Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
An original bell-pull in the form of a tasselled rope at the House of St
Barnabas.
Opposite Bateman Street is Wedgwood Mews, originally a late seventeenth-century
house. Josiah Wedgwood had his showrooms here between 1774 and 1795 when he moved
to St James's Square and opened the shop where the Austens bought their china.
On the corner with Soho Square is the House of St Barnabas, home to Richard Beckford,
a vastly rich Jamaica sugar magnate, reminding us just how much wealth in the period was
built on the slave trade. Sir Thomas Lawrence, the fashionable painter of spectacular Re-
gency portraits, lived at No. 57 on the opposite corner between 1790 and 1794.
Turn left into Soho Square. The corner in front of you is the one shown in the Ackermann
print, although finding cattle and sheep being herded through these days is unlikely! Nos.
33-5, now modern buildings, was the site of the house of the great naturalist Sir Joseph
Banks.
Turn into Carlisle Street and right into Dean Street. No. 6 is the back of 4-6 Soho Square,
which was Trotter's or The Soho Bazaar and gives a rare glimpse into the warehouse area
of a Regency business. This popular covered market with two floors of stalls for millinery
and fancy goods was opened in 1816 to help people, especially women, thrown out of work
during the post-war slump. Counters could be hired daily at a rate of 3d a foot. It was such
a success that it continued until 1885.
Returning along Dean Street, No. 88 is a newsagent with a fine and rare Rococo front -
unique in London. Once it must have been a very smart shop indeed, perhaps a music shop,
if the instruments in the carving are significant. Further along Dean Street, at the corner
with Bateman Street, look up to see the inn sign for the Crown andTwo Chairmen pub - a
reminder of a popular mode of transport.
Turn left into Bateman Street to reach Frith Street where John Constable lived
(1810-11). No. 15 has a fine Gothic shop front (1816).
Return to Soho Square and continue around it to Soho Street, leading to Oxford Street.
Walk along to Tottenham Court Road, turn left, then right into Bedford Avenue. Adeline
Place will lead you to Bedford Square.
