The Beggar's Opera

Gay's Character of Captain Macheath Is Borrowed for a Political Cartoon Giclee Print 12" x 16" $39.99 Unframed

Sir Walter Besant, in The Fascination of London, published in 1903, continues his survey of the Strand district with a mention of Portugal Street and Portsmouth Street:

Further north, beyond King's College Hospital, is Portugal Street, called by Strype "Playhouse Street."

In the times of the later Stuarts it was a very fashionable locality. It is said that women first performed on the stage in public at the King's Theatre, in this street.

The players were often patronized by Pepys.

In 1717 the first English opera was performed here, and in 1727 the "Beggar's Opera" was produced with unprecedented success; but in 1835 the theatre in Portugal Street was taken down to make room for the enlargement of the Royal College of Surgeons Museum.

Portsmouth Street contains a quaint, low, red-tiled house purporting to be the Old Curiosity Shop of Dickens' novel.

The Black Jack Tavern, of some notoriety, stood here. It was the resort of the actors and dramatists of the adjacent theatre, and was the scene of a famous escape of Jack Sheppard from the Bow Street officers. It is said to have been a meeting-place of the Cato Street conspirators.

Next: The Strand district: The Kitcat Club