Carmelite Street, EC4Y

Road in/near City of London, existing between 1868 and now.

 HOME  ·  ARTICLE  ·  MAPS  ·  STREETS  ·  BLOG  ·  CONTACT US 
(51.5121 -0.1069, 51.512 -0.106) 
MAP YEAR:175018001810182018301860190019502024Show map without markers
ZOOM:14 15 16 17 14 15 16 17 14 15 16 17 14 15 16 17 14 15 16 17 14 15 16 17 14 15 16 17 18 14 15 16 17 14 15 16 17 18
TIP: Adjust the MAP YEAR and ZOOM to tweak historical maps
Road · * · EC4Y ·
JUNE
3
2021
Carmelite Street continues south from Whitefriars Street, which itself is just off Fleet Street.

Carmelite Street is a very narrow road and runs down a slope to its south end, where it meets the Victoria Embankment. Named in 1901, it commemorates the old foundation of the Carmelite or Whitefriars monastery here. Before 1901, it had been an extension of Whitefriars Street but was wharfland until the 1860s.

The street seems to have begun as an alley to serve ship berthings which by the 1860s had been repurposed to lead to the new Sir Joseph Bazalgette-designed Victoria Embankment.

The buildings which now stand on Carmelite Street were mostly constructed after the Second World War. There are also some very old buildings such as The Harrow, a public house said to have been frequented by Evening News reporters.

Founded by a City merchant, William Ward, in 1881, the City of London School for Girls opened in Carmelite Street in 1894 at a time when there was so little faith in academic education for girls that the building was designed so that it could be turned into offices, should the project fail. The flourishing school moved to the Barbican in 1969.

Speaking of offices, Carmelite Street was for many years the home of Associated Newspapers Ltd, publishers of the Daily Mail and the London Evening News.

The offices of the Evening News had been situated in Whitefriars Street between 1882 and 1902. In 1902 the newspaper relocated to Carmelite House (originally known as Harmsworth Buildings and built in 1898) on the corner of Carmelite Street and Tallis Street, where it remained for several decades.

In 1936, a new purpose-built building opened next door to Carmelite House and extending down to the Victoria Embankment. This was called New Carmelite House and was used to expand the offices and printing presses of the Daily Mail and other Associated Newspapers publications.

The two buildings were joined together on every floor, though the forty-year gap between their construction dates resulted in the two being architecturally very different.

On a corner almost directly opposite the Harrow pub is Northcliffe House, the construction of which was completed in 1927.

Northcliffe House was purpose-built to contain the new offices of the Daily Mail (previously in Carmelite House). It was named after Lord Northcliffe who died in 1922. In the years following the Second World War, the offices of the Evening News were located (with the Daily Mail) in Northcliffe House.

In 1988, Associated Newspapers moved their headquarters to Kensington.

Northcliffe House had been built on the historic site of the old Whitefriars Glass Works, which had occupied the space for over two hundred years. Prior to that, the corner on which Northcliffe House stands was the site of a monastery built by the White Friars, or Carmelites, who came to London during the reign of Edward I.

Around the year 1150, at the time of the Crusades, a small group of Christians founded a new religious order on Mount Carmel in Palestine. The Carmelite order grew, and began to spread to Europe, before being forced to flee the Holy Land when Acre fell to the Mamluk Army in 1291. A small group of Carmelites reached England in 1242. Eventually some 40 Carmelite communities were established across Britain, where, because on formal occasions they wore white mantels over their brown habits, they became known as the White Friars.

In 1538, the friary was dissolved on the orders of Henry VIII. The land was given to the Royal Physician, Sir William Butts. Butts died in 1547 and the friary area fell into disrepair.In the absence of the White Friars, no one was really sure who was responsible for the area of their old friary. The new inhabitants successfully claimed it to be outside the jurisdiction of the City of London and founded Alsatia, the story of which is told elsewhere.




Main source: The Evening News Short Story Index
Further citations and sources


Click here to explore another London street
We now have 664 completed street histories and 46836 partial histories
Find streets or residential blocks within the M25 by clicking STREETS


CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LOCALITY

Comment
MCNALLY    
Added: 17 May 2021 09:42 GMT   

Blackfriars (1959 - 1965)
I lived in Upper Ground from 1959 to 1964 I was 6 years old my parents Vince and Kitty run the Pub The Angel on the corner of Upper Ground and Bodies Bridge. I remember the ceiling of the cellar was very low and almost stretched the length of Bodies Bridge. The underground trains run directly underneath the pub. If you were down in the cellar when a train was coming it was quite frightening

Reply
Reply
Tom   
Added: 21 May 2021 23:07 GMT   

Blackfriars
What is, or was, Bodies Bridge?

Reply

LATEST LONDON-WIDE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE PROJECT

Comment
Wendy    
Added: 22 Mar 2024 15:33 GMT   

Polygon Buildings
Following the demolition of the Polygon, and prior to the construction of Oakshott Court in 1974, 4 tenement type blocks of flats were built on the site at Clarendon Sq/Phoenix Rd called Polygon Buildings. These were primarily for people working for the Midland Railway and subsequently British Rail. My family lived for 5 years in Block C in the 1950s. It seems that very few photos exist of these buildings.

