REFERENCES
WARWICK
LANE
In
1518 the meetings of the
Royal College of Physicians
held at the house of Dr Linacre, physician to Henry 8th, at 5
Knightrider
Street, Doctors' Commons. They then moved to Amen Corner. Then
to "Wren's
College", Warwick Lane. (opened about 1679). However,
the building
was not designed by Wren, but by Robert Boyle, who was also
the architect
of the new (1676) Bedlam
The site is now occupied by the Cutlers Hall - Warwick Lane
EC4M 7BR.
(map)
(external link)
PALL MALL EAST
Corner of Trafalgar Square. Built by Sir Robert Smirke at a
cost of
£30,000. Opened 25.6.1825, with an inaugural oration in
Latin by
Sir Henry
Halford,
Bart., M.P.
MARGARET
STREET
The 1828 Law List included a firm of "certified attornies"
(solicitors): "Robert Browne, William Seymour and Ralph
Wilson". Seymour's
address was 19 Margaret Street
with his "office door" at 12 Little Portland
Street (which runs parallel to Margaret Street).
[See south west corner on 1830
map]
Browne and Wilson were
only shown at 12 Little Portland Street. In 1829 Seymour was
not listed and
Browne's entry read:
Browne, Robert, clerk and treasurer to the Metropolitan
Commissioners in
Lunacy, 19 Margaret Street, Cavendish Square, and Ralph Wilson
(office) 12,
Little Portland Street, Cavendish Square.
19 Margaret Street was the commission's office on the first
Accounts
(Account
1829)
and September 1832 appointments notice
signed by Browne.
Dubois' first Account
(Account
1832/1833)
contained the entries:
"By salary due to the late Clerk and Treasurer, to the 1st
November 1832..
£200"
"By assistant clerk's salary, subsequent to decease of late
Clerk and
Treasurer.. £41..13/6d"
Law Lists and other directories show that 19 Margaret Street
continued as a
solicitor's office after 1833.
JOHN
STREET
6 John Street is the commission's address on appointment
notices from
September 1833 to August 1843 (inclusive). These (and the
August 1844
notice of appointment) were signed by Edward Dubois.
I date the move from John Street around February (1833)
because the
Account
for 3.7.1833
shows half a year's rent on each office. The same
account
shows half a year's salary due to Du Bois. I assume he was
sworn in at the
February Quarterly Meeting and proceeded to move the
Commission's papers to
the new office. This would mean that there was a gap from
November 1832 to
February 1833 when the Commission was without a
Treasurer-Clerk.
Boyle's Court Directory for January 1835 has the entry:
"John St. Adelphi, 6+7 Adelphi Chambers: E.H. Cox, surv., W.
Davidson,
J.I. bullock, sol., South Australian Association, Robt.
Gouger,
Metropolitan Commissioners in lunacy Office: Edward Du Bois,
sec., F.
Savery, R.O. Banks, sol."
So it appears the Commission had chambers in a sub-divided
building.
The London County Council's Survey of London: Vol 28, The
Strand (Parish of
St Martin-in-the fields) Part 2, (County Hall, 1937) says
about numbers 6
and 7 John Street:
"These two house were from 1834 onwards known as Adelphi
Chambers. They
had during the term of their existence a large number of
residents,
among whom journalists and artists predominated. Edward Du
Bois, wit and
miscellaneous writer, was at No. 6 in 1833-44."
[This information was drawn to my attention by D.G.C. Allan,
Curator-
Librarian at the Royal Society of Arts]
The yearly rent charged in the Accounts to August 1842 was
£50. In
the
Account to August 1843 the rent charged was £85.
(Account
18)
(Account
1832/1833 to
Account
1843)
12 ABINGDON
STREET
Gazette notices through to 1.8.1843 are addressed from 6 John
Street. The
address on the 1844 Report, published in July 1844, is the
"Office, 12
Abingdon Street, Westminster. The Account to 1.8.1844 charged
"Half a
year's rent: £40", which is why I date the move from
John Street to
Abingdon Street about February 1844.
Accounts after 1844 do not contain an entry for rent. I assume
because the
property was owned or rented by the Government and the
Commission were not
charged rent.
Abingdon Street is directly opposite the House of Lords.
Boyles Court
Directory for 1845 and 1846 shows that most other houses in
the street were
occupied by solicitors. The commission, however, unlike its
solicitor
neighbours, no longer occupied part of a house. The entry for
number 12 is
simply "12, Metropolitan Commissioners in Lunacy. E. Dubois.
sec."
19 NEW STREET
A diary cutting inserted into the minutes of the Commissioners in Lunacy
reads:
"Monday 22nd December 1845 Weekly Board - The last held in
Abingdon Street, Commenced this day the removal to new House 19 New Street,
Spring Gardens"
19 New Street had been occupied by "Sir Fitzroy Kelly, Solicitor General"
(Boyles, January 1846).
After the Lunacy Commission, it became the offices of the "Indian Law
Commission" (Boyles,
January 1855)
From the minutes it is clear that the Lunacy Commissioners had
hoped to take over
5 Whitehall Place from the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners (Lord Ashley, by the way, being one of the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners). This was dependent, however, on the Ecclesiastics being
able to move to 9 Whitehall Place.
On 3.9.1845 the Commissioners advised
the
Board of Works that
they had inspected 5 Whitehall Place and thought it suitable. By 19.11.1845
they were advised that "17 Stratford Place" (off Oxford Street) "could be
procured immediately". The Commissioners
preferred "the locality of
Whitehall Place", but if number 5 could not be obtained, they would take
Stratford Place.
By 3.12.1845 it was certain that the Ecclesiastics could
not move, and the Lunacy Commission had themselves written to the Board of
Works requesting that 19 New Street, Spring Gardens, might be taken for
them. On 4.12.1845 the Board of Works ware only awaiting Treasury
answer to
take 17 Spring Gardens and by 17.12.1845 Sir Fitzroy Kelly had
promised to
vacate by Monday 22.12.1845.