Dartmouth Street, SW1H

Road in/near Westminster, existing between 1683 and now.

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(51.50013 -0.13208, 51.5 -0.132) 
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2023
Dartmouth Street leads north from Tothill Street and dates from the seventeenth century.

Dartmouth Street was named for both Admiral George Legge, 1st Earl of Dartmouth, and William Legge, Lord Privy Seal in the 1710s.

Admiral George Legge was one of James II’s principal advisers and a kinsman of the powerful Villiers family which influenced all the Stuart sovereigns. His townhouse was a mansion in Tothill Street with grounds stretching back to St James’s Park. It was demolished in 1683 to make way for Dartmouth  Street. In 1673, he also purchased the country manor of Lewisham: hence Lewisham Street, an offshoot of Dartmouth Street, and Dartmouth Grove, Hill and Row and Legge Street in Lewisham.

In 1755 George’s  great-grandson William, the 2nd Earl of Dartmouth acquired by marriage land at Kentish Town and Highgate. The Kentish Town field was developed in the 1860s by the 5th Earl, who employed as his land agent John Eeles Lawford, a local Churchwarden and slate merchant, the founder of  Lawford and Sons, builders’ merchants in Camden Town.

He  built Lawford, Patshull and Sandall Roads. Patshull was the family home in Staffordshire, and Sandall in the West Riding of Yorkshire probably part of the Earl’s 8000 acres of property in that county. The  Highgate estate-Dartmouth Park  Avenue, Hill and Road and Woodsome Road - named after the family seat near Huddersfield - was developed 1870-1885, and still belonged to the Earls of Dartmouth in the early twentieth century.

At the intersection of Dartmouth Street and Old Queen Street, are the Cockpit Stairs, leading to the Royal Cockpit built in 1689. This venue was infamous for hosting cockfighting, a pastime that had been prohibited during Oliver Cromwell’s Commonwealth era. The Royal Cockpit was demolished in 1810. In 1762, James Boswell, the biographer and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson, attended a cockfight there, expressing his resolution to be a "true-born Englishman." However, this assertion is likely fictitious, as Boswell was a Scot.

Adjacent to the Cockpit Stairs, the "Two Chairmen" pub on Hertford Street was established possibly in 1729. The Two Chairmen is thought to be the oldest public house in Westminster. The pub’s name is a nod to the practice of hiring sedan chairs, which were available for rent outside the establishment. Sedan chairs, a popular mode of transport for short London journeys, allowed passengers to travel above the city’s filth and mud. They were introduced in the early years of King Charles I’s reign.




Citation information: London Street Names (book)
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CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LOCALITY

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Comment
Wendy    
Added: 22 Mar 2024 15:33 GMT   

Polygon Buildings
Following the demolition of the Polygon, and prior to the construction of Oakshott Court in 1974, 4 tenement type blocks of flats were built on the site at Clarendon Sq/Phoenix Rd called Polygon Buildings. These were primarily for people working for the Midland Railway and subsequently British Rail. My family lived for 5 years in Block C in the 1950s. It seems that very few photos exist of these buildings.

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Steve   
Added: 19 Mar 2024 08:42 GMT   

Road construction and houses completed
New Charleville Circus road layout shown on Stanford’s Library Map Of London And Its Suburbs 1879 with access via West Hill only.

Plans showing street numbering were recorded in 1888 so we can concluded the houses in Charleville Circus were built by this date.

Source: Charleville Circus, Sydenham, London

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Comment
Steve   
Added: 19 Mar 2024 08:04 GMT   

Charleville Circus, Sydenham: One Place Study (OPS)
One Place Study’s (OPS) are a recent innovation to research and record historical facts/events/people focused on a single place �’ building, street, town etc.

I have created an open access OPS of Charleville Circus on WikiTree that has over a million members across the globe working on a single family tree for everyone to enjoy, for free, forever.

Source: Charleville Circus, Sydenham, London

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Comment
Charles   
Added: 8 Mar 2024 20:45 GMT   

My House
I want to know who lived in my house in the 1860’s.

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NH   
Added: 7 Mar 2024 11:41 GMT   

Telephone House
Donald Hunter House, formerly Telephone House, was the BT Offices closed in 2000

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Comment
Paul Cox   
Added: 5 Mar 2024 22:18 GMT   

War damage reinstatement plans of No’s 11 & 13 Aldine Street
Whilst clearing my elderly Mothers house of general detritus, I’ve come across original plans (one on acetate) of No’s 11 & 13 Aldine Street. Might they be of interest or should I just dispose of them? There are 4 copies seemingly from the one single acetate example. Seems a shame to just junk them as the level of detail is exquisite. No worries if of no interest, but thought I’d put it out there.

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Comment
Diana   
Added: 28 Feb 2024 13:52 GMT   

New Inn Yard, E1
My great grandparents x 6 lived in New Inn Yard. On this date, their son was baptised in nearby St Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch

Source: BDM London, Cripplegate and Shoreditch registers written by church clerk.

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Comment
Vic Stanley   
Added: 24 Feb 2024 17:38 GMT   

Postcose
The postcode is SE15, NOT SE1

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LOCAL PHOTOS
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Broadway SW1
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In the neighbourhood...

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Wood engraving showing mothers, with their children, exercising at Tothill Fields Prison
Credit: Wiki Commons
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Westminster Abbey with a procession of Knights of the Bath (1749)
Credit: Canaletto
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Truefitt & Hill products Truefitt & Hill is the oldest barbershop in the world, as certified by Guinness Book of World Records in April 2000. Truefitt was established in 1805 by William Francis Truefitt. Truefitt styled himself as hairdresser to the British Royal Court and the firm received their first Royal Warrant from King George III. In 1911, Edwin Hill set up a barber shop on Old Bond Street, also near the royal neighbourhoods in London and it was to this address H.P. Truefitt (William’s nephew) moved in 1935 to create Truefitt & Hill. The present location of Truefitt & Hill at 71 St James’s Street, was taken up in 1994.
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Broadway SW1
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Entrance to Pickering Place
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The site of Spring Gardens on the Agas map (1561)
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The Queen and Royal Family return from Trooping the Colour with Admiralty Arch in the background (2018)
Credit: Stephen Harvey/MOD
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Cockpit Steps in Westminster once led down to the Royal Cockpit - an 18th century cockfighting venue. The Royal Cockpit disappeared in 1810 but the stairs have remained.
Credit: GoArt/The Underground Map
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Whitehall, just before the 1953 Coronation. View northwards from Horse Guards Avenue towards Trafalgar Square. Decorations are already going up for the Queen’s Coronation six days later.
Credit: Ben Brooksbank
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Carlton House Terrace consists of a pair of terraces - white stucco-faced houses on the south side of the street overlooking St James’s Park
Credit: Wiki Commons
Licence: CC BY 2.0




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