William III. it was the public highway, in which carts loaded with hay and straw were allowed to stand for sale toll-free; but in the street was paved, and a tax levied on the carts according to their loads. But this was not the et held here; for, as far back as the reign of Charles II., John Harvey and another person received a grant empowering them, and their heirs after them, to hold markets here for the sale of oxen and sheep on Mondays and Wednesdays; but the grant was |
| found to violate a part of the Charter granted by Edward III. to the City of London, and was accordingly annulled. At the beginning of the eighteenth century we find the Crown, however, leasing the tolls of the for years to Derick Stork. The market for hay and straw, times a week, continued to be held here as lately as the reign of George IV., when it was removed to , near . | |
In Hatton speaks of the as and it is described by Malcolm in as
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p.218 | |
Apart from the obstruction arising from the heavy-laden carts, which on certain days occupied the middle of the street, the , and especially its eastern side, is described by Malcolm as a pleasant promenade ; and he speaks of that side as being occupied by several eminent tradesmen's houses and the of which we shall have to say more presently. | |
On the opposite, or western side, he adds, is the which he describes as
he adds, How little could he anticipate the future glories of the Italian opera on this very spot I | |
of the earliest tradesmen in the appears to have been a coal-merchant, or, as he was then styled, a vendor of sea-coal. A used by him is in the ; it bears this inscription- Reverse- About half-way down, on the east side, at the south-west corner of , and on the site of the building now known as Clarence Chambers, stood till very recently a large house which dated from the time of Charles II.; tradition says that it was frequented by that monarch and the Duke of York, who used to walk through it to the Tennis Court at the back. | |
During the riots which ensued on the accession of William and Mary to the throne vacated by James II., the house of the minister of the Duke of Florence, which was in this street, had a narrow escape of being burnt and sacked by the mob, as was also that of the Spanish ambassador. Sir Henry Ellis, in his series of quotes from an eye-witness, dated , who describes the scene, the The attack, however, was renewed a day or afterwards, when Macaulay tells us that the house above mentioned was destroyed by the infuriated mob, who paraded the streets, almost unchecked, with oranges on the top of their drawn swords and naked pikes. he adds,
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The authors of the in their imitation of Crabbe, as shown in the line quoted as a motto for this chapter, would seem to give a bad name to the and its inhabitants, on the score of moral character, if we are to take literally the expression But if the meaning of the adjective as applied to them is to be understood in its ordinary sense, some explanation of it is certainly required; for we never heard of the assuming even the appearance of rigid virtue. | |
In a garret in this street, literally up was living Joseph Addison, when he was waited on by the Hon. H. Boyle, Chancellor of under Lord Godolphin, and requested to write a poem on the battle of Blenheim. The Whig hack jumped at the offer, and penned which led to his immediate appointment as a Commissioner of Appeals, and to his subsequent advancement by the Whig party. Unfortunately, it is impossible, by the help of letters or of the parish rate-books, to identify the house in which Addison actually lived here; for though Pope visited the house for that purpose, and saying to his companion, yet he has forgotten to record its exact whereabouts. D'Israeli, in his in noticing this incident, adds--
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Thackeray, in his own peculiar manner, thus deals with this incident in Addison's career:-- | |
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continues Thackeray,
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It is not generally known that this immediate neighbourhood was the scene of the wedding of the young lady so prettily celebrated in the cavalier song of Sir John Suckling, in which occur the oftquoted lines:-- The place is identified by the verse, which runs thus :
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Among the eccentric characters who had their haunts in and about the , was the celebrated vendor of ginger-bread and the king of itinerant dealers in such wares, who figures in Hogarth's picture of the at Tyburn. His proper name was Ford; and Mr. Frost, in his records the fact that he was so well-known a character, that once, being missed from his usual stand in the on the occasion of a visit which he paid to a country fair, a account of his alleged murder was printed, and sold in the streets by thousands. | |
But in spite of its alleged production of we find that, in the reigns of Anne and of George I., the was inhabited by a few of Thus, Lord Sackville was born in in the , where his father, he is careful to tell us, then resided. | |
Cyrus Redding tells us that he well remembered Lord Eldon often stealing into the at the top of the , to get a pint of wine, as Lady Eldon did not permit him to enjoy it in peace at home. Redding did not like Eldon, either as a Tory or as a man. he writes,
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The is said to have been the scene of the meeting between Dr. Wolcott ( ) and Madame Mara, with reference to the sale of the manuscript of the song, which the doctor had written expressly for Madame Mara, and which she had sung for the time at of her own benefits. The next day she sold the manuscript. The doctor, it appears, had already done the same, and the purchasers, after a long dispute, which neither had the power to settle, agreed to wait on Mara, and solicit her interference. She consented; and, as she was going in search of Dr. Wolcott, he happened here to cross her path. He had already heard of the circumstance, and, like the , was not disposed to refund the money he had received. said Mara.
