Walker's Court is a pedestrian street in the

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develop ...

district of the

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and London boroughs, borough in Inner London. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It occupies a large area of cent ...

, London. The street dates from around the early 1700s and escaped modernisation in the late nineteenth century so that it retains its original narrow layout. In the twentieth century the small shops that traded from the street gradually closed and from the late 1950s the street became associated with Soho's sex trade. The

Raymond Revuebar The Raymond Revuebar (1958–2004) was a theatre and strip club at 11 Walker's Court (now the location of The Box Soho nightclub), in the centre of London's Soho district. For many years, it was the only venue in London that offered full-fronta ...

opened in 1958 and closed in 2004. There are now plans to redevelop the street.

Location

The street is pedestrianised and runs between

Peter Street Peter Street (born 6 June 1980 in Tasmania) is a former professional Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League. At 211 cm (6' 11") he is the equal tallest player in the history of the VFL/AFL (along with Aaron Sand ...

in the north and the junction of east

Brewer Street Brewer Street is a street in the Soho area of central London, running west to east from Glasshouse Street to Wardour Street. The street was first developed in the late 17th century by the landowner Sir William Pulteney. It first appears on ...

(originally Little Pulteney Street) and

Rupert Street Rupert Street is a street in London's Soho area, running parallel to Wardour Street and crossing Shaftesbury Avenue. Rupert Street is first mentioned in records in 1677, and named for Prince Rupert of the Rhine. The northern part of Rupert Str ...

in the south. The two sides of Walker's Court are joined by a privately owned bridge halfway down.

Early history

The vicinity of Walker's Court was built up in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Building leases were granted in the area to a number of tradesmen in 1719 and 1720, one of whom was John Walker of St. Martin's, a bricklayer, but it is uncertain if that is the source of the street name.Brewer Street and Great Pulteney Street Area.
British History Online. Retrieved 4 October 2015.

Nineteenth century

Walker's Court is shown on

Richard Horwood Richard Horwood (1757/8 – 3 October 1803) was a surveyor and cartographer. He is mainly remembered for his large-scale plan of London and its suburbs published in 32 sheets between 1792 and 1799. He also published a plan of Liverpool in six she ...

's map of 1813 (3rd edition), by which time the street layout immediately north of Little Pulteney Street (now Brewer Street) was the same as it is today. From 1873, attempts began to improve the south side of Little Pulteney Street which was described as containing "narrow, ill ventilated Courts and Alleys, some of them open to the sky, but others running under portions of houses". The plans would have joined Rupert Street to Berwick Street in one broad road that would have destroyed narrow Walker's Court in the process but the plans were never carried out on the north side of the street and Walker's Court remains a narrow alley to this day.

Twentieth century

In the first half of the twentieth century, Walker's Court was made up of small shops, including an eel pie shop, and a horse butcher that was still trading in the 1950s. Isow's Kosher Restaurant was also located in the street. In 1958, Paul Raymond opened the

(closed 2004), a theatre and strip club at Maurice House, No. 11-12. It is now

The Box Soho The Box Soho is a cabaret nightclub located at 11-12 Walker's Court in Soho, London, on the premises formerly occupied by the Raymond Revuebar. Opening and ownership Opened on 9 February 2011, it bills itself as a "theatre of varieties" and is a ...

. Walker's Court is crossed at first floor level by an architecturally distinctive bridge with leaded bay windows which joins the entrance to the theatre to the main auditorium. In recent years a carousel horse and toy car have appeared in the window on the south side and an eclectic selection of objects on the north side which has led to speculation about their meaning.

Redevelopment plans

In 2015, plans were underway for the redevelopment of the immediate area to include a new theatre, retail and nightclub premises. The redevelopment is planned to include new headquarters for

Soho Estates Soho Estates is a British property company created by entrepreneur and pornographer Paul Raymond. The holdings of Soho Estates are mainly based in Soho, a district in the West End of London. Through Soho Estates Holdings Limited and parent com ...

.Property: Makeover that is saving Soho’s soul.
''

Evening Standard The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format. In October 2009, after be ...

'', 14 June 2013. Retrieved 31 December 2015.

Gallery

File:Walker's Court, Soho (10).JPG, Walker's Court looking north from Brewer Street. (2015) File:Walker's Court, Soho (3).JPG, A sex shop in Walker's Court. File:Walker's Court, Soho (11).JPG, The Maurice House bridge across Walker's Court with carousel horse. (South side) File:Walker's Court, Soho (9).JPG, Soho's Original Book Shop on the corner with Brewer Street.

References

External links

{{Coord, 51, 30, 45.32, N, 0, 8, 2.62, W, scale:1563_region:GB, display=title Soho, London Streets in the City of Westminster