Mrs. Salmon's Waxwork

Mrs. Salmon's Waxworks, No. 17 Fleet Street, ca. 1795–ca. 1812

7691 “Golden Salmon near St. Dunstan’s Church Fleet Street”. Salmon’s Wax-Work. “No. 189 Fleet Street” c1695–1795. Moved to No. 17 Fleet Street at the corner of the Inner Temple Gate c1795–c1812; removed to Water Lane corner of Fleet Street c1812–31. The Sign may not have accompanied the removals. See “Turkish Seraglio” No. 15386.

No. 17 was afterwards the place where Mrs. Salmon (the Madame Tussaud of early times) exhibited her waxwork kings and queens. There was a figure on crutches at the door; and Old Mother Shipton, the witch, kicked the astonished visitor as he left. Mrs. Salmon died in 1812. The exhibition was then sold for £500, and removed to Water Lane. When Mrs. Salmon first removed from St. Martin’s-le-Grand to near St. Dunstan's Church, she announced, with true professional dignity, that the new locality "was more convenient for the quality's coaches to stand unmolested." Her "Royal Court of England" included 150 figures. When the exhibition removed to Water Lane, some thieves one night got in, stripped the effigies of their finery, and broke half of them, throwing them into a heap that almost touched the ceiling.

Praed's Bank (No. 189, north side) was founded early in the century by Mr. William Praed, a banker of Truro. The house had been originally the shop of Mrs. Salmon, till she moved to opposite Chancery Lane, and her wax kings and frail queens were replaced by piles of strong boxes and chests of gold.

Salmon's (Mrs.) Wax-Work, Fleet Street, a famous wax-work exhibition on the south side of Fleet Street, between the Temple Gates. Mrs. Salmon was the Madame Tussaud of the last half of the 18th century.

Tall Polygars
Dwarf Zanzibars
Mahomed's Tomb, Killarney's Lake, the Fane of Ammon,
With all thy Kings and Queens, ingenious Mrs. Salmon!
Probationary Odes for the Laureateship, 1785.

 

From No. 17, Fleet Street, Sometimes Called the Inner Temple Gate-House, by Philip Norman. During many years Fleet Street was noted for exhibitions of various kinds, and for a time the old Gate-house was occupied by one, a short account of which may here be appropriately inserted. Perhaps the most famous wax-work exhibition before Madame Tussaud's was that first formed by Mrs. Salmon, which in the days of Queen Ann was to be seen at "The Golden Salmon" in St. Martin's, near Aldersgate (Harl. MS. 5931). In the Spectator for 2nd April, 1711, No. 28, is the following sentence: "It would have been ridiculous for the ingenious Mrs. Salmon to have lived at the sign of the trout; for which reason she has erected before her house the figure of the fish that is her name-sake." Further allusions to this lady are made in No. 31, 5th April, 1711, and in No. 609, 28th October, 1714. The wax-works migrated to Fleet Street, where they were shown "near the Horn Tavern," now Anderton's Hotel. A handbill describing them, mentions "140 figures as big as life all made by Mrs. Salmon, who sells all sorts of moulds and glass eyes and teaches the full art." The death of the original proprietor is thus recorded: "March, 1760, died Mrs. Steers, aged 90, but was generally known by the name of her former husband, Mrs. Salmon. She was famed for making several figures in wax which have long been shown in Fleet Street." The collection was then bought by Mr. Clark or Clarke, a surgeon, of Chancery Lane (said to have been the father of Sir Charles Mansfield Clarke, M.D.), and when he died his wife continued the exhibition under the name of Salmon. In 1788 we find the wax-works some little distance west of the Horn Tavern, at an old house, No. 189, Fleet Street, the site of which was afterwards occupied by Praed's Bank. There is a view of it in the European Magazine for that year, and another by J. T. Smith (1793), in his "Antiquities of London." At the beginning of 1795, Mrs. Clark shifted her quarters to No. 17 over the way. Her removal is announced as follows in the Morning Herald for January 28th, 1795 (not 1785 as we are told by Timbs).

The house in which Mrs. Salmon's Waxworks have for above a century been exhibited, is pulling down; the figures are removed to the very spacious and handsome apartments at the corner of the Inner Temple Gate, which was once the Palace of Henry Prince of Wales, the eldest son of King James the First, and they are now the residence of many a royal guest. Here are held the Courts of Alexander the Great, of King Henry the Eighth, of Caractacus, and the present Duke of York. Happy ingenuity to bring heroes together maugre the lapse of time! The levees of each of these persons are daily very numerously attended, and we find them all to be of very easy access, since it is insured by a shilling to one of the attendants.

