Club Life of London, Vol. 2 (of 2): With Anecdotes of the Clubs, Coffee-Houses and Taverns of the Metropolis During the 17th, 18th, and 19th CenturiesTimbs, John
History
Club Life of London, Vol. 2 (of 2): With Anecdotes of the Clubs, Coffee-Houses and Taverns of the Metropolis During the 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries
Timbs, John
Clubs -- England -- London; Literary landmarks -- England -- London; London (England) -- Social life and customs
Evans, of Covent-Garden Theatre, removed here from the Cider Cellar in
Maiden-lane, and, using the large dining-room for a singing-room,
prospered until 1844, when he resigned the property to Mr. John
Green. Meanwhile, the character of the entertainment, by the selection
of music of a higher class than hitherto, brought so great an
accession of visitors, that Mr. Green built, in 1855, on the site of
the old garden (Digby's garden) an extremely handsome hall, to which
the former singing-room forms a sort of vestibule. The latter is hung
with the collection of portraits of celebrated actors and actresses,
mostly of our own time, which Mr. Green has been at great pains to
collect.
The _spécialité_ of this very agreeable place is the olden music,
which is sung here with great intelligence and spirit; the visitors
are of the better and more appreciative class, and often include
amateurs of rank. The reserved gallery is said to occupy part of the
site of the cottage in which the Kembles occasionally resided during
the zenith of their fame at Covent-Garden Theatre; and here the gifted
Fanny Kemble is said to have been born.
THE FLEECE, COVENT GARDEN.
The Restoration did not mend the morals of the taverns in Covent
Garden, but increased their licentiousness, and made them the resort
of bullies and other vicious persons. The Fleece, on the west side of
Brydges-street, was notorious for its tavern broils; L'Estrange, in
his translation of Quevedo's _Visions_, 1667, makes one of the Fleece
hectors declare he was never well but either at the Fleece Tavern or
Bear at Bridge-foot, stuffing himself "with food and tipple, till the
hoops were ready to burst." According to Aubrey, the Fleece was "very
unfortunate for homicides;" there were several killed there in his
time; it was a private house till 1692. Aubrey places it in
York-street, so that there must have been a back or second way to the
tavern--a very convenient resource.
THE BEDFORD HEAD, COVENT GARDEN.
Was a luxurious refectory, in Southampton-street, whose epicurism is
commemorated by Pope:--
"Let me extol a cat on oysters fed,
I'll have a party at the Bedford Head."
_2nd Sat. of Horace, 2nd Bk._
"When sharp with hunger, scorn you to be fed
Except on pea-chicks, at the Bedford Head?"
_Pope, Sober Advice.___
Walpole refers to a great supper at the Bedford Head, ordered by Paul
Whitehead, for a party of gentlemen dressed like sailors and masked,
who, in 1741, on the night of Vernon's birthday, went round Covent
Garden with a drum, beating up for a volunteer mob; but it did not
take.
THE SALUTATION, TAVISTOCK STREET.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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