Endsleigh Gardens

Endsleigh Gardens is a street in the Bloomsbury district of central London, in the London Borough of Camden. It runs south-west to north-east from Gordon Street to Woburn Place. The south-west end becomes Gower Place after the junction with Gordon Street. Taviton Street and Endsleigh Street run off the south side.

Friends House from Endsleigh Gardens

Endsleigh Gardens was formerly the south side of Euston Square, which in 1878 was the site of the "Euston Square Murder". In 1879 the Metropolitan Board of Works renamed the street Endsleigh Gardens in response to local requests.

Euston Square Murder
Hannah Dobbs, acquitted of the murder of Matilda Hacker, on the cover of a Police News special edition, c. 1879[1]

Endsleigh Gardens was originally the southern part of Euston Square. In 1877 or 1878, number four Euston Square was the site of a murder that became popularly known as the "Euston Square Murder" after the body of Matilda Hacker was found in the coal cellar of the house in 1879.[2] She had last been seen in 1877.[3]

Hannah Dobbs, a former servant at the house and mistress of the leaseholder Severin Bastendorff, was arrested after it was found that she had pawned some of Hacker's possessions. In 1879 she was tried for murder at the Old Bailey, but acquitted due to lack of evidence.[1][2]

Renaming

As of 25 September 1879, the Metropolitan Board of Works of London recorded the receipt of a letter from the Vestry of Saint Pancras, asking that the south side of Euston Square be renamed Endsleigh Gardens, and the houses renumbered. The vestry had received the request from George Cubitt, M. P., a freeholder of the south side of Euston Square, along with a petition signed by "nearly the whole of the leaseholders and occupiers of the houses there".[4] The vestry meeting had voted in favour, 69 to 3.[4]

As of 28 November 1879, a committee reported to the Metropolitan Board of Works in favour of the request,[5] and as of 5 December 1879, the change was moved, seconded and resolved.[6]

The reasons for the request are not recorded in the Board of Works' minutes. Some accounts suggest that the name was changed to avoid the notoriety of the Euston Square Murder.[7][8] As early as 1884 The Building News noted, in discussing various name changes, that "A little while before the inhabitants of the north [sic] side of Euston-square tried to bury the murderous memories attached thereto beneath the name of Endsleigh-gardens."[9]

Buildings

Friends House is on the north side of the street between Endsleigh Gardens and the Euston Road.[10]

A 1953 Ordnance Survey map shows on the south side the Endsleigh Hotel on the corner with Gordon Street, a YWCA hostel and the Caledonian Christian Club between Taviton Street and Endsleigh Street, and the Cora Hotel at the east end on the corner with Upper Woburn Place. On the north side is Drayton House on the corner with Gordon Street, Friends House, and a weights and measures office for the London County Council.[11]

Notable residents

Residents of the street have included:

On 10 September 1889, the poet and novelist Amy Levy killed herself at the family home at No 7, aged 27, by carbon monoxide poisoning after suffering from depression.[15][16] There has been some campaigning for a blue plaque there to remember her.[17] Oscar Wilde described her as "a girl who has a touch of genius in her work".[16][18]

In the 1890s, there were reports of prostitution in the area. Resident James Stock complained to the Metropolitan Police of "the fearful prevalence… of a gross state of street prostitution attended by features of a very disgusting character, particularly between the hours of 10 and 12 at which it is not fit for any respectable female to walk about and young men cannot do so without molestation."[19]

Historic maps
  • Euston Square on an 1874 Ordnance Survey map[20]
  • Endsleigh Gardens on an 1895 Ordnance Survey map after renaming[21]
  • 1953 Ordnance Survey map[22]

References
  1. Terrible Awful Horrid Murder and the Court of Public Opinion. Off the Pedestal, Indiana University Bloomington. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  2. Unsolved murders of women in Victorian London. Jan Bondeson, The History Press. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  3. Aston, Mark (2005). Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Hampstead, Holburn and St Pancras. Barnsley: Wharncliffe Books. p. 92. ISBN 978-1-903425-94-7.
  4. Metropolitan Board of Works (London, England) (1879). Minutes of proceedings of the Metropolitan Board of Works. London, England: Guildhall Library. p. 347. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
  5. Metropolitan Board of Works (London, England) (1879). Minutes of proceedings of the Metropolitan Board of Works. London, England: Guildhall Library. pp. 717–718. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
  6. Metropolitan Board of Works (London, England) (1879). Minutes of proceedings of the Metropolitan Board of Works. London, England: Guildhall Library. p. 774. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
  7. "Home Industries", Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, Vol. 59, No. 3031 (23 December 1910), pp. 146–148 (p. 148) "An instance of the name of a place being changed owing to its association with a murder is the case of the Euston-square mystery in the 'seventies. A petition resulted in the south side of Euston-square becoming Endsleigh-gardens."
  8. "Euston Road" in Christopher Hibbert; Ben Weinreb; John Keay; Julia Keay (2008). The London Encyclopaedia (3rd ed.). London: Pan Macmillan. p. 277. ISBN 978-0-230-73878-2.
  9. "Our office table". The Building News and Engineering Journal. 46: 617. April 18, 1884. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
  10. Ordnance Survey map, Digimap. Retrieved 12 March 2018. (subscription required)
  11. 1953 Ordnance Survey map, Digimap. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  12. Thomas, Frances (2013). Christina Rossetti: A Biography. Little, Brown Book Group. p. 237. ISBN 978-1-4055-2500-8. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
  13. "Euston Square – British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
  14. London County Council; London Survey Committee (1900). Survey of London. London: Joint Publishing Committee Representing the London County Council and the London Survey Committee. p. 117. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
  15. Selected Poetry of Amy Levy (1861–1889). Representative Poetry Online. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  16. The tragic poet Oscar Wilde called a genius. Jennifer Lipman, Jewish Chronicle, 26 April 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  17. The Persephone Letter. Persephone Books, 18 September 2016 Retrieved 21 March 2018.
  18. "A brief introduction to the works of Amy Levy". www.victorianweb.org. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
  19. Bartley, Paula (2000). Prostitution prevention and reform in England, 1860-1914. London: Routledge. p. 158. ISBN 978-0415214575.
  20. 1874 Ordnance Survey map, Digimap. Retrieved 5 March 2018. (subscription required)
  21. 1895 Ordnance Survey map, Digimap. Retrieved 5 March 2018. (subscription required)
  22. 1953 Ordnance Survey map, Digimap. Retrieved 5 March 2018. (subscription required)

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