Part 17

=Holborn= is a contraction of “The Hollow Bourne,” indicative of a stream in a hollow. In Domesday Book the name appears as “Holebourne.” =Holborn Bars= marks the City boundary on its western side. =Leather Lane= was the recognized colony of the leather-sellers. =Fetter Lane= is a perversion of “Fewtor’s Lane”--in other words, a lane infested by vagabonds in the days when it led to some pleasure gardens. The term was derived from the Norman-French _faitour_, signifying an evil-doer. =Brooke Street= (in which Chatterton, the boy-poet, ended his life by poison), and =Greville Street= preserve the name of Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, Councillor to James I., whose house stood in the latter thoroughfare. =Gray’s Inn Road= forms the eastern boundary of Gray’s Inn. =Verulam Buildings=, Gray’s Inn, facing Gray’s Inn Road, received this title in honour of Lord Bacon, who was created Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Albans. =Furnival Street=, on the east side of Holborn Bars, owes its name to Furnival’s Inn, which it faces. Until quite recently this street was designated =Castle Street=, from the old “Castle Inn,” whose site it covers. The name of =Dyers’ Buildings= memorializes the one-time existence of some almshouse erected hereabouts by the Dyers’ Company. =Cursitor Street= received its title from the Cursitors’ Office founded in this vicinity by the father of the great Lord Bacon. The Cursitors were those who issued writs in the name of the Court of Chancery. The word _cursitor_ is a corruption of chorister. Anciently all the officers of the Court of Chancery were divines; and the Lord High Chancellor himself was the Ecclesiastical Keeper of the King’s Conscience. =Chancery Lane= is a corruption of “Chancellor’s Lane,” originally containing the court and official residence of the Lord High Chancellor. =Southampton Buildings= occupy the site of Southampton House, which witnessed the death of Thomas, the last Earl of Southampton, Lord Treasurer of Charles II. Those sorry tenements, =Chichester Rents= supply the place of the old town mansion of the Bishops of Chichester. =Lincoln’s Inn Fields= are situated on the east side of the Inn, or mansion, of Henry de Lacey, Earl of Lincoln, in the fourteenth century [_see_ INNS OF COURT]. =Sardinia Street= takes its name from the =Sardinian Chapel=, the oldest Roman Catholic chapel in London, dating back to the year 1648, and originally the residence of the Sardinian ambassador. =Great Turnstile= and =Little Turnstile= are pleasant-sounding names, eminently suggestive of the rural character of this neighbourhood in bygone days. The turnstiles were set up to prevent sheep and cattle from straying out of Lincoln’s Inn Fields into the public highway. =Great Queen Street= was so called in compliment to Queen Elizabeth, in whose reign it was first formed into a footway for pedestrians plodding westwards from Lincoln’s Inn towards the narrow path, anciently designated, as the modern street still is, =Long Acre=. The word _Acre_, derived from the Greek _agros_, Latin _ager_, and Anglo-Saxon _acer_, means a ploughed or sown field. =Drury Lane= derived its name from Drury House, the town residence of Sir William Drury, K.G., one of our most able commanders in quelling the wars with Ireland. The house was situated where the Olympic Theatre now stands. =Denzil Street= and =Holles Street= were so designated by Gilbert, Earl of Clare, whose house occupied the site of =Clare Market=, in memory of his uncle Denzil, Lord Holles, one of the five members of the House of Commons whose persons Charles I. made an ineffectual attempt to seize. =Hart Street= and =White Hart Street= both owe their titles to “The White Hart” Inn, demolished in the time of George I. =Catherine Street=, Strand, and =Portugal Street=, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, were designated in honour of Catherine of Braganza, queen of Charles II. =Serle Street= received its name from Henry Serle, a bencher of Lincoln’s Inn, who left considerable property in the parish of St. Clement-Danes when he died in 1690. =Wych Street= was known in early times as _Aldwyche_, denoting the road leading directly from the Strand and the church just mentioned to the “Old town,” now known as Broad Street, St. Giles’s parish. =Holywell Street= took its title from the Holy Well discovered on the eastern side of St. Clement-Danes.