Reply

Steve   
Added: 19 Mar 2024 08:42 GMT   

Road construction and houses completed
New Charleville Circus road layout shown on Stanford’s Library Map Of London And Its Suburbs 1879 with access via West Hill only.

Plans showing street numbering were recorded in 1888 so we can concluded the houses in Charleville Circus were built by this date.

Source: Charleville Circus, Sydenham, London

Reply
Comment
Steve   
Added: 19 Mar 2024 08:04 GMT   

Charleville Circus, Sydenham: One Place Study (OPS)
One Place Study’s (OPS) are a recent innovation to research and record historical facts/events/people focused on a single place �’ building, street, town etc.

I have created an open access OPS of Charleville Circus on WikiTree that has over a million members across the globe working on a single family tree for everyone to enjoy, for free, forever.

Source: Charleville Circus, Sydenham, London

Reply
Comment
Charles   
Added: 8 Mar 2024 20:45 GMT   

My House
I want to know who lived in my house in the 1860’s.

Reply

NH   
Added: 7 Mar 2024 11:41 GMT   

Telephone House
Donald Hunter House, formerly Telephone House, was the BT Offices closed in 2000

Reply
Comment
Paul Cox   
Added: 5 Mar 2024 22:18 GMT   

War damage reinstatement plans of No’s 11 & 13 Aldine Street
Whilst clearing my elderly Mothers house of general detritus, I’ve come across original plans (one on acetate) of No’s 11 & 13 Aldine Street. Might they be of interest or should I just dispose of them? There are 4 copies seemingly from the one single acetate example. Seems a shame to just junk them as the level of detail is exquisite. No worries if of no interest, but thought I’d put it out there.

Reply
Comment
Diana   
Added: 28 Feb 2024 13:52 GMT   

New Inn Yard, E1
My great grandparents x 6 lived in New Inn Yard. On this date, their son was baptised in nearby St Leonard’s Church, Shoreditch

Source: BDM London, Cripplegate and Shoreditch registers written by church clerk.

Reply
Comment
Vic Stanley   
Added: 24 Feb 2024 17:38 GMT   

Postcose
The postcode is SE15, NOT SE1

Reply



LOCAL PHOTOS
Click here to see map view of nearby Creative Commons images
Click here to see Creative Commons images near to this postcode
Click here to see Creative Commons images tagged with this road (if applicable)
Smithfield Market
TUM image id: 1620388545
Licence:
Amen Court, EC4M
TUM image id: 1493474208
Licence: CC BY 2.0
Holborn Viaduct from Farringdon Street, c. 1910 The building of Farringdon Street is considered one of the greatest urban engineering achievements of the 19th century. It was one of the first engineered multi-lane roads, and also buried the River Fleet in a system of underground tunnels, solving one of London’s most daunting sanitary problems. Its construction also included the building of the world’s first stretch of underground railway, a branch of the Metropolitan Railway that later became part of the London Underground running beneath Farringdon Road from King’s Cross St. Pancras into the City at Farringdon. The construction of Farringdon Street also necessitated the removal of the Fleet Market that had been built in 1736 above the course of the River Fleet, which is now London’s largest subterranean river. North of the market was Hockley-in-the-Hole (around Ray Street Bridge), an area notorious for bear-baiting and similar activities.
Credit: Bishopsgate Institute
TUM image id: 1686139066
Licence:
Farringdon Street, EC4M
TUM image id: 1530111130
Licence:

In the neighbourhood...

Click an image below for a better view...
Smithfield Market
Licence:


The old wooden Temple Bar
Credit: Walter Thornbury
Licence: CC BY 2.0


Hopton’s Almshouses, Hopton Street, Bankside (1957)
Licence:


Middle Temple Lane looking towards Victoria Embankment (2008) The buildings are mainly occupied by barristers’ chambers
Credit: Wiki Commons/J D Mack
Licence: CC BY 2.0


Illustration of Fleet Market
Credit: William Henry Prior
Licence: CC BY 2.0


Amen Court, EC4M
Licence: CC BY 2.0


Collingwood Street, near Blackfriars Road c1900 The street was renamed Colombo Street in 1937 by the London County Council. The weatherboarded cottages suffered severe bomb damage during the Blitz and were demolished in 1948
Licence:


Essex Street water gate, between Fleet Street and Temple.
Licence:


Holborn Viaduct from Farringdon Street, c. 1910 The building of Farringdon Street is considered one of the greatest urban engineering achievements of the 19th century. It was one of the first engineered multi-lane roads, and also buried the River Fleet in a system of underground tunnels, solving one of London’s most daunting sanitary problems. Its construction also included the building of the world’s first stretch of underground railway, a branch of the Metropolitan Railway that later became part of the London Underground running beneath Farringdon Road from King’s Cross St. Pancras into the City at Farringdon. The construction of Farringdon Street also necessitated the removal of the Fleet Market that had been built in 1736 above the course of the River Fleet, which is now London’s largest subterranean river. North of the market was Hockley-in-the-Hole (around Ray Street Bridge), an area notorious for bear-baiting and similar activities.
Credit: Bishopsgate Institute
Licence:


Farringdon Street, EC4M
Licence:




  Contact us · Copyright policy · Privacy policy