Holborn: Bedford Row

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W. J. Loftie, adding to the incomplete work of Sir Walter Besant, in The Fascination of London, published in 1903, continues his survey of Holborn with this look at Bedford Row:

The district northward of Gray's Inn needs very little comment.

Great St. James Street is picturesque, with eighteenth-century doorways and carved brackets; the tenants of the houses are nearly all solicitors.

Little St. James Street is insignificant and diversified by mews.

In Strype's plan the rectangle formed by these two streets is marked "Bowling Green"; in one corner is "the Cockpitt."

Bedford Row is a very quiet, broad thoroughfare lined by eighteenth-century houses of considerable height and size, which for the most part still retain their noble staircases and well-proportioned rooms.

Nearly every house is cut up into chambers.

Abernethy, the great surgeon, formerly lived in this street, and Addington, Viscount Sidmouth, was born here; Bishop Warburton, the learned theologian and writer of the eighteenth century, and Elizabeth, daughter of Oliver Cromwell, are also said to have been among the residents.

Ralph the author of "Publick Buildings," admired it prodigiously, naming it one of the finest streets in London.

Next: Holborn: Red Lion Square