Chenies Street is a street in Bloomsbury, London, that runs between Tottenham Court Road and Gower Street. It is the location of a number of notable buildings such as Minerva House, the Drill Hall (now RADA Studios), and a memorial to The Rangers, 12th County of London Regiment. North Crescent starts and ends on the northern side of Chenies Street.
Chenies Street runs between Tottenham Court Road in the west and Gower Street in the east. Alfred Place joins the street on its south side, Huntley Street on the north, and Ridgmount Gardens/Ridgmount Street crosses the street at its eastern end. North Crescent is on the northern side of the street. [1]
Chenies Street was built around 1776 on land belonging to the Bedford Estate. It was named after Chenies Manor in Buckinghamshire, originally owned by Anne Sapcote, who was the wife of John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford. [2] Before Chenies Street was built, Cox's Gardens was located at the eastern end of the plot. [3] Chenies Street has been extensively changed since it was first laid out, being rebuilt in the mid-nineteenth century and again in the twentieth century on the north side. [3]
The writer Fanny Burney (1752–1840) lived at 23 Chenies Street in 1812–13. [2]
Watchmaker Thomas Earnshaw (1749–1829) died at his home in the street. [3]
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909), whose literary works scandalised Victorian Britain, lived at 12 North Crescent. [4]
East to west:
Minerva House in North Crescent is a former car showroom and workshop that is a Grade II listed building with English Heritage. It is now a media agency. [5] The building was designed by George Vernon in Portland stone ashlar for the Minerva Motor Company, 1912–13. The Minerva company originated in Belgium as a manufacturer of bicycles, before branching out into early forms of motorbikes and then motor cars. Charles Rolls was a Minerva dealer in England. The design of the building includes three large bays on the ground floor flanked by two entrance ways each marked Minerva House. Above are three storeys of offices with a statue of Minerva on the top floor. [6] The building and the rest of the crescent once looked out on to gardens until the deep-level shelter was built during the Second World War. [7]
During the Second World War, a number of deep-level shelters were built beneath London tube stations for the protection of the public and military from German bombing. The shelter underneath Goodge Street Underground station was completed in 1942 [8] and has two above ground entrances, one on the north side of Chenies Street on the island between Chenies Street and North Crescent, and another nearby on the western side of Tottenham Court Road, next to the American International Church. [9] There is also access from within Goodge Street tube station. The Goodge Street shelter was used by the US Army Signal Corps during the preparations for D-Day. [8]
After the war the shelter was used as an assembly centre for troops travelling to or from overseas bases. In 1956 a fire broke out in the shelter that required the attendance of twelve fire engines. Firemen tackled the blaze from each of the three entrances in teams of 30 using breathing apparatus. Seven were sent to hospital but no deaths were reported. [10] Today the structure is used for archival storage. [9]
Within the deep-level shelter compound is a memorial to The Rangers, [11] 12th County of London Regiment, which dates from shortly after the First World War and includes additional inscriptions relating to the service of the King's Royal Rifle Corps (KRRC) in the Second World War. The memorial is Grade II-listed [12] and includes a bronze plaque with the regimental symbol. Wreaths are still laid at the site. [13] The Rangers took over The Drill Hall at 16 Chenies Street previously occupied by the Bloomsbury Rifles when all British volunteer units were incorporated into the Territorial Army in 1907. [14]
The Drill Hall on the south side at number 16, now known as RADA Studios, [15] is a Grade II-listed building. It was designed for the Bloomsbury Rifles in 1882–83 by Samuel Knight, a captain in the unit. It is built of red brick with sandstone dressings and features a panel showing a hanging horn, the symbol of The Rifle Brigade, with which the Bloomsbury Rifles were affiliated. Above are the coats of arms of the Duke of Bedford, royal arms and the arms of the now dissolved county of Middlesex. The hall was paid for by the commanding officer of the Bloomsbury Rifles, Lieut-Col. Richards. [16] In the 1900s Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes rehearsed at the hall, and during the Second World War it was the venue for Ralph Reader's Gang Shows. [17]
Adjacent to The Drill Hall is number 18, which is also owned by RADA and contains rehearsal rooms, offices, the refectory and the RADA library. [15] The building was purchased by RADA in 1990 with the help of the royalties left to the academy by George Bernard Shaw. [18]
Chenies Street Chambers are at numbers 9–11 on the north side, immediately opposite The Drill Hall and on the corner with Huntley Street. The building was originally known as Chenies Street Chambers Ladies Residential Dwellings and was designed as flats for single professional women on behalf of the Ladies Dwellings Company founded by Agnes Garrett. [19] The building was constructed about 1888 to the plans of architect J. M. Brydon and opened by suffragist Millicent Fawcett in 1889. [19] Residents included the artist Florence Reason, Emily Penrose of Bedford College, campaigner Emily Hobhouse, archaeologist Mary Brodrick, historian Charlotte Fell-Smith, and the authors Adeline Sergeant and Olive Schreiner. [20] [21]
On 17 April 1941 the building was severely damaged when a German incendiary bomb hit it and started a fire. There were no casualties but the building was marked as so damaged as to make rebuilding doubtful. It was rebuilt, but with the entrance moved from Chenies Street to Huntley Street. [22] The building then became social housing. [20]
At number 22, on the corner with Ridgmount Street, once stood the Medical Graduates' College and Polyclinic, founded around 1899. [3] It has since been replaced by Nicholas Cooper House, owned by RADA. The Polyclinic was the first British postgraduate medical institution. [23]
The Jewish High School for Girls and Day Training College for Teachers moved to Chenies Street in 1881 following the construction of a new building at a cost of over £8,000, funded by a gift from Isabel Goldsmid, sister of Sir Julian Goldsmid. The school closed in 1897. [24] [25]
Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, part of the London Borough of Camden in England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions. Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest museum in the United Kingdom, and several educational institutions, including University College London and a number of other colleges and institutes of the University of London as well as its central headquarters, the New College of the Humanities, the University of Law, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the British Medical Association and many others. Bloomsbury is an intellectual and literary hub for London, as home of world-known Bloomsbury Publishing, publishers of the Harry Potter series, and namesake of the Bloomsbury Group, a group of British intellectuals which included author Virginia Woolf, biographer Lytton Strachey, and economist John Maynard Keynes.
