Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/322

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NOTES AND QUERIES. cio- s. v. APRIL 7, im.

WESTMINSTER CHANGES IN 1905. (Concluded from p. 223.)

To turn to Vauxhall Bridge Road, the premises there belonging to Lane's Steam Laundry, formerly known as Bass's Assembly Rooms, were sold in October, and demolished, together with a house long used in connexion with Holy Trinity Schools. Bass's Assembly Rooms were well known as one of the temples of the amateur drama about half a century ago, when I played Shy lock and one or two other characters with more or less success the latter I think it must have been. The building at the corner of Vauxhall Bridge Road and Edward Street was fast nearing completion, and has been named Hopkinson House, after a munificent contributor to the fund for its erection, who is a great supporter of the cause of the women workers of London. It was expected to open early this year. It belongs to the same body as Brabazon House in Moreton Street, the phenomenal success of which led to its being started. It will accommodate about a hundred and twenty occupants, and is virtually a residential club. In Vincent Square, at the corner of Elverton (formerly Bell) Street, is another building devoted to the same objects (see 10 th S. iii. 382), and in future to be known as St. George's House. It was built by Miss Murray Smith, the daughter of the late well-known pub- lisher Mr. George Smith, of whom it has been written that she wished to " benefit some of London's myriad of working women in a practical way." It was opened in August last, and up to the end of the year had justified its existence. Westminster folk regretted in some measure the name given to the building, as it was thought that it would have been called "Bradley" House, after the late Dean of Westminster, who took a keen interest in all measures for the social amelioration of the people, whether men or women, but perhaps especially the latter. Excellent sketches of these three homes for women workers appeared in The Morning Leader of Saturday, 2 September last, illustrating an article on * The Working Women's Westminster,' in which many facts of much interest were given.

On another side of Vincent Square, the leases of Nos. G6 to 72, together with those in Rochester Row from 25 to 49 (odd num- bers), fell in at the June quarter. The land is advertised to let for building purposes, but so far no change has taken place, most of the tenants remaining at a weekly rent. It is of interest to record that Mrs. Cole (nee Pitt), the occupier of No. 31, Rochester Row,

has been there for over forty years, having started her business before she married. She is a daughter of the *' West Countree," and prides herself considerably upon being of the same family as William Pitt, the great statesman. The building erected for Mr. A. Smellie, wholesale and manufacturing ironmonger, at Nos. 11, 13, and 15, Rochester Row, was opened for business in the autumn, and is a distinct architectural gain to the "Village Street," as this thoroughfare has often been called. Round the corner, in Grey Coat Street, Messrs. T. & W. Farmiloe, glass and lead merchants, have put up a building for their stained-glass department ; it was opened about last Easter. In Grey Coat Place a> new fire station has been built, to take the place of the incommodious one in Howick Place. The new one was rapidly nearing com- pletion as the year closed.

At the Grey Coat Hospital the end of the year saw some additional buildings started for this great girls' school, viz. : six new classrooms, a science laboratory, and an art room. It is to be hoped that architecturally these additions will harmonize with the old building, and doubtless this will be the case, as the authorities are always desirous of acting up to the best traditions of this venerable institution. At the corner of Strutton Ground the '* Corner Pin," an old- established licensed house, of which the last occupant was named Burrows, was demolished last May. In Great Peter Street the im- posing block of buildings for the offices and depository of the National Society were opened on Monday, 30 October. About June last Nos. 4 and 6 Strutton Ground were rebuilt ; they were respectively in the occupation of Messrs. Littlewood Brothers and Mr. Pfennig as business premises. The workshops, warehouses, &c., erected on ground extending from Medway Street into- Horseferry Road, upon which had formerly stood three houses in the former thorough- Fare, and the Roman Catholic chapel dedi- cated to St. Mary in the latter, were completed, and are in the occupation of Messrs. Davis & Bennett, as the Westminster Sanitary Works. The front of the chapel has been allowed to stand, and in this part of the building the firm has its offices. Ifc was in this chapel, on the feast or festival of St. Aloysius, the boy-preacher was heard, after a long and interesting procession of 3riests, young women, and children through /he streets.

This, I think, exhausts the record ofr changes in St. John's parish. In St. Mar-