Part of Theobald's Road was once King's Way; it was the direct route to King James I.'s hunting-lodge, Theobald's, in Hertfordshire. It was in this part, at what is now 22, Theobald's Road, that Benjamin Disraeli is supposed to have been born; but many other places in the neighbourhood also claim to be his birthplace, though not with so much authority. There was a cockpit in this Road in the eighteenth century.
We are now in the diminutive parish of St. George the Martyr, carved out of that of St. Andrew's, Holborn, and originally including Red Lion Square and the streets adjacent.
Gloucester Street was named after Queen Anne's sickly little son, the only one of her seventeen children who survived infancy. Robert Nelson, author of "Fasts and Festivals," was at one time a resident. The street is narrow and dirty, lined by old brick houses; here and there is a carved doorway with brackets, showing that, like most streets in the vicinity, it was better built than now inhabited, and it is probable that where sickly children now sprawl on doorsteps stately ladies in hoops and silken skirts once stepped forth. St. George's National Schools are here, and a public-house with the odd name of Hole in the Wall, a name adopted by Mr. Morrison in his recent novel about Wapping.
Queen Square was built in Queen Anne's reign, and named in her honour, but it is a statue of Queen Charlotte that stands beneath the plane-trees in the centre.
When it was first built, much eulogy was bestowed upon it, because of the beautiful view to the Hampstead and Highgate Hills, for which reason the north side was left open; it is still open, but the prospect it commands is only the further side of Guilford Street. The Square is a favourite place for charitable institutions. On the east side was, until 1902, a College for Working Men and Women, designed to aid by evening classes the studies of those who are busy all day.
The Hospital for Paralysis and Epilepsy is on the same side. This was instituted in 1859, but the present building was in 1885 opened by the Prince of Wales, and is a memorial to the Duke of Albany, and a very splendid memorial it is. The building, which occupies a very large space along the side of the Square, is ornately built of red brick and terra-cotta, with handsome balconies and a porch of the latter material. There are four wards for men and five for women, with two small surgical wards; also two contributing wards for patients who can afford to pay something toward their expenses.
Almost exactly opposite, across the Square, is a new red-brick building. This is the Alexandra Hospital, for children with hip disease, and sometimes a wan little face peeps out of the windows.
On the south side is the Italian Hospital, lately rebuilt on a fine scale. There are other institutions and societies in the Square, such as the Royal Female School of Art, but none that call for any special comment.
Among the eminent inhabitants of the Square were Dr. Stukeley, the antiquary, appointed Rector of the church, 1747—he lived here from the following year until his death in 1765; Dr. Askew; and John Campbell, author, and friend of Johnson, who used to give Sunday evening "conversation parties," where the great Doctor met "shoals of Scotchmen."
The Church of St. George the Martyr stands on the west side of the Square, facing the open space at the south end. It was founded in 1706 by private subscription as a chapel of ease to St. Andrew, and was named in honour of one of the founders, who had been Governor of Fort George, on the coast of Coromandel. "The Martyr" was added to distinguish it from the other St. George in the vicinity. It was accepted as one of the fifty new churches by the Commissioners in Queen Anne's reign, was consecrated in 1723, and had a district assigned to it. It was entirely rearranged and restored in 1868, and has lately been repainted. It is a most peculiar-looking church, with a spire cased in zinc. Small figures of angels embellish some points of vantage, and the symbols of the four Evangelists appear in niches. The windows are round-headed, with tracery of a peculiarly ugly type; but the interior is better than the exterior, and has lately been repaired and redecorated throughout.