The =Strand= literally means the strand of the Thames. At one time Somerset House and a few other princely mansions only occupied its southern side. =Thanet Place=, a secluded _cul de sac_ comprising ten houses, opposite the Law Courts, was named after the Earl of Thanet, to whom, previous to 1780, the property belonged. =Palsgrave Place= was so called in compliment to the Palsgrave Frederick, King of Bohemia, who married the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of James I., in 1612. =Devereaux Court= received its title from Essex House, which also gave its name to =Essex Street=, the residence of Robert Devereaux, Earl of Essex, the Parliamentary General. =Milford Lane= was in olden times characterized by a rustic mill; and the lane itself led down to a ford across the river. =Arundel Street=, =Norfolk Street=, =Surrey Street=, and =Howard Street=, stand upon the site of the town house and grounds of the Howards, Dukes of Norfolk, and Earls of Arundel and Surrey. =Savoy Street= leads to the Chapel Royal, the only remaining portion of the ancient Savoy Palace [_see_ SAVOY CHAPEL]. =Wellington Street=, constructed in 1829-30, was named to complete the compliment partially bestowed upon the Duke of Wellington by the designation of =Waterloo Bridge=, opened June 18, 1817, or two years after the famous victory. =Bow Street= was so called on account of its bent shape when it was first laid out to connect the Strand with Oxford Street in 1637. =Covent Garden= is a corruption of Convent Garden, or the garden belonging to St. Paul’s Convent. =York Street= and =James Street= were both named in honour of the Duke of York, afterwards James II. =King Street=, constructed in his reign, was designated after Charles I., and =Henrietta Street= after his queen, Henrietta Maria. In =Tavistock Street=, =Russell Street=, =Bedford Street=, and =Southampton Street=, we trace some of the family titles of one of the ancestors of the present ground landlord, viz., Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, Marquis of Tavistock, Duke of Bedford, whose daughter is known in history as the celebrated Rachel, the wife of Lord William Russell, the patriot, beheaded in 1683. Southampton House, in which Lady Russell was born, stood in the street named after it. =Bedfordbury= originally denoted the enclosed property of the Bedford family. =Maiden Lane= was so styled on account of a statue of the Virgin that stood at the corner of this thoroughfare at the time when it skirted the south wall of the Convent Garden. =Chandos Street= received its name from James Bridges, Lord Chandos, the ancestor of the “Princely Duke of Chandos.” =Exeter Street= marks the situation of Exeter House and its grounds, the property of a lineal descendant of the great Lord Burleigh, after whom =Burleigh Street= was designated. =Cecil Street= and =Salisbury Street=, on the opposite side of the Strand, remind us that here stood Salisbury House, the residence of Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury, one of the sons of Lord Burleigh just alluded to.

=Adelphi= is the Greek word for brothers. This collective title was chosen for the pleasantly situated little district which comprises =Adelphi Terrace=, =Adam Street=, =John Street=, =Robert Street=, and =James Street=, the work of the brothers Adam, after whose Christian names three of the streets were designated. Similarly, =George Street=, =Villiers Street=, =Duke Street=, and =Buckingham Street= preserve the memory of George Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham, of whose mansion the old gate built by Inigo Jones may still be seen. =Charing Cross= is a perversion of “Chère Reine Cross,” so named from the memorial cross erected upon the spot where the body of Eleanor, the _dear queen_ of Edward I., was last set down while on its way to Westminster Abbey. The present cross is merely a model of the original demolished by the Puritans in 1647. =Craven Street= is the property of Lord Craven. =Northumberland Street= and =Northumberland Avenue= owe their names to Northumberland House, the town mansion of the Dukes of Northumberland, taken down in 1874.

=Trafalgar Square= received its title from the Nelson Column, set up in 1843, two years before the Square itself was completed. =St. Martin’s Lane= was named after the parish church of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields. =King William Street= was built upon in the reign of William IV. The name of =Seven Dials= arose from a column set up at the diverging point of seven streets, and displaying as many clock faces. Its object was to mark the limits of St. Giles’s and St. Martin’s parishes. =Cranbourne Street= marks the course of a long, narrow bourne, or stream, that formerly ran from Tyburn by way of Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, and across Leicester Fields into Long Acre, and thence emptied itself into the Thames at the bottom of Milford Lane. The first portion of the name was in allusion to the long, slender neck and legs of the crane. =Leicester Square= (formerly denominated =Leicester Fields=) derived its name from Leicester House, the noble mansion built on its east side by Robert Sidney, Earl of Leicester, in 1636. On the site of =Coventry Street= stood the mansion of Henry Coventry, Secretary of State in the reign of Charles II. =Great Windmill Street= reminds us of the old windmill that stood hereabouts a couple of centuries ago. It was not until January, 1831, that the hay market, properly so called, was removed from the spacious thoroughfare still known as the =Haymarket=. =Jermyn Street= was named after Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans, whose residence, St. Alban’s House, stood on its north side. In =Arundel Street= we have one of the family titles of the ground landlord, Lord Arundel of Wardour. =Orange Street= was designated in honour of the Prince of Orange, afterwards William III. =Panton Street= perpetuates the memory of Colonel Thomas Panton, a notorious gamester, whose daughter married into the Arundel family. =Suffolk Street= marks the situation of the old town mansion of the Earl of Suffolk.

