Angel Street, formerly known as Angel Alley, Angel Court, and Angell Street, is a street in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

that runs between

King Edward Street King Edward Street is a street running between the High Street, Oxford, High Street to the north and Oriel Square to the south in central Oxford, England. To the east is the "Island" site of Oriel College, Oxford, Oriel College, one of the ...

in the west and

St Martin's Le Grand St. Martin's Le Grand is a former liberty within the City of London, and is the name of a street north of Newgate Street and Cheapside and south of Aldersgate Street. It forms the southernmost section of the A1 road. College of canons and col ...

in the east. Although dating back to at least 1542, no original buildings now remain due to the effects of the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...

, the

London Blitz The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'. The Germa ...

, and redevelopment. Buildings in the street were damaged in the Great Fire of 1666 when Poulterer's Hall was destroyed, and in the early nineteenth century many buildings were demolished for redevelopment and due to their "ruinous" state. The Angel Inn, which dated from the 17th century, survived on the north side until around 1840. In the late nineteenth century, the General Post Office (West), which included the Central Telegraph Office, was built on the south side of the street and a further post office building soon after replaced the whole of the north side of the street. In 1940, the telegraph office was seriously damaged during the London Blitz and subsequently demolished in 1967. The site is now occupied by the

BT Centre The BT Centre was the global headquarters and registered office of BT Group, located in a 10-storey office building on Newgate Street in the City of London, London, England. It is opposite St Paul's tube station. It was completed in 1985. In 201 ...

(1984) so that today the street consists solely of two long office frontages.

Origins

Angel Street runs between King Edward Street (originally Butcher Hall Lane) in the west and St Martin's Le Grand in the east.Brown's Yard, Angel Alley, Bishopsgate - Bull Court.
British History Online. Retrieved 1 February 2018. In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

, Angel Alley was regarded as part of the sanctuary of St Martin's Le Grand and a witness in a 1536–1537 Star Chamber case testified that the future Cardinal Morton took sanctuary in Angel Alley in the fifteenth century.McSheffrey, Shannon (Fall 2009).
Sanctuary and the Legal Topography of Pre-Reformation London
. Law and History Review. 27, 3: 483–514. Angel Alley is also mentioned as within the College of St Martin's Le Grand in the ''

Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII ''Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII'' (full title: ''Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII: preserved in the Public Record Office, the British Museum, and elsewhere in England''; often abbreviated in citat ...

'' for 1542.Angel Court, Golden Lane - Anne (St.) at the Tourhill
, British History Online. Retrieved 17 March 2022.

John Strype John Strype (1 November 1643 – 11 December 1737) was an English clergyman, historian and biographer from London. He became a merchant when settling in Petticoat Lane. In his twenties, he became perpetual curate of Theydon Bois, Essex and lat ...

referred to it as Angel Alley in his 1720 survey which was based on

John Stow John Stow (''also'' Stowe; 1524/25 – 5 April 1605) was an English historian and antiquarian. He wrote a series of chronicles of English history, published from 1565 onwards under such titles as ''The Summarie of Englyshe Chronicles'', ''The C ...

's surveys of 1598 and 1603 and William Herbert gave its former name as Angel Court. It is recorded as Angel Street on

John Ogilby John Ogilby (also ''Ogelby'', ''Oglivie''; November 1600 – 4 September 1676) was a Scottish translator, impresario and cartographer. Best known for publishing the first British road atlas, he was also a successful translator, noted for publishi ...

and William Morgan's ''Large Scale Map of the City As Rebuilt By 1676'' which shows the plan of London after its rebuilding following the fire. The eastern end of the street was part of the

Liberty of St Martin's Le Grand St. Martin's Le Grand is a former liberty within the City of London, and is the name of a street north of Newgate Street and Cheapside and south of Aldersgate Street. It forms the southernmost section of the A1 road. College of canons and coll ...

.Herbert, William. (1830)
Illustrations of the Site and Neighbourhood of the New Post Office. Comprehending antiquarian notices of St Martin's-le-Grand and its Liberty &c.
'' London: Smales & Tuck, pp. 24-25. The Poulters' Hall stood on the corner of Butcher Hall Lane and Angel Street from 1630 until it was burned in the

in 1666 and the Angel

coaching inn The coaching inn (also coaching house or staging inn) was a vital part of Europe's inland transport infrastructure until the development of the railway, providing a resting point ( layover) for people and horses. The inn served the needs of tra ...

stood on the north side from the 17th century. It is unknown whether the inn was named after the street or vice versa.

