Part 7

In John Street (circa 1730) is Berkeley Chapel, the property of Lord Fitzhardinge, which dates from about 1750. It is a plain building both within and without. The interior was redecorated in 1874, and the east end and chancel in 1895, when a window was put up to the memory of the late Duke of Clarence. Sydney Smith and Rev. H. F. Cary (1812) are the best known among the incumbents.

In Queen Street (circa 1753) lived: No. 13, Dr. Merriman, 1796-1810; 20, Thomas Duncombe, M.P., 1824; 22, Sir Robert Adair, d. 1855; 21, Duke of Hamilton, d. 1895; 25, R. Brinsley Sheridan, 1810.

In Chesterfield Street lived George Selwyn, 1776; No. 3, Sir Ian Hamilton; 4, Beau Brummell till 1810; 1, Sir W. H. Bennett.

Chesterfield Gardens contain fine red-brick houses built by Mr. Magniac on the site of the gardens of Chesterfield House.

Inhabitants: No. 2, Lord Hothfield; 6, Duke of Grafton; 9, Lord Leconfield.

Some fine houses with an outlet by steps to Pitt's Head Mews form Seamore Place (circa 1761).

Inhabitants: No. 8, Lady Blessington, 1832-36; 1, Alfred de Rothschild; 2, Lord Blythswood; 7, Sir James Lyle Mackay; 9, Hon. A. de Tatton Egerton.

Curzon Street was named after Curzon, Earl Howe, d. 1758, to whose family the property still belongs. It was known before that time as Mayfair Row.

On the south side is Curzon or Mayfair Chapel, an ugly building, first erected in 1730, but since rebuilt. The Rev. Alex Keith was the first incumbent. Here he performed marriages without banns or license until his excommunication in 1742. He then established a chapel close by, where clandestine marriages were continued until the Marriage Act put an end to them in 1754. The most celebrated of these were: the Duke of Chandos and Mrs. Anne Jeffrey, 1744; Lord Strange and Mrs. Lucy Smith, 1746; Lord Kensington and Rachel Hill, 1749; Sewellis Shirley and Margaret Rolle, widow of the second Earl of Oxford, 1751; Duke of Hamilton and Miss Gunning, 1752; Lord George Bentinck and Mary Davies, 1753.

Opposite the chapel is Wharncliffe House, a plain building with courtyard and garden. Here lived in 1708 Edward Shepherd, the builder of Shepherd's Market. It was sold for L500 in 1750 to Lord Carhampton, who rebuilt it. From 1776-92 it was occupied by Lady Fane, and by Lady Reade from 1793 to 1813. In 1818 it was bought by Mr. J. Stuart Wortley, M.P., for L12,000, and is now in possession of the Earl of Wharncliffe.

Other inhabitants: No. 1 (pulled down in 1849), Madame Vestris; 8, the Misses Berry, d. 1852; Baron Bunsen, 1841; 14, Richard Stonehewer, 1782, Earl of Crewe; 16, Sir Henry Halford, d. 1844; 19, Earl of Beaconsfield, d. 1882; 20, Viscount Curzon; 21, Earl Howe; 24, Sir Francis Chantrey when a young man; 30, Lord Macartney, d. 1806; 37, Sir C. M. Palmer, Bart.; 41, Prince Soltykoff; 64, Earl Percy.

At the end of Curzon Street is Bolton Row (1728), until 1786 called Blicks Row.

Inhabitants: Martha Blount, 1731-37; Horace Walpole, 1748; Angelo, the fencing master, 1800.

A passage leads between the gardens of Lansdowne and Downshire Houses to Berkeley Street. The bars at each entrance were set up after the escape of a highwayman, who galloped through.

Bolton Street was built in 1699, and was then the western limit of London. Here lived: Earl of Peterborough, 1710-24; George Grenville, d. 1770; Madame d'Arblay, 1818; Lord Melbourne; Hon. Mrs. Norton, 1841.

The Young Pretender is said to have lodged here secretly when in London.

Clarges Street was built 1716-18 on the site of Clarges House, the residence of Sir Walter Clarges, nephew of Anne Clarges, wife of Monk, Duke of Albemarle. Hatton in 1708 described it as a stately new building, inhabited by the Venetian Ambassador.

Here lived: Admiral Earl St. Vincent, 1717; Earl Ferrers, 1717; Lord Archibald Hamilton, 1717; Lord Forester, 1717; Sir John Cope, 1746; Miss O'Neil, actress; Mrs. Delany, 1742-44; Mrs. Vesey, 1780; No. 2, W. T. Brandes, chemist, 1822-23; 3, Macaulay, 1838-40; 9, Daniel O'Connell, 1835; 10, Sir Nicholas Wraxall, 1792; 11, Lady Hamilton, 1804-06, Countess Stanhope, 1807-29; 12, Edmund Kean, 1816-24; 14, William Mitford, 1810-22; 43, Charles James Fox, 1803; 47, at the corner of Piccadilly, a dull, ugly building, was formerly the residence of the Dukes of Grafton. In 1876 the Turf Club, established 1866, moved here from Grafton Street. Formerly the Arlington Club, it is now a great whist centre, and one of the most select clubs in London.