replied the satirist;
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Dr. Wolcott, whose fondness for liquor of all kinds was notorious, might possibly at the time have been making his way to the house of Michael Kelly, the once popular singer and composer, who was in business in this street as a wine merchant. The singer had written over his door in conspicuous letters- Sheridan, it is said, suggested the following alteration- observed the wit, Sheridan's favourite haunt at this time, it may be remarked, was the in , close by. | |
Hard by was the scene of the famous assault on Sir John Coventry, which occasioned the passing of the Sir John being waylaid here on his way to or from his lodgings, and having his nose slit by some young men of high rank for an ill-timed, and perhaps ill-judged, reflection on the theatrical amours of his sovereign. | |
This episode of Sir John Coventry is mentioned by Sir Walter Scott, in his as a parallel to the assault on that poet by hired ruffians in , which we have already mentioned. He observes, that The assault on Sir John Coventry, he adds,
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On the , as we learn from Boswell's another assault of a very similar nature to the above took place here. It appears that Mr. Baretti, the author of the wellknown was going hastily up the street, when he was accosted by a woman, who behaving with great rudeness, he was provoked to give her a blow on the hand; upon which men immediately interfering and endeavouring to push him from the pavement, with a view to throw him into a puddle, he was alarmed for his safety, and rashly struck of them with a knife (which he constantly wore for the purpose of cutting fruit and sweetmeats), and gave him a wound, of which he died the next day. Baretti was arraigned at the for murder, and among the numerous witnesses called to give evidence as to character, appeared Dr. Johnson himself. This, his biographer supposes, was the only time in his life that the doctor ever appeared as a witness in a court of justice. he adds,
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Situated in the centre of the pleasure-going Westend population, the is a great place for hotels, supper-houses, and foreign ; and it need hardly be added here, that so many of its taverns became the resort of the loosest characters, after the closing of the theatres, who turned night into day, and who were so constantly appearing before the sitting magistrates in consequence of drunken riots and street rows, that the Legislature interfered, and an Act of Parliament was passed, compelling the closing of such houses of refreshment at o'clock. | |
The street and its neighbourhood have long been noted for places of amusement, and for those kinds of entertainment which are generally known as About the year I a collection of performing dogs and monkeys from Italy, and exhibited under the name of the at a place in the known as became so famous that they were made the subject of a paper in the . The writer discourses in a most learned style on the various animal prodigies and strange biped performers that had lately appeared --such as the the the the the the the the the the the the the and the
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In , or the following year, Bisset, the famous animal-trainer, hired here a room, in which he announced a public performance of the supplemented by tricks of a horse, a dog, and some monkeys. Mr. Frost, in his tells us that, he adds,
in the reign of George II., were exhibited by Fawkes, the showman, some waxwork figures, which went through the comical tragedy of
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According to a placard immortalised by Mr. John Timbs in his at No. in this street, O'Brien, the Irish Giant, whose skeleton is to be seen in the Museum of the , as already stated by us, was exhibited in . He is thus described :-- Owing to his great height he was most unwieldy, and could scarcely walk up an incline, so that he had to rest his hands for support on the shoulders of men in walking up . When he wished to light his pipe, Mr. Timbs tells us, he used to take the top off a street-lamp. Once on a journey in his own carriage he was stopped by a robber; but when he looked out of the window, the thief rode off, frightened at his height. He exhibited himself for more than years, and realised a large sum; and we are told that he was seldom absent from Bartlemy Fair. He died in . | |
Another of the principal places of amusement in the , in the early part of the present century, was Weeks's Museum. The grand room, which was upwards of feet in length, was hung entirely with blue satin, and contained a variety of figures, which exhibited the powers of mechanism. | |
At the top of the street, at the north-east corner, facing Weeks's Museum, stood a place of public amusement--in fact, a gaming-house, familiar to the readers of the comedies of the time as its name being derived from the barber of Lord Pembroke, who built it out of his earnings. It occupied the whole of the southern side of from the to Hedge Lane. It is described by Garrow in a letter to Lord Strafford, in , as For the following minute description of it we are indebted to the industry and research of John Timbs :--From a survey of the premises made in , we gather that Shaver's Hall was strongly built of brick, and covered with lead; its large cellar was divided into rooms; above these were rooms, and the same in the storey, to which there was a balcony commanding a view of the bowling-alleys that sloped to the south. In the storey were rooms, and over the same a walk with leads, and enclosed with rails, as was also the staircase throughout the house. On the west were large kitchens and coal-house, with lofts over it. At the entrance-gate to the upper bowling-green was a close to which a double flight co steps led down to the lower bowling-alley. There was still beyond this another bowling-alley, and an orchard well planted with choice fruit-trees, as also Beyond, to the south, was also This is the Tennis Court which till recently stood at the corner of , the last building shown on Faithorne's plan in . | |
