Tunnels, Towers & Temples by David Long

Author:David Long
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780752480282
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2012-07-29T16:00:00+00:00

‘The surprise of going down narrow passages that open onto unknown hidden vistas’

Lord Snowdon, London Sight Unseen

7

SPACE

BLUE BALL YARD

ST JAMES’S STREET, SW1

* * *

NO MERE MEWS

A rare and largely unspoilt mid-eighteenth-century stableyard surviving in the heart of the West End, Blue Ball Yard is approached through an archway off the west side of St James’s Street, the restricted, slightly anonymous entrance giving unexpectedly on to a wide, well-preserved and highly picturesque cobbled yard.

In approximately this form it has been here since at least 1680, although the coach houses later used as garaging date from only 1741–2 when it would have provided servants’ accommodation for the grand houses clustering around St James’s Palace, as well as somewhere for the aristocrats to stable their horses and park their carriages. Accordingly, at that time it was known simply as Stable Yard, the name being changed a few years later to commemorate the Blue Ball Tavern which stood in the adjacent street until it was demolished in 1754.

Naturally the reliance on horsepower meant there were once many more such yards in this area, including what is now Little St James’s Street (which provided stabling as early as 1651) and Pickering Place, which as Stroud’s Court dates from around 1690 and is described on p. 130. Many more can be seen on Richard Horwood’s map of 1792–9, but unfortunately these have since been modified beyond recognition or wiped out by large-scale development.

Blue Ball Yard, however, has prospered, its attractive foliage and well-kept air having much to do with its proximity to the luxurious Stafford Hotel in nearby St James’s Place. Taking over part of the yard, formerly an antiquarian bookseller and later a fine-art picture framers, the privately owned hotel has created within the historic shell what it calls the Carriage House. This comprises a series of luxurious suites, each named after an illustrious racehorse, and was officially ‘opened’ by one of them: Seagram, winner of the 1991 Grand National.

Some things have not changed so much, though, so that for example after nearly 250 years the split entrance to the yard – with an opening for vehicles and another, narrower one for pedestrians – still hints at the original ownership of the yard. Unusually this was shared between two separate freeholders, the wall dividing the two modern entrances marking the boundary between that portion of the yard owned by Thomas Freke and the southern portion which was held by Charles Godolphin. It seems likely that the yard we see today was formed jointly by these two men.

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