#neal street

[londiniumlundene]

Lost London: Walking the Covent Garden Drainage Ditches

Part 2: The Cock and Pye Ditch

Up until the 17th Century, St Giles-in-the-Fields was just a small group of houses in the grounds of a leprosy hospital; between these dwellings were marshy fields known, perhaps unimaginatively, as Marshland, surrounded by a rectangular drainage ditch. These fields were covered by the development known as Seven Dials in the 1690s, and the fields and ditch would in time take on the name of Cock and Pye – the origin of which will become clearer as the walk along this lost watercourse continues.

The route from Drury Lane to Seven Dials requires a walk through an unnamed and (at time of walking) well-enclosed alleyway, leading onto Shelton Street. My guidebook says a small gradient can be found on this road where the subterranean waters of the Cock and Pye flow towards the Bloomsbury Ditch, but this is somewhat difficult to detect.

At the junction of Shelton Street and Neal Street, my walk turned right, in order to follow the eastern edge of the Cock and Pye’s rectangular outline (the ditch also continues straight ahead, so the circuit could in theory be completed in either clockwise or anticlockwise fashion). Neal Street takes it name from Thomas Neale (forgetting the last “e”), the Stuart courtier who was responsible for the development of Seven Dials.

As Neal Street is fairly typical of the area – expensive shops and pricey bars, cafés, and restaurants – a diversion to the centre of Seven Dials is recommended. Here, the seven roads radiate out from a central column, which surprisingly only has six sundials; the central column and surrounding roundabout functions as the seventh. The original column was erected as part of the initial development, though was taken down in 1773; the story that it was pulled down by a mob looking for gold rumoured to be buried beneath it are just an urban legend. The current column is a replica installed in the 1980s.

Turning back to Neal Street, the route then turns left at Shaftesbury Avenue. It is hard to imagine that the surrounding streets here were once the infamous Rookery of St Giles, some of the worst slums in the country. During the 18th Century, at the height of the gin craze, the squalid conditions of the streets of St Giles inspired Hogarth’s etching Gin Lane. Nowadays the most prominent artwork on Shaftesbury Avenue is Drama Through the Ages, a frieze on the Odeon cinema, originally the Saville Theatre. Very few traces of the Cock and Pye Ditch are left, though a small grate at the junction of Shaftesbury Avenue and Mercer Street reveals trickling water below.

The third side of the rectangle is completed by walking along West Street, apparently so named because it was the western boundary of the Cock and Pye fields (a convention not applied to the other three sides though). At the time of walking, the Ambassadors Theatre was also running a rather appropriately named play; its more famous neighbour, St Martins Theatre, has meanwhile been showing the same play, Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, for 70 years.

We shall end this section of the walk where West Street meets Upper St Martin’s Lane. It was in this vicinity that the Cock and Pye Inn once stood, and gave its name to the surrounding fields and ditch. Some say that the inn gained its name from serving elaborate peacock pies, though more likely it was simply named after a cock and a magpie – at the time, spelt magpye.

[onlinesweetheart]

<3

[huariqueje]

Church nocturne  -  Neal Hughes , n/d.

American,  b. 1950s

Oil on linen , 20 x 20 in.

[newyorkthegoldenage]

A New Yorker returning home in the evening amidst an early snowfall, November 7, 1953.

Photo: Neal Boenzi for the NY Times

[undr]

Neal Boenzi. Strolling on the Manhattan Bridge, 1953

[sabagon]

Neal Jolly

[weshallc]

Call the Midwife: An X-ray van and a campaign, you say?

[linktube]

The single hardest thing about using a map is figuring out where the fuck you are at

[filmap]

The Fountainhead King Vidor. 1949

Quarry 36772 Rd 606, Raymond, CA 93653, USA See in map

See in imdb

[yearningforunity]

On a tightrope high over Henri Street. Taken by Neal Boenzi New York, USA, 1974.

[kaluwa-del-conte]

Big bird Mclaughlin & Grover Neal

[styledby]

Neal Jolly in Wu-Tang AND Nirvana

[mariocki]

Nightmare at Noon (Death Street USA, 1988)

"Just doesn't make any sense. Folks I've known all my life feuding with each other for no reason. Hospital filled with people bleeding green blood. Telephones and the radios don't work. And the damn cars breaking down at the city limits!"

"Think something's behind it?"

[huariqueje]

Church Nocturne   -  Neal Hughes , 2018.

American, b.1950s

Oil on linen , 20 x 12 in.

[standupcomedyhistorian]

Hi, everyone!

I’m back from my relaxing vacation week (thanks again for the birthday wishes!), and I wanted to give you all some updates about new content coming to my website:

I am currently working on a post about Neal Brennan and Bo. I just saw Neal on July 14th in Philly (he was FANTASTIC), so I wanted to analyze their interactