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London Streets and Squares: Compton

Shaftesbury Avenue is a modern thoroughfare named after Anthony Ashley Cooper, seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, who performed the opening ceremony but a short time before his death, which occurred in 1885. Windmill Street furnishes another pleasant reminder of green pastures and rural delights. Old Compton Street was built in the reign of Charles II. by Sir Francis Compton. New Compton Street and Dean Street derived their names from Bishop Compton, Dean of the Chapel Royal, Savoy, who originally possessed the living of St.

Anne's, Soho. Gerrard Street and Macclesfield Street perpetuate the memory of Gerard, Earl of Macclesfield, the owner of the site at the time when buildings were first put up hereabouts in 1697.

Greek Street was so called from the Greek mer- London Streets and Squares. chants who colonized this neighbourhood, and for whose spiritual benefit a Greek church was erected hard by. Carlisle Street was designated after the Howards, Earls of Carlisle, a branch of the ducal house of Norfolk, whose family mansion stood on the east side of what is now Soho Square about the middle of the last century.

Hanway Street, situated on the north side of Oxford Street, received its name from Jonas Hanway, who was the first to carry an umbrella through the London streets. This occurred in the year 1750.

Rathbone Place, a somewhat exclusive thoroughfare, supporting its own police, was built by a Captain Rathbone in 1718. Newman Street and Goodge Street retain the names of their speculative builders. Castle Street took its title from an inn sign at the corner of Oxford Market. Wells Street is properly "Well Street," so called after Well in Yorkshire, the seat of the Strangeways family, from whom Lady Berners, the original ground landlady of Berners Street, descended. In Foley Street stood Foley House, the town mansion of Lord Foley.