Billiter Square

Names

  • Billiter Square

Street/Area/District

  • Billiter Square

Maps & Views

Descriptions

from A Dictionary of London, by Henry Harben (1918)

Billiter Square

West out of Billiter Street at No. 11. In Aldgate Ward and Langbourn Ward (P.O. Directory).

Seems to be in course of formation in Strype's map, 1720, and in the text he speaks of the buildings as new (I. ii. 82). Mentioned in Hatton, 1708, "as very small, but pleasant and good buildings."

Povah says the houses on the north side and nearly all on the south side have been largely rebuilt (1894) (Annals of St. Olave Hart St. p. 314).

Name derived from Billiter Lane or Street.

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

[Billiter Square.] on the W. side hereof [Billiter Lane] is Billeter Square, very small, but pleasant, and good Buildings.

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

[Billiter Square.] But the chief Ornament of this Place [Billiter Lane] is Billiter Square on the West Side, which is very handsome, open, and airy Place, graced with good new Brick Buildings, very well inhabited; and out of this Square is a handsome Free Stone Passage called Smith's Rents.

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

Billiter-Square, Fenchurch-Street,—at 12, Billiter-lane, it leads to 118, Fenchurch-st. by Fishmonger's passage, and to 9, Lime-st. op. the India-house.

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

Billiter-Sq., Fenchurch-street, turns off atNo. 12, on the west side of Billiter-lane, and leads into Fenchurch-street, It was anciently called Belzeter's-lane, from its first builder, but it has become corrupted to its present arbitrary name. In this square is the office of the West India Dock Company.—[See West India Docks.

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

Billiter Square, on the west side of Billeter Street.

But the chief ornament of this place [Billiter Street] is Billiter Square on the west side, which is a very handsome, open, and airy place, graced with good new brick buildings, very well inhabited.—Strype, B. ii. p. 82.
In a large paved court, close by Billiter Square,
Stands a mansion old but in thorough repair.
Ingoldsby Legends ("The Bagman's Dog").

It continued to be well inhabited down to the early years of the present century, when, one by one, the dwelling-houses were converted into offices. Voltaire, when in England, asked a correspondent, John Brinsden, wine merchant, Durham Yard, to send him tidings of Lady Bolingbroke's health, and "direct the letter by the penny post at Mr. Cavalier, Bellitery Square, by the Royal Exchange."1 Nathan Basevi, grandfather of the Earl of Beaconsfield, lived in Billiter Square.

January 10, 1802.—Isaac D'Israeli, Esq., of the Adelphi, to Miss Basevi of Billiter Square.

Mr. Wm. Manning, M.P., a Director of the Bank of England, and the father of Cardinal Manning, lived here when he married the niece of Lord Carrington. Billiter Square has shared in the improvements noticed under Billiter Street. An avenue of costly offices has been opened westward to Lime Street Square, and among other new buildings is the spacious structure erected for the East and West India Docks Company, which extends from the east side of the Square into Billiter Street; a Gothic building with a tall angle turret.


1 Notes and Queries, 4th S., vol. i. p. 293.