Huguenot Soho
We are taking bookings for my Spitalfields tour through the autumn.
Click here to book your ticket for THE GENTLE AUTHOR’S TOUR OF SPITALFIELDS
The two major destination for Huguenots in London were Spitalfields and Soho, so I took a walk around Soho to discover some of the significant sites that tell the story of the Huguenot presence.
Commemorated in Soho Sq, Charles II granted sanctuary to the Huguenots in 1681
At the corner of Greek St & Old Compton St from 1694 – 1770 was once the workshop of Paul Crespin, Silversmith, and Nicholas Sprimant, Silversmith, had his workshop in Old Compton St from 1716 – 1771
Samuel Romilly (1758-1818) was the son of a Frith St jeweller who became the Solicitor General, notable as an anti-slavery campaigner and for abolishing hanging, drawing and quartering, and his nephew Peter Mark Roget, the Physician, wrote the famous Thesaurus
In West St, this chapel was originally built as La Pyramid de la Tremblade in 1770, but in 1742 it became a Methodist Chapel when Samuel Wesley took over
Appointed Silversmith & Goldsmith to George III in 1716, Paul de Lamerie (1688- 1751) had his workshop at 40 Gerrard St and his trade card was designed by William Hogarth
The Huguenot L’Église de Leicester Fields was built in 1693 in Orange St
A Huguenot chapel of ease was built here in Spring Gardens in 1685 but burnt down in 1726 along with the gunpowder depot next door
This Statue of Charles I at the top of Whitehall was created by French sculptor Hubert Le Suer in 1633
In 1662, Charles II granted a patent for Huguenot Chapel in Savoy Hill provided they used the Book of Common Prayer in French
London’s first Huguenot chapel was on the site of Somerset House between 1653 and 1660
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Thank you.
A squillion years ago I wrote my Master’s Thesis on the Huguenots who fled (mainly) to England, after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Their skills in silver smithing and silk weaving were so special, I crawled around every museum and gallery that preserved their work. But even in Spitalfields and Soho I didn’t pay enough attention to the architecture and sculpture.
I also wrote a Huguenot-themed graduate thesis about those Huguenots who settled in the Hudson Valley north of New York City. Their homes, in the town of New Paltz, have now been meticulously restored and are open to the public.
The Huguenots certainly liked their chapels. This reminds me of what they used to say about the working class districts of my home town, Bolton in Lancashire, that at one of each terraced street would be a Chapel and at the other end a pub. How the world has changed.
Simon De Charmes 1665-1734, of French Huguenot descent, and a family connection, worked as a clock and watch maker at the sign of the clock on the corner of Warwick Street, Charing Cross, London.