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Senate House complex of the University of London and is a founding member of the Federation of Drama Schools.
Somers Town is an inner-city district in North West London. It has been strongly influenced by the three mainline north London railway termini: Euston (1838), St Pancras (1868) and King's Cross (1852), together with the Midland Railway Somers Town Goods Depot (1887) next to St Pancras, where the British Library now stands. It was named after Charles Cocks, 1st Baron Somers (1725–1806). The area was originally granted by William III to John Somers (1651–1716), Lord Chancellor and Baron Somers of Evesham.
Goodge Street is a London Underground station on Tottenham Court Road in Fitzrovia, in the London Borough of Camden. It is on the Northern line's Charing Cross branch between Warren Street and Tottenham Court Road stations, and is in Travelcard Zone 1.
The London deep-level shelters are eight deep-level air-raid shelters that were built under London Underground stations during World War II.
Russell Square is a large garden square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden, built predominantly by the firm of James Burton. It is near the University of London's main buildings and the British Museum. Almost exactly square, to the north is Woburn Place and to the south-east is Southampton Row. Russell Square tube station sits to the north-east.
Gordon Square is a public park square in Bloomsbury, London, England. It is part of the Bedford Estate and was designed as one of a pair with the nearby Tavistock Square. It is owned by the University of London.
RADA Studios is a theatrical venue in Chenies Street in Bloomsbury, just to the east of Tottenham Court Road in the West End of London. Owned by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), the building contains rehearsal rooms, meeting rooms, and the 200-seat Studio Theatre.
A drill hall is a building where soldiers practice and perform military drills.
The A400 road is an A road in London that runs from Charing Cross to Archway in North London. It passes some of London's most famous landmarks.
John McKean Brydon was a Scottish architect who developed a practice in designing public buildings, particularly hospitals, in London. He designed the St Peter's Hospital in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden (1880–84), the Hospital for Women in Euston Road, Chelsea Public Library (1890), and the London School of Medicine for Women in Huntley Street (1896). He also designed the Old Vestry Hall at the rear of the Chelsea Town Hall on King's Road, as well as the Government Offices Great George Street, which today house the Treasury, HM Revenues and Customs and part of the Cabinet Office.
Samuel Knight (1834–1911) was a British architect practising from Cornhill Chambers, 62 Cornhill, London EC and later 175 and 176 Temple Chambers, Tudor Street, London EC.
Huntley Street is a street in Bloomsbury, London, known for its close association with University College Hospital.
Ridgmount Street is a street in Bloomsbury, London.
Alfred Place is a street in Bloomsbury, London, running between Chenies Street and Store Street.
Ridgmount Gardens is a street in Bloomsbury, London, that runs from Torrington Place in the north to Chenies Street in the south. It runs parallel with Huntley Street and Gower Street and is continued by Ridgmount Place in the south.
Torrington Place is a street in London that runs between Tottenham Court Road in the West and Byng Place in the East. It is crossed by Huntley Street and Gower Street. Chenies Mews joins it on the north side and is continued by Ridgmount Gardens on the south side.
Store Street is a street in Bloomsbury, London.
The St Giles's and St George's Bloomsbury Rifle Volunteer Corps, more familiarly known as the Bloomsbury Rifles, was a Volunteer unit of the British Army in London from 1803 to 1814 and from 1860 until 1908.
This is a list of the etymology of street names in the London district of Bloomsbury. The following utilises the generally accepted boundaries of Bloomsbury viz. Euston Road to the north, Gray's Inn Road to the east, New Oxford Street, High Holborn, Southampton Row and Theobald's Road to the south and Tottenham Court Road to the west.
