Portugal Street

Names

  • Portugal Street
  • The Playhouse Street
  • Backside of Portugal Row

Street/Area/District

  • Portugal Street

Maps & Views

Descriptions

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

Portugal street, near Lincoln's inn fields, betn the W. side of Searl court (or the new Square) and Clare market. L. 200 Yds.

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

[Play house Street] A little above this [St. Clement's] Pump [in St. Clement's Lane], is Plough Alley, which with three Turnings, goes into a Street by the Plough Stables, which fronts the Play House by Lincolns Inn Grange, in little Lincolns Inn Fields.

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

Portugal street ... Searle's street, Carey street.

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

Portugal-Street, Lincoln's-Inn-Fields,—the first parallel to the S. side, commencing eight doors from the S.E. corner.

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

Portugal-St., Lincoln's-inn-fields, is the south side of the square.

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

Portugal Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields—from Serle Street to Portsmouth Street was so called when Portugal Row, or the south side of Lincoln's Inn Fields ceased to be known by that name. In Strype's time it was without a name. He proposed to call it Playhouse Street.4 In the burying-ground immediately opposite, belonging to St. Clement's Danes [which see], Joe Miller ("Joe Miller's Jests") is buried (d. 1738). The site is occupied by King's College Hospital [which see]. Here also is the High Court of Justice in Bankruptcy. Here was till a few years back the Grange public-house, with its old picturesque inn yard.

     Housekeeper. The poet has a special train behind him; though they look lean and empty, yet they seem very full of invention.
     Player. Let him enter, and send his train to our House Inn the Grange.—Sir William Davenant, The Playhouse to be Let.

4 Strype, B. iv. p. 119.