Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/231

 9*s.x.spr.2o,i902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

223

plete. Upon this site formerly resided David Bower, who carried on through a long series of years the business of a baker, and was succeeded by his son James, who was a tax collector. There was also here an old- established chemist's business, lately kept by Mr. George Reade, now of York Street. An inscription over the shop door stated "Established 1790," and from that time the occupants had been Messrs. Mounsey, Green, Saxby, Chaplin, and the late proprietor. A well - known landmark was an elaborately carved and gilded eagle displayed over the door. At the opposite corner of New Tothill Street the houses are demolished down to and including No. 4, Tothill Street, in which the old dramatist Thomas Southerne resided for the last ten years of his life, and where he died in May, 1746, aged eighty-eight. There also, in our own time, an old Westminster worthy of great liberality William Girdler Mucklow carried on business as an oilman and colourman for many years, as did his father before him. I recorded some par- ticulars of this house at 9 th S. vi. 183. There was a stone between the two centre windows on the second floor, having the date 1761 upon it, and I hope that this will be inserted (as near its old position as practicable) in the building about to be erected. This side of New Tothill Street is also cleared down to a recently erected building, Dacre House, at the corner of Dacre Street. No regrets are conjured up by this clearance, for the houses had become an eyesore, if not a positive nuisance, from their inhabitants, who were in very bad odour generally.

It is believed that one gigantic building is to be put up extending through into Great Chapel Street, where also a great clearance is being effected. Old Black Horse Yard has gone, and several old-established and reputable inhabitants (including Dr. Lang- ston, a well - known and highly respected medical practitioner, who succeeded Mr. Richard Painter many years ago) have been dispossessed. The building originally called the Aquarium Theatre has been structurally altered, lavishly embellished, and newly deco- rated, and as the Imperial Theatre, under the lesseeship and management of Mrs. Langtry (Mrs. de Bathe), bids fair to enter upon a new lease of popularity, and take its place among the notable and fashionable places of amuse- ment in London. Within a few yards one of the old rookeries once abounding near here, which perhaps owed their existence to the bygone sanctuary days King's Head Court has gone, and its insanitary, demora- lizing area has given place to a somewhat

picturesque building devoted to offices, &c., now called King's Court. Nearly opposite some vacant land and the site of some old shops have been utilized by the District Rail- way Company for the erection of a building to be devoted to its own offices; it is an exceedingly plain structure, devoid of any attempt at ornamentation, but doubtless well adapted to the purpose for which it was planned. Adjoining is York Mansion, com- pleted, but not yet tenanted. Further on are Albany Chambers and the really handsome premises of the Welsbach Incandescent Gas Company, which cover a considerable expanse of ground in York and Palmer Streets. In York Street further demolitions, starting from No. 93, are promised at an early date, when a considerable number of dealers. in curios, prints, &c., who have for some time followed the dwellers in Flatdom and con- gregated hereabouts, will have to find a fresh field for their labours.

The greater portion of the east side of Dart- mouth Street we^nt many years ago, when the Royal Aquarfum was built.- after the making of the extension of the District Railway through Westminster. On the other side two houses were taken for the erection of the offices .of the Universities Mission to Central Africa, of which organization the well-known Mr. Viner is the lay secretary. One of the shops had been for many years in the occupation of Messrs. Skerry Bros., watch and clock makers. The whole of historic King Street and the west side of Parliament Street have gone, and a widened thorough- fare, at present under the latter name, is the result. Upon the ground so cleared are fast rising new buildings for Government offices; while higher up Whitehall, on ground bounded by that road, Whitehall Place, Whitehall Court, and Horse Guards Avenue, is rising the new War Office, which begins to make a show. Within this area were for- merly Carriugton House, Fife House, and one or two other residences of lesser note, but the first-named house was down before 1887.

The houses in Old Palace Yard and Abing- don Street will probably in the near future be cleared away to the corner of Great College Street, as they are included in the property required for the Westminster improvement scheme which is shortly to be carried out. A short time ago a few houses in Old Palace Yard and the whole of those in Poets' Corner were removed, by which the view of the Abbey buildings was much improved and the risk of fire minimized In Buckingham Gate the old Blue Coat School has been handed over to the authorities of Christ Church for