In George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, the play that inspired My Fair Lady, Eliza Doolittle meets Professor Higgins while selling flowers under the portico of St Paul’s.
Royal Opera House
In the Limelight
THE FIRST THEATRE built on the site of the present Royal Opera House was the Theatre Royal of JOHN RICH which opened in 1732, the most luxurious theatre London had ever known. Two years later Marie Salle performed Pygmalion there, THE FIRST BALLET D’ACTION EVER PRESENTED ON STAGE.
Many of Handel’s operas and oratorios were written for the Theatre Royal at Covent Garden and had their first London performances there.
In 1767 THE PIANO WAS PLAYED IN PUBLIC FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME at Covent Garden.
In 1808 the theatre burned down taking with it Handel’s own organ which he had bequeathed to John Rich and which had been placed at the centre of the stage. A second theatre was built on the site, which opened in 1809. SARAH SIDDONS gave her farewell performance there in 1812. In 1833 EDMUND KEANE had a stroke on stage while playing Othello and had to be carried off. He died a few months later.
In 1837 the then manager William Charles Macready pioneered THE FIRST USE OF LIMELIGHT IN THE THEATRE. Limelight was invented by a Cornishman called Sir Goldsworthy Gurney and is created by forcing a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen through a blowpipe to produce a flame and then adding lime to achieve a bright light. It proved very useful in the theatre as a way to spotlight one particular player on the stage to the exclusion of all the others – hence the expression ‘to be in the limelight’, meaning the focus of attention.
In 1846, the music company from Her Majesty’s Theatre in the Haymarket, which was then the main home of opera and ballet in London, moved to Covent Garden. The theatre was remodelled and opened in 1847 as the Royal Italian Opera.
In 1855 the second theatre burned down, and a third opened in its place in 1858. ADELINA PATTI made her debut here in La Sonnambula in 1861. In 1892 the theatre was named the Royal Opera House and has since been host to many English premières such as Puccini’s Tosca in 1900 and Madame Butterfly in 1905.
Between 1996 and 1999 the Royal Opera House was extensively refurbished and is today considered to be one of the world’s leading opera houses.
Bow Street
Feeling Blue
OPPOSITE THE ROYAL Opera House in Bow Street once stood BOW STREET MAGISTRATES COURT, the most notorious court in London. There had been a court at Bow Street since 1740, when Colonel Thomas De Veil sat as a magistrate in his home here. The novelist HENRY FIELDING, who sat on the bench at Bow Street, came up with the idea for the BOW STREET RUNNERS, formed in 1754 by his brother John as BRITAIN’S FIRST PAID POLICE FORCE. In 1829 SIR ROBERT PEEL established the Metropolitan Police, who were termed ‘Bobbies’ in his honour, and in the same year Bow Street opened as BRITAIN’S FIRST POLICE STATION. Bow Street was THE ONLY POLICE STATION IN LONDON TO HAVE A WHITE LIGHT OUTSIDE AND NOT A BLUE LIGHT. This is because the blue light upset Queen Victoria when she attended the Royal Opera House, apparently reminding her of the blue room in which Prince Albert died.
Lincoln’s Inn
Law and Order
LINCOLN’S INN IS the oldest of the Inns of Court and can trace its history back to 1422, although it was established some time before then. The name comes from Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln, who was a trusted adviser of Edward I and whose own house was nearby in Shoe Lane. Lawyers of old were also churchmen and they built their inns around squares and courtyards like medieval cloisters. The gardens of Lincoln’s Inn form a tranquil haven, with green lawns and mellow red-brick buildings from every age. Best are the 15th-century Old Hall, restored in 1924, and the 17th-century chapel above a wonderful open undercroft with a low, fan-vaulted ceiling, thought to have been designed by Inigo Jones.
Among the illustrious Members of Lincoln’s Inn have been John Donne, Sir Thomas More, Richard Cromwell and Cardinal Newman, as well as a pantheon of Prime Ministers, including Walpole, Pitt the Younger, Spencer Perceval, Lord Melbourne, Lord Asquith, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair. Students have included Oliver Cromwell, William Penn, Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone.
LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS is THE LARGEST SQUARE IN CENTRAL LONDON. In 1586 Anthony Babington was hanged, drawn and quartered in the square as punishment for plotting to assassinate Elizabeth I. The process produced such a horrendous mess the Queen ordered that his 13 accomplices should just be hanged. The first Labour Prime Minster, Ramsay MacDonald, lived at No. 3. The grandest house is at Numbers 12–14, which was the home of Sir John Soane and now houses his museum. Soane was the architect of the Bank of England and Dulwich Art Gallery and left a house full of art treasures including Hogarth’s original Rake’s Progress.