On the east side of the upper part of the , in the year , if not still later, was living the widow of Colonel Thomas Panton, the successful gamester, who, having realised a sudden fortune as the keeper of a gaming-house in , had the good sense to invest his gains in a house and land, and abandon cards and the dicebox. His name is still kept up in that of , and of ; but the bulk of his wealth was carried by his daughter on her marriage into the family of Lord Arundell of Wardour, who gave his name to Arundell Street adjoining, and also, as we have said, to , in Soho. | |
On the same side of the street, opposite , stands the [extra_illustrations.4.221.1] . Its early history runs as follows : | |
In the year an enterprising carpenter named John Potter built a small playhouse in the , on the site of the
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p.222 | The cost of the building was , and Potter further expended in decorations, scenery, and dresses. He leased the theatre, immediately after its completion, to a company of French actors, who were at that time much favoured by the English aristocracy, and who performed under a temporary licence from the Lord Chamberlain. This company styled themselves that nobleman being their principal patron, and opened the new house on the , with the comedy of . At this time, and for several years afterwards, Potter's speculation was known to the play-going world as About years later, being then occupied by an English company, it began to be spoken of as --a title which it retained until the original edifice was pulled down in , having just completed a century of existence. Its site is now occupied by the In it was in the occupation of Henry Fielding, the great novelist and dramatist, with a congenial band, styled in the play-bills His opening piece was entitled , and, being a social satire of the most caustic nature, it achieved great popularity, and had a run of more than nights. Elated by his success, Fielding produced a piece, called , a political satire, which contained so audacious a caricature of Sir Robert Walpole, under the name of that the Prime Minister's resentment led to the passing of that Act which requires all dramatic pieces to be submitted to the approval of the Lord Chamberlain before they can be performed. [extra_illustrations.4.222.1] |
We are told by Mr. Frost, in his already quoted, that
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In the having passed through the hands of several managers, each of whom had only a temporary licence, was opened without the ceremony of a licence of any sort by Theophilus Cibber, who succeeded in evading the usual penalty by the manner in which his | |
p.223 | advertisements were worded. They ran thus :-- It is probable, however, that in spite of this ingenious artifice, Mr. Gibber received an official hint which induced him to announce, in the autumn of the same year, that
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In the house was daily crowded by fashionable audiences to witness Samuel Foote's humorous entertainments, entitled &c., which included life-like imitations of the most notable characters of the day. | |
of Foote's entertainment, a good story of the silly Duke of Cumberland is told by Mr. W. C. Hazlitt, in his night he was in the green-room here. said he,
answered the witty actor,
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When Foote opened this theatre, amongst other projects, he proposed to entertain the public with an imitation of cat music. For this purpose he engaged a man famous for his skill in mimicking the mewing of cats. This person was called As he did not attend the rehearsal of this odd concert, Foote desired Shuter would endeavour | |
p.224 | to find him out and bring him with him. Shuter was directed to some court in the where this extraordinary musician lived; but not being able to find the house, Shuter began a cat solo; upon this the other looked out of the window, and answered him with a cantata of the same sort. said Shuter,
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All sorts of stories are told of Foote, and some of them on very good authority. A few of them will bear repeating here. | |
Foote could not bear to see anybody or anything succeed in the but himself and his own writings, and forgot that a failure of the new scheme might possibly endanger the regular payment of his annuity. His pique broke out sometimes in downright rudeness. morning he came hopping upon the stage during the rehearsal of the , then about to be produced; the performers were busy in that scene of the piece where servant is under the influence of a sleeping draught, and another of a sneezing powder. said Foote, dryly, to the manager,
was the answer;
replied Foote;
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On another occasion he was not less coarse, though more laughable, to an actor than he had been to the manager. This happened when Digges, of much celebrity out of London, and who had come to town from Edinburgh, covered with Scottish laurels, made his appearance in the . He had studied the antiquated style of acting; in short, he was a fine bit of old stagebuckram, and was therefore selected for the essay. He in the same costume as it is to be supposed was adopted by Booth when the play was originally acted; that is, in a shape, as it was technically termed, of the stiffest order, decorated with gilt leather upon a black ground, with black stockings, black gloves, and a powdered periwig. Foote had planted himself in the pit, when Digges stalked on before the public thus formidably accoutred. The malicious wag waited till the customary round of applause had subsided, and then ejaculated, in a pretended under-tone, loud enough to be heard by all around him, The laughter which this produced in the pit was enough to knock up a , and it startled the old stager personating the Stoic of Utica; the sarcasm was irresistibly funny, but Foote deserved to be kicked out of the house for his cruelty and insolence too. | |
The theatre rarely escaped being destroyed, in , by an enraged mob, the victims of a hoax planned by the eccentric Duke of Montague, who had caused an advertisement to appear, stating that, On the appointed day thousands of persons were assembled in and around the theatre to witness the exploit, and a furious riot was the result of their disappointment. | |
In the Duke of York, who was Foote's staunch patron, obtained for him a royal patent for his life, in virtue of which the playhouse became a and Foote, who had leased it as a summer theatre since , now purchased the premises on which it was built, and greatly altered and enlarged the building. It is said that on occasion, when out on a party of pleasure with the Duke of York and other illustrious personages, Foote met with an accident which in the end was overruled to his advantage. He was thrown from his horse, and his leg being broken, he was forced to submit to amputation. It was in consequence of this accident the duke obtained for him the patent above mentioned.
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Remarkable for his wit as well as for his marvellous power of mimicry, neither friend nor patron was sacred from Foote's merciless satire, provided the person were sufficiently well known to be worth the trouble. It must, however, be urged in his defence, that his friends were no more troubled with scruples of delicacy than himself, and seem to have considered gross personalities to be the soul of wit. Foote's uncle, Captain Goodere, having been executed for the murder of his brother, Sir John Goodere, Mr. Cooke, the translator of once presented Foote to a select society, with the agreeable introductory remark,
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Another little episode in the annals of the is perhaps worth mentioning here. In the early days of the Regency--about the year -there suddenly appeared at the West-end a wealthy gentleman, of middle age, and of West Indian extraction, named Robert Coates. He was of good-figured appearance, dressed well, and even showily, and always wore a quantity of fur. At evening parties, to which he gained an entrance, | |
p.225 | his buttons and knee-buckles were studded with diamonds. There was a great mystery about his antecedents, and the public curiosity was heightened by the announcement that he proposed to appear at the in the character of By hook or by crook he contrived to arrange for this appearance, and on the night the house was crowded to suffocation, the play-bill having given out that an had consented to perform and it was generally whispered that the rehearsal gave unmistakable signs that the tragedy would be turned into a comedy. But his appearance outdid all expectations. Mr. Coates's dress was grotesque in the extreme. In a cloak of sky-blue silk, profusely spangled, red pantaloons, a vest of white muslin, and a wig of the style of Charles II., capped by an opera hat, he brought down the whole house with laughter before he opened his lips, and the laughter was increased by the fact that his nether garments, being far too tight, burst in seams which could not be concealed. But when his guttural voice was heard, and he showed his total misapprehension of every part of the play, especially in the vulgarity of his address to and in his equally absurd rendering of the balcony scene, the whole thing was so comic, that gallery and pit were equally convulsed with laughter, and the piece ended in an uproar. It is needless to add that, for the character of the theatre, Coates, as he was afterwards called, was not allowed to appear again upon the stage at the , though he possibly amused his friends by amateur performances in private. |
To this theatre belongs the somewhat eccentric and amusing story of Lady Caroline Petersham, told by Horace Walpole:-- | |
On this incident Lady Lepel Hervey remarks,
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In the theatre was engaged by Maddox, a performer on the slack wire; and it is said that his were the most prosperous entertainments ever carried on in this house. His profits in season are stated to have amounted to , being more than Garrick's a few years earlier. | |
