Can anyone please help me find out what this glorious-looking tool shop is on the right hand side of this picture? The picture was originally posted by @joeflanagan1 on Twitter. He posts some really beautiful pictures from 19thc London.
The picture is from around 1890, and it shows a few young ne’er-do-wells hanging around to relieve someone of the contents of their pockets. All well and good. But look to the right, a line of lovely braces, and on the window it mentions cabinet makers and tools.
The street is Cock Lane, (yes, if you’re already tittering, I know). If you think that’s funny, London street names get a lot worse.
The shop may well be fronting onto the adjacent street, I don’t know, it does appear to be No.25 though.
I really hope someone might be able to help, this really does look like a shop from the glory days.
Thank you.
Update: Quite a few people have been in touch with ideas. @peteri tweeted
@HackneyTools @joeflanagan1 are you sure this is cock lane(this is the giltspur end (link) nothing in trade directories too
The link shows this great-looking pub below, the ‘Fortune of War’. This pub does show the ‘Cock Lane’ sign on it’s wall high up there on the left. It also shows the Golden Boy Statue, mentioned by Bill Johnson, (below, in the comments section).
I’ve reproduced the map showing the area at the time, from the Pepys Small Change website. (Click to enlarge).
So, I’m still unable to find the name of the shop opposite the building in both of these pictures. I’m going to contact the excellent Bishopsgate Institute in London. If they manage to unearth anything, I will post the results.
Update: Stefan Dickers, the Library and Archives Manager at Bishopsgate Institute got back to me (and on Christmas Eve too, what a gent!). Thanks Stefan.
I’ve had a quick look for you (as we’re only open for a couple of hours today) and there was a Daniel Lovett, Carpenter, operating at 25 Cock Lane in 1894. The address then seems to disappear from the trade directories. There is also a different business operating at the address 10 years earlier which doesn’t really back up the ‘established 100 years’ claim in the window. Hmmm…
I’ll have a bit more of a dig in the New Year but I hope that’s of some interest.
Will follow this up in the new year, in the meantime will have to see if I can find more on this Lovett chap, as the ‘L’ on the main sign matches, so it could well be him, I guess.
8 replies on “Help with a name?”
If that is Cock Lane, I would guess the statue of the boy pictured would indicate this is Pye Corner, at Giltspur Street and the year is 1908. As the name of the concern seems to be on both the sign and the hanging light, I think it must start with LA, a surname of no more than four or five letters and end in & Co.
Thank you, Bill. That’s a big step closer. The bit of history about the Golden Boy of Pye Corner is very interesting indeed. I knew nothing of him. So, he is that tiny figure up the alley, mounted on the house? If it is him, I found out that building was torn down and a new boy was mounted on the new building in 1910, the new boy having a glamorous Victorian gilding now. Well, hopefully someone else can also help join the dots.
Best, Gary.
The statue in the original picture is just to the left of one of the two lighting fixtures advertising the music hall, and just to the right of the large sign saying (COM)ING DOWN. He appears to be holding up the balcony.
My trade directory research from 1882 still leaves me wondering:
Cock lane
http://cdm16445.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16445coll4/id/38557
Giltspur st
http://cdm16445.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16445coll4/id/38634
From the trade directory I get this (hopefully this formats ok):
1 Blackett Ernest Charles, butchers clothier
3 Fairweather John, dining rooms
4 Fortune of war, W.R Hough,sen
…. here is cock lane….
6 Barro, Harveys & Co. wholesale druggists
7 White Hart, Donald Clark
8 Pearce James & Sons, solicistors
9 Martin Robert & Son,opticians Lawrence wm. Joseph, ivory trnr
St sepulchres national schools
…. here is the old bailey…
11 Wright T & Sons, who. cheesmgrs
12 Evans Henry James book binder
13 Gad Samuel, coffee rooms
…. here is ball court …
etc
Just to cloud the waters, I googled “Jolley’s Old Dog Music Hall” and turned up this: http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Wigan/OldDogMusicHallWigan.htm
which puts the music hall in Wigan – not London. Shows the same lantern as in the original photo.
If you click on the image of the “Fortune of War” pub on and view it at higher magnification you can read the side street name on the left hand side above the corner door entrance. It reads “Cock Lane”.
As I understand it the Golden Boy statue in this 1908 image is the original one from the 17th century which got re-built into the relatively modern pub wall.
Hi Antiquarian,
Thanks for comment. I really like your site and it was great to find that picture. So the pub would be placed where the ‘O’ of ‘Pie Corner’ is on the map, you think? The shop would have been facing it on the opposite corner, and the Bass pub would have been the later incarnation of the music hall?
best
Gary
Hi Gary
Yes, that’s the location I would give it. Looks like that mystery is now sorted !
Merry Xmas
Antiquarian