Cockspur Street is a short street in the

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a city and borough in Inner London. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It occupies a large area of central Greater London, including most of the West En ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, within which a very short part of

Trafalgar Square Trafalgar Square ( ) is a public square in the City of Westminster, Central London, laid out in the early 19th century around the area formerly known as Charing Cross. At its centre is a high column bearing a statue of Admiral Nelson comm ...

links

Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Clockwise from north these are: the east side of Trafalgar Square leading to St Martin's Place and then Charing Cross Road; the Strand leading to the City ...

to Pall Mall/Pall Mall East at the point where that road changes name, opposite the traffic exit from Haymarket. It and all the streets mentioned are part of the A4. It has existed since at least the 16th century along a similar line. __NOTOC__

History

A map of 1572 shows the street in existence. In 1746, John Roque's detailed map of London and ten miles around shows Cockspur Street and two very narrow passages connecting, which were later variously abolished and widened. After

Regent Street Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash and James Burton. It runs from Waterloo Plac ...

was built heading north, Pall Mall was extended directly east. This enabled the present one-way flow around the triangle facing the north side of Cockspur Street.'Pall Mall East', in ''Survey of London: Volume 20'', St Martin-in-The-Fields, Pt III: Trafalgar Square and Neighbourhood, ed. G H Gater and F R Hiorns (London, 1940), p. 88. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol20/pt3/p88 ccessed 8 May 2018 All the small-plot properties between Cockspur Street and the newly formed Pall Mall East were pulled down, leaving a triangular site which was taken by the College of Physicians and the Union Club.

Properties

Number 1, Oceanic House, was originally the London office of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company trading as the

White Star Line The White Star Line was a British shipping company. Founded out of the remains of a defunct packet company, it gradually rose up to become one of the most prominent shipping lines in the world, providing passenger and cargo services between ...

, which operated famous liners including the RMS ''Titanic''. "Oceanic House" is inscribed twice on the building and it forms part of

Canada House Canada House (french: Maison du Canada) is a Greek Revival building on Trafalgar Square in London. It has been a Grade II* Listed Building since 1970. It has served as the offices of the High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom since ...

. It was also the

Pall Mall Restaurant The Pall Mall Restaurant was a hostelry situated at Number 1 Cockspur Street, Westminster, London, just off Pall Mall and near Trafalgar Square. The site was subsequently the offices of the White Star Line, and was then occupied by a Tex Mex res ...

at one point. Undivided from this are numbers 2–4, the Serious Fraud Office. Numbers 2–4 were the Canadian Military Headquarters from 1939 to 1947. Numbers 6 to 13 are no longer used, having made way for new wider street layouts. 14-16 was the Hamburg-Amerika House, London office of the

Hamburg America Line The Hamburg-Amerikanische Packetfahrt-Aktien-Gesellschaft (HAPAG), known in English as the Hamburg America Line, was a transatlantic shipping enterprise established in Hamburg, in 1847. Among those involved in its development were prominent citi ...

. It was put up for sale in 1917 under the Trading with the Enemy Act 1914.

In news and literature

On 29 June 2007, a car containing explosives was found on the street. It was removed and further investigated.BBC NEWS , UK , Two car bombs found in West End
/ref> The celebrated 'Irish Giant' Charles Byrne, who was reputedly just over 7 feet 7 inches tall (2.31m), died in 1783 at the age of 22 at his lodgings in Cockspur Street. Byrne's skeleton is preserved in the Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in England.

References

{{Trafalgar Square, state=collapsed Streets in the City of Westminster A4 road (England)

History

Properties

In news and literature

Further reading

Architecture and lost buildings

References