Monmouth Street is a street in the Seven Dials district of

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

, London, England. Monmouth Street runs north to south from

Shaftesbury Avenue Shaftesbury Avenue is a major road in the West End of London, named after The 7th Earl of Shaftesbury. It runs north-easterly from Piccadilly Circus to New Oxford Street, crossing Charing Cross Road at Cambridge Circus. From Piccadilly Cir ...

to a crossroads with Tower Street and Shelton Street, where it becomes

St Martin's Lane St Martin's Lane is a street in the City of Westminster, which runs from the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, after which it is named, near Trafalgar Square northwards to Long Acre. At its northern end, it becomes Monmouth Street. St Martin ...

. About halfway it meets Seven Dials, where it intersects with Mercer Street, Earlham Street, and Shorts Gardens. It is numbered B404.

Former street

The original street, which was named after the

Earls of Monmouth Earl of Monmouth was a title that was created twice in the Peerage of England. The title was first created for English courtier Robert Carey, 1st Baron Carey in 1626. He had already been created Baron Carey, of Leppington, in 1622, also in the P ...

who owned land here in the 17th century, ran from what is now

Charing Cross Road Charing Cross Road is a street in central London running immediately north of St Martin-in-the-Fields to St Giles Circus (the intersection with Oxford Street) and then becomes Tottenham Court Road. It leads from the north in the direction of ...

to another former street called Broad Street (now part of St Giles High Street). Throughout the 18th century and for most of the 19th, Monmouth Street was famous for its old clothes shops. Gay wrote in his ''Trivia'': "Thames Street gives cheeses, Covent Garden fruits, Moorfields old books, and Monmouth Street old suits." Notable inhabitants in 1751–55 included the

freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

s John Hamilton and John Holland. In the 19th century, Monmouth Street was widened to form the eastern part of

, and the name disappeared.

Current street

The current street was originally two separate streets. The part north of Seven Dials was called ''Great St Andrew's Street'' and the part south of Seven Dials ''Little St Andrew's Street''. In the 1930s the whole street was renamed Monmouth Street, in an attempt to re-create the original street. The Covent Garden Hotel is situated at no. 10 and the original home of

Monmouth Coffee Company Monmouth Coffee Company is a coffee roaster, retailer and wholesaler in London, which was founded in 1978. It played an important role in regenerating Neal's Yard and Borough Market. It has remained focused on roasting and selling coffee beans a ...

at no. 27.

Pollock's Toy Museum 'Pollock's Toy Museum'' is a small museum in London, England. The museum was started in 1956 in a single attic room at 44 Monmouth Street, near Covent Garden. As the enterprise flourished, other rooms were taken over for the museum and th ...

started in 1956 in a single attic room at No. 44 above

Benjamin Pollock's Toy Shop Benjamin Pollock's Toy Shop is a shop selling vintage and retro toys in London's Covent Garden. One of the oldest toy shops in London, it had its origins in Hoxton in 1851 before being taken over in 1877 by Benjamin Pollock, who ran it until his ...

, but outgrew the premises and moved in 1969 to

Scala Street Scala Street is a street in the London Borough of Camden that runs between Charlotte Street and Whitfield Street. It was formerly known as Pitt Street but was renamed after the Scala Theatre when this occupied most of its north side. The street' ...

References

External links

Covent Garden Shopping streets in London Streets in the London Borough of Camden {{London-road-stub