=Spring Gardens=, during the days of the Stuarts, contained an ingenious contrivance by which any person stepping upon a hidden spring was suddenly immersed in a shower of water. =Pall Mall= is a modern spelling of _paille maille_, the title of a French game at ball, somewhat similar to our croquet, first played in this thoroughfare--then open to St. James’s Park--about the year 1621. =Carlton House Terrace= stands on the site of Carlton House, the palace of Frederick, Prince of Wales, the father of George III. =King Street=, =St. James’s Street=, and =St. James’s Square= were designated in honour of James I. =Bury Street= is properly “Berry Street,” after the name of its builder.

The =Green Park= deserves its title on account of its verdure, so refreshing to the eye. =Hyde Park= anciently comprised the manor of Hyde held by the Abbots of St. Peter’s, Westminster, but claimed by the Crown on the dissolution of the monasteries. =Hyde Park Corner= defines the position of the old toll-gate at the western extremity of London. =Rotten Row= is a corruption of _route du roi_, the French for “route of the King,” to the historic royal residence at Kensington. =Albert Gate=, =Queen’s Gate=, and =Prince’s Gate= are of modern date, named in honour of the royal personages indicated. The =Marble Arch= is an imposing structure of white marble originally erected in front of Buckingham Palace in 1830, and removed to its present position in 1851. =Rutland Gate= was designated after the mansion of the Dukes of Rutland hard by. =Cumberland Gate= and =Duke Street=, Grosvenor Square, were both named after the Duke of Cumberland, brother to George III. =Grosvenor Gate=, =Grosvenor Street=, and =Grosvenor Square= preserve the memory of Sir Richard Grosvenor, Grand Cup-bearer to George II., who died in 1732. The ancestral line of the Grosvenors may be traced back to _Le Gros Veneur_, “the chief hunter,” to the Dukes of Normandy prior to the Conquest. =Stanhope Gate=, =Great Stanhope Street=, and =Chesterfield Street= received their names from =Chesterfield House=, the residence of Philip Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, of epistolary fame. =Park Lane= was formerly a narrow lane skirting the east side of the Park. =Portugal Street= was named in honour of the queen of Charles II. =Chapel Street= owes its designation to its proximity to Grosvenor Chapel. =Hamilton Place= perpetuates the name of Colonel James Hamilton, Ranger of Hyde Park, and boon companion of Charles II.

