St. James's Market

St. James's Market, at the SW end of Norris str. about the middle of the Hay Market, and the other side near Great Jermyn str. the greatest Market at this end of the Town, for Butchers and Poulterers; it is from Cha+ NWly, 430 Yds.

St. James's Market, a large Place, with a commodious Market-house in the Midst, filled with Butchers Shambles; besides the Stalls in the Market Place, for Country Butchers, Higglers, and the like; being a Market now grown to great Account, and much resorted unto, as being well served with good Provisions. On the South west Corner is the Paved Alley, a good Through-fare into Charles-street, and so into St. James's Square, and those Parts; but is of no great Account for Buildings or Inhabitants. On each Side, or Square, of this Market is a Row of Houses, inhabited by such as have a Dependance on the Market, kept twice a Week, but that on Saturdays is the most considerable.

St. James's Market, by Market street, is a place of considerable extent, with a commodious market house in the middle, filled with butchers shops, &c. The stalls in the market place are for country butchers, higlers, &c.

St. James's Market, St. James's,—the W. end of Norris-st. from 56, Haymarket, or N. end of St. Alban's st. from 3, Pall-Mall.

St. James's Market, St. James's, is a commodious market at the west end of Norris-street, going from the Haymarket.

James's (St.) Market, Westminster, was on the west of the Haymarket, about midway between Charles Street and Jermyn Street. From Pall Mall there were entrances to it by Market Lane and St. Alban's Street, from the Haymarket by Norris Street, and from Jermyn Street by Market Street, the Market House occupying the centre of an open square. St. James's Fair having been suppressed by the Parliament, July 27, 1664 [see St. James's Fair], a market was "proclaimed at St. James's Fields, Tuesday, 27th September 1664, for all sorts of provisions, to be held on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays, and for all sorts of cattle in the Haymarket, every Monday and Wednesday."³

St. James's Market, a large place with a commodious Market-House in the midst, filled with Butchers' Shambles; besides the Stalls in the Market-Place for Country Butchers, Higglers, and the like; being a Market now [1720] grown to great account, and much resorted unto, as being well served with good provisions. — Strype, B. vi. p. 83.

April 1, 1666.—Up and down my Lord St. Albans his new building and market- house, looking to and again into every place building.—Pepys.

Burgoyne, who himself lived in Hertford Street, would lead us to understand that the tables of the West End were in his day principally supplied from shops in this market.

Alscrip. Plague ! What with the time of dining and the French cookery, I am in the land of starvation, with half St. James's Market upon my weekly bills. ... Instead of my regular meal at Fumival's Inn, here am I transported to Berkeley Square to fast at Alscript House, till my fine company come from their morning ride two hours after dark.—The Heiress, Act. i. Sc. 2 (1786).

Would'st thou with mighty beef augment thy meal,
Seek Leadenhall; St. James's sends thee veal.—Gay, Trivia.

Porson was very fond of crab -fish, and on one occasion, where he was very intimate, asked to have one for supper; his firiend jocularly said that he should have the finest in St. James's Market, if he would go thither, buy, and bring it home himself. He disappeared in an instant; and marched unconcerned through some of the most gay streets of London, with the crab triumphantly in his hand.—Beloe's Sexagenarian, vol. i. p. 217.

John Loten, "a Dutch landscape painter, who lived here long, and painted much,"¹ and whose productions are often seen under more familiar names, resided here; and so did Simon Varelst, an admirable painter of flowers and not a bad one of portraits. Varelst's vanity bordered on insanity. To the Chancellor Shaftesbury, who, piqued at not being received by the painter with proper courtesy, asked, "Do you not know me?" he replied, "Yes: you are my Lord Chancellor. And do you know me? I am Varelst. The King can make anybody Lord Chancellor, but he cannot make another Varelst." According to Vertue he boasted that an historic piece on which he had laboured twenty years "contained the several manners and excellencies of Raphael, Titian, Rubens, and Vandyck;" and he called himself the god of flowers, and king of painting.²

April 11, 1669.—Easter-day. After dinner, my wife and I by coach, and Balty with us to Loton [Loten], the landscape-drawer, a Dutchman living in St. James's Market, but there saw no good pictures. But by accident he did direct us to a painter that was then in the house with him, a Dutchman, newly come over, one Evereest [Varelst], who took us to his lodging close by, and did show us a little flower-pot of his drawing, the finest thing that ever, I think, I saw in my life; the drops of dew hanging on the leaves, so as I was forced, again and again, to put my finger to it, to feel whether my eyes were deceived or no. He do ask £70 for it: I had the vanity to bid him £20; but a better picture I never saw in my whole life; and it is worth going twenty miles to see it.—Pepys.

In a room over the market-house preached Richard Baxter, the celebrated Nonconformist. On the occasion of his first sermon (1674) the main beam of the building cracked beneath the weight of the congregation. Here, behind the bar of the Mitre Tavern, kept at that time by Mrs. Voss, the aunt of "Miss Nanny," Farquhar, the dramatist, found Mrs. Oldfield, then a girl of sixteen, rehearsing the Scornful Lady of Beaumont and Fletcher. Here, in Market Street, lived George III.'s fair Quakeress, Hannah Lightfoot One of Sheridan's romantic bets for 500 guineas is dated from the "One Tun, St James's Market, May 26, 1808."¹

The market was destroyed for Waterloo Place and Regent Street, in the back purlieus of which a few small provision shops and stalls are its only relics.

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³ News and Intelligencer of October 16, 1664.

¹ Walpole, Anecdotes, vol iii. p. 80.
² Ibid., vol. iii. p. 58.

¹ Moore's Life of Sheridan, vol. ii. p. 3.