PALL MALL
Pall Mall is named after Palla a Maglio (ball to mallet) a croquet-like game which was played there in the 17th century. It is in the swanky area of St James’s between Piccadilly and the Mall. The US adopted the word mall (if not the pronunciation) for pedestrianised shopping areas.
100, Pall
Mall [3]
79, Pall
Mall [4]
Schomberg House, 80-82, Pall Mall [5]
Abolitionist Cugoano, born in the Gold Coast (now Ghana), was sold into slavery
at the age of 13. He worked on a plantation in the Lesser Antilles until 1772
when he was bought by a British merchant, taken to London and given a good
education.
In the 1780’s Schomberg House also served as a “Temple of Health and Hymen” run by bogus doctor James Graham. It boasted a “grand celestial state bed fitted with early electrical devices” supported by 40 pillars of brilliant glass with near naked “goddesses” in attendance. One goddess was the future Lady Emma Hamilton, mistress of Nelson. It was nothing more than a high- class brothel and eventually closed down by the police.
White’s, 37-39 St James’s Street [6]
Carlton, 69 St James’s Street [7]
Somewhere on St James’s Street is where London's
first traffic island was built in 1864. It was funded by Colonel Pierpoint (who
liked a tipple) to make his regular visits to the Carlton Club less precarious.
One day, turning round to show off his creation, Pierpoint lost his footing and
was killed by a horse drawn cab.
Reform Club,
104 Pall Mall [8]
New members are still required to sign a declaration agreeing to the
principles of the 1832 Reform Act. The Act was the first to explicitly specify
only 'male persons' were allowed the vote. This, ironically, provoked
a focus of outrage from which the suffragette movement grew. And the Reform
Club, in the 1980s, was the first to admit women.
Boodle’s, 28 St James’s Street [9]
Boodle’s was also a favourite
haunt of Beau Brummell, the original dandy. Brummell’s statue [10] stands
in Jermyn Street looking towards Piccadilly …..
RAC club, 89 Pall Mall [11]
Also in Waterloo Place is Captain Robert Falcon Scott [16],
one of our great heroic failures, beaten to the South Pole by the altogether
more streetwise Norwegian Roald Amundsen who recognised dogs were better than horses for polar travel ….
St James’s is the place to shop for
your everyday essentials ….
But
the oldest shop in London is hatters Lock & Co [20] in St
James’s Street ….
Truefitt and Hill are Britain’s oldest
barbers. Their ultimate grooming experience is a snip at £175. Since I checked
their prices online I’ve been bombarded with ads for cut-throat razors (from £150).
Think I’ll pass. My only attempt at wet shaving was almost fatal.
The
alleyway leads to Pickering Place [25], the smallest public square in
Britain.
Blue Ball
Yard [26] also lays
claim to have hosted London’s last duel ….
It has two entrances, one for carriages
and a more ornate one for pedestrians.
The buildings were originally coach houses
and are now luxury suites belonging to the Stafford Hotel. During the Second World War, the Stafford served as a club for American and Canadian
officers. Their wine cellars are thought to be the oldest in London and provided
public bomb shelters.
4-5 St James’s Square [28]
Nancy Astor lived at number 4.
Astor: “Winston, if I were married to you I’d put poison in your coffee.”
Churchill: “Nancy, if I were married to
you, I’d drink it.”
In 1919 Nancy Astor was the first female to
sit in the House of Commons. But she wasn’t the first woman to be elected to
the Westminster Parliament. In 1918 Polish-born Constance
Markievicz was elected as MP for Dublin St Patrick’s. But, in accordance with Sinn Fein party policy, she
did not take her seat – also, she was in Holloway prison at the time.
15, St James’s Square [30]
Tucked away in St James’s
is Mason’s Yard, accessible only through a couple of small alleyways and easily
missed. But here lies a place of pilgrimage for rock historians. Number 6 (left)
was onetime the Indica Gallery where, in November 1966, John Lennon met Yoko
Ono for the first time at an exhibition of her work. They hit it off straight
away but didn’t get together for a couple of years afterwards.
