Betterton Street

Names

  • Betterton Street
  • Brownlow Street

Street/Area/District

  • Betterton Street

Maps & Views

Descriptions

from A New View of London, by Edward Hatton (1708)

Brownlow str., a pleasant and regular str. betn Drury lane E. and Shorts Gardens W. L. 140 Yds, and from Ch + NWly 900 Yds.

from A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, by John Strype (1720)

Brownlow Street, well inhabited and built, fronting Belton street which hath indifferent good Houses.

from London and Its Environs Described, by Robert and James Dodsley (1761)

Brownlow street, Drury lane. †

from Lockie's Topography of London, by John Lockie (1810)

Brownlow-Street, Drury-Lane,—at 20, W. side, near Holborn and Broad-st. St. Giles's, leading into Old Belton-street.

from A Topographical Dictionary of London and Its Environs, by James Elmes (1831)

Brownlow-St., Drury-Lane, is at No. 20, west side near Holborn and Broad-street, Bloomsbury; it leads into Old Belton-street. In this street is the British Lying-in Hospital

from London Past and Present: Its History, Associations, and Traditions, by Henry Benjamin Wheatley and Peter Cunningham (1891)

Brownlow Street, Drury Lane, took its name from Sir John Brownlow, a parishioner of St. Giles in the reign of Charles II., whose house and gardens stood where Brownlow Street now stands, parallel to and south of Short's Gardens. A dispute arose between the parishes of St. Giles and St. Martin as to which included Sir John Brownlow's house; it was decided in favour of the former. The name was changed to Betterton Street in 1877. Major Michael Mohun, the celebrated actor of the time of Charles II., died in this street in 1684, as appears by the following entry in the burial register of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields:—

October 11, 1684.—Mr. Michael Mohun, Brownlow Street.

Another inhabitant was George Vertue, the engraver. At the end of Vertue's edition of Simon's Medals, Coins, etc., 4to, 1753, is a list of the various prints "engraved, already printed, and published by George Vertue, engraver in Brownlow Street, Drury Lane."

John Banister the younger, violinist and composer, died here in 1735.