At the door was placed the figure on crutches of a well-known person, Ann Siggs by name, and, according to J. T. Smith, if a certain spring were trodden on, the counterfeit presentment of Mother Shipton kicked the astonished guest when he was in the act of leaving. John Timbs and C. T. Noble both say that Mrs. Clark died at an advanced age in 1812, and that the figures were then sold for 50l. or less, and removed to No. 67, at the corner of Water Lane. However, in a parish tithes-book I find the name at No. 17 three years later. In 1811, Mrs. "Biddy" Clark paid 10s., while Messrs. Gosling and Sharpe on the east side paid 2l. 4s. 4d., Messrs. Groom's contribution at No. 16 was only 4s., and Mrs. Deeme, of the Rainbow, paid 13s. 4d. In 1814, Mrs. Biddy Clark is replaced by William Reed, or Read. Next year the name of Clark is seen again, but in the fourth quarter "Charlotte" is substituted for "Biddy." The following year Reed's name re-appears, and so ends the Clark connection. There is a view of the house with the sign of a salmon in front, old houses adjoining, a reproduction of which is given. It is by Schnebbelie, and first appeared in Hughson's, London, 1807. I would here remark that the apocryphal statement now on the front, that it was "formerly the palace of Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey," probably grew in part out of the more modest claim that it was "once the palace of Henry Prince of Wales," in part out of the tale already referred to of Wolsey's arms having been placed on the old Middle Temple Gate-house.

 

No. 17, situated nearly opposite Chancery Lane, over the gateway of the Inner Temple. This notable relic dates from the year 1610.

At a subsequent period Mrs. Salmon had her famous exhibition of waxworks here, and in her day the legend on the house ran: "Formerly the palace of Henry, Prince of Wales, son of James 1st." The word "palace" in this connection, whatever the Prince's connection with the place was, protests too much; but it was hardly so daring a speculation as was that of a later tenant, who, regardless of historic accuracy, calmly put up a notice in front of the house, which read: "Formerly the palace of Henry VIII. and Cardinal Wolsey."

I have referred to Mrs. Salmon's waxworks as being exhibited here. This show was originally situated in Aldersgate, and later was moved to a house "near the Horn Tavern"¹ (now Anderton's Hotel), where Mrs. Salmon, who had herself constructed the figures, died at the ripe age of ninety, in March 1760. After her death the collection was purchased by a surgeon of Chancery Lane, named Clark or Clarke, who continued to exhibit them, as did his widow. In 1788, the figures were moved to 189 Fleet Street, later Praed's Bank; and in 1795, when this house was demolished, Mrs. Clark took No. 17, then known by its old name of the Fountain Tavern. Mr. Norman thinks, with good reason, that during this time the Waxworks occupied only a part of the house and the Tavern the other portion. Later a Mr. Reed occupied the place, and still later Mr. Carter whose hairdressing establishment was situated here for upwards of seventy years.²

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¹ The house bore the sign of a "Salmon," and is referred to in Nos. 28 and 31 of the Spectator. J.T. Smith engraved a representation of it [1793].
² There is a view of Mrs. Salmon's Waxworks, when on the north side of Fleet Street, in the Grace Collection.

No. 17, Fleet Street, London County Council (1906) pp. 9-10.

In 1795 the front part of the house was taken by Mrs. Clark, who had for some time carried on, on the opposite side of Fleet Street, a well-known wax-works exhibition, known as Mrs. Salmon's Wax-works from the name of the founder of the business.

The waxworks were exhibited here until about 1816¹ when Mr. Reed became tenant of the house. During this time, however, it would seem that the tavern business was still carried on in the back part of the premises, for in 1830 a document amongst the records of the Inner Temple describes the premises "formerly known by the name of the Fountain Tavern, situate, standing and being in Fleet Street—heretofore in the tenure or occupation of Abraham Stevens—afterwards of Peter Robinson—and now of Joseph Parlour."

Before leaving the early history of the house reference should be made to the statement which has often appeared to the effect that No. 17, Fleet Street, was identical with Nando's coffee house, famous for its connection with Lord Thurlow. But Mr. Philip Norman² has recently shown this to be an error.

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¹ The London Post Office Directory gives "S. Clark, Royal Wax-works" up to 1817, and Johnson's Directory gives "W. Reed, Law Bookseller," for that year.
² Home Counties Magazine, Vol. II., pp. 327-330; Vol. III., pp. 90-93.

Mrs Salmon’s Waxworks • Fleet Street. Formerly at the Golden Ball, St. Martin's-le-Grand, where there were 'six rooms full of all kinds of wax figures', Mrs Salmon's waxworks moved to the north side of Fleet Street near Chancery Lane in 1711. She also exhibited her works at Bartholomew and Southwark Fairs. They included the execution of Charles I, the 'Rites of Molock, 'Hermonia a Roman Lady, whose father offended the Emperor, was sentenced to be starved to death, but was preserved by sucking his Daughter’s Breast', 'Margaret Countess of Heningbergh, Lying on a Bed of State, with her three hundred and Sixty-Five Children, all born at one Birth', as well as numerous other figures and tableaux both horrific and comical, some of them operated by clockwork. Hogarth confessed to having 'frequently loitered at Old Mother Salmon's'. Boswell also visited the show. When she died, aged 90, in 1760, the exhibition was taken over by a surgeon named Clarke. It was moved to the south side of Fleet Street by the corner of Inner Temple Lane in 1795 and survived there well into Victorian times.