Monmouth Street

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Monmouth Street, 2016

Monmouth Street is a street in the Seven Dials district of Covent Garden, London, England.

Contents

Monmouth Street runs north to south from Shaftesbury Avenue to a crossroads with Tower Street and Shelton Street, where it becomes St Martin's Lane. About halfway it meets Seven Dials, where it intersects with Mercer Street, Earlham Street, and Shorts Gardens. It is numbered B404.

Former street

The original street, which was named after the Earls of Monmouth who owned land here in the 17th century, ran from what is now Charing Cross Road to another former street called Broad Street (now part of St Giles High Street). Throughout the 18th century and for most of the 19th, Monmouth Street was famous for its old clothes shops. Gay wrote in his Trivia: "Thames Street gives cheeses, Covent Garden fruits, Moorfields old books, and Monmouth Street old suits." [1] Notable inhabitants in 1751–55 included the freemasons John Hamilton and John Holland. [2]

In the 19th century, Monmouth Street was widened to form the eastern part of Shaftesbury Avenue, and the name disappeared. [1]

Current street

The current street was originally two separate streets. The part north of Seven Dials was called Great St Andrew's Street and the part south of Seven Dials Little St Andrew's Street. In the 1930s the whole street was renamed Monmouth Street, in an attempt to re-create the original street. The Covent Garden Hotel is situated at no. 10 and the original home of Monmouth Coffee Company at no. 27. Pollock's Toy Museum started in 1956 in a single attic room at No. 44 above Benjamin Pollock's Toy Shop, but outgrew the premises and moved in 1969 to Scala Street.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pollock's Toy Museum</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Two Brewers, Covent Garden</span> Pub in Covent Garden, London

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Earlham Street is a street in Covent Garden, in the London Borough of Camden that runs from Shaftesbury Avenue in the west to Neal Street in the east, crossing Seven Dials midway, where it intersects with Monmouth Street, Mercer Street, and Shorts Gardens. Tower Street and Tower Court join it on its south side.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mercer Street, London</span>

Mercer Street is a street in the Seven Dials district of Covent Garden, London, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benjamin Pollock's Toy Shop</span>

Benjamin Pollock's Toy Shop is a shop selling vintage and retro toys in London's Covent Garden. One of the oldest toy shops in London, it had its origins in Hoxton in 1851 before being taken over in 1877 by Benjamin Pollock, who ran it until his death in 1937. Coronation Street actor Peter Baldwin co-owned the shop from 1988 to his death in 2015. Located at 44 The Market Building, Benjamin Pollock's Toy Shop specialises in Victorian toy theatres, both original and reproduction, in addition to books, puppets, music boxes and other traditional toys.

This is a list of the etymology of street names in the London district of Covent Garden. Covent Garden has no formally defined boundaries – those utilised here are: Shaftesbury Avenue to the north-west, New Oxford Street and High Holborn to the north, Kingsway and the western half of the Aldwych semi-circle to the east, Strand to the south and Charing Cross Road to the west.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monmouth Coffee Company</span> British coffee roaster and seller

Monmouth Coffee Company is a coffee roaster, retailer and wholesaler in London, which was founded in 1978. It played an important role in regenerating Neal's Yard and Borough Market. It has remained focused on roasting and selling coffee beans and was one of the foundations for the third wave of coffee in London after the year 2000.

References

  1. 1 2 Weinreb, Ben; Hibbert, Christopher (1992). The London Encyclopaedia (reprint ed.). Macmillan. p. 539.
  2. Ric Berman (1 October 2013). Schism: The Battle That Forged Freemasonry. Sussex Academic Press. p. 80. ISBN   978-1-78284-006-0.

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