Chenies Street is a street in

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions. Bloomsbury is home of the British Museum, the largest mus ...

, London, that runs between

Tottenham Court Road Tottenham Court Road (occasionally abbreviated as TCR) is a major road in Central London, almost entirely within the London Borough of Camden. The road runs from Euston Road in the north to St Giles Circus in the south; Tottenham Court Road ...

and Gower Street. It is the location of a number of notable buildings such as Minerva House, the Drill Hall (now RADA Studios), and a memorial to The Rangers, 12th County of London Regiment. North Crescent starts and ends on the northern side of Chenies Street.

Location

Chenies Street runs between Tottenham Court Road in the west and Gower Street in the east. Alfred Place joins the street on its south side,

Huntley Street Huntley Street is a street in Bloomsbury, London, known for its close association with University College Hospital. Location Huntley Street runs from Grafton Way in the north to Chenies Street in the south. It runs parallel with Tottenham Co ...

on the north, and Ridgmount Gardens/ Ridgmount Street crosses the street at its eastern end. North Crescent is on the northern side of the street.

History

Chenies Street was built around 1776 on land belonging to the

Bedford Estate The Bedford Estate is an estate in central London owned by the Russell family, which holds the peerage title of Duke of Bedford. The estate was originally based in Covent Garden, then stretched to include Bloomsbury in 1669.Chenies Manor Chenies Manor House in the parish of Chenies in Buckinghamshire, England, is a Tudor Grade I listed building once known as Chenies Palace, although it was never a royal seat nor the seat of a bishop. It was held by the Cheney family since 1 ...

in Buckinghamshire, originally owned by Anne Sapcote, who was the wife of

John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford (c. 1485 – 14 March 1555) was an English royal minister in the Tudor era. He served variously as Lord High Admiral and Lord Privy Seal. Among the lands and property he was given by Henry VIII after the D ...

. Before Chenies Street was built, Cox's Gardens was located at the eastern end of the plot.Chenies Street.
UCL Bloomsbury Project, 19 April 2011. Retrieved 2 January 2015. Chenies Street has been extensively changed since it was first laid out, being rebuilt in the mid-nineteenth century and again in the twentieth century on the north side.

Notable inhabitants

The writer

Fanny Burney Frances Burney (13 June 1752 – 6 January 1840), also known as Fanny Burney and later Madame d'Arblay, was an English satirical novelist, diarist and playwright. In 1786–1790 she held the post as "Keeper of the Robes" to Charlotte of Mecklen ...

(1752–1840) lived at 23 Chenies Street in 1812–13. Watchmaker Thomas Earnshaw (1749–1829) died at his home in the street.

Algernon Charles Swinburne Algernon Charles Swinburne (5 April 1837 – 10 April 1909) was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He wrote several novels and collections of poetry such as '' Poems and Ballads'', and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition ...

(1837–1909), whose literary works scandalised Victorian Britain, lived at 12 North Crescent.Williams, George G. Assisted by Marian and Geoffrey Williams. (1973) ''Guide to Literary London''. London:

Batsford Batsford is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. The village is about 1½ miles north-west of Moreton-in-Marsh. There is a falconry centre close to the village and Batsford Arboretum is nearb ...

, p. 134.

Notable buildings

East to west:

Minerva House

Minerva House in North Crescent is a former car showroom and workshop that is a

Grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ire ...

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

with

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

. It is now a media agency. The building was designed by George Vernon in

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries are cut in beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a buildi ...

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitr ...

for the Minerva Motor Company, 1912–13. The Minerva company originated in Belgium as a manufacturer of bicycles, before branching out into early forms of motorbikes and then motor cars.

Charles Rolls Charles Stewart Rolls (27 August 1877 – 12 July 1910) was a British motoring and aviation pioneer. With Henry Royce, he co-founded the Rolls-Royce car manufacturing firm. He was the first Briton to be killed in an aeronautical accident with ...

was a Minerva dealer in England. The design of the building includes three large bays on the ground floor flanked by two entrance ways each marked Minerva House. Above are three storeys of offices with a statue of

Minerva Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the R ...

on the top floor. The building and the rest of the crescent once looked out on to gardens until the deep-level shelter was built during the Second World War.

