Haymarket, London

Haymarket is a street in the St. James's area of the City of Westminster, London. It runs from Piccadilly Circus in the north to Pall Mall at the southern end. It is the location of a variety of restaurants, the Theatre Royal and Her Majesty's Theatre, a cinema complex, and New Zealand House.

The broad street connecting Pall Mall with Piccadilly is recorded in the Elizabethan era and, as the name suggests, was chiefly used as a street market for the sale of fodder and other farm produce. At that time, it was a rural spot, with the village of Charing, the closest settlement. This practice continued to the reign of William III, by this time, carts carrying hay and straw were allowed in the street to trade, toll free. In 1692, when the street was paved, a tax was levied on the loads: 3d for a load of hay and 2d for one of straw. In 1830 the market was moved by Act of Parliament to Cumberland Market near Regent's Park.

In earlier centuries, Haymarket was also one of the most prominent centres of prostitution in London, but this is no longer the case. Old and New London informs us, in 1878:

Situated in the centre of the pleasure-going Westend population, the Haymarket is a great place for hotels, supper-houses, and foreign cafés; and it need hardly be added here, that so many of its taverns became the resort of the loosest characters, after the closing of the theatres, who turned night into day, and who were so constantly appearing before the sitting magistrates in consequence of drunken riots and street rows, that the Legislature interfered, and an Act of Parliament was passed, compelling the closing of such houses of refreshment at twelve o'clock.

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