Half-Moon Street, so called from a public-house at the corner of Piccadilly, was built in 1730.

Here lived: Boswell, 1768; Shelley, 1813; No. 5, Mrs. Pope, actress, d. 1797; 26, Dr. Merriman; 27, Lola Montes, 1849; 29, John Galt, 1830; 40, William Hazlitt, 1827-29; 45, the widow of Charles James Fox, 1809.

On either side of Mayfair Chapel are East and West Chapel Streets, built circa 1785. In the latter, at No. 7, lived Chantrey in 1804. They lead to Shepherd's Market, a congeries of small streets, which occupy the site of Brook Field, so called from Tyburn, which flowed through it. Here was held the May Fair, from which the district derives its name. First held in 1688, it lasted with many vicissitudes till the reign of George III., when the Earl of Coventry, d. 1809, procured its abolition. The ground in 1722 was an irregular open space, but in 1735 Shepherd's Market was built by Edward Shepherd, the lower story consisting of butchers' shops, and the upper containing a theatre where plays were given during the fair time. The block was built in 1860, and now consists of small provision shops.

Whitehorse Street, built about 1738, is so called from a public-house. In Carrington Street (1738) was the residence of Kitty Fisher and of Samuel Carte, the antiquary. Here also was the Dog and Duck tavern, behind which was a pond 200 feet square, where the sport of duck-hunting was pursued in the eighteenth century. The site is now marked by Ducking Pond Mews. In Carrington Mews are the Curzon Schools in connection with Christ Church, Down Street; they were built about 1826, and provide tuition for 85 boys, 90 girls, and 110 infants. In Derby Street, No. 5 is the parish mission-house, used also for parochial meetings. Little Stanhope Street was built about 1761, and leads to Hertford Street (1764), now chiefly inhabited by doctors.

Here lived: Lord Charlemont, 1766; Lord Goderich, 1782; Earl of Mornington, 1788-97; No. 10, General Burgoyne, d. 1792; R. Brinsley Sheridan, 1796-1800; Mr. Dent, d. 1819; 11, Earl of Sandwich, d. 1792; 12, George Tierney, 1796-99; 14, Earl Grey, 1799, Sir W. Jenner; 23, Robert Dundas, 1810, Charles Bathurst, 1822; 26, Earl of Liverpool, d. 1818; 36, Lord Langdale, 1829, Lord Lytton, 1831-34; 37, Granville Penn, 1822-24.

In this street also the Duke of Cumberland, brother of George III., married Miss Horton, the actress. On the site of Down Street (1730) stood Mr. Deane's school, where Pope was educated. The north end was called Carrington Place (1774) until 1867. On the west side is Christ Church, a building of great beauty erected in 1863, with a one-sided transept. The east window was presented by the Hope family. The street has been lately rebuilt with red-brick flats and chambers.

Inhabitants: William Hazlitt, 1823-27; No. 8, Rev. H. F. Cary, translator of Dante; 22, Sir W. G. Nicholson.

Brick Street at its southern end was until 1878 called Engine Street, from a water-wheel by the Tyburn, which here crossed Piccadilly.

Piccadilly enters our district at the end of Bond Street, and forms its boundary as far as Hyde Park Corner. The origin of the name is obscure; the street is first so called in Gerard's "Herbal," 1633, but as early as 1623 (and up to 1685) a gaming-house named Piccadilly Hall stood near Coventry Street. In 1617, and for some years afterwards, the name "Piccadill" was given to a fashionable collar, according to Gifford, derived from picca, a spearhead, owing to the spiky nature of the folds. Hence it may have been applied as a nickname to the hall and street, but there are numerous other conjectural derivations. The name was originally given to the part extending from the Haymarket to Sackville Street. From that point to Brick Street was styled Portugal Row, from Catharine of Braganza, wife of Charles II. The stone bridge over Tyburn gave its name to the short distance between Brick Street and Down Street; west of that was Hyde Park Road. As the houses were built the name Piccadilly spread westwards, until, soon after 1770, the whole street was so called. From the Park to Berkeley Street was also popularly known as Hyde Park Corner, now confined to the actual vicinity of the Park. In the sixteenth century Piccadilly was a lonely country road known as the "Way to Redinge." In 1700 the western portion was occupied by statuary yards, which soon after 1757 gave way to houses. The remainder contains many large private houses, and in recent years has been further changed by the erection of numerous handsome club-houses. In 1844 it was widened between Bolton Street and Park Lane by taking in a strip of the Green Park with a row of trees, near the entrance to Constitution Hill, and throwing it into the roadway; and again in 1902 by cutting off a part of the Park. The following are the principal buildings:

At the corner of Albemarle Street the Albemarle Hotel. Hatchett's restaurant, formerly called the New White Horse Cellar. After the resuscitation of stage-coaching in 1886, Hatchett's was a favourite starting-place, but is now little patronized. The new White Horse Cellar was named after the White Horse Cellar (No. 55) on the south side, so called from the crest of the House of Hanover, which existed in 1720, and was widely renowned as a coaching centre. It is now closed.