Vigo Street (originally Vigo Lane) is a short street in central

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

that is named after the Anglo-Dutch naval victory over the French and Spanish in the 1702

Battle of Vigo Bay The Battle of Vigo Bay, also known as the Battle of Rande (; ), was a naval engagement fought on 23 October 1702 during the opening years of the War of the Spanish Succession. The engagement followed an Anglo-Dutch attempt to capture the Spanish ...

. It has important literary connections.

Location

The street runs between

Regent Street Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash and James Burton. It runs from Waterloo Place ...

and the junction of

Burlington Gardens Burlington Gardens is a street in central London, on land that was once part of the Burlington Estate. Location The street is immediately to the north of the Royal Academy of Arts and joins Old Bond Street and New Bond Street in the west and ...

and

Savile Row Savile Row (pronounced ) is a street in Mayfair, central London. Known principally for its traditional bespoke tailoring for men, the street has had a varied history that has included accommodating the headquarters of the Royal Geographical ...

. Sackville Street leads south, half way along Vigo Street. The rear entrance to Albany is wedged between the end of Vigo Street and the start of Burlington Gardens at 10 and 12 Burlington Gardens.

History

Originally, the whole roadway from what is now Bond Street to the current Glasshouse Street, including the current Vigo Street, was called Glasshouse Street. Following the Anglo-Dutch naval victory over the French and Spanish in the 1702

, part of Glasshouse Street was renamed Vigo Lane. Later it became Vigo Street, but the name "Vigo Lane" was still used in ''Elmes's London Streets'' as late as 1831. Finally, the part of Vigo Street behind

Burlington House Burlington House is a building on Piccadilly in Mayfair, London. It was originally a private Neo-Palladian mansion owned by the Earls of Burlington and was expanded in the mid-19th century after being purchased by the British government. Toda ...

was renamed Burlington Gardens by 1831.

Literary connections

Publishers John Lane and

Elkin Mathews Charles Elkin Mathews (1851 – 10 November 1921) was a British publisher and bookseller who played an important role in the literary life of London in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mathews was born in Gravesend, and learned his tra ...

were in partnership in Vigo Street. Together they published the infamous literary journal ''

The Yellow Book ''The Yellow Book'' was a British quarterly literary periodical that was published in London from 1894 to 1897. It was published at The Bodley Head Publishing House by Elkin Mathews and John Lane, and later by John Lane alone, and edited by th ...

'' volumes one and two in 1894. Later they founded

The Bodley Head The Bodley Head is an English publishing house, founded in 1887 and existing as an independent entity until the 1970s. The name was used as an imprint of Random House Children's Books from 1987 to 2008. In April 2008, it was revived as an adul ...

and continued to publish the work until it ceased in 1897. When the partnership between Lane and Mathews ended, both continued to have premises in Vigo Street and Mathews published the first editions of a number of important literary works, including ''The Wind Among the Reeds'' by W.B. Yeats in 1899 ''Chamber Music'' by

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...

in 1907. He also published

Lionel Johnson Lionel Pigot Johnson (15 March 1867 – 4 October 1902) was an English poet, essayist, and critic (although he claimed Irish descent and wrote on Celtic themes). Life Johnson was born in Broadstairs, Kent, England in 1867 and educated at Win ...

John Masefield John Edward Masefield (; 1 June 1878 – 12 May 1967) was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate from 1930 until 1967. Among his best known works are the children's novels ''The Midnight Folk'' and ''The Box of Delights'', and the poem ...

J.M. Synge Edmund John Millington Synge (; 16 April 1871 – 24 March 1909) was an Irish playwright, poet, writer, collector of folklore, and a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival. His best known play ''The Playboy of the Western World'' was poorly r ...

and

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Fascism, fascist collaborator in Italy during World War II. His works ...

. It was from 8 Vigo Street that

Allen Lane Sir Allen Lane (born Allen Lane Williams; 21 September 1902 – 7 July 1970) was a British publisher who together with his brothers Richard and John Lane founded Penguin Books in 1935, bringing high-quality paperback fiction and non-fictio ...

founded

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Here fifty years ago Allen Lane published his first paperbacks thereby changing reading habits throughout the English speaking world
Open Plaques, 2014. Retrieved 4 June 2014. In Conan Doyle's ''The Lost World'', 1912, a South American adventure, Lord John Roxton, based on Irish human rights activist Roger Casement, turns down Vigo street and 'through the dingy portals of the famous aristocratic rookery' to his Albany chambers. Doyle describes his rooms, art and gun collection, in great detail. In Graham Greene's ''The End of the Affair'', 1951, the private detective agency Bendrix approaches is located at 159 Vigo Street.

References

{{coord, 51.5103, -0.1390, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Mayfair Streets in the City of Westminster Burlington Estate