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Royal Grecian Theatre

Buildings and structures demolished in 1900Demolished theatres in London
Eagle Tavern in 1841
Eagle Tavern in 1841

The Royal Grecian Theatre was a theatre on the corner of City Road and Shepherdess Walk, in Shoreditch, north London. Originally built in 1821 as the Eagle tavern, by 1832 a pavilion had been built in its grounds known as the Grecian Saloon. The saloon was rebuilt in 1841 and became a theatre proper. In 1851 Benjamin Conquest became proprietor. It became the Royal Grecian in 1858 after receiving a license. The musical directorship of the Grecian changed hands in 1870, general musical director William Edroff died leaving his son Andrew to direct the bands in the ballroom and on the outdoor platform. Edward Barrett, however had been the leader of the theatre orchestra. Barrett's son Oscar took over music for the dramas and pantomimes in 1870. Alterations in 1858 made it a 2500-seat theatre. In 1877 a new 4000-seat theatre was built on the site of the old ballroom. In 1882 the buildings were put up for auction, and bought by the Salvation Army. The theatre was eventually demolished in 1900 and rebuilt as The Eagle pub, which is still extant at 2 Shepherdess Walk, London N1 7LB. The nursery rhyme Pop Goes the Weasel refers to the old tavern:

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Royal Grecian Theatre (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Royal Grecian Theatre
City Road, London Finsbury (London Borough of Islington)

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N 51.528297222222 ° E -0.091833333333333 °
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Uni Healthcare

City Road
EC1V 2PH London, Finsbury (London Borough of Islington)
England, United Kingdom
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Eagle Tavern in 1841
Eagle Tavern in 1841
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Nearby Places

St Luke Workhouse
St Luke Workhouse

The St. Luke Workhouse stood on City Road between Wellesley Terrace and Shepherdess Walk in what is today the London Borough of Hackney. Initially, the workhouse was located on the north side of Featherstone Street, Bunhill Fields, it having opened in 1724. Being within part of the City of London parish of St Giles without Cripplegate, it fell under the control of two metropolitan authorities. The lease expired in 1782 and a second Local Act enabled the parish to build the new workhouse at a cost of £2,000.Once built, the site consisted of wards, a workshop and a vestry hall. It then fell within the Borough of Finsbury before boundaries were realigned. St. Luke's became the Holborn and Finsbury Institution and then St. Matthews Hospital, when the site was converted to house sick patients. World War II bomb damage destroyed the southernmost block, which was never fully repaired.The vestry hall was sold to the London and Provincial Assurance Company before being demolished in the 1960s.The hospital was closed in 1986. The workshops straddling Shepherdess Walk were renovated and are now modern apartments whilst the wards straddling Wellesley Terrace appear largely original, them too having been sold and converted to apartments. The remainder of the site - the southern-end - is now a carpark. The original perimeter wall and gates still stand, the initials ‘HJ’ and ‘SM’ still being present in the concrete and brick pillars.

Perilous Pond
Perilous Pond

The Perilous Pond, sometimes spelt Perelous, was an ancient pond fed by a spring in London located near the junction of modern-day Old Street and City Road. It gained its name from many tragic drownings there of people using it as a swimming hole. It was also used by fishermen and wildfowlers . In 1743 the pond was purchased by William Kemp, a jeweller, who developed it by enclosing it in stone edging and adding marble steps and a gravel bottom. He built a separate pond for fishing and renamed the site the more enticing Peerless Pool. The grounds were screened by trees and the pool was used as an ice rink in winter. Kemp imposed an annual admission charge of £1 10s. (or 1s. for day visitors). The pool was 170 ft long x 108 ft wide and from 3–5 feet deep. It was London's first outdoor public swimming pool. From 1790 there was also a small library and a bowling green attached. Around 1805, the lease was acquired by Joseph Watts, who drained the fish pond and constructed Baldwin Street on that part of the site. The business provided the family with a comfortable living. Richard Garnett mentions that his colleague Thomas Watts (1811-1869), "keeper of printed books at the British Museum" (i.e. what would now be a senior position at the British Library), had his education paid for by the profits from the family business. William Hone, the satirist, visited the pool in 1826 and described it thus:- “Trees enough remain to shade the visitor from the heat of the sun on the brink. On a summer evening it is amusing to survey the conduct of the bathers; some boldly dive, others timorous stand and then descend step by step, unwilling and slow; choice swimmers attract attention by divings and somersaults, and the whole sheet of water sometimes rings with merriment. Every fine Thursday and Saturday afternoon in the summer columns of Bluecoat boys, more than a score in each, headed by their respective beadles, arrive and some half strip themselves ‘ere they reach their destination. The rapid plunges they make into the Pool and their hilarity in the bath testify their enjoyment of the tepid fluid.” The pool was closed in 1850 and built over. Its gives its name to the nearby Peerless Street and Bath Street and obliquely to the Old Fountain public house.