In tracking down the locations where my father’s photos were taken, there are three distinct categories of photo:

1. Those with a very recognisable scene
2. Some have a street name or some other indicator of the location in the photo
3. Many have no clue within the photo as to where it was taken

Today’s photo falls into the last category. It is one I have looked at many times, mainly fearing that like many London streets from the 18th Century, this one had been lost forever, however whilst tracking down Cockpit Steps for last week’s post I turned a corner and suddenly found myself looking at a street scene where the buildings had hardly changed in 60 years. I had come out of St. Jame’s Park Underground Station, walked up the first leg of Queen Anne’s Gate, turned to the right to head down to Cockpit Steps and found myself facing the same street scene that looked like this over 60 years ago:

My 2014 photo from the location:

There have been some minor changes to the buildings, however apart from the ever-present impact of the car, the scene is basically the same.

Queen Anne’s Gate is a fascinating road. It was originally a street and a square. The section nearest the camera was Queen Square and the part furthest from the camera was Park Street. They were separated by a wall until 1873  when the two areas were combined into Queen Anne’s Gate. The building of the wall has many echoes with traffic concerns of today. Queen Square was constructed first, then when Park Street was constructed, residents of Queen Square were so concerned that the road would be used as a cut through for carriages to avoid the traffic of King Street, the Sanctuary and Tothill Street that a subscription was collected for the building of the wall to avoid the residents having the peace of their square disturbed.

The wall was just over halfway down the street and although the wall is long gone, the statue of Queen Anne still stands at this point:

The street name sign still retains faded versions of the different street names. Note also the plaque underneath the street name sign. There is a another of these on the junction with Carteret Street:

This is the symbol for Christ’s Hospital and is used to show that these buildings were owned by Christ’s Hospital. I believe that Christ’s Hospital owned these buildings until as recently as the mid 1990’s. Queen Square was originally the freehold estate of Sir Theodore Janssen, one of the directors of the South Sea Company in 1720, and when the South Sea crash came Queen Square was seized and sold to help pay of the debts of the institution.

The buildings in what was Queen Square (the part of Queen Anne’s Gate covered by my old and new photos) were completed around 1704 in the reign of Queen Anne (1702 to 1714), a monarch that does not get much visibility these days, however she was on the throne at a crucial time in the history of the United Kingdom when the Acts of Union came into force on the 1st of May 1707 which united Scotland and England into the single Kingdom of Great Britain.

Anne was therefore the first Queen of Great Britain and Ireland.

Intriguing to think that these buildings were completed before the act of union and dependent on the outcome of the Scottish vote in September may see a very changed situation.

Queen Anne’s Gate has a large number of Blue Plaques.  The following plaque is for Sir Edward Grey in what was the Park Street end of the road. Sir Edward Grey was the Foreign Secretary at the time of the outbreak of the First World War.

Other Blue Plaques along the street:

The architecture of the buildings in the original Queen Square part of Queen Anne’s Gate is superb, and the main doors to the majority of buildings have very elaborate decorated wooden canopies, the following being a typical example:

Also along the buildings are elaborate stone carvings of which the following two are examples:

This type of decorative stone carving and the carved wooden canopies were soon to be replaced by the Georgian style of architecture which was neater (less intricate carving) and more magnificent stone work. One of the key drivers behind this change was the considerable number of books published by craftsmen for craftsmen from about 1715, which led to the gradual standardisation of ornamentation. Architectural pattern-books resulted in much standard Georgian architecture across London. These Queen Anne’s Gate buildings were very much the end of an era.

The following map is a repeat of last week’s map showing the location of Cockpit Steps. Queen Ann’s Gate can be seen just to the left of the location of Cockpit Steps. The map also shows how the first part of Queen Anne’s gate is a cut through from St. James Park Underground Station through to Birdcage Walk.

As it was in 1940 it continues to be now, and whilst I was stood on the corner waiting to take a photo down what was Queen Square, there was an almost constant stream of people walking from the station area to Birdcage Walk with hardly a glance at the magnificent buildings that are over 300 years old.

The following is a sample of the doors and carved canopies along Queen Anne’s Gate:

I am really pleased to have found the location of this photo. Not just for finding the location, but also that these buildings have survived the developments of the last 60 years.

If you arrive at St. James Park underground station, do not cut straight through to Birdcage Walk, take a detour down Queen Anne’s Gate and admire these superb buildings.

The sources I used to research this post are:

• Georgian London by John Summerson published 1945
• London: The Art of Georgian Building by Dan Cruikshank and Peter Wyld published 1975
• The Face of London by Harold P. Clunn published 1951
• London by George H. Cunningham published 1927
• Old & New London by Edward Walford published 1878
• Bartholomew’s Reference Atlas of Greater London published 1940

alondoninheritance.com

Unlike my posts of the previous two weeks, the location of this week’s post was very easy to find and also unlike the previous posts the location has hardly changed and I was able to work out the exact position to take 2014 photos some 65 years after my father took the originals.