In Foote sold his interest in the theatre to George Colman the elder for an annuity of , and Colman, on Foote's death, early in the following year, obtained the whole property for . And now, for a period of nearly years, the was the property of George Colman, passing, in , on the death of George the elder, into the hands of George the younger, under whose management it was of the most prosperous theatres in London. | |
On the , a dreadful accident happened here, through the pressure of the crowd, who had assembled in great numbers, in consequence of the play on that night having been commanded by their Majesties. On opening the pit door, the rush was so strong, that a number of persons were thrown down, and persons deprived of life, and upwards of others materially injured by bruises and broken limbs. Most of the sufferers were respectable persons, and among the dead were of the heralds. | |
An old lady named Wall, for whom Colman, from early associations, appears to have had a kind consideration, had been an actress in a subordinate situation for many seasons in this theatre. We must all pay the debt of nature; and, in due time, the old lady died. Somebody from the theatre went to break the intelligence to Colman, who, on hearing it, inquired The messenger replied in the negative, and ventured to ask Mr. Colman why he had put that question. Colman answered,
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In , Colman having sold his entire interest in the theatre, [extra_illustrations.4.226.1] , on almost the same site, from a design by John Nash. The front is of stone, and is about feet in length, and nearly in height. The entrance is through a handsome portico, the entablature and pediment being supported by columns of the Corinthian order; above are circular windows connected by sculpture of an ornamental character. Under the portico are doors, leading respectively to the boxes, pit, galleries, and box-office. The shape of the interior differs from that of every other theatre in London, being nearly a square, with the side | |
p.226 | facing the stage very slightly curved. The expense of the new building was about . It is a remarkably neat and pretty house, having tiers of boxes, besides other half-tiers parallel with the lower gallery, and will seat about persons with comfort. [extra_illustrations.4.226.2] [extra_illustrations.4.226.3] [extra_illustrations.4.226.4] [extra_illustrations.4.226.5] |
The great success of the new theatre was Poole's comedy of , which was produced in , with Liston in the principal character, supported by William Farren, Mrs. Waylett, Mrs. Glover, and Madame Vestris. With such a caste it cannot be a matter of surprise that the piece had a run of nights, and that the price of a box was sometimes paid for a seat in the gallery. | |
In Mr. Benjamin Webster became the lessee, and collected around him a brilliant company. Messrs. Macready, Charles Kean, Tyrone Power, Sheridan Knowles, Charles Mathews the younger, Mrs. Glover, Mrs. Nisbet, Miss Ellen Tree, Madame Vestris, Miss Cushman, Miss Helen Faucit, and Mrs. Stirling, were the most notable stars which shone in the during Mr. Webster's management. In the lessee made a spirited effort in behalf of the modern drama, by offering a competition prize of for the best comedy. The piece selected was , by Mrs. Gore, which was performed in the year , and turned out a dead failure, a result partly compensated by the enormous success of Charles Mathews in , which was produced here shortly afterwards. Mr. Webster relinquished his connection with the in , after having effected great improvements at his own expense. He widened the proscenium feet, introduced gas at an expense of per annum, and presented the central chandelier to the proprietors. The theatre then passed into the hands of Mr. Buckstone, under whose management it has run a career of uninterrupted prosperity. For several years it was the only house in London where the standard English comedies, such as , &c., were regularly performed, the being as regularly followed by a farce in which [extra_illustrations.4.226.6] sustained the principal part. For a quarter of a century since Mr. Buckstone became the lessee of the he was the life and soul of his company; and just as in those days his and seemed the chief features of the old comedies, so now the humours of and the exquisite grace of Mr. Gilbert's fairy dramas would be accounted insipid, without the pinch of Attic salt with which the veteran actor flavours the dainty dish. | |
In a work published in it is made a subject of complaint that there were only theatres, whereas London, in the reign of Elizabeth and James I., the golden age of the English drama, was not a part of its then size, and yet nevertheless it contained theatres. adds the writer; and he complains bitterly of the restrictions imposed on the dramatic muse by the exclusive privileges conferred on and Covent Garden. It is perhaps worthy of note that the new theatre to break the ice of these restrictions was the , as already related in this chapter. | |
Footnotes: [] See Vol. III., p. 203. [] See Vol. III, p. 46. [extra_illustrations.4.221.1] Haymarket Theatre [extra_illustrations.4.222.1] Design for Momument to Henry Fielding, Esq. [extra_illustrations.4.226.1] the old edifice was pulled down, and the present building erected [extra_illustrations.4.226.2] Playbills, Theatre Royal, Haymarket--October 9, 1828 [extra_illustrations.4.226.3] Playbills, Theatre Royal, Haymarket--July 3, 1828 [extra_illustrations.4.226.4] Playbills, Theatre Royal, Haymarket--October 6, 1828 [extra_illustrations.4.226.5] Playbills, Theatre Royal, Haymarket--June 20, 1809 [extra_illustrations.4.226.6] Mr. Buckstone |
