Brooke Street

Brooke Street

North out of Holborn at No. 142, west of the Prudential Assurance Company's Offices (P.O. Directory). Southern end in Farringdon Ward Without, northern end outside the City boundary.

First mention: Hatton, 1708.

The site is occupied by Brooke House in O. and M. 1677, the residence of Sir Fulk Greville, Lord Brook, hence the name of the street.

Brooks str. a pleasant Uniform str. betn Holbourn S. and Doddington str. by Brooks Market, N. L. 170 Yds, and from P C. NW (near) 1050 Yds.

[Brook Street, Faringdon Ward without.]

The Part within the Freedom of the City, is Holbourn hill, which beginneth at Holbourn Bridge, and runneth Westward unto the Bars. ... on the North side of Holbourn, almost all Field lane, with the Courts &c. up to the Bars; except Ely House, Hatton Garden, Leather lane, Furnivals Inn, Brook Street and Market; which said Places are in the County, as appears by the prick'd Lines in the Map.

... Brook street is the best, being a good handsome long Street, with new built Houses, well inhabited. It comes out of Holbourn, and runs Northwards into Doddington street. Betwixt which, and Beauchamp street, is Brook Market, a good large and convenient Place, with Shambles, a Market House, and Stalls, &c. for that Use; but is of small Resort, as to the Market, but the Shambles is pretty well served with Meat.

... Now to go back to Holbourn hill, North side, beginning at the Bars. In which side there are some Parts out of the Freedom; as Brook street, ... which doth appear by the Chain Line in the Map, which is the Separation of the County from the Freedom.

Brook's street, Holborn. †

Brook-Street, Holborn,—at 140, about ¼ of a mile on the R. from Fleet-market, leading into Brook's market.

Brook-St., Holborn, turns up on the north side at No. 140, about a quarter of a mile on the right hand from St. Andrew's church; it leads into Brook's-market.

This street and market derive their name from standing on the site of Brook House, the ancient residence of Sir Fulk Greville, Lord Brook.

Brooke Street, Holborn, derives its name from Brooke House. Philip Yorke, the great Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, was articled (without a fee it is said) to an attorney named Salkeld in this street. Mr. Salkeld was fortunate in his clerks, for among them, about this time, were Jocelyn, subsequently Lord Chancellor of Ireland, founder of the Roden family; Strange, afterwards Sir John Strange, and Master of the Rolls; and Parker, who became Lord Chief Baron. On August 24, 1770, at the age of seventeen years and nine months, Chatterton put an end to his life by swallowing arsenic in water, in the house of a Mr. Frederick Angell, in this street. His room when broken open was found covered with scraps of paper. He was interred in the burial- ground of Shoe Lane Workhouse.

As to the house in which Chatterton lodged very different statements have been published. The received version was that it was No. 4, on the east side of the street, where now stands the Prudential Assurance Office. Mr. Dix, in his untrustworthy Life of Chatterton, says it was No. 17, and this is the number given in the forged Report of the Inquest with which he furnished the late Mr. J.M. Gooch;¹ while the Rev. C.V. Le Grice, who "visited Brooke Street for the purpose of endeavouring to verify the house," in 1796, only twenty-six years after Chatterton's death, says "the house was on the left-hand (west) side of Brooke Street, as you go from Holborn, and I always understood it was No. I2," ² and with this statement Mr. Gooch, who "visited Brooke Street for the same purpose in 1806," coincides.³ The question was however solved by Mr. Moy Thomas, who found, on examining the Poor Rates Books of the Upper Liberty of St. Andrew's parish, in which nearly the whole of Brooke Street is situated, that in June 1771, ten months after Chatterton's death, Frederick Angell rented the house numbered 39,⁴ and that is beyond doubt the house in which Chatterton lodged. It was the second house from Holborn (the first beyond the City bounds) on the west side. It was pulled down a year or two ago, but had been previously so much altered as to have retained little, if anything, of the house of Chatterton's time.

The vast building at the opposite corner, with its principal front in Holborn, and extending 200 feet down Brooke Street, was completed in 1879 for the Prudential Assurance Company: architect, Mr. Alfred Waterhouse, R.A. It is Domestic Gothic, of red brick and terra-cotta, and is a very superior design. Nearly 400 clerks are employed in the office, a large proportion of them being the daughters of professional men. At the bottom of Brooke Street is the St. Alban's Clergy House. East of this is Brooke Market, now a very low neighbourhood. Joseph Munden, the comedian (d. 1832), was born, 1758, "in Brooke Market, Holborn," where his father kept a poulterer's shop.

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¹ Notes and Queries, 1st S., vol. vii. p. 138.
² Ibid., 2d. S., vol. iii. p. 362.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Athenæum, December 5, 1857.