Well, I never knew this
ABOUT
THE WEST END
MARGARET PONTEOUS, THE FIRST KNOWN VICTIM OF THE GREAT PLAGUE IN ENGLAND, was buried in the churchyard of St Paul’s Covent Garden on 12 April 1665.
Founded in 1926 and occupying the basement of the Lloyds Bank Chamber was LE BOULESTIN, one of London’s most expensive restaurants, whose chef, MARCEL BOULESTIN, became THE WORLD’S FIRST TELEVISION CHEF when he demonstrated how to cook an omelette on the first programme of his BBC series Cook’s Night Out on 21 January 1937.
At No. 8 Russell Street was the bookshop where Dr Johnson first met his travelling companion and biographer James Boswell in 1762. Today it is a coffee shop.
Although born in Leytonstone, film director ALFRED HITCHCOCK was the son of a COVENT GARDEN greengrocer and spent much of his childhood getting to know the area. He later used Covent Garden as the setting for his film Frenzy.
The supermodel NAOMI CAMPBELL was ‘discovered’ at the age of 15 while shopping in COVENT GARDEN.
The THEATRE ROYAL, DRURY LANE, is THE OLDEST THEATRICAL SITE IN BRITAIN, having been in continuous use since the 17th century.
In a Covent Garden tavern called the Shakespeare’s Head in 1762, a member of the Beefsteak Club, the 4TH EARL OF SANDWICH, absorbed at the gaming table, called for sustenance. When asked what he would like he said, ‘Just bring me a piece of meat between two bits of bread.’ They duly provided a bit of salt beef and some bread, and when the other gamers saw what the Earl was eating they all wanted the same. ‘Bring me what Sandwich is having,’ they cried, and so was born – the sandwich.
The art deco LEX GARAGE in Brewer Street, built in 1929, is THE OLDEST RAMPED MULTI-STOREY CAR PARK IN BRITAIN.
BRITAIN’S SMALLEST POLICE BOX could at one time be found on the south-east corner of Trafalgar Square. Built in 1826, it originally held just a lamp, but in 1926 Scotland Yard installed a telephone line and a light which the police could use to call for assistance. It no longer serves as a police box but is used for storage.
Occupying over 45,000 sq ft (4,180 sq m) and spread over six floors on Regent Street, HAMLEY’S is THE WORLD’S LARGEST TOY-SHOP.
BRITAIN’S FIRST INDIAN RESTAURANT, VEERASWAMY, was opened in Regent Street by Edward Palmer in 1927. Their most appreciative customer was the campaigner for Indian independence MAHATMA GANDHI.
Britain’s smallest police box
JACK SMITH introduced THE FIRST GRAPEFRUIT INTO ENGLAND on his market stall in Berwick Street in 1890.
OXFORD CIRCUS is LONDON UNDERGROUND’S SECOND BUSIEST STATION after Victoria.
The 100 CLUB at No. 100 Oxford Street, which opened in 1942, is THE OLDEST LIVE MUSIC VENUE IN LONDON and LONDON’S OLDEST JAZZ CLUB.
SOHO is home to EUROPE’S BIGGEST CHINATOWN.
Soho’s most famous pub, THE COACH AND HORSES at No. 29 Greek Street, is the setting for fortnightly lunches hosted by Private Eye. The pub was also the favourite haunt of occasional Spectator contributor JEFFREY BERNARD, whose frequent absences from its pages, due to monumental hangovers, were explained to readers by the phrase ‘Jeffrey Bernard is unwell’.
In Portsmouth Street, just off LINCOLN’S INN, there is a tiny cottage that claims to be the
original of Dickens’s OLD CURIOSITY SHOP. It certainly looks the part.
MAYFAIR & HYDE PARK
PICCADILLY – HYDE PARK – MARBLE ARCH – MAYFAIR
The statue of Eros – first aluminium public statue
Piccadilly Circus
Which Way?
PICCADILLY CIRCUS IS London’s night-time neon centre and a popular meeting-place for those on their way to theatreland. At the south-west corner of the circus is Eros, THE FIRST PUBLIC STATUE IN THE WORLD TO BE MADE FROM ALUMINIUM. It was unveiled in 1893, as a tribute to the good works of the Victorian philanthropist the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury. Eros was designed by Sir Alfred Gilbert to represent the Angel of Christian Charity, but since it was a nude statue and was carrying a bow and arrow it became known as Eros, and the name stuck. Originally pointing up Shaftesbury Avenue, Eros was removed during the Second World War and put back facing the other way – red-faced officials later explained that they had meant to do that all along as it was now pointing towards Lord Shaftesbury’s family seat in Dorset.
