More strolling round Westminster of a lunchtime, on the way back from Pret (mine’s a Hoisin Duck wrap, a mango pot and diet coke, since you’re asking). I like finding pockets of the borough which are pretty much as they would have been in 1834 (except for the cars) …
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First up, Lord North St, looking towards St John’s, Smith Square.
The St John’s parish engine was one of the first on the scene of the fire.
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| Fancy railings outside well-to-do townhouse in Lord North Street |
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| St John’s, Smith Square, famously known as “The Footstool” because Queen Anne apocryphally kicked one over when asked by the architect Thomas Archer what it should look like
(four towers at each corner sticking up in the air). Nice restaurant, too! |
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| More modest dwellings on Gayfere Street – I love the wonky line of the windows and door frames of the terrace. |
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| Looks respectable enough today: St Margaret’s Church, the next parish along from St John’s. But at the time of the 1834 fire, this green lawn was a graveyard and well-known cruising ground, where William Bankes MP was caught with a soldier called Private Flowers |
