Rugby Street
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.jpg) The Rugby Tavern | |
 Vicinity of Rugby Street (centre) | |
| Former name(s) | Chapel Street |
|---|---|
| Area | Bloomsbury, London |
| Postal code | WC1 |
| Coordinates | 51°31′18″N 0°07′02″W / 51.52179°N 0.11717°W |
| Construction | |
| Construction start | c.1700 |
| Completion | c.1721 |
| Other | |
| Known for | Site of first positivist centre in Britain |
Rugby Street, formerly known as Chapel Street, is 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 listed The Rugby Tavern. It was renamed Rugby Street in 1936 or 1937.
In 1870 it was the site of the first positivist centre in Britain. 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 wedding night.
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 (formerly Green Street).
History
Chapel Street, sometimes spelled Chaple Street, is on eight acres of land given to Rugby School in 1567 by Lawrence Sherriff, 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.[2] 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.[3]
The Chapel Street Hall, the first positivist centre in Britain, was opened in 1870.[4]
The street was renamed Rugby Street in 1936 or 1937.[3]
Buildings
The street contains a number of listed buildings such as the grade II listed The Rugby Tavern on the corner with Great James Street[5] which was created in the mid-nineteenth century by the joining of two houses, one from each street.[3] 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.[6]
To the rear and under No. 13 lies the White Conduit which supplied water to the Greyfriars Monastery in Newgate Street and which has been dated to 1258 or earlier.[3]
Former residents
- Writer of London-based detective stories Charles Kingston O'Mahony lived at 14 Rugby Chambers in the 1900s.[7]
- In 1956, poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath spent their wedding night at Hughes's flat in Rugby Street[8] and Hughes subsequently wrote the poem "18 Rugby Street" about the occasion in which he described the legendary reputation of the house and how its four floors acted as a stage set on which various romances played out.[9]
- 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.'[9]
- Welsh manuscript expert Daniel Huws lived at number 18 at the same time as Hughes, as did the graphic designer Richard Hollis[10] and a large number of others in the creative industries.[11]
References
- ^ Ordnance Survey. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
- ^ Bebbington, Gillian. (1972) London Street Names. London: B.T. Batsford. p. 281. ISBN 0713401400
- ^ a b c d Rugby Estate: Rugby Street. UCL Bloomsbury Project. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
- ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=V6HROvLpv0UC&pg=PA95
- ^ Historic England. "Rugby Public House (1271397)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
- ^ Pevsner, Nikolaus & Bridget Cherry. (2002). The Buildings of England: London 4 North. New Haven & London: Yale University Press. p. 313. ISBN 0300096534.
- ^ Charles Kingston O'Mahony England, London Electoral Registers, 1847-1913. Family Search. Retrieved 12 July 2020. (subscription required)
- ^ For rent: Scene of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath’s first night. Ella Jessel, Camden New Journal, 1 December 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ Richard Hollis. Modern Poetry in Translation. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
- ^ A Portrait of 18 Rugby Street. Bobby Williams. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
External links
