Golden Square

Golden-Sq., Piccadilly, is a small neat square eastward of Warwick-street, Regent-street, and northward of Brewer-street and Great Windmill-street.

Golden-Square,—is about ⅐ of a mile N. from 28, Piccadilly, along Air-st. Francis-st. and John-st. or is ¼ of a mile S. from 323, Oxford-st. along King-st. and Upper John-st.

Golden Square, Regent's Street—

Was built after the Revolution, or before 1700. It was originally called Gelding Square, from the sign of a neighbouring Inn; but the inhabitants, indignant at the vulgarity of the name, changed it to the present. This anecdote was communicated by the late Earl of Bath to a friend of mine.—Pennant.

It is, however, called "The Golden Square" in an advertisement in the London Gazette of the year 1688 (No. 2393), and Golding Square in Morden and Lea's Large Map of London, engraved in William and Mary's reign. Hatton, in 1708, calls it Golding Square, and adds that it was "so called from the first builder." Part of Poland Street and Great Marlborough Street appears to have been originally called "Little Gelding Field." A grant was made to Eliza Dodington (18 Eliz.) of the Gelding Field. This was stated to be in the parish of St. Margaret's instead of St. Martin's, and an Act was therefore passed in the same year to correct the mistake. (See Doe on the Demise of Conant and others v. Warner, tried in the Court of Queen's Bench, and reported in the Times of February 13, 1849.) Eminent Inhabitants.—Lord Bolingbroke, when Secretary of War. Here, February 17, 1712, he entertained Prince Eugene at that dinner to which Swift failed to get invited. He wrote to Steele, "They will be all drunk, I am sure." The father of Anastasia Robinson; here the great Lord Peterborough made love to that charming singer. Mrs. Cibber, the actress. "Direct to me," Mrs. Cibber writes to Garrick in 1746, "at the centre house in Golden Square, for I have left Craven Street."¹ It was in this square that Matthew Bramble and his sister, with Humphrey Clinker and Winifred Jenkins, took up their London residence. "We lodge in Golden Square," writes Melford to Sir Watkin Philips, "at the house of one Mrs. Norton, who takes great pains to make us all easy." There is a curious engraving of Golden Square, such as it was when Bramble lodged there, in the 1754 edition of Stow. William Windham was bom at No. 6 in 1750; and in 1752 Charles Wentworth, the second and last Marquis of Rockingham, was "married to Miss Bright of Golden Square, with£60,000." Robert Perreau, who, with his brother Daniel, was executed for forgery, January 17, 1776, was an "apothecary" (i.e. general medical practitioner) in this square. He must have been in large practice, as Henry Drummond, the banker, to whom the forged bond was made over, deposed that he knew him "from being apothecary to several families" he was connected with. The case is remembered from the respectability of the criminals, and from the mysterious share which a certain Mrs. Margaret Caroline Rudd, who was credited with irresistible powers of fascination, had in the crime. This was of course sufficient to make Boswell obtain an introduction, and he gave such an account of the interview as led Johnson to declare that he envied him his acquaintance with her, and on another occasion he said he should have visited her himself were it not that "now they have a trick of putting everything into the newspapers."² The brothers were twins and greatly attached to each other. They stood together, hand-in-hand, in the fatal cart, and so remained for half a minute after it had passed away from under them. Three years afterwards Mrs. Rudd died in this square in very distressed circumstances. Sir Joshua Reynolds notes an engagement, June 9, 1772, to "Mrs. Armistead, at Mr. Mitchell's, Upper John Street, Golden Square." The lady was afterwards married to Charles James Fox. The west side of Golden Square was called John Street, the east side James Street. Anthony Morris Storer, the owner of the magnificent library which he left to Eton College, was living in Golden Square in 1786. Angelica Kauffinann lived with her father in a house on the south side, where she held pleasant Sunday evening conversazioni. At| the time of the Gordon Riots the Bavarian Minister's Chapel was in Golden Square.

June, 1780.—Old Haslang's Chapel was broken open and plundered; and as he is a Prince of Smugglers as well as Bavarian Minister, great quantities of rum, tea, and contraband goods were found in his house."—Walpole to Mann, vol. vii. p. 381.

Count Haslang is referred to in Mrs. Bellamy's Apology (vol v. p. 108). No. 35 was the town residence of Cardinal Wiseman. No. 32 is the Hospital for Diseases of the Throat. Most of the other houses are occupied for business purposes. The statue in the centre was bought from the Duke of Chandos's seat at Canons, and represents King George II.

---

¹ Carrick, Correspondence, vol. i. p. 40.
² Croker's Boswell, p. 518.