To return now to the history of Rose Field. William Short does not appear to have taken any steps to develop the property for 15 years. On 28th July, 1615, however, he leased to Walter Burton the southern portion of the field.[[131]] From particulars obtained from a number of deeds it is known that the ground in question extended 50 feet on either side of Parker Street, i.e., from the southern boundary of the field as far north as the site of the garden afterwards in the occupation of John Fotherly.[[132]] Whether the lease actually included the site of the garden, it is not possible to say with certainty.
On 5th December, 1615, Short leased to Thomas Burton the portion to the north of the garden, “the said parcell ... being mencioned in the said indenture to abutt east on the lands of Sir Charles Cornwallis, Knt. [i.e., Purse Field], west upon Drury Lane aforesaid, north upon the common sewer[[133]] which then divided the same from other lands of the said William Short then also in the occupation of the said Thomas Burton,[[134]] and south upon the lands of the said William Short lately demised to the said Walter Burton; and therein mencioned to conteyne in breadth from north to south on the west end that did abutt on Drury Lane 233 feete, and at the east end thereof in breadth from north to south 80 feete, and in length from east to west, viz., from the Cornwallis lands on the east to Drury Lane on the west 719 feete.”[[135]]
The earliest mention of Lewknor’s Lane which has been discovered is in an entry in the Privy Council Register[[136]] for 27th January, 1633–4, dealing with the case of Richard Harris, the owner of four houses “in Lewkner’s Lane, backside of Drury Lane.” Harris explained that he obtained the houses by purchase, and that they had been built six years. This takes the date of at least some of the houses in the street back to 1627 or 1628, and the fact that the street is not mentioned in the Subsidy Roll for the latter year makes it probable that these four houses were among the first built.
The usual reason given for the name of the street (afterwards corrupted to Lutenor, Newtenor) is that it was formed on the site of the house and grounds of Sir Lewis Lewknor. It is known that Lewknor was living in Drury Lane in 1620 and 1623[[137]] and the position of his name in the Subsidy Roll for the latter year points to his house having been in about the position suggested.[[138]] There is no evidence, however, that the house was built before 1615, when the land was leased to Burton, and it does not seem likely, therefore, that it would be pulled down by 1628.
The name of the street was subsequently changed to Charles Street, and again altered to Macklin Street in 1878.
Shelton Street does not date back so far as the remaining streets formed on Rose Field. As late as 1665,[[139]] when Lewknor’s Lane and Parker’s Lane had long been laid out, the houses on the north side of the latter were described as reaching to the garden “now or late” in the occupation of John Fotherly. In a deed of 1650[[140]] the garden is said to be “now in the occupation of the Lady Vere,” and a short time before it had been in the tenure of Sir John Cotton.[[141]] The street was formed before 1682, it being shown in Morden and Lea’s Map of that date, and was at first known as St. Thomas’s Street. In 1765 the name was changed to King Street, probably out of compliment to Joseph King, who took a lease of a large portion of the property in the street about that date.[[142]] Formerly in the flank wall of No. 166, Drury Lane, was a stone tablet bearing the inscription “King Street. 1765.” In 1877 the street received the name of Shelton Street, and, with the carrying out of the Shelton Street housing scheme by the London County Council was almost entirely swept out of existence between 1889 and 1892.
The earliest reference to Parker Street (formerly Parker’s Lane) so far discovered, belongs to February,[[143]] 1620, when mention was made of “a way or passage of twenty feet broad, lately marked out by the said Walter Burton, leading from Drury Lane to and through the ground of the said Sir Charles Cornwallis, knight, towards Holborn.”[[144]] The “marking out” of Parker Street took place therefore between July, 1615, and February, 1620. There seems great probability that the street owed its name, as suggested by Parton,[[145]] to Philip Parker, who certainly had a share in building the houses there.[[146]] That he actually held ground in the neighbourhood of Parker Street is evident from the terms of Burton’s lease to Edlyn of 1620, when, in granting his own interest in the land on the south side of Parker Street for a space of 520 feet westwards from the Rose Field boundary, he adds: “and the said Thomas Burton grants to Edmund Edlyn all the interest, right, claim or demand which he hath or ought to have in and to that piece of ground holden by Philip Parker.” In the Subsidy Rolls for 1620–21 and 1618–9, Philip Parker is shown as residing in Drury Lane, perhaps the house (the third on the east side, north of Parker Street) where William Parker was living in 1646.[[147]]
The Council’s collection contains:—
[[148]] No. 166, Drury Lane. Stone tablet (drawing).