That fine thoroughfare known as =Piccadilly= was designated after “Piccadilla Hall,” its most westerly building during the reign of Elizabeth, and utilized as a depôt for the sale of the then fashionable PICCADILLY LACE, so called on account of its little spearlike points, _piccadilly_ being the diminutive of _pica_, a pike, a spear. In the succeeding reign of James I., the high ruff worn by males was styled a piccadilly, though the lace had disappeared from its edge. =Curzon Street= was named after George Augustus Curzon, third Viscount Howe, the ground landlord. =Charles Street= and =Queen Street= were first built upon in the reign of Charles II., in honour of whom and his queen they were designated. =Shepherd Street=, =Shepherd’s Market=, and =Market Street= faithfully preserve the memory of the owner of the land upon which the ancient “May Fair” was held. =Hay Hill=, =Hill Street=, and =Farm Street= mark the situation of an old farm that stood upon the lands of John, Lord Berkeley of Stratton, an able officer in the army of Charles I., whose titles are perpetuated in =John Street=, =Berkeley Square=, =Berkeley Street=, and =Stratton Street=; while =Bruton Street= refers to the family seat of the Berkeleys, situated at Bruton, Somersetshire. =Mount Street= marks the site of one of the western forts or bastions hastily formed by the Parliamentarians in 1643 to resist an expected attack upon the Metropolis from this side by the Royalists. =Clarges Street= derived its name from the residence of Sir Walter Clarges built in 1717, and afterwards occupied by the Venetian Ambassador. In =Half-Moon Street= stood an old tavern bearing the sign of “The Half-Moon.” =Arlington Street= and =Bennett Street= were named after Henry Bennett, Earl of Arlington, whose town house was situated on the site of the former thoroughfare. =Dover Street= was so called in memory of Henry Jermyn, Lord Dover, who died in it in 1782. =Albemarle Street= contained the residence of Christopher Monk, second Duke of Albemarle, acquired from the Earls of Clarendon. =Old Bond Street=, of which =New Bond Street= is a modern continuation, received its name from the Bond family, now extinct. The land upon which it stands was the property of Sir Thomas Bond, Comptroller of the Household of Henrietta Maria, queen of Charles I. =Clifford Street= preserves the memory of Elizabeth Clifford, who became the wife of Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington (died 1753), after whom =Old Burlington Street=, and subsequently, =New Burlington Street= were designated. In =Cork Street= resided Lord Cork, one of the four brothers of the Boyle family advanced to the peerage at the same time. =Savile Row= was named after Dorothy Savile, who became Countess of Burlington and Cork, and inherited the property. =Vigo Street= commemorates the capture of Vigo, in Spain, by the British on several occasions in the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The street dates back to the year 1720. =Sackville Street=, built in 1679, serves its purpose as perpetuating the memory of the witty Charles Sackville, Earl of Dorset, whose friends were unwilling that his fame should be allowed to die. =Air Street=, Piccadilly Circus, was at the time of its erection in the year 1659 one of the most westerly, and consequently, open streets of the town. =Swallow Street= is a corruption of “Slough Street,” at one time a miry thoroughfare much infested by footpads. =Vine Street= recalls the ancient vineyard belonging to the Abbey at Westminster, situated here.

=Regent Street= was named by John Nash, the architect, after his royal patron, the Prince Regent. It was commenced in 1813. =Conduit Street= received its name from the conduit or spring-head set up in the meadow formerly known as “Conduit Mead,” now swallowed up by Old Bond Street. =Maddox Street= was built by one Maddox in 1720. =Brook Street= reminds us of the pleasant stream that wound its way from Tyburn down to Leicester Fields, where it was designated the Cranbourne, and ultimately spent itself in the Thames. =Mill Street= affords us an additional memory of the rurality of London in bygone times. =George Street= (also =St. George’s Church=), =Hanover Street=, and =Hanover Square= were designations in honour of the Hanoverian succession in the person of George I. =Davies Street=, connecting Berkeley Square with Oxford Street, received its name in compliment to Miss Mary Davies, the heiress of Ebury Manor, Belgravia, who carried that estate by her marriage into the possession of the Grosvenors.

Crossing Regent Street, =Argyll Street= marks the situation of the old town mansion of the Dukes of Argyll. =Marlborough Street=, =Great Marlborough Street=, and =Blenheim Street= were so called in honour of the Duke of Marlborough, the victor of Blenheim. =Wardour Street= is in allusion to the family seat of the ground landlord, Lord Arundel of Wardour. =Nassau Street= was named in compliment to the royal House of Nassau, from which the Prince of Orange claimed his descent. =Golden Square= is a corruption of Gelding Square, derived from an adjacent inn sign, “The Gelding.” =Shaftesbury Avenue= is a modern thoroughfare named after Anthony Ashley Cooper, seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, who performed the opening ceremony but a short time before his death, which occurred in 1885. =Windmill Street= furnishes another pleasant reminder of green pastures and rural delights. =Old Compton Street= was built in the reign of Charles II. by Sir Francis Compton. =New Compton Street= and =Dean Street= derived their names from Bishop Compton, Dean of the Chapel Royal, Savoy, who originally possessed the living of St. Anne’s, Soho. =Gerrard Street= and =Macclesfield Street= perpetuate the memory of Gerard, Earl of Macclesfield, the owner of the site at the time when buildings were first put up hereabouts in 1697. =Greek Street= was so called from the Greek merchants who colonized this neighbourhood, and for whose spiritual benefit a Greek church was erected hard by. =Carlisle Street= was designated after the Howards, Earls of Carlisle, a branch of the ducal house of Norfolk, whose family mansion stood on the east side of what is now Soho Square about the middle of the last century.

