St Albans Street, SW1Y

Beer Street and Gin Lane are two prints issued in 1751 by English artist William Hogarth in support of what would become the Gin Act.

They depicted grim scenes of “gin abuse” from St Giles - near present day Holborn in London.
Credit: William Hogarth

St Albans Street was named after Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of Saint Albans, 17th century politician and local landowner.

Henry Jermyn (1605 - 1684) was an English politician and courtier. He was an MP in the House of Commons at various times between 1625 and 1643 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Jermyn. He became one of the most influential courtiers of the period, constantly devising and plotting schemes to involve foreign powers in the proposed restoration of the monarchy after the execution of Charles I.

In the early 1660s, he obtained a grant of land north of St James’s Palace, building streets named after himself such as Jermyn Street, He also founded St Albans market, on a site afterwards cleared for the construction of Regent Street and Waterloo Place. It was a grand design and from its inspiration grew this area of London - so much so that the Survey of London acknowledges Henry Jermyn as the Father of the West End.