Cecil Street

Cecil str. a pretty new str. betn the Strand, near Bedford House Nly, and the Thames Sly.

[Cecil Street.] Salisbury House, already spoken of; built by Sir Robert Cecil, Kt. (principal Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth, made Lord Treasurer and Earl of Salisbury by King James the First,) being both large and stately, and called Salisbury House; and to make it commodious for Passengers he caused the High Street of the Strand, near adjoining to be levelled and paved.

This House afterwards became two, the one being called, Great Salisbury House, as being the Residence of the Earl, and the other Little Salisbury Houe; which was used to be let out to Persons of Quality; being also a large House; and this was above 28 Years ago contracted for, of the then Earl of Salisbury for a certain Term of Years to build on, and accordingly it was pulled down and made into a Street, called Salisbury Street, which being too narrow, and withal the Descent to the Thames too uneasy; it was not so well inhabited as was expected. Another Part, viz. that next to great Salisbury House and over the long Gallery, was converted into an Exchange, and called the Middle Exchange, which consisted of a very long and large Room, (with Shops on both sides,) which from the Strand run as far as the Water side, where was a handsome Pair of Stairs to go down to the Water side to take Boat at, but it had the Ill Luck, to have the nick Name given it of the Whores-nest: Whereby, with the ill Fate that attended it, few or no People took Shops there, and those that did, were soon weary and left them. Insomuch that it lay useless, except three or four Shops towards the Strand; and coming into the Earl's Hands, this Exchange, with great Salisbury House, and the Houses fronting the Street are pulled down, and now converted into a fair Street called Cecil Street, running down to the Thames, having very good Houses fit for Persons of Repute; and will be better ordered than Salisbury Street was. And the Houses next the Strand, which are lofty and good, will no doubt be taken up by good Tradesmen. The East side of this Street is only in this Parish [St. Clements], the West side being in that of St. Martins in the Fields.

Cecil street, in the Strand, so named from Cecil house, belonging to the great Lord Burleigh.

Cecil-Street, Strand,—at 84, nearly op. Southampton-st. Covent-garden, leading towards the Thames.

Cecil-St., Strand, is nearly opposite Southampton-street, Covent Garden, and leads downwards to the Thames.

Cecil Street, Strand, was commenced 1696, on part of the grounds attached to Salisbury House, the town residence of Sir Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, Lord High Treasurer in the reign of James I. The last house on the west side was inhabited, in 1706, by Lord Gray, and in 1721–1724 by the Archbishop of York. The east side of the street is in the precinct of the Savoy; the west in the parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. Spranger Barry, the actor, celebrated as Romeo, died at his house in Cecil Street, January 10, 1777. He was buried in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey. Cowper addresses a sonnet to Dr. Austen of Cecil Street, London (May 26, 1792)—

Who giving Mary health, heals my distress.

When Edmund Kean made his first appearance at Drury Lane, January 26, 1814, and took the town by storm in Shylock, he and his wife and their little son Charles were lodging in a garret in Cecil Street. When he escaped from the theatre on that triumphant night he rushed home through the rain, and bounding up the stairs exclaimed, "Mary, you shall ride in your carriage, and you, Charley, shall be an Eton boy." Dr. Wollaston was living at No. 18 in the year 1800; and the Rev. Henry F. Cary, the translator of Dante, at No. 20 in 1816.