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PICCADILLY INNS AND TAVERNS.
Piccadilly was long noticed for the variety and extent of its Inns and Taverns,
although few remain. At the east end were formerly the Black Bear and White Bear
(originally the Fleece), nearly opposite each other. The Black Bear was taken
down 1820. The White Bear remains : it occurs in St. Martin's parish-books, 1685
: here Chatelain and Sullivan, the engravers, died ; and Benjamin West, the
painter, lodged, the first night after his arrival from America. Strype mentions
the White Horse Cellar in 1720; and the booking-office of the New White Horse
Cellar is to this day in " the cellar."
The Three Kings stables gateway, No. 75, had two Corinthian pilasters, stated by
Disraeli to have belonged to Clarendon House : " the stable-yard at the back
presents the features of an old galleried inn-yard, and it is noted as the place
from which General Palmer started the first Bath mail-coach." (J. W. Archer :
Vestiges, part vi.) The Hercules' Pillars (a sign which meant that no habitation
was to be found beyond it) stood a few yards west of Hamilton -place, and has
been mentioned. The Hercules' Pillars, and another roadside tavern, the
Triumphant Car, were standing about 1797, and were mostly frequented by
soldiers. Two other Piccadilly inns, the White Horse and Half Moon, both of
considerable extent, have given names to streets.
The older and more celebrated house of entertainment was Piccadilly Hall, which
appears to have been built by one Ptobert Baker, in " the fields behind the
Mews," leased to him by St. Martin's parish, and sold by his widow to Colonel
Panton, who built Panton square and Panton-street. Lord Clarendon, in his
History of the Rebellion, speaks of " Mr. Hyde going to a house called
Piccadilly for entertainment and gaming:" this house, with its gravel-walks and
bowling-greens, extended from the corner of Windmill-street and the site of
Panton-square, as shown in Porter and Faithorne's Map, 1658. Mr. Cunningham
found (see Handbook, 2nd edit. p. 396), in the parish accounts of St. Martin's,
" Robt Backer, of Pickadilley Halle;"
and the receipts for Lammas money paid for the premises as late as 1670. Sir
John Suckling, the poet, was one of the frequenters ; and Aubrey remembered
Suckling's " sisters coming to the Peccadillo bowling-green, crying, for the
feare he should lose all their portions." The house was taken down about 1685 :
a tennis-court in the rear remained to our time, upon the site of the Argyll
Rooms, Great Windmill-street. The Society of Antiquaries possess a printed
proclamation (temp. Charles II. 1671) against, the increase of buildings in
Windmill-fields and the fields adjoining Soho ; and in the Plan of 1658, Great
Windmill-street consists of straggling houses, and a windmill in a field west.
Colonel Panton, who is named above, was a celebrated gamester of the time of the
Restoration, and in one night, it is said, he won as many thousands as purchased
him an estate of above 1500/. a year. "After this good fortune," says Lucas, "
he had such an aversion against all manner of games, that he would never handle
cards or dice again ; but lived very handsomely on his winnings to his dying
day, which was in the year 1681. He was the last proprietor of Piccadilly Hall,
and was in possession of land on the site of the streets and buildings which
bear his name, as early as the year 1664. Yet we remember to have seen it stated
that Panton-street was named from a particular kind of horse-shoe called a
panton ; and from its contiguity to the Haymarket, this origin was long
credited.
At the north-east end of the Haymarket stood the Gaming-house built by the
barber of the Earl of Pemboke, and hence called Shaver's Hall : it is described
by Garrard, in a letter to Lord Strafford in 1635, as " a new Spring Gardens,
erected in the fields beyond the Mews :" its tennis-court remains in
James-street.
From a Survey of the Premises, made in 1650, we gather that Shaver's Hail was
strongly built of brick,and covered with lead : its large " seller " was divided
into six rooms; above these four rooms, and the same in the first storey, to
which was a balcony, with a prospect southward to the bowling-alleys. In the
second storey were six rooms ; and over the same a walk, leaded, and enclosed
with rails, " very curiously carved and wrought," as was also the staircase,
throughout the house. On the west were large kitchens and coal-house, with lofts
over, " as also one faire Tennis Court," of brick, tiled, " well accommodated
with all things fitting for the same;" with upper rooms ; and at the entrance
gate to the upper bowling-green, a parlour-lodge; and a double flight of steps
descending to the lower bowling alley ; there was still another bowling alley,
and an orchard wall, planted with choice fruit-trees ; " as also one pleasant
banqueting house, and one other faire and pleasant Roome, called the Greene
Roome, and one other Conduit-house, and 2 other Turrets adjoininge to the
walls."
The ground whereon the said buildings stand, together with 2 fayre Bowling
Alleys, orchard gardens, gravily walks, and other green walks, and Courts and
Courtyards, containinge, by estimacion, 3 acres and 3 qrs., lying betweene a
Roadway leading from Charinge Crosse to Knightsbridge west, now in the
possession of Captayne Geeres, and is worth per ann. cl u ."**
* In Jermyn-street, Haymarket, was the One Tun Tavern, a haunt of Sheridan's ;
and, upon the site of " the Little Theatre," is the Cafe de l'Europe.
References :
Lots of references are made to two sources on the
internet archive
:
Edward Callows, Old London Taverns &
John Timbs, Club life of London Volume 2
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