The following photo from about 1950 was taken halfway down Cockpit Steps, looking up towards the corner of Dartmouth Street and Old Queen Street. The steps link this corner with Birdcage Walk, alongside St. James Park.

The following is my 2014 photo taken from the same location:

The scene is very similar. The lamp-post is still the same and although there is still a post box in the same position, it is a later model.

Walk down the steps, and there is nothing to suggest any history to the location, however the name is a clear indication of what was here a couple of centuries ago as this was the location of one of the three main cock-pits in London (the others were in Whitehall and Drury Lane) where the sport of cock-fighting was held. Whilst to us this is a barbaric sport, for centuries it was very popular and had royal patronage.

The location of the steps is shown in the following map from Bartholomew’s Reference Atlas of Greater London, where they are shown as a continuation of Dartmouth Street, however they do have their own unique identity.

The cock-pit was finally taken down in 1816.

The cock-pit was a typical London scene for Hogarth and the following is Hogarth’s view of the cock-pit at the end of Cockpit Steps:

It is easy to imagine the intrigue, secret meetings and arguments that would have taken place in such a place. It was here that Robert Harley, afterwards Earl of Oxford was stabbed, though not fatally, with a penknife by a French noble refugee, the Marquis de Guiscard who was brought before him and the rest of the Cabinet Council by the Queen’s Messenger, charged with treacherous correspondence with the rival court at St. Germain, whilst drawing a pension from the English Court.

My father’s original photo of the entrance to Cockpit Steps also shows that very little has changed.

And my 2014 photo from the same position:

Whilst walking down the steps, I noticed some very worn graffiti carved into the brickwork. Probably wishful thinking but is this one from 1907?

The lower entrance to Cockpit Steps is from Birdcage Walk and is the location of the original cock-pit. Even on a busy Saturday morning the steps were very quiet. Lots of tourists and walkers passing along Birdcage Walk between Buckingham Palace and Westminster but hardly a glance at this hidden location.

The entrance from Birdcage Walk:

Looking down Old Queen Street with the entrance to Cockpit Steps in the bottom left:

The sources I used to research this post are:

• The Streets of London by Gertrude Burford Rawlings
• Old & New London by Edward Walford published 1878
• Bartholomew’s Reference Atlas of Greater London published 1940

alondoninheritance.com

There are some photos from my father’s collection that I was unsure of whether I could find the location where the photo was taken. This week’s post is a typical example of this type of photo, but also how such a simple photo leads into further investigation of the area where the photo was taken. This is what I wanted to get out of this journey, find the location of where all my father’s photos were taken and increase my knowledge of the history of London.

Two very similar photos taken in the late 1940s show a group of men working on the road at a road junction, with a Bank on the corner behind them.

There was nothing really to identify the location, however on closer examination of the Bank, there is the street name of Hampstead Road. The name on the sign on the right of the Bank cannot be identified so I could not work out the road junction. The angle and the distance does not allow a name to be resolved. So I knew this was in Hampstead Road on a street corner, but where? I have walked Hampstead Road before and could find no location that fits these photos.

I have a number of sources to search, both written and online to try to find locations and I eventually found the location for this one following a search on the English Heritage website searching for a Bank in Hampstead Road. This resulted in a photo of the same bank, identifying the location as on the corner of Hampstead Road and Euston Road, so now I had the location with the photo being taken outside Warren Street underground station looking across the Euston Road to the Bank on the opposite corner.

The junction of Euston Road, Hampstead Road and Tottenham Court Road has changed dramatically over the years since this photo was taken. The Euston Road has been considerably widened with the Euston Underpass being constructed to take traffic along the Euston Road under the junction of Tottenham Court Road and Hampstead Road.

Working along the Euston Road to Great Portland Place underground station shows how the road has been widened at this junction with the road at Great Portland Place being about the original width.

There are still many original building on the south side of Euston Road with Warren Street underground station being one of these that has not changed, therefore the south side marks the original alignment of Euston Road. The north side has all been redeveloped with Euston Tower and the more recent Regent’s Place office buildings. My estimation of where the bank was located is therefore half way across the new road, just over the Euston Underpass.

There was one point that worried me in confirming the location of this photo, there is an Underground sign pointing east along Euston Road, I would have assumed that if this was outside Warren Street it would be pointing to the station, however a quick check confirmed that in the direction of the sign, a short walk along Euston Road is Euston Square underground station, so this sign was directing travellers emerging from the Northern line at Warren Street to the Circle, Hammersmith and Metropolitan lines at Euston Square.

The following is my 2014 photo from roughly the same position outside Warren Street underground station as the original.

Very hard to be precise as there has been so much change since the original, and I suspect I should have been more on the current edge of Euston Road slightly to the left. If I have worked out the original road widths correctly then the corner of the Bank in the original photo is roughly where the white truck is in the 2014 photo.