Deep-level shelter

During the Second World War, a number of deep-level shelters were built beneath London tube stations for the protection of the public and military from German bombing. The shelter underneath Goodge Street Underground station was completed in 1942'The Eisenhower Centre', Chenies Street.
D-Day Museum. Retrieved 1 January 2015. and has two above ground entrances, one on the north side of Chenies Street on the island between Chenies Street and North Crescent, and another nearby on the western side of Tottenham Court Road, next to the American International Church. There is also access from within Goodge Street tube station. The Goodge Street shelter was used by the

US Army Signal Corps The United States Army Signal Corps (USASC) is a branch of the United States Army that creates and manages communications and information systems for the command and control of combined arms forces. It was established in 1860, the brainchild of Ma ...

during the preparations for D-Day. After the war the shelter was used as an assembly centre for troops travelling to or from overseas bases. In 1956 a fire broke out in the shelter that required the attendance of twelve fire engines. Firemen tackled the blaze from each of the three entrances in teams of 30 using breathing apparatus. Seven were sent to hospital but no deaths were reported. Today the structure is used for archival storage.Goodge Street: Deep Level Shelter.
''Subterranea Britannica'', 30 March 2001. Retrieved 1 January 2015.

Rangers memorial

Within the deep-level shelter compound is a memorial to The Rangers, 12th County of London Regiment, which dates from shortly after the First World War and includes additional inscriptions relating to the service of the

King's Royal Rifle Corps The King's Royal Rifle Corps was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army that was originally raised in British North America as the Royal American Regiment during the phase of the Seven Years' War in North America known in the United S ...

(KRRC) in the Second World War. The memorial is Grade II-listed and includes a bronze plaque with the regimental symbol. Wreaths are still laid at the site. The Rangers took over The Drill Hall at 16 Chenies Street previously occupied by the Bloomsbury Rifles when all British volunteer units were incorporated into the Territorial Army in 1907.

The Drill Hall

The Drill Hall on the south side at number 16, now known as RADA Studios,CONTACT US.
RADA. Retrieved 26 December 2014. is a Grade II-listed building. It was designed for the Bloomsbury Rifles in 1882–83 by Samuel Knight, a captain in the unit. It is built of red brick with sandstone dressings and features a panel showing a hanging horn, the symbol of

The Rifle Brigade The Rifle Brigade (The Prince Consort's Own) was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army formed in January 1800 as the "Experimental Corps of Riflemen" to provide sharpshooters, scouts, and skirmishers. They were soon renamed the "Rifl ...

, with which the Bloomsbury Rifles were affiliated. Above are the coats of arms of the

Duke of Bedford Duke of Bedford (named after Bedford, England) is a title that has been created six times (for five distinct people) in the Peerage of England. The first and second creations came in 1414 and 1433 respectively, in favour of Henry IV's third s ...

, royal arms and the arms of the now dissolved county of

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbourin ...

. The hall was paid for by the commanding officer of the Bloomsbury Rifles, Lieut-Col. Richards. In the 1900s

Diaghilev Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev ( ; rus, Серге́й Па́влович Дя́гилев, , sʲɪˈrɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈdʲæɡʲɪlʲɪf; 19 August 1929), usually referred to outside Russia as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, pat ...

and the

Ballets Russes The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Russian Revolution, Revolution ...

rehearsed at the hall, and during the Second World War it was the venue for

Ralph Reader William Henry Ralph Reader (25 May 1903 – 18 May 1982), known as Ralph Reader, was a British actor, theatrical producer and songwriter, known for staging the original Gang Show, a variety entertainment presented by members of the Scouti ...

's Gang Shows. Adjacent to The Drill Hall is number 18, which is also owned by

RADA The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Sena ...

and contains rehearsal rooms, offices, the refectory and the RADA library. The building was purchased by RADA in 1990 with the help of the royalties left to the academy by

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

Chenies Street Chambers

Chenies Street Chambers are at numbers 9–11 on the north side, immediately opposite The Drill Hall and on the corner with Huntley Street. The building was originally known as Chenies Street Chambers Ladies Residential Dwellings and was designed as flats for single professional women on behalf of the

Ladies Dwellings Company The word ''lady'' is a term for a girl or woman, with various connotations. Once used to describe only women of a high social class or status, the equivalent of lord, now it may refer to any adult woman, as gentleman can be used for men. Infor ...

founded by

Agnes Garrett Agnes Garrett (12 July 1845 – 1935)Serena Kelly"Garrett, Agnes (1845–1935)" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004. Retrieved 9 January 2015. was an English suffragist and interior designer and the founder i ...

