Holborn and Bloomsbury | Page 9

Strype says: "It
is a street graced with a goodly row of large uniform houses on the
south side, but on the north side is indifferent." The street was begun in
the early years of the seventeenth century, but the building spread over
a long time, so that we find the "goodly row of houses" on the south
side to have been built by Webb, a pupil of Inigo Jones, about 1646. A
number of celebrated people lived in Great Queen Street. The first Lord
Herbert of Cherbury had a house on the south side at the corner of
Great Wild Street; here he died in 1648. Sir Thomas Fairfax, the
Parliamentary General, lived here; also Sir Heneage Finch, created Earl
of Nottingham; Sir Godfrey Kneller, when he moved from Covent
Garden; Thomas Worlidge, the portrait-painter, and afterwards, in the
same house, Hoole, the translator of Dante and Ariosto; Sir Robert
Strange, the engraver; John Opie, the artist; Wolcott, better known as
Peter Pindar, who was buried at St. Paul's, Covent Garden. Sheridan is
also said to have lived here, and it would be conveniently near Drury
Lane Theatre, which was under his management from 1776.
[Illustration: KINGSWAY.]
On the south side of the street are the Freemasons' Hall, built originally
in 1775, and the Freemasons' Tavern, erected subsequently. Both have
been rebuilt, and the hall, having been recently repainted, looks at the
time of writing startlingly new. Near it are two of the original old
houses, all that are left with the pilasters and carved capitals which are
so sure a sign of Inigo Jones's influence.
On the north side of the street is the Novelty Theatre.
Great and Little Wild Streets are called respectively Old and New Weld
Streets by Strype. Weld House stood on the site of the present Wild
Court, and was during the reign of James II. occupied by the Spanish
Embassy. In Great Wild Street Benjamin Franklin worked as a
journeyman printer.
Kemble and Sardinia were formerly Prince's and Duke's Streets. The
latter contains some very old houses, and a chapel used by the Roman

Catholics. This is said to be the oldest foundation now in the hands of
the Roman Catholics in London. It was built in 1648, and was the
object of virulent attack during the Gordon Riots; the exterior is
singularly plain. Sardinia Street communicates with Lincoln's Inn
Fields by a heavy and quaint archway.
Even in Strype's time Little Queen Street was "a place pestered with
coaches," a reputation which, curiously enough, it still retains, the
heavy traffic of the King's Cross omnibuses passing through it. Trinity
Church is in a late decorative style, with ornamental pinnacles, flying
buttresses, and two deeply-recessed porches. Within it is a very plain,
roomlike structure. The church is on the site of a house in which lived
the Lambs, and where Mary Lamb in a fit of insanity murdered her
mother. The Holborn Restaurant forms part of the side of this street;
this is a very gorgeous building, and within is a very palace of modern
luxury. It stands on the site formerly occupied by the Holborn Casino
or Dancing Saloon.
Little Queen Street will be wiped out by the broad new thoroughfare
from the Strand to Holborn to be called Kingsway (see plan).
Gate Street was formerly Little Princes Street. The present name is
derived from the gate or carriage-entrance to Lincoln's Inn Fields.
In Strype's map half of Whetstone Park is called by its present title, and
the western half is Phillips Rents. He mentions it as "once famous for
its infamous and vicious inhabitants."
Great and Little Turnstile were so named from the turning stiles which
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries stood at their north ends to
prevent the cattle straying from Lincoln's Inn Fields. The Holborn
Music-hall in Little Turnstile was originally a Nonconformist chapel.
After 1840 it served as a hall, lectures, etc., being given by
free-thinkers, and in 1857 was adapted to its present purpose.
LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS.--All the ground on which the present
square is built formed part of Fickett's Field, which was anciently the
jousting-place of the Knights Templars. A curious petition of the reign

of Edward III. shows us that then it was a favourite recreation-ground
or promenade for clerks, apprentices, students, as well as the citizens.
In this petition a complaint is made that one Roger Leget had laid
caltrappes or engines of iron in a trench, to the danger of those who
walked in the fields. Inigo Jones was entrusted by King James I. to
form a square of houses which should be worthy of so fine a situation.
Before this time it appears that there had been one or two irregular
buildings. Inigo Jones conceived the curious idea of giving his square
the