Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The memorial to Charles Macklin in St Paul's, the 'Actors' Church'.
The comic actor died in 1797 aged 107.
But Ralph Rylance, author of
The Epicure's Almanac
(1815) said that to walk home from
the theatre involved 'running the gauntlet thro' streetwalkers and pickpockets.'
If the church is open, enter through the gate into the churchyard. (If the church is not
open, turn right into Henrietta Street.)
St Paul's, the nearest place of worship for a number of theatres, is known as the Actors'
Church. The Austens may have attended services here, for it is on Henry's doorstep, but it
is not mentioned in any of Jane's letters.
The house in Henrietta Street where Henry Austen had his bank for
several years and in which he lived between 1813 and 1814.
Turn left as you leave the church and the passage straight ahead will bring you out into
Henrietta Street, immediately opposite No. 10 where Henry Austen had his bank offices.
In 1813, following the death of his wife, he moved to the apartments above. After the re-
spectable elegance of Sloane Street, living in Covent Garden would have been a startling
contrast, although he must have known what to expect. Perhaps the colour and bustle were
a welcome distraction from his bereavement. In May Jane described the apartments as be-
ing, 'all dirt & confusion, but in a very promising way.' The location does not seem to have
given her any sisterly cause for concern.
When she arrived for a visit on 15 September 1813 with her brother Edward, his daugh-
ter Fanny and two of Fanny's younger sisters, they had 'a most comfortable dinner of Soup,
Fish, Bouillee, Partridges & an apple Tart' - probably in the dining room on the first floor
at the front. Henry also had a sitting parlour and a small drawing room as well as the bed-
chambers. Jane and Fanny shared a bedroom with a little dressing room on the second floor
and Edward stayed at a hotel in Maiden Lane.
Jane conjures up a charming family picture on 16 September: 'We are now all four of us
young Ladies sitting around the Circular Table in the inner room writing our Letters, while
the two Brothers are having a comfortable coze in the room adjoining.'
In November she returned for a two-week stay while Henry negotiated the terms for
Mansfield Park
with Thomas Egerton's publishing firm.
