Dean's Yard
Names
- Dean's Yard
- Deane Yard
- Great Dean's Yard
- College Court
Street/Area/District
- Dean's Yard
Maps & Views
- 1593 Westminster (Norden, 1653): Deanes Yard
- 1658 London (Newcourt & Faithorne): Deans Yarde
- 1666 London after the fire (Hollar & Leake, 1669?): Deanes Yard
- 1720 London (Strype): Deane Yard
- 1746 London, Westminster & Southwark (Rocque): Deans Yard
- 1746 London, Westminster & Southwark (Rocque): Deans Yard
- 1761 London (Dodsley): Deans Yard
Descriptions
from A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, by John Strype (1720)
Great Dean's Yard, a fine open Square, enclosed with Rails and Elm-Trees; the East Side is taken up with the Dean's House, the School, and other Buildings; and the South and West Sides also with good Buildings.
from London and Its Environs Described, by Robert and James Dodsley (1761)
Dean's yard, Near Tothill street. †
from Lockie's Topography of London, by John Lockie (1810)
Dean's Yard, Westminster,—at the S.W. corner of the abbey, or the last on the R. in College-st. from 18, Abingdon-street, leading to Tothill-street.
from A Topographical Dictionary of London and Its Environs, by James Elmes (1831)
Dean's Yard, is in Westminster, at the south-west corner of the Abbey, and leads to Tothill-street.
from London Past and Present: Its History, Associations, and Traditions, by Henry Benjamin Wheatley and Peter Cunningham (1891)
Dean's Yard, Westminster, south-west of the Abbey, a square surrounded by houses, enclosing a green, which serves as a playground for the Westminster scholars. It owes its name to its contiguity to the Deanery House attached to Westminster Abbey, the original name having been the Elms. Sir Symonds D'Ewes, the journalist; Sprat, Bishop of Rochester; Edmund Burke, and Carte, the historian, were residents in this yard. Camden, the great antiquary, "lodged in the gate-house by the Queen's Scholars Chambers."1 Wake, Bishop of Lincoln and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, was living here in 1708, and in that year Beveridge, Bishop of St. Asaph, died in the cloisters. Samuel Wesley resided here whilst an usher in Westminster School. Mrs. Purcell, widow of the famous composer, was living here in 1699;2 and here died, old and very poor, January 4, 1804, Mrs. Charlotte Lenox, whom Johnson, after dining with Mrs. Carter, Mrs. Hannah More, and Fanny Burney, told Boswell was "superior to them all."3 Here, August 1716, Edmund Curll, the bookseller, having been "decoyed into Dean's Yard," was seized by the Westminster scholars, tossed in a blanket, and made to suffer other indignities.4 Mrs. Porten, the kind and indulgent aunt of Edward Gibbon, "built and occupied a spacious mansion in Dean Yard,"—a boarding-house for the scholars at Westminster School. The outer wall of the Jerusalem Chamber forms part of the north boundary of this square. The old houses on the east side are chiefly prebendal houses. The new houses were designed by Sir Gilbert Scott. Nos. 10 and 11 are now occupied by the Church House. Opposite the entrance to Dean's Yard is the memorial to the Westminster scholars who fell in the Russian and Indian wars, 1854–1859, erected in 1861 from Sir Gilbert Scott's designs, a lofty column of polished granite, crowned with a statue of St. George slaying the Dragon. [See also Ashburnham House and Westminster School.]
2 London Gazette, No. 3546.
3 Croker's Boswell, p. 755.
4 The story is told at length in Notes and Queries, 2d S., vol. ii. p. 361.