Despite the appearance of this road junction and the surrounding areas, as with anywhere in London there is a considerable amount of hidden history to be discovered.

The following map is from the 1940 edition of Bartholomew’s Reference Atlas of Greater London with the red oval covering the area of today’s post. The junction of Tottenham Court Road, Hampstead Road and Euston Road is under the “J” in the centre of the oval. Warren Street station can just be seen and the photo was taken outside looking diagonally across Euston Road.

If we cross the Euston Road from Warren Street to the north side we find Euston Tower and the Regent’s Place development. This has completely obliterated Eden Street, Seaton Place, Fitzroy Place, indeed this whole area bounded by Drummond Street and Osnaburgh Street.

Eden Place was probably where the front of Euston Tower is now located and was lost in the widening of Euston Road and the construction of the underpass. Seaton Place was probably at the rear of Euston Tower, this is now a pedestrian walkway between Euston Tower and the other office blocks of Regent’s Place which for some reason is called Brock Street. No idea why the original name could not have been retained.

It was on this corner of Hampstead Road where the Adam and Eve Tavern was located. The location now is probably exactly where the underpass dives under the Hampstead Road, Tottenham Court Road junction. This was built on the original site of the Tottenham Court from which Tottenham Court Road takes its name. The manor was converted to the original Adam and Eve somewhere around 1645. Up until the later part of the 18th century the tavern and extensive gardens were very popular with Londoners. In the road outside the Adam and Eve, Hogarth set the scene for his “March to Finchley” where a military camp had been set-up and the picture shows the disorderly Guards in true Hogarth style on their way to the Finchley Camp as part of the journey to Scotland to meet the Jacobite Pretender (Charles Stuart).

The March to Finchley is shown below:

The Hogarth picture shows two Taverns with the Adam and Eve on the left and the Old Kings Head is on the right. Strange to think that the Euston Underpass is now running left to right across this picture. The King’s Head was demolished in 1906 to make way for the widening of the Hampstead Road. The very narrow road width of the junction at this point had long been a problem as the King’s Head jutted out into the thoroughfare and calls had been made to address this from the start of the nineteenth century.

Also, when the Adam and Eve and Kings Head were at the peak of their popularity, much of this area was countrified and to demonstrate the rural nature of the area, the following advert appeared in The Postman for December 30th 1708 of a house to be let:

“at Tottenham Court, near St. Gile’s and within less than a mile of London, a very good Farm House, with outhouses and above seventy acres of extraordinary good pastures and meadows with all conveniences for a cowman, are, to be let, together or in parcels, and there is dung ready to lay in”

I took the following photo on the east side of Tottenham Court Road looking over towards Euston Tower and Regent’s Place. The Adam and Eve Tavern was roughly where the red traffic lights are now located with Eden Street just in front of Euston Tower.

The following photo is the second of the same scene. It is fascinating to compare working conditions of the late 1940s with those of today. Not a single high visibility jacket or traffic cone in sight.

I have recently received some fantastic photos of the Euston Road, Hampstead Road junction and the building of the underpass from John Cinnamond. They show the junction before the widening of the Euston Road and the building of the Underpass.

The first photo, taken in 1961, is looking east along Euston Road. The bank on the left of the photo is the same as the one in my father’s photo, however this now shows the full view of the road.

The next photo, also taken in 1961 is looking west along Euston Road. Warren Street Underground Station is on the left and this is basically the same today, however the very significant change is to the right of the photo. The pub on the corner is the Adam and Eve. All the buildings on the right of this photo were pulled down in order to make way for the widening of the Euston Road and the Euston Underpass. Where the buildings on the right, facing the camera stood, is now the underpass and a bridge over the underpass leading to the north side of Euston Road.

I have repeated one of my photos from earlier in the post. This is looking across to where the pub and the buildings running to the right in the photo above used to stand.

Now we come to the building of the Underpass. These photos were taken in 1966 and this is looking across to Warren Street Underground station, the curved building to the left of the photo. The pub and buildings in the early photos ran across to the right, where the hoarding can be seen, but have now been pulled down and the Underpass is being built.

And looking in an easterly direction, the Underpass is where the bank used to stand, which would have been roughly left of centre, slightly set back from where the Underpass goes under the road.

One final photo which again is from 1961 and is looking to the west. The lorry is from the company G.E.C. the engineering and electrical conglomerate that failed so spectacularly after trying to turn itself into an internet / communications business at the height of the dot-com bubble. Interesting not only how the urban landscape changes, but also the businesses operating in that landscape.

An amazing series of photos and I am very grateful to John for sending and letting me include in the post as they complete the story of how this road junction has changed so considerably.

So, one simple road junction in London, but as with most places across London, a fascinating history.

The sources I used to research this post are:

• London’s Old Latin Quarter by E. Beresford Chancellor published 1930
• London by George H. Cunningham published 1927
• Old & New London by Edward Walford published 1878
• Bartholomew’s Reference Atlas of Greater London published 1940

 alondoninheritance.com