Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Greek Court- another lost alleyway with a note on Rimbaud Verlaine and the lost Little Compton Street
If you walk along Great Compton Street in Soho you’ll
see a doorway at 14a with CC camera and various intercoms. However what is of
most interest is the street sign “Greek Court “posted on the right of the
doorway. There have been remarks on the internet that this must be the shortest
street in London but I have seen the alley stretching back quite away when the
door was left open. The alley looks greasy and dilapidated but apparently is
the entrance to various holiday apartments. As zorrodp notes at
“Greek Court was stopped up/gated in the early '90s:
DC 91/05589/FULL GREEK COURT LONDON W1 - CHANGE OF USE FROM PUBLIC
FOOTPATH TO PRIVATE ACCESS, INSTALLATION OF GATES & INSTALLATION OF GLAZED CANOPY OVER. (REVISED DESCRIPTION.) PER 20.12.91 30.04.92”
DC 91/05589/FULL GREEK COURT LONDON W1 - CHANGE OF USE FROM PUBLIC
FOOTPATH TO PRIVATE ACCESS, INSTALLATION OF GATES & INSTALLATION OF GLAZED CANOPY OVER. (REVISED DESCRIPTION.) PER 20.12.91 30.04.92”
Local
councils in London have been letting go various alleys, lanes and courts over
the last few decades to private developers. It remains unclear as to whether
they were even given a price for relinquishing these public thoroughfares.
Other such alleys and lanes that have been handed over have been Ivy Bridge
Lane, Miles Place, Man in the Moon Passage, Dunn’s Passage ( more about that
alley in a future entry) Heathcock Court, Prince’s Circus and Castle Place.
Greek
Court, like nearby Greek street, was named after a Greek Church built on Hog’s
Lane , now Charing Cross Road, in 1677. Unfortunately the Greeks migrated to another part of London and the
church fell on hard times, and was taken over by incoming French Huguenots in
1684. The St Martin’s College of Art building now stands on the site of the
church.
If
you stand on the traffic island in the middle of Charing Cross Road and look
down through the grid you can see another mysterious street sign, Little
Compton Street. This once connected Old Compton Street with New Compton Street
and appears to have vanished in the development of Charing Cross Road. As to
why this street sign is now underground remains a mystery.
The
Hibernia Pub stood at 5 Little Compton Street and it was frequented by Rimbaud
and Verlaine during their London sojourn. Alan Parish in his London’s Pride
wrote that: "Before
long they found more congenial surroundings in which to meet friends and talk.
Chief of these meeting places was the bar at 5 Little Compton Street ... It was
in such unpretentious surroundings that the refugees from the Commune gathered
and some of the two friends' finest poetry written. Verlaine finished his
collection later published as Romances sans Paroles and Rimbaud, using a new
verse form, the prose-poem, continued Les Illuminations. In one of these last,
relying on the arrangement of distorted images, he gives a surreal impression
of the garish, gas-lit West End."
Rimbaud and Verlaine apparently belonged to the "Cercle d'études sociales" which met on the first floor of the Hibernia pub.
Rimbaud and Verlaine apparently belonged to the "Cercle d'études sociales" which met on the first floor of the Hibernia pub.
Labels: Greek Court, Little Compton Street, Rimbaud, Soho, Verlaine
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Actually there are two street signs for Little Compton Street beneath the grille, one in enamel, white lettering on blue background, and a little below that a white bacground that appears to be directly painted on to the brickwork, with black lettering.
It could be speculated that these signs are for the use of sewer workers to help direct them around the system.
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It could be speculated that these signs are for the use of sewer workers to help direct them around the system.
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