A Walk from London to FulhamCroker, Thomas Crofton
History
A Walk from London to Fulham
Croker, Thomas Crofton
London (England) -- Description and travel
From 1792 to 1797 this house was described as No. 14 Queen’s Buildings,
Knightsbridge; but in the latter year the address was changed to No. 14
Knightsbridge Green. {25a} In 1800 it was known as No. 14 Knightsbridge,
and in 1803 as No. 14 Queen’s Row, Knightsbridge. {25b} In 1810 as
Gloucester Buildings, Brompton. {25c} In 1811 as Queen’s Buildings.
{25d} In 1828 as Gloucester Row. {25e} In 1831 as Gloucester Buildings;
{25f} and it has now reverted to its original name of Queen’s Buildings,
_Knightsbridge_, in opposition to Queen’s Buildings, _Brompton_, the
division being Hooper’s Court, if, indeed, the original name was not
Queen’s _Row_, Knightsbridge, as this in 1772 was the address of William
Wynne Ryland (the engraver who was hanged for forgery in 1783). When
houses began to be built on the same side of the way, beyond Queen’s
_Row_, the term “_Buildings_” appears to have been assumed as a
distinction from the row west of Hooper’s Court; which row would
naturally have been considered as a continuation, although, in 1786, the
Royal Academy Catalogue records Mr. J. G. Huck, an exhibitor, as residing
at No. 11 Gloster Row, Knightsbridge.
These six alterations of name within half a century, to say nothing of
the previous changes, illustrate the extreme difficulty which attends
precise local identification in London, and are merely offered at the
very starting point as evidence at least of the desire to be accurate.
About the year 1800, the late residence of Mr. Nattes became the lodgings
of Arthur Murphy, too well known as a literary character of the last
century to require here more than the mere mention of his name, even to
those who are accustomed to associate every thing with its pecuniary
value; as Murphy’s portrait, painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds for Mr.
Thrale, sold at Christie’s in the sale of Mr. Watson Taylor’s pictures
(June, 1823), for £94 10s. Murphy had prepared his translation of
Tacitus {26} for the press, at his house on Hammersmith Terrace (the last
at the west end); but declining health and circumstances induced his
removal into lodgings near London, at “14 Knightsbridge.” From these
apartments “he soon removed to others in Brompton Row, where he did not
remain long, not liking the mistress of the house, but returned to his
former residence (No. 14), where he resided till the time of his death.”
In 1803, the late Lord Sidmouth (then Mr. Addington), conferred a pension
of £200 a-year on Murphy, “to mark the sense” his majesty entertained “of
literary merit, particularly when accompanied with sound principles and
unquestionable character;” which gracious mark of royal favour Murphy
acknowledged on the 2nd of March, from “14 Queen’s Row, Knightsbridge.”
Here he wrote his life of Garrick, {27a} a work which, notwithstanding
Mr. Foot’s ingenious defence of it, shews that Garrick’s life remains to
be written, and that Murphy’s intellectual powers were, at the time when
he composed it, in a state of decay.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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