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The Alleys Of Old London

July 10, 2022
by the gentle author

Tickets are available for my walking today and throughout July.

Click here to book your ticket for THE GENTLE AUTHOR’S TOUR OF SPITALFIELDS

 

I set out in the footsteps of Alan Stapleton seeking London’s Alleys, Byways & Courts that he drew and published in a book in 1923, which I first encountered in the archive at Bishopsgate Institute.

It is a title that is an invitation to one as susceptible as myself to meander through the capital’s forgotten thoroughfares and my surprising discovery was how many of these have survived in recognisable form today.

Clearly a kindred spirit, Stapleton prefaces his work with the following quote from Dr Johnson (who lived in a square at the end of an alley) – ‘If you wish to have a notion of the magnitude of this great city, you must not be satisfied with seeing its great streets and squares, but survey its innumerable little lanes and courts.’

Jerusalem Passage, Clerkenwell

Jerusalem Passage, Clerkenwell

St John’s Passage, Clerkenwell

St John’s Passage, Clerkenwell

Passing Alley, Clerkenwell

Passing Alley, Clerkenwell

In Pear Tree Court, Clerkenwell

In Pear Tree Court, Clerkenwell

Faulkner’s Alley, Clerkenwell

Faulkner’s Alley, Clerkenwell

Red Lion Passage, Holborn

Red Lion Passage is now Lamb’s Conduit Passage, Holborn

Devereux Court, Strand

Devereux Court, Strand

Corner of Kingly St & Foubert’s Place, Soho

Corner of Kingly St & Foubert’s Place, Soho

Market St, Mayfair

Market St is now Shepherd Market, Mayfair

Crown Court, St James

Crown Court is now Crown Place, St James

Rupert Court, Soho

Rupert Court, Soho

Meard St, Soho

Meard St, Soho

Alan Stapleton’s images courtesy Bishopsgate Institute

You may also like to read about

Alan Stapleton’s Alleys, Byways & Courts

The Lost World of the Alleys

7 Responses leave one →
  1. Janet Spink permalink
    July 10, 2022

    A distant ancestor was born in Pear Tree Court in 1839; lovely to know it still exists and to see the drawing from 1923.

  2. Marcia Howard permalink
    July 10, 2022

    What truly wonderful drawings showing such talent, and wonderful too that your B&W photos show these places to be still in existence!

  3. Milo permalink
    July 10, 2022

    It was really heart warming to see how unchanged some pockets of London still are after all the relentless images of ‘modernisation’ we are subject to. Cheered me right up this miserable sunday.

  4. July 10, 2022

    Incredible! What a grand idea! It’s great to see the then and the now. Thank you and have a good day.

  5. Bernie permalink
    July 10, 2022

    Red Lion Passage: Now that takes me back to 1950 and my Inter BSc year at Birkbeck College, still in its old, bomb-damaged Breams Buildings premises. I was employed as a laboratory technician in Biochemistry at University College and, four nights a week, I walked (at my highest speed) from Torrington Place to Birkbeck, cutting through back streets to Red Lion Square and passing the Conway Hall. Good exercise with a briefcase full of books and good education too, because it turned me into a regular audience-member of the Conway’s Sunday evening chamber-music recitals. Happy Days! And concordant with my fondest hope and wildest imaginings, preparation for a successful career that I can now look back on from retirement.

  6. Claire D permalink
    July 10, 2022

    Fascinating and comforting in equal measure, though I wish the modern wrought iron was more like the old.
    Thank you Gentle Author, such beautiful illustrations from 1923, the year my mother was born.

  7. Penny Gardner permalink
    July 10, 2022

    Lovely ,brings back memories of Sundays spent wandering around the backways of London ,with my Dad ,in the 1950s.

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