Henrietta Street (London)

Henrietta Street is a street in Covent Garden, London, that was once home to a number of artists and later became the location of many publishing firms.

Henrietta Street is near to Covent Garden piazza. It continues Southampton Street at its eastern end and joins Bedford Street in the west.

Henrietta Street was first planned from 1631 and building was completed by 1634. Although the street plan is unchanged from the original, most of the houses are of nineteenth century construction. The street was named after the consort of Charles I.

The street was originally shorter than it is now but in 1705–6, Bedford House, a timber building of 1552 that fronted the Strand, was demolished and the south side of Henrietta Street extended to the where it is now joined by Southampton Street.

The original occupants of the street were mainly tradesmen but later members of the nobility had houses in the street. By 1667 there were five shops and ten by 1669. In the early 1700s, John Strype described the street as "generally taken up by eminent Tradesmen, as Mercers, Lacemen, Drapers, etc". In 1763, Thomas Mortimer's The Universal Director recorded that there were twelve residents who included three artists, a baker, a surgeon, a linen draper, two stockbrokers, a mercer and three apothecaries.

By the 1870s the street had become the home of a number of publishing firms and in 1874 The Builder described it as "fast becoming the Paternoster-row of the West End". Amongst publishers, Williams and Norgate had their offices at number 14 and in the twentieth century Victor Gollancz were in the street. More recently, Greenwood Publishing Group and Dorling Kindersley have had offices in Henrietta Street.

In 1690, Colonel Mordaunt Cracherode, father of Clayton Mordaunt Cracherode and in charge of the marines during George Anson's voyage round the world, lived in the street.

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