18th and 19th centuries

King's Head Court was established on the south side on the corner with St Martin's Le Grand by 1746 and appears on John Rocque's map of that year. In 1809, the Angel Inn was described in ''

The Picture of London John Feltham (fl. 1780–1803) was an English writer, particularly for travel and antiquarian works. He is known for the ''Picture of London'', an annual guide book that appeared from around 1800. Life Feltham has been tentatively identified as t ...

'' as "much frequented by Scotch gentlemen and persons from the North". In 1825, the same directory listed it as among the principal inns visited by mail and stage coaches in London, and a hotel, coffee-house, and tavern. The inn was demolished in around 1840."Angel" in Gillian Bebbington (1972) ''London Street Names''. London: B.T. Batsford. p. 24. ISBN 0713401400. It was also in the early decades of the nineteenth century that a number of buildings in Angel Street were acquired to allow for the expansion of

Christ's Hospital Christ's Hospital is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 11–18) with a royal charter located to the south of Horsham in West Sussex. The school was founded in 1552 and received its first royal charter in 1553 ...

, including the Queen's Head (Queen's Hotel) on the north side on the corner with St Martin's Le Grand. Houses on the north side were demolished and the land let by the governors of the hospital to allow for the building of a new Bull and Mouth Inn. On the south side at the St Martin's Le Grand end, a number of houses described as "very ruinous" were demolished in Angel Street and King's Head Court in 1835 after they were condemned by a ward-inquest.Report of the Commissioners &c.
H.M. Stationery Office, London, 1837. p. 179. In 1869,Central Telegraph Office and BT Centre – a timeline
, BT Archives, May 2008. Retrieved 6 March 2022. work started on a new post office building known as General Post Office (West) to distinguish it from the old

General Post Office The General Post Office (GPO) was the state postal system and telecommunications carrier of the United Kingdom until 1969. Before the Acts of Union 1707, it was the postal system of the Kingdom of England, established by Charles II in 1660. ...

building on the east side of St Martin Le Grand. It opened in 1874, also becoming the post office's Central Telegraph Office. Following the construction of the telegraph office, Bath Street, later known as Roman Bath Street, was joined to the south side of Angel Street which connected it to Newgate Street in the south. It had formerly been known as Bagnio Court in reference to the Turkish baths that stood there. In 1890, the foundation stone was laid for the construction of a building known as General Post Office (North) which took up the whole of the north side of Angel Street and led to the demolition of the remaining buildings on that side of the street. It was designed by Henry Tanner.

20th century and later

The telegraph office was slightly damaged by a bomb during the First World War, and more seriously during the London Blitz in 1940 when burning debris from adjacent buildings set it alight and totally destroyed the interior. It reopened in 1943 but closed again in 1962 and was demolished in 1967. The

, formerly the headquarters of

British Telecom BT Group plc (trade name, trading as BT and formerly British Telecom) is a British Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered in London, England. It has operations in around 180 countries and is th ...

, opened in 1984 and now occupies the whole southern side of Angel Street including the former course of Bath Street, which was closed in 1934. The former post office building on the northern side of Angel Street is now known as

Nomura House Nomura (written: 野村 "field village" or 埜村 "wilderness village") is a Japanese surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Don Nomura (born 1957), Japanese-American baseball agent * Katsuhiro Nomura, Japanese voice actor, includin ...

at 1 St Martin's Le Grand.

Maps

File:Bull and Mouth Street from Ogilby & Morgan's map.jpg, Angel Street (centre) on Ogilby & Morgan's 1676 map.Ogilby and Morgan's Large Scale Map of the City As Rebuilt By 1676.
British History Online. Retrieved 1 February 2018. File:St. Martin's Le Grand area map.jpg, Angel Street and the Angel Inn on John Rocque's Map of London, 1746 File:Angel Street and St Martin's Le Grand area Ordnance Survey map 1875.jpg, Angel Street on an 1875 Ordnance Survey map

References

External links

{{Commons category, Angel Street, London
Nomura House formerly the General Post Office Headquarters by Sir Edward Tanner.
Streets in the City of London