Great Newport Street

Newport-St., Great, St. Martin's-lane, Charing Cross, is the last turning on the left hand, opposite Long Acre.

Newport-Street (Great), St. Martin's Lane, Charing-Cross,—the last on the L. near ⅓ of a mile from Charing-cross and op. Long-acre.

Newport Street, Great, west of Long Acre, derives its name from "Newport House," the London residence of Montjoy Blount, created Earl of Newport by King Charles I. (d. 1665). Lord Newport was living in 1635 in Military Street [see Military Garden], next door to the Earl of Leicester.¹ In February 1644 Garrard writes to the Lord Deputy Wentworth that Lord Newport had "removed to the house that was Sir William Howard's in the Fields, which he gave his brother my Lord Howard, and he hath sold it to my Lord Newport for £2500."² A few years later George Fox, the Quaker, was here.

I had not been long come to London [in 1658], before I heard that a Jesuit, who came over with an Embassador from Spain, had challenged all the Quakers, to dispute with them at the Earl of Newport's House: whereupon some Friends let him know, That we would meet him. Then he sent us word. He would meet with twelve of the wisest learned men we had. After awhile he sent us word. He would meet with but six; and after that he sent us word again. He would have but three to come. We hast'ned what we could, lest, for all his great boast, he should put it quite off at last. When we were come to the house, I bid Nicolas Bond and Edward Burrough go up, and enter the discourse with him, and I would walk awhile in the Yard, and then come up after them.—George Fox's Journal, 1658, p. 286, sub. ann.

William Cavendish, Earl of Devonshire, died in Newport House, described at the time as "neere Leicester Fields in the suburbs of London." In the Accounts of the Overseers of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields for the year 1647 the Earl of Newport is rated in the sum of £2: 10s. "for the Lamas of the ground whereon his house and garden stands;" and a few years earlier (1641-1642), in the Lamas Grounds Receipts, the same charge is entered "for rent of the Lamas Comon, builded upon heretofore by Sir William Howard, Knight," which house Lord Newport had just purchased. By 1672 the property had passed into other hands. The Earl of Newport's house stood at the north-west corner of Newport Street, Lord Bolingbroke's at the north-east

Leicester House was originally included in this street. In 1663 the following persons were rated to the poor of the parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields under the head of "Newport Street:"—

The Earl of Bollinbrooke. The Lord Crofts. The Lady Cornwallis. The Earle of Holland. The Lady Eurett. Mr. Man. Hen. Murray, Esq. The Lady Harris. Esq. Hollis. The Earle of Newport. The Ea. of Leicester. The Lord Jarrard [Gerard] in the Military Garden. Richard Ffolkes. Mr. Dancett. Mr. Parsons. Chas. Locke.

In the next year (1664) Captain Ryder had succeeded Mr. Dancett. [See Ryder's Court.] From the following entry in the Accounts of the Surveyor of Ways to the Crown for 1681-1684, Newport Street would seem to have been regarded as a portion of the "King's Private Way" to the royal hunting grounds: "For gravel laid down at Newport Wall to repair the King's Private Way to Enfield Chase, St. John's Wood, and Highgate."

Newport Street fronts Long Acre. The north side, which is in this parish [St. Ann's, Soho], hath far the best buildings, and is inhabited by gentry; whereas on the other side dwell ordinary tradespeople, of which several are of the French nation.—Strype, B. vi. p. 86.

Eminent Inhabitants.—The first Earl of Carlisle, of the Howard family. Rymer, for many years in a house on the south side. Carte, the historian, at "Mr. Ker's at the Golden Head." Sir Joshua Reynolds at No. 5, on the north side, from 1753 to 1761, when he removed to Leicester Fields. His prices then were, for a head 12 guineas, for a half-length, 24, and for a whole length, 28. "This period," says his pupil and biographer, Northcote, "was the dawn of his splendour;"¹ but it was more than the dawn, some of the very finest of his portraits having been painted here. Reynolds's rival, George Romney, was also in his earlier years resident for a time in Newport Street.

When I first knew Romney, he was poorly lodged in Newport Street, and painted at the small price of eight guineas for a three-quarter portrait: I sate to him, and was the first who encouraged him to advance his terms, by paying him ten guineas for his performance.—Memoirs of Richard Cumberland, p. 465.

Vivares, the engraver, kept a print shop at the right-hand corner by Newport Market, what is now No. 12. Smith, who knew him, describes him as "a little man who usually wore a velvet cap;" he had heard that originally Vivares kept a tailor's shop in this street.² Ozias Humphry, the miniature painter, in 1772 "took lodgings at the Golden Head, the usual sign of artists, in Great Newport Street."³ About 1787, when he wrote his insolent letter to Northcote, Dr. Wolcot was living at No. 7 in this street. In 1768 Wedgwood established his warehouse and showrooms at the corner of Newport Street and St. Martin's Lane. In a letter dated March 31, 1768, he describes it as "at the top of St. Martin's. Lane, a corner house, 60 feet long, the streets wide which lie to it, and carriages may come to it, either from Westminster or the City, without being inconvenienced with drays full of timber, coal, etc. The rent is 100 guineas a year." Its success was immediate. Writing to Bentley, his partner, May 1, 1769, he says, "Mrs. Byerley is just returned from London, and brings a strange account of their goings on in Newport Street. No getting in the door for coaches, nor into the rooms for ladies and gentlemen; and vases are all the rage." Queen Charlotte maintained a school in this street "for a limited number of Young Ladies of good family, whose parents had not been so fortunate as they merited."⁴

The west end of Great Newport Street has been cleared away to make room for Charing Cross Road.

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¹ Rate-books of St. Martin's. Newport Street is mentioned in the Strafford Papers (vol. i. p. 207) under February 27, 1633, but this appears to be an error.
²Strafford Papers, vol. i. p. 207.

¹ Northcote, Life of Reynolds, vol. i. p. 59.
² Smith's Nollakens, vol. ii. p. 249; O'Keefe, vol. i. p. 66.
³ Smith, vol. ii. p. 360.
⁴ Gentleman's Magazine, 1817, p. 470.