Heathcock Court

About twelve o’clock at night the public house known by the sign of the Heathcock in the Strand, fell down to the ground in a sliding manner, into an adjoining court, which was thought to be occasioned by some houses rebuilding on the other side. It so fortunately happened that all the company were just gone, though the mistress of the house who was in bed fell from the second floor into the court, but the bed falling under her, and the timber lying hollow, she got little or no hurt.⁽¹⁾

This unfortunate accident took place on 12 January, 1754, which is already earlier than what Bryant Lillywhite claims as the starting date for the Heathcock tavern in his book London signs. He gives the tavern a start in the 1760s, but it must have opened at least ten years earlier. Heathcock Court itself is even older than the tavern. John Stow in his Survey already mentions it and according to him it had “pretty handsome buildings”.⁽²⁾ According to E. Beresford, Heathcock Court takes it name from the Heathcock tavern⁽³⁾, but that seems to be contradicted by what Stow writes.

The entrance to the Court can be found on the left of the 415 Strand Nationwide building. It is sometimes closed by a fence, but is normally open during the daytime. As you can see in the Google View picture, the entrance is slightly set back into the building (it is that dark hole behind the man walking away towards the left) and as such does not stand out, but you can walk right through the court, turn left at the end, then right to find yourself in Maiden Lane. The Nationwide building dates from 1912, but has been redeveloped in more recent times by Brimelow McSweeney Architects (see here). If truth be told, Heathcock Court can hardly be called a court; it is more a narrow alley with a roof. The Strand entrance used to be graced by a heathcock in a shell canopy, and was, according to one Mr. Leland Weever, “the last existing sign in London giving its name to a court”.⁽⁴⁾ The heathcock sign was removed not long after Weever’s remark in 1844 and the modern replacement – nice as it is – unfortunately has no link at all to the origin of the name.

Source: Google Street View

Ordnance Survey map 1893-1895

Heathcock and hen by Edward Lear

Heathcock is just another name for black grouse (Tetrao tetrix in Latin), sometimes also called a blackcock. According to the RSPB “habitat loss and overgrazing have resulted in severe population declines which make this a Red List species”. And Wikipedia says that since late Victorian times, the tail feathers have been used to adorn the hats worn with Highland Dress in some areas and are worn since 1904 on the uniform of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. Hmmmm, I hope they just use the ones lost naturally by the bird, or even artificial ones, and that no bird is shot for their feathers!

Many businesses have been run from Heathcock Court itself, but for this post I will concentrate on the Heathcock Tavern. As can be expected, the tavern saw a number of proprietors during the course of the centuries and we know a few of their names from various sources. From an Old Bailey trial, for instance, we know that James Sedway was the publican in September 1763. It cannot have been Mrs Sedway, by the way, who tumbled down with her bed, as James Sedway said at the trial that he kept “the Heathcock in the Strand; this day 7 weeks”. From the Sun Fire Office insurance records we can list the following:

December 1792: Sorman
August 1794: Richard Kerrey
September 1809: Joseph Belshaw
August 1824: John Stonnell
June 1833: James Charles Chapman
June 1837: Harriet Hyatt

And from yet other sources, we have:
before 1816-1817: John Honner, father of Robert William Honner, the actor and theatre manager, who gave up his solicitor job to take over the Heathcock. Although the Wikipedia article on his son does not give a date for the take over, the land Tax records for Westminster list him there in 1816. Honner senior died in April 1817; the Heathcock is called a ‘chophouse’ in his will, so I assume one could eat as well as drink there.
Before 1840: Thomas Calvert, late Superintendent of the Heathcock Tavern … in the Fleet Prison. (London Gazette, Feb. 1840)

Yes, I know, the list of publicans is far from complete, but if I come across some more names, I’ll add them over time. Suggestions welcome.

(1) The Chronological Historian, or, a record of Public Events, volume 2, 1835.
(2) John Stow, A survey of the cities of London and Westminster, borough of Southwark, and parts adjacent (1598), volume 2 (ed. by R. Seymour = J. Mottley, 1735), p. 653.
(3) E. Beresford, The annals of the Strand, (c. 1912), p. 54.
(4) Fraser’s Magazine, vol. 29 (1844), p. 385.

You may also like to read the post in my London Street Views blog on Thomas Warne who ran his business from Heathcock Court.

Ye Olde Mitre, Holborn

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Hatton Garden

This pub is located in a tiny alleyway between Hatton Garden and Ely Place. For the entrance, turn from High Holborn into Hatton Garden and you will see the doorway between numbers 8 and 9 on your right-hand side.

Entrance between 8 and 9 Hatton Garden

Look above the doorway and you will see the name of the pub and its foundation date 1546, although the correct phrase is probably ‘believed to have been established in 1546 by bishop Goodrich’. The original tavern was built for the servants of the Palace and built on land belonging to the Bishops of Ely. If you continue walking from Hatton Garden through the alley beyond the pub, you end up in Ely Place where the Bishop’s Palace used to stand. The site was technically not governed by the City of London, but by the Diocese of Ely (Cambridgeshire) and the police could only do their duties in the area if specifically invited to do so. The Bishop’s garden was known for its strawberries and Shakespeare makes mention of it in Richard III:

My Lord of Ely!
[…]
When I was last in Holborn,
I saw good strawberries in your garden there
I do beseech you send for some of them⁽¹⁾

The bishop’s land was more extensive than it is today, but Elizabeth I forced the bishops to relinquish some land to Christopher Hatton (1540-1591), one of her favourite courtiers (and even more if we are to believe the gossip of the period). The lease was reluctantly signed over to Hatton for £10, ten carts of hay and a red rose every year.⁽²⁾ The preserved trunk of a cherry tree in the bar allegedly marks the boundary between the bishop’s land and that of Hatton and legend has it that Elizabeth I danced the maypole around it with Hatton. That is, when it still produced cherry blossom and was not yet preserved. I will only believe that when dendrochronology proves it is indeed possible that the tree was the cherry tree in the bishop’s garden. Hatton developed the site which still bears his name and it became known for its diamond and jewellery trade.

From E. Callow Old London Taverns, 1899

The palace and the tavern were demolished in 1772, but the pub was soon rebuilt. One of the stone mitres from the palace gatehouse was set in the wall. According to the Light and Lighting of 1915, the building “has lately been restored and particular care has been taken by the architect, Mr. W.F. Foster […] to retain the period. […] The lantern shown in the foreground was specially designed to the correct style”.⁽³⁾ Well, maybe so, but someone must have changed his or her mind about this correct style as the elegant lantern we see today looks nothing like the cube-shaped one in the 1915 magazine. There are not many records to be found relating to the pub in the London archives, because its license came from the bishops and not from the London authorities, but perhaps I have nevertheless given you enough reasons to go and have a look yourself.

Lantern from Light and Lightning

Lantern as it is today

(1) Richard III, Act III, scene iv: Gloucester to Bishop of Ely.
(2) Ben Le Vay, Eccentric London: A Practical Guide to a Curious City, 2012, p. 239.
(3) Light and Lighting. The Illuminating Engineer, volume 8, 1915, pp. 322-323.