Oddly, there are two number 13s in Mason’s Yard. The one pictured is The
Scotch of St James’s, an exclusive nightclub and music venue. It has been a
popular watering hole for rock stars since the 1960s. On his first night in London,
September 24, 1966, an unknown Jimi Hendrix played an impromptu set at the
club. Eric Clapton was in the audience and was so blown away by the performance
he left immediately to practice at home. On that same night Jimi met Kathy
Etchingham. He later moved into her flat in Brook Street which is now part of the
Handel and Hendrix Museum (see Mayfair East).
Chatham House, 10 St James’s Square [33]
11 Carlton House Terrace [34]
4 & 9 St
James’s Place [37]
In 1966-67 Sir Francis Chichester was the
first person to sail single-handed around the world. To be strictly accurate
(and pre-empt any comments from pendants) Sir Francis was the first person to
achieve a true circumnavigation of the world solo from West to East via the
great Capes. It took him 226 days aboard Gipsy Moth IV.
1c King Street [38]
4 Carlton Gardens is one of 19 houses in
London to have two English Heritage plaques.
Reflecting the abrasiveness of his foreign
policy, Lord Palmerston was nicknamed ‘Lord Pumicestone’. Once, a Frenchman, wishing to be complimentary,
said to Palmerston: 'If I were not a Frenchman, I should wish to be an
Englishman'; to which Pumicestone replied: 'If I were not an Englishman, I
should wish to be an Englishman’.
Winston Churchill: "He looks like a llama who has been surprised in the bath."
It’s unlikely Palmerstone would have had much
time for de Gaulle and vice versa. When he wasn’t saying ‘non’ to the British, de
Gaulle did deliver the occasional bon mot:
“When I am right, I get angry. Churchill gets angry when his is wrong. We are angry at each other much of the time.”
“The more I get to
know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.”
“I cannot prevent
the French from being French.”
“Since a politician
never believes what he says, he is surprised when others believe him.”
“I myself became a Gaullist only little by little.”
“Belgium is a
country invented by the British to annoy the French.”
And perhaps most
famously ….
“How can anyone
govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six kinds of cheese.”
Blake was arrested in 1961 and sentenced
to 42 years in prison. He escaped in 1966 and lived in Moscow until his death,
aged 98, on December 26, 2020. He was buried with military honours. Vladimir Putin said of Blake, "Colonel Blake
was a brilliant professional of special vitality and courage."
9 Carlton House Terrace [42]
There is only one Nazi memorial in London – a grave within a small compound at the top of the Duke of York steps. The tombstone bears the inscription: “Giro” Ein treuer Begleiter! (Giro, a faithful companion). Giro was a terrier owned by the German Ambassador. Their Embassy was at 8-9 Carlton House Terrace prior to the outbreak of WWII.
St James’s pubs:
Red Lion,
Crown Passage [43]
It’s a matter of contention which are the oldest pubs in London; there are many lists - all different. It all depends on what criteria you adopt …. is the original building intact? Is it on the original site? is it the original name? etc. Anyhow, the Red Lion is over 300 years old and it’s only just off Pall Mall itself. So, unless you’re a member of a gentlemen’s club, Crown Passage would be the obvious place for lunch. This former ‘wenching house’ is steeped in history. The victim of (maybe) London’s last legal duel in Pickering Place is said to have expired on the floor here. More recently Piers Brosnan used it as his local whilst filming at the Reform Club for Die Another Day.
Red Lion, 2 Duke of York Street [44] Golden Lion, 25 King Street [45]
Confusing,
huh? The OTT Victorian decoration of this Red Lion is said to be London’s most
photographed pub interior. It’s a Fuller’s establishment.
The Golden Lion, established 1762, is a
Greene King pub which completes the pride without serving it. (Lame play on words there for beer enthusiasts;
sorry if you don’t get it; and also sorry if you do)
Extra notes and comment:
Celeb spotting on a later visit: Actor Bill Nighy enjoying morning coffee in Blue Bell Yard .....
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