=Hanway Street=, situated on the north side of Oxford Street, received its name from Jonas Hanway, who was the first to carry an umbrella through the London streets. This occurred in the year 1750. =Rathbone Place=, a somewhat exclusive thoroughfare, supporting its own police, was built by a Captain Rathbone in 1718. =Newman Street= and =Goodge Street= retain the names of their speculative builders. =Castle Street= took its title from an inn sign at the corner of Oxford Market. =Wells Street= is properly “Well Street,” so called after Well in Yorkshire, the seat of the Strangeways family, from whom Lady Berners, the original ground landlady of =Berners Street=, descended. In =Foley Street= stood Foley House, the town-mansion of Lord Foley. =Charlotte Street= received its name in honour of the queen of George III. =Bolsover Street=, =Great Titchfield Street=, =Titchfield Street=, =Grafton Street=, =Cleveland Street=, =Fitzroy Square=, =Euston Square=, =Euston Road=, and =Southampton Street=, are all designated after family names of the Fitzroys, Dukes of Grafton, Earls and Lords of Southampton, the ground landlords. Euston is the seat of the Earl of Euston, son of the Duke of Grafton and Marquis of Titchfield, situated at Thetford, in the county of Norfolk; while Bolsover is the Derbyshire seat of the Graftons. =Tottenham Court Road= anciently comprised the manor of Totten, or Totham, held by William de Tottenhall in the reign of Henry III. In Elizabeth’s time the manor was described as “Tottenham Court.” The lease fell into the possession of Charles Fitzroy, second Duke of Grafton, by right of his mother, Lady Isabella Bennett, who inherited it.

=Oxford Street=, formerly styled Oxford Road, =Oxford Market=, =Mortimer Street=, =Harley Street=, =Edward Street=, and =Wigmore Street=, derived their names from Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, created Baron Harley of Wigmore Castle in Herefordshire in 1717, the owner of the estate. =Cavendish Square=, =Old Cavendish Street=, =New Cavendish Street=, =Holles Street=, and =Henrietta Street=, preserve the memory of Henrietta Cavendish, wife of the second Lord Harley, and only daughter and heiress of John Holles, the last Duke of Newcastle, who by her marriage carried all this property into the family of the Harleys. Her daughter, Lady Margaret Cavendish, became in her turn the wife of William Bentinck, second Duke of Portland; in honour of which connection there have been designated the various thoroughfares known as =Bentinck Street=, =Margaret Street=, =Duke Street=, =Duchess Street=, =Portland Place=, and =Great Portland Street=. =Welbeck Street= was named after Welbeck Abbey, in Northamptonshire, the seat of the Portland family; while =Clipstone Street= and =Carburton Street= were respectively designated after villages, the one in Nottinghamshire, the other in Northamptonshire, included in the ducal estate. =Wimpole Street= repeats the name of the seat of the Harleys situated on the borders of Herefordshire and Cambridgeshire, and purchased by Lord Chancellor Hardwicke in the last century. =Stratford Place= was built in 1775 by Edward Stratford, second Lord Aldborough, on ground leased from the Corporation of London for the purpose. The erection of =Queen Anne Street= dates from the reign indicated by its name. =Mansfield Street= is all that is left to remind us of the town residence of the Earl of Mansfield. =Langham Place= and =Langham Street= were named after Sir James Langham, whose mansion and grounds occupied the site of the latter. =Vere Street= recalls the existence of the De Veres, who for centuries held the Earldom of Oxford previous to the Harleys. =Duke Street=, =Manchester Street=, and =Manchester Square=, comprise the property of the Duke of Manchester. =Spanish Place= was originally so called from the residence of the Spanish Ambassador during the last century. =Chandos Street= derived its name from the mansion built by James Bridges, Duke of Chandos. =Hinde Street= perpetuates the memory of James Hinde, a speculative builder and one of the lessees of Marylebone Park more than a hundred years ago. =North Audley Street= and =South Audley Street= point to the existence of Hugh Audley, a barrister of the Middle Temple and owner of a landed estate hereabouts worth a million of money; which, at his death, in 1662, fell to Sir William Davies, Lord Mayor of London, the father of Miss Mary Davies already alluded to in connection with Davies Street and Ebury Manor, Belgravia.