Great Smith Street

Names

  • Great Smith Street
  • Smith Street

Street/Area/District

  • Great Smith Street

Maps & Views

Descriptions

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

Smith street, a new str. of good Buildings, so called from Sir James Smith the Ground-Landlord, who has here a fine House. It is situate in Westminster, fronting the Bowling alley, on the W. side of Peter str.

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

Smith-Street (Great), Westminster,—the S. continuation of Dean-st. near the Abbey, to Great Peter-st.

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

Smith-St., Great, is in Westminster, the south continuation of Dean-street.

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

Smith Street, Westminster.

Smith Street, a new street of good buildings, so called from Sir James Smith, the ground landlord, who has here a fine house. It is situate in Westminster fronting the Bowling Alley on the west side Peter Street.—Hatton, 1708, p. 76.

From "Smith Street, Westminster, 1707," Steele writes to assure the future Mrs. Steele that he lies down to rest with her image in his thoughts, and awakes in the morning in the same contemplation.1

Thomas Southerne, author of Oroonoko and the Fatal Marriage, died in 1746 at his house in this street. The Westminster Literary, Scientific, and Mechanics Institute was built 1840. It is now a Free Library and School of Art in connection with South Kensington.


1 Corresp., by Nichols, vol. i. p. 104.