Piccadilly
A Bit Starchy
PICCADILLY TAKES ITS name from a type of starched collar called a ‘piccadil’. These were sold in the 17th century by a merchant called Robert Baker, who had a house in the area that became known as Piccadilly Hall.
WATERSTONE’S flagship Piccadilly store is now EUROPE’S BIGGEST BOOKSHOP. This was THE FIRST WELDED STEEL BUILDING IN LONDON and was commissioned in 1936 by Alexander Simpson for his Simpson’s menswear store. His first window dresser was LÁSZLÓ MOHOLY-NAGY, one of the leading figures in the Bauhaus style of art and design, who arrived in England in 1935 as a refugee from the Nazis. Scriptwriter JEREMY LLOYD worked at Simpson’s and used his experiences to co-write the BBC television situation comedy Are You Being Served?
ST JAMES’S PICCADILLY is the only London church Sir Christopher Wren ever built on a virgin site and was said to be his favourite. It was consecrated in 1684 and although bombed in the Blitz is full of work by Grinling Gibbons. JAMES CHRISTIE the auctioneer is buried here, as are JAMES GILLRAY the caricaturist and FRANCIS WHITE, founder of the coffee-shop that became White’s Club.
Set back from the throng behind a secluded courtyard is ALBANY, the most exclusive bachelor apartments in London. The house was originally the home of the 1st Viscount Melbourne and then George III’s son Frederick, Duke of York and Albany. It was converted into apartments by Henry Holland in 1802 and has proved very popular with writers and politicians. Notable literary residents have included Lord Byron, who started the trend and used to receive visits from Lady Caroline Lamb disguised as a page boy, Graham Greene, Arnold Bennett, Aldous Huxley, Sir Arthur Bryant, Sir Terence Rattigan, Malcolm Muggeridge, and J.B. Priestley. Prime Ministers Lord Palmerston, William Gladstone and Edward Heath also had apartments at Albany, as did the actor Terence Stamp. Although women may not own apartments there in their own right, since 1919 they have been allowed to live there with their husbands.
The firm of FORTNUM & MASON, the Queen’s grocers, was founded in 1707 by William Fortnum, a footman to Queen Anne, and his landlord Hugh Mason. In the Peninsular War Fortnum & Mason sent food out to the soldiers, and during the Crimean War they were engaged by Queen Victoria to supply Florence Nightingale with tea. In 1886 a young entrepreneur from America called MR HEINZ paid a visit to Fortnum and Mason, and they became THE FIRST STORE IN ENGLAND TO SELL HEINZ’S NEW CANNED GOODS. From the clock above the main entrance Mr Fortnum and Mr Mason appear every hour on the hour, when they turn and bow to each other.
BURLINGTON HOUSE, a rare surviving grand mansion on Piccadilly, is now occupied by the ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS and is the site of their celebrated Summer Exhibition of work by living British artists. Five learned societies also have their homes in Burlington House: the SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES, the CHEMICAL SOCIETY, the GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, the ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY and THE WORLD’S OLDEST EXTANT BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY, THE LINNEAN SOCIETY, where Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace first presented their joint paper on the Theory of Evolution in 1858.
The smart Palladian building at No. 94 was the home of Lord Palmerston in the mid-19th century and then became the Naval and Military Club, known as the IN AND OUT after the signs painted on the gateposts. A.E.W. Mason wrote The Four Feathers sitting beneath the old plane tree in the courtyard there. The novel has twice been made into a film, most recently in 2003 starring Heath Ledger. BRIDGE was introduced into England by the 3rd Lord Brougham in 1894 at the Portland Club’s private card room at the In and Out. In 1999 the Naval and Military Club moved into Nancy Astor’s old home in St James’s Square, and No. 94 was purchased by an unknown buyer from the Middle East.
Hatchard’s
World’s Most Famous Bookshop
HATCHARD’S, AT NO. 187 Piccadilly, is probably THE MOST FAMOUS BOOKSHOP IN THE WORLD. Opened in 1797, it is certainly THE OLDEST BOOKSHOP IN BRITAIN and a favourite London institution. Hatchard’s quickly became a fashionable rendezvous, attracting customers from Albany opposite and wealthy patrons looking to stock the libraries in their new mansions. It was awarded its first Royal Warrant by George III’s consort Queen Charlotte, and among Hatchard’s regular customers have been Lord Macaulay, Lord Byron, Lord Palmerston, the Duke of Wellington, William Gladstone, Thackeray, Disraeli, Oscar Wilde, Lloyd George, Rudyard Kipling, Somerset Maugham and Cecil Rhodes.
