Rugby Street

Last updated

Rugby Street
Rugby Tavern, Bloomsbury, WC1 (2843227171).jpg
The Rugby Tavern
Rugby Street area map.jpg
Vicinity of Rugby Street (centre)
Former name(s)Chapel Street
AreaBloomsbury, London
Postal codeWC1
Coordinates 51°31′18″N0°07′02″W / 51.52179°N 0.11717°W / 51.52179; -0.11717
Construction
Construction startc.1700
Completionc.1721
Other
Known forThe Rugby Tavern and the head of the White Conduit

Rugby Street, formerly known as Chapel Street, is a street in the Bloomsbury district of the London Borough of Camden. It was built between around 1700 and 1721 on land that was given to Rugby School in Warwickshire and now forms part of London's Rugby Estate. Many of its buildings are listed by Historic England such as the grade II The Rugby Tavern. It was renamed Rugby Street in 1936 or 1937. In the post-war period, number 18 was the home to many creative people and the house where Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath spent their first night together.

Contents

Location

Rugby Street runs between Lamb's Conduit Street in the west and the junction of Great James Street and Millman Street in the east, in the Bloomsbury district of the London Borough of Camden. [1] An alley known as Emerald Court joins the south side of the street to Emerald Street. [2]

History

Chaple Street on John Rocque's map of 1746 Rugby Street and James Street on John Rocque's map of 1746.jpg
Chaple Street on John Rocque's map of 1746

Chapel Street, sometimes spelled Chaple Street, was built on part of eight acres of land given to Rugby School in 1567 by Lawrence Sheriff, the school's founder. It forms part of the Rugby Estate which was laid out for development in the 1680s and let to Sir William Milman after whom nearby Millman Street is named. [4]

It began to be built around 1700 and was completed around 1721. The street was named after the Episcopal Chapel of St John, a Church of England chapel on the corner with Millman Street which was already in existence when Chapel Street began to be developed. The chapel was later demolished and Rugby Chambers built on the site in 1867. [5]

The street was renamed Rugby Street in 1936 or 1937. [5]

Buildings

No. 13, below and behind which lies the White Conduit head French's Dairy, Rugby Street.jpg
No. 13, below and behind which lies the White Conduit head

The street contains a number of listed buildings such as the grade II listed The Rugby Tavern on the corner with Great James Street [7] which was created in the mid-nineteenth century by the joining of two houses, one from each street. [5] Numbers 10 to 16 and 18 on the north side are also listed, as are numbers 7, 9, and 13 on the south side. Pevsner comments on the sensitive restoration of 10-16 by Rugby School in 1981 and the railings and carved doorcase of number 12. [8]

To the rear and under number 13, formerly French's Dairy, lies the White Conduit head which supplied water to the Greyfriars Monastery in Newgate Street and which has been dated to 1258 or earlier. [5] A plaque at the front notes the fact. [6]

Former residents

They told me: 'You
Should write a book about this house. It's possessed!
Whoever comes into it never gets properly out!
Whoever enters it enters a labyrinth –
A Knossos of coincidence. And now you're in it.' [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sylvia Plath</span> American poet and writer (1932–1963)

Sylvia Plath was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. She is credited with advancing the genre of confessional poetry and is best known for two of her published collections, The Colossus and Other Poems (1960) and Ariel (1965), as well as The Bell Jar, a semi-autobiographical novel published shortly before her suicide in 1963. The Collected Poems was published in 1981, which included previously unpublished works. For this collection Plath was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1982, making her the fourth to receive this honour posthumously.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ted Hughes</span> English poet and childrens writer (1930–1998)

Edward James Hughes was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1984 and held the office until his death. In 2008 The Times ranked Hughes fourth on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bloomsbury</span> District in West End, London

Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Primrose Hill</span> Park in north-west London

Primrose Hill is a Grade II listed public park located north of Regent's Park in London, England, first opened to the public in 1842. It was named after the 64 metres (210 ft) natural hill in the centre of the park, the second highest natural point in the London Borough of Camden. The hill summit has a clear view of central London, as well as Hampstead and Belsize Park to the north and is adorned by an engraved quotation from William Blake. Based on the popularity of the park, the surrounding district and electoral ward were named Primrose Hill. The Primrose Hill district is in the London Borough of Camden, England.

<i>Sylvia</i> (2003 film) 2003 British film

Sylvia is a 2003 British biographical drama film directed by Christine Jeffs and starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Daniel Craig, Jared Harris, and Michael Gambon. It tells a story based on the real-life romance between prominent poets Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes. The film begins with their meeting at Cambridge in 1956 and ends with Sylvia Plath's suicide in 1963.

Assia Esther Wevill was a German Jewish woman who escaped the Nazis at the beginning of World War II and emigrated to Palestine, via Italy, then later the United Kingdom, where she had an affair with the English poet Ted Hughes. While she was a successful advertising copywriter and a talented translator of poetry, she is mainly remembered in the context of her relationships with Sylvia Plath and Hughes.

