Great Russell Street

Great Russel street, a very spacious and pleasant str. betn King str. Blomesbury NE, and the Road to Tottenham court near W. L. 725 Yds, and from Cha+ [Charing Cross] N. 1170 Yds.

Great Russel Street, a very handsome large and well built Street, graced with the best Buildings in all Bloomsbury, and the best inhabited by the Nobility and Gentry, especially the North side, as having Gardens behind the Houses: and the Prospect of the pleasant Fields up to Hamsted and Highgate. Insomuch that this Place by Physicians is esteemed the most healthful of any in London. This Street takes its beginning at Kings Street, and runs Westward into Tottenham Road being of a great length, and in its Passage saluteth Southampton House, Montague House and Thanet House; all three the Seats of Noblemen: But for Stateliness of Building and curious Gardens, Montague House hath the Pre-eminence, as indeed of all Houses within the Cities of London and Westminster, and the adjacent Parishes.

Russell-Street, (Great), Bloomsbury-Square,—at the N.W. corner extending to Tottenham-court-road, where the numbers begin and end, viz. 1 and 124.

Russell-St., Great, is in Bloomsbury-square, at the north-west corner, extending to Tottenham-court-road.

Russell Street (Great), Bloomsbury, was built about 1670. In 1720 it was described as "a very handsome, large, and well-built street with the best buildings in all Bloomsbury, and the best inhabited by the nobility and gentry, especially the north side, as having gardens behind the houses, and the prospect of the pleasant fields up to Hampstead and Highgate."¹ When the first edition of this work was published it was "a street of shops," but for some years past many of the shops have been undergoing the process of reconversion into "private houses."

January 31, 1750.—People are almost afraid of stirring out after dark. My Lady Albemarle was robbed the other night in Great Russell Street by nine men.—Walpole to Sir Horace Mann.

Eminent Inhabitants.—Sir Christopher Wren erected a mansion for himself in this street, which was afterwards inhabited by his son and his grandson; and then by Shelden the surgeon and anatomist. Its "noble front, with its majestic cantalever cornice," writes Elmes, "has now (1823) been taken down by a speculative builder, and common Act of Parliament fronts run up" for four houses in its stead. Ralph, first Duke of Montague (d. 1709) in Montague House [which see], afterwards the British Museum. William, Earl Cowper (d. 1723).

November 30, 1714.—This day was employed in packing for removing from Russell Street (where I had a delightful house, with the finest view backwards of any house in town) to the house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where I had lived before, when my Lord had the seals, and which my Lord Harcourt lived in whilst he was Chancellor.—Lady Cowper's Diary.

Francis Sandford, author of the Genealogical History.¹ John Le Neve, author of Monumenta Anglicana, was born "in the house facing Montague Great Gate, December 27, 1679."² Lewis Theobald, in Wyan's Court, Great Russell Street. Speaker Onslow; he died here in February 1768. John Philip Kemble, in No. 89, on the north side. The house was built by Lord St. Helen's, and destroyed in 1847 to make way for the eastern wing of the British Museum. During the height of the O.P. riots, the song of "Heigh Ho, says Kemble," written by Horace Smith, was sung by ballad-singers under the windows, accompanied by "shouts and other sounds," which, Mrs. Inchbald says, nearly frightened Mrs. Kemble to death. It is of this house that Talfourd speaks when he tells us that the great actor extended his high-bred courtesy even to authors with MSS., whom he invariably attended to the door, and bade them "beware of the steps."³ Topham Beauclerk.

November 14, 1779.—Mr. Beauclerk has built a library in Great Russell Street that reaches half way to Highgate. Everybody goes to see it. It has put the Museum's nose quite out of joint.—Horace Walpole to Lady Ossory.

Beauclerk died in this house, March 11, 1780. Opposite Dyot Street was Thanet House, the residence of the Earls of Thanet. It was latterly divided into two houses. Lord Mansfield took a house in this street in 1780, after the destruction of his mansion in Bloomsbury Square. Benjamin Wilson, a portrait painter of some merit, and master painter to the Board of Ordnance, died at his house, No. 56 in this street in 1788, and there his more celebrated son, Sir Robert Wilson, was born in 1777. No. 88 was built by William Battie, M.D., the celebrated physician of St. Luke's, and author of a well-known treatise on Mental Madness (d. 1776). In the Gentleman's Magazine for April 1809 is printed a characteristic letter from Dr. John Jenner, the discoverer of vaccination, dated "Great Russell Street, July 8, 1808." Sir Sidney Smith, the hero of Acre, was living in No. 72 in 1828.⁴ Charles Mathews (the elder) died at No. 62, June 28, 1835. At No. 105 lived, 1829, the well known publisher of works on Gothic architecture, Augustus Pugin, and there he had many pupils who became eminent in their profession. His more celebrated son, Augustus Welby Pugin, was born in Store Street, March 1, 1812.

At the chapel in this street, on June 22, 1749, David Garrick was married to Mademoiselle Violette. Dr. Francklin performed the service. The ceremony was repeated on the same day according to the Roman Catholic forms in the Chapel of the Portuguese Embassy in South Audley Street.

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¹ Strype, B. iv. p. 85.

¹ London Gazette of 1688, No. 2339.
² Nichols's Lit. Anec., vol. i. p. 128.
³ Letters of Charles Lamb, p. 123.
⁴ Barrow's Life, vol. ii. p. 348.