The bookshop’s founder, John Hatchard, was a member of the antislavery Clapham Sect, and William Wilberforce held many abolitionist meetings in the reading room behind the shop. The ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY held its inaugural meeting there in 1804. Hatchard’s, which is celebrated for its book signings, still has a homely, club-like atmosphere, with comfortable chairs, lots of interesting nooks and crannies, knowledgeable staff who don’t rush you, and a vast range of books on every subject. In 2006 MOWBRAY’S, founded in 1858 and one of the oldest religious booksellers in England, moved to Hatchard’s from Margaret Street.
The Ritz
Ritzy
THE RITZ HOTEL, which opened in 1906, was THE FIRST STEEL-FRAMED BUILDING IN ENGLAND. It was named after CÉSAR RITZ, once manager of the Savoy Hotel, and was modelled to his specifications on the grand French hotels of the period, such as Ritz’s own Paris establishment, becoming THE FIRST HOTEL IN LONDON TO HAVE ALL EN SUITE ROOMS. Guests have included ANNA PAVLOVA, who danced there, DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS and MARY PICKFORD, the film star TALLULAH BANKHEAD, who sipped champagne from her slipper during a press conference, and CHARLIE CHAPLIN, on his first return to London, who needed 40 policemen to escort him through the crowds of well-wishers.
In 1920 OSWALD MOSLEY was having such a good repast at the Ritz that it completely slipped his mind that he was supposed to be marrying Cynthia Curzon at the Chapel Royal, St James’s Palace, at that very moment. He just made it, thanks to a stern prompt from society hostess Lady Cunard, who while passing him remarked, ‘I believe you have just married, young man.’
Noël Coward immortalised the Ritz in song, and the Palm Court at the Ritz was once the ultimate place to take tea. Today you have to book, which seems rather vulgar. The word Ritzy has become a colloquialism for luxury.
Hyde Park Corner
Busiest Corner in the World
HYDE PARK CORNER, often called ‘the busiest corner in the world’, has been stricken with traffic for more than 200 years. It was the most important gateway into London from the west, and in the early 19th century formed a grand entrance into Hyde Park from Buckingham Palace, through Decimus Burton’s Wellington Arch and Hyde Park Screen. By 1885 the area had become a notorious bottleneck, and the Arch was dismantled and rebuilt in its present position at the top of Constitution Hill, completely destroying the relationship between Arch and Screen. In the 1960s the present roundabout and underpass were constructed, leaving a rather disjointed but impressive gallimaufry of statuary, gates and memorials marooned in the middle.
Hyde Park Corner was the site of THE WORLD’S FIRST BLOODSTOCK AUCTION HOUSE,
TATTERSALL’S, from 1776 until 1865. This was founded in 1766 by a Burnley man, Richard Tattersall, and is still recognised as the authority on the rules of betting on the turf. There were loose boxes and stables, a large enclosure and rooms for members of the Jockey Club to meet. One celebrated horse auctioned by Richard Tattersall was the legendary ECLIPSE, unbeaten in his career and thought to be the ancestor of 80 per cent of today’s thoroughbred racehorses. Eclipse’s most famous grandson was the great charger COPENHAGEN, the Duke of Wellington’s mount at Waterloo. A bronze statue of the Duke seated on Copenhagen, by J.E. Boehm, stands facing Apsley House, the horse’s face buried in the leaves of a great plane tree.
APSLEY HOUSE, on the north side of Hyde Park Corner, is known as ‘No. 1, London’, being the first house inside the old Knightsbridge toll-gate. It was home to the Duke of Wellington, victor of the Battle of Waterloo and instigator of the Wellington boot. In the 1830s the Duke had to put up iron shutters to prevent the windows being broken by angry mobs protesting at his opposition to the Reform Bill.
In January 1889, WILLIAM FRIESE-GREENE set up his experimental box camera by Apsley Gate at Hyde Park Corner and shot 20 ft (6 m) of film, featuring ‘leisurely pedestrians, open topped buses and hansom cabs with trotting horses’. At the time it was thought that these were the first moving pictures ever and that Hyde Park Corner was the first place on earth to appear on moving film, but it later transpired that Frenchman Augustin Le Prince had made two short films of Leeds, Yorkshire, a few months earlier, in October 1888.
Hyde Park Corner was the title of a play about a duel written by Walter Hackett in 1934. When it was performed at the Apollo Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue, one of the parts was played by Hackett’s wife Marion Lorne, who played dotty Aunt Clara in the 1960s TV series Bewitched. The play was made into a film in 1935 in which Donald Wolfit – the actor-manager immortalised in Ronald Harwood’s play The Dresser – had a small role.
I Never Knew That About London Page 10