Holborn: Theobald's Road

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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 Theobald's Road:

Kingsgate Street is so named because it had a gate at the end through which the King used to pass to Newmarket.

It is mentioned by Pepys, who under date March 8, 1669, records that the King's coach was upset here, throwing out Charles himself, the Dukes of York and Monmouth, and Prince Rupert, who were "all dirt, but no hurt."

Near the end of this street in Holborn was the Vine Inn, important as having kept alive the only reference in Domesday Book to this district, "a vineyard in Holborn" belonging to the Crown.

Part of Theobald's Road was once King's Way; it was the direct route to King James I's hunting-lodge, Theobald's, in Hertfordshire.

It was in this part, at what is now 22, Theobald's Road, that Benjamin Disraeli is supposed to have been born; but many other places in the neighbourhood also claim to be his birthplace, though not with so much authority.

There was a cockpit in this Road in the eighteenth century.

We are now in the diminutive parish of St. George the Martyr, carved out of that of St. Andrew's, Holborn, and originally including Red Lion Square and the streets adjacent.

Next: Holborn: Queen Square