It is fascinating as always but it has also helped me find a map I have been searching for. It is John Horwood’s map with the street numbers for Red Lion Street in the late 1700s. I knew I had seen it somewhere before but then it ‘cropped up’ in your blog and I was able to rediscover it.

I’m now a little bit closer to the location of one of my ancestors. Thomas Mecham, who in 1827 ran a pub in Red Lion Street, Spitalfields – but it was not the Red Lion! It was the Duke of Cumberland’s Head at no.8 Red Lion Street. According to the map that location appears to be only one residence away from Culpepper’s House (which became The Red Lion). I have various sources referring to The Duke of Cumberlands’s Head in Red Lion Street from 1827 to at least 1842 by which time the road widening and street name change to Commercial Street would have been imminent! The pub has also been recorded as The Duke’s Head and The Duke of Cumberland. Although my ancestor is sited as the victim in a court case at the Old Bailey in 1827 (he mentions in the transcription of the case that he runs the pub with his daughter) Arther Christian can be found more easily as the publican in residence in 1841 and 1842.

Thanks again for your wonderful blog.