At some time before 1666 the eight houses fronting Drury Lane had given way to the present number of twelve. In the case of the four northernmost, this happened shortly after 1636, when a building lease of the sites of the houses was granted to Richard Brett.[[98]]
Built in the brick wall of an 18th-century tenement (No. 27, Goldsmith Street) was a stone tablet, dated 1671. The premises have lately been demolished, and at present the site is vacant.
Smart’s Buildings is a comparatively modern name for that part of Coal Yard which runs north into High Holborn. Hatton’s New View of London (1708) does not mention Smart’s Buildings, but refers to “Cole Yard” as “on the N.E. side of Drury Lane, near St. Giles’s, a passage into High Holbourn in 2 places”; Strype (1720) states that “the Coal Yard ... hath a turning passage into Holborn”; and Rocque’s Map of 1746 definitely names it “Cole Yard.”
In a deed of 1756[[99]] it is referred to as “the passage leading into the Coal Yard called Smart’s Buildings.” Which of the three Smarts, grandfather, father and son (William, Lewis and John), mentioned in the same deed, it was who gave his name to the street, there is nothing to show. No record of the purchase of the property by any person of the name has, so far, been discovered, but the deed of 1756 certainly suggests that the ownership of the houses on the eastern side of the passage originated with William, who is, moreover, described as “carpenter,”[[100]] and in that case would date from the beginning of the 18th century.
The Council’s collection contains:—
[[101]]No. 27, Goldsmith Street. Stone tablet in front wall (drawing).
Smart’s Buildings. General view of exterior (photograph).