Merlin's Cave

[Merlin's Cave] Around 1700 an isolated group of humble cottages went up on the knoll between one of the paths and the eastern boundary of Spa Fields, on land now occupied by Merlin Street and Charles Rowan House. One of these cottages, designated 'the Hutt', functioned as a tavern, also known as Merlin's Cave by 1720. The wider area had scattered small resorts, but Merlin's Cave, let to Joseph Cooke, rag merchant and carpenter, was seemingly no more than a tiny pub with views across the fields back to London. It appears to have been rebuilt in 1737 by Joseph Hooke, an erstwhile doctor who in 1735 had established the New Wells theatre nearby to the south (see Chapter III). Hooke's tavern was neither hut- nor cave-like (Ill. 314). It was, rather, a three-bay brick building of two storeys, with cellars and garrets, and contained a 'long room' with a marble chimneypiece.