<i>Birthday Letters</i> 1998 poetry collection by Ted Hughes

Birthday Letters is a 1998 poetry collection by English poet and children's writer Ted Hughes. Released only months before Hughes' death, the collection won multiple prestigious literary awards, including the Whitbread Book of the Year, the Forward Poetry Prize for Best Collection, and the T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry in 1999. This collection of eighty-eight poems is widely considered to be Hughes's most explicit response to the suicide of his estranged wife Sylvia Plath in 1963, and to their widely discussed, politicized, and "explosive" marriage. Prior to Birthday Letters, Hughes had only explicitly mentioned Plath once before, in a poem titled 'Heptonstall Cemetary' from his 1979 collection Remains of Elmet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erica Wagner</span> American author and critic

Erica Wagner is an American author and critic, living in London, England. She is former literary editor of The Times.

St John's Chapel, Bedford Row, in Bloomsbury, London, was a proprietary chapel and the home of a large evangelical Anglican congregation in the 19th century. According to The Eclectic Review it was built for people who seceded from the congregation of St Andrew's, Holborn after Henry Sacheverell was forced on them by Queen Anne in 1713. It was located at the northwest corner of Millman Street and Chapel Street, Holborn, London, in the proximity of Bedford Row, and was opened in the year 1721.

Court Green is a house on Essington Road in North Tawton, Devon, England. It was the home the poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath moved to in late August 1961. Plath left the house on 10 December 1962, while Hughes lived there on and off for the rest of his life. It is the current home of his widow Carol Hughes.

Jacqueline Rose, FBA, FRSL is a British academic who is Professor of Humanities at the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Tawton</span> Town in Devon, England

North Tawton is a small town in Devon, England, situated on the river Taw. It is administered by West Devon Council. The population of the electoral ward at the census 2011 was 2,026.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Lamb, Bloomsbury</span>

The Lamb is a Grade II listed pub at 94 Lamb's Conduit Street, in the London Borough of Camden, London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St George the Martyr, Holborn</span> Church in London, England

St George the Martyr Holborn is an Anglican church located at the south end of Queen Square, Holborn, in the London Borough of Camden. It is dedicated to Saint George, and was originally so-called to distinguish it from the later nearby church of St. George's Bloomsbury, with which it shared a burial ground. While the historical name remains its formal designation, it is today known simply as St George's Holborn.

Nicholas Farrar Hughes was an English-American fisheries biologist known as an expert in stream salmonid ecology. Hughes was the son of the American poet Sylvia Plath and English poet Ted Hughes, and the younger brother of artist and poet Frieda Hughes. He and his sister were public figures as small children due to the circumstances of their mother's widely publicized suicide. Hughes held dual British/American citizenship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King's Parade</span> Street in Cambridge, England

King's Parade is a street in central Cambridge, England. The street continues north as Trinity Street and then St John's Street, and south as Trumpington Street. It is a major tourist area in Cambridge, commanding a central position in the University of Cambridge area of the city. It is also a place frequented by many cyclists and by students travelling between lectures during term-time.

<i>The Colossus and Other Poems</i> Book by Sylvia Plath

The Colossus and Other Poems is a poetry collection by American poet Sylvia Plath, first published by Heinemann, in 1960. It is the only volume of poetry by Plath that was published before her death in 1963.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great James Street</span> Street in Bloomsbury district, Camden borough, London

Great James Street is a street in the Bloomsbury district of the London Borough of Camden. It has strong literary and publishing connections, and former residents include the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne and the detective story writer Dorothy L. Sayers. The Nation & Athenaeum, chaired by John Maynard Keynes, and the Nonesuch Press were both based in the street. The street has almost all its original buildings with minimal external changes. It is described in Nikolaus Pevsner's guide as "a gem" and its mostly terraced houses as "unusually uniform for their date". The majority of the street is listed by Historic England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chalcot Square</span> Garden square in London, England

Chalcot Square is a garden square in the Primrose Hill district of London, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Primrose Hill (district)</span> District in the London Borough of Camden

Primrose Hill is a district in the London Borough of Camden, England. Electorally, it is mainly within the Camden Town with Primrose Hill ward, though some other wards do overlap.

References

  1. Ordnance Survey. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  2. This Is The Narrowest Street In London. Zoe Craig. Londonist. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
  3. Hyde, Ralph. (1982) The A to Z of Georgian London. London: London Topographical Society. p. 7. ISBN   0902087169
  4. Bebbington, Gillian. (1972) London Street Names. London: B.T. Batsford. p. 281. ISBN   0713401400
  5. 1 2 3 4 Rugby Estate: Rugby Street. UCL Bloomsbury Project. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  6. 1 2 Plaque: French's Dairy conduit. London Remembers. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  7. Historic England. "Rugby Public House (1271397)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 12 July 2020.
  8. Pevsner, Nikolaus & Bridget Cherry. (2002). The Buildings of England: London 4 North. New Haven & London: Yale University Press. p. 313. ISBN   0300096534.
  9. Charles Kingston O'Mahony England, London Electoral Registers, 1847-1913. Family Search. Retrieved 12 July 2020. (subscription required)
  10. For rent: Scene of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath’s first night. Ella Jessel, Camden New Journal, 1 December 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
  11. 1 2 Wagner, Erica. (2016). "2. Beautiful Beautiful America". Ariel's Gift: Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, and the Story of Birthday Letters. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 55. ISBN   978-0-393-29267-1.
  12. Richard Hollis. Modern Poetry in Translation. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
  13. A Portrait of 18 Rugby Street. Bobby Williams. Retrieved 15 July 2020.