.Ladies' Dwellings Company.
UCL Bloomsbury Project, 19 April 2011. Retrieved 28 December 2014. The building was constructed about 1888 to the plans of architect J. M. Brydon and opened by suffragist

Millicent Fawcett Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett (née Garrett; 11 June 1847 – 5 August 1929) was an English politician, writer and feminist. She campaigned for women's suffrage by legal change and in 1897–1919 led Britain's largest women's rights associati ...

in 1889. Residents included the artist Florence Reason, Emily Penrose of Bedford College, campaigner

Emily Hobhouse Emily Hobhouse (9 April 1860 – 8 June 1926) was a British welfare campaigner, anti-war activist, and pacifist. She is primarily remembered for bringing to the attention of the British public, and working to change, the deprived conditions insi ...

, archaeologist

Mary Brodrick Mary (May) Brodrick (5 April 1858 – 13 July 1933) was a British archaeologist and Egyptologist who was one of the first female excavators in Egypt. She persisted in her studies despite the initial opposition of her tutors and fellow students ...

, historian

Charlotte Fell-Smith Charlotte Fell Smith (2 January 1851 – 7 May 1937) was an English historian born at Pattiswick Hall, Essex, to Joseph Smith (1813–1904), farmer, and his wife, Mary. Writings Charlotte Fell Smith was the author of the first biography of John ...

, and the authors

Adeline Sergeant Adeline Sergeant (4 July 1851 – 4 December 1904) was an English writer. Life Born Emily Frances Adeline Sergeant at Ashbourne, Derbyshire, the second daughter of Richard Sergeant and Jane (Hall), she was home schooled until the age of thirteen ...

and

Olive Schreiner Olive Schreiner (24 March 1855 – 11 December 1920) was a South African author, anti-war campaigner and intellectual. She is best remembered today for her novel '' The Story of an African Farm'' (1883), which has been highly acclaimed. It dea ...

.CHENIES STREET CHAMBERS
retrieved 11 Nov 2017 from "Family History Monthly" via geocities.ws.
Chenies Street Chambers Historical Society, retrieved 27 Dec 2014. On 17 April 1941 the building was severely damaged when a German

incendiary bomb Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices, incendiary munitions, or incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using fire (and sometimes used as anti-personnel weaponry), that use materials such as napalm, ...

hit it and started a fire. There were no casualties but the building was marked as so damaged as to make rebuilding doubtful. It was rebuilt, but with the entrance moved from Chenies Street to Huntley Street. The building then became social housing.

The Polyclinic

Medical Graduates' College, Chenies Street Wellcome L0037416

At number 22, on the corner with Ridgmount Street, once stood the Medical Graduates' College and

Polyclinic A polyclinic (where ''poly'' means "many"; not to be confused with the homonym policlinic, where ''poli'' means "city" and which is sometimes used for a hospital's outpatient department) is a clinic or health care facility that provides both g ...

, founded around 1899. It has since been replaced by Nicholas Cooper House, owned by RADA. The Polyclinic was the first British postgraduate medical institution.

Jewish High School for Girls

The Jewish High School for Girls and Day Training College for Teachers moved to Chenies Street in 1881 following the construction of a new building at a cost of over £8,000, funded by a gift from

Isabel Goldsmid Isabel is a female name of Spanish origin. Isabelle is a name that is similar, but it is of French origin. It originates as the medieval Spanish form of ''Elisabeth'' (ultimately Hebrew '' Elisheva''), Arising in the 12th century, it became popul ...

, sister of Sir Julian Goldsmid. The school closed in 1897.Jewish High School for Girls and Day Training College for Teachers.
UCL Bloomsbury Project, 13 April 2011. Retrieved 2 January 2015.

References

External links

Chenies Street ChambersDeep Level Shelter Tunnels.King's Royal Rifle Corps Association.
{{coord, 51, 31, 14, N, 0, 7, 59, W, display=title, region:GB_type:landmark Streets in the London Borough of Camden Bedford Estate