Earlier this week I alluded to the re-naming of streets, something that became necessary as London expanded, such that a rendezvous arranged in Church Street could mean one person waiting in Hackney whilst the other was stood checking their fob watch in Soho.
This Georgian map illustrates my point. I had taken a quick snap during a visit to The London Archives merely as reference, hence the shadow coming in from the left. Apologies, but I forgot to note the cartographer and the exact year.
When I viewed on a larger screen I spotted Phenix Street at the middle left exactly where I'd expect it to be – today we have the Phoenix Theatre there backing on to Phoenix Gardens (Hog Lane later covered by Charing Cross Road):
But, confusingly, there's another Phenix Street north of St Giles Church and these two streets don't look like they would have ever been connected:
Either side of the northern Phenix Street you'll see Church Street, an extension of Church Lane, and Castle Street which has a twin at the bottom of the map, though I am not sure which castle these alluded to. I then started noticing other doubles.
To make it clearer, I've added some colour-coded rings:
In addition to this, the map shows King Street (today Neal Street) which had a counterpart northeast of this area, near Bloomsbury Square (off the map, today approx Southampton Row). There's another King Street still in existence adjacent to Covent Garden market.
Many of these streets were less than 5mins walk apart. It suggests to me that the people who lived north of St Giles's church rarely ventured south and vice-versa.
A quick glance at today's A-Z shows we now have only x12 King Streets in Greater London and just x6 Queen Streets. There are x18 Church Streets (a mere x3 Chapel Streets) and only two Castle Streets but neither of those is in the central zone. As for Phenix Street, one one remains and it's the one shown above off CharX Rd, albeit alternatively-spelled.
