Leicester House

Leicester Square around 1750 looking north. The big house behind the forecourt in the northeast corner (background, right side) is Leicester House, then the residence of Frederick, Prince of Wales .

Leicester House was a mansion in what is now the west end of the British capital, London . Today Leicester Square is located on the site of his former garden .

history

Leicester House and Leicester Square are named after Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester . He bought 1.6 acres of land in St Martin's Field in 1630 . In 1635 he had a large house, Leicester House, built for himself as a town house at the north end of the property. The area south of the house was fenced in, so that the residents of the parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields lost their right to use the land that was previously publicly accessible.

The residents complained about this to King Charles I and he appointed three members of his personal advisory staff to arbitrate. Lord Leicester was finally instructed to open a portion of the area, which was later named Leicester Field , later Leicester Square , for the parishioners to use. The site was laid out in the 1670s, with the northern part of the square becoming part of the new parish of St Anne .

The area was initially in vogue and after the restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1662, Leicester House was rented by Elisabeth Stuart , the aunt of King Charles II and widow of the Palatinate Elector and Bohemian “Winter King”, who soon died. In 1717 her great-grandson, the Prince of Wales and later King George II, moved in with his family, also as a tenant. His son Friedrich, Prince of Wales , also lived there for a short time. In 1775 the Earl of Leicester sold it to the naturalist Ashton Lever, who established a museum for curiosities of nature called the Holophusikon here.

From the end of the 18th century, Leicester Square was no longer considered a fine address and increasingly served public entertainment events, including brothels. The house was finally demolished in 1791 and 1792. In its place there is now a cinema.

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Leicester Square, North Side, and Lisle Street Area: Leicester Estate: Leicester House and Leicester Square North Side (Nos 1-16) , Survey of London. Volumes 33 and 34: St Anne Soho . British History Online, 1966. pp. 441-472. Retrieved September 29, 2015.

further reading

• John Timbs: Curiosities of London: Leicester Square . JC Hotten, London. 1867.

Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 38.9 ″  N , 0 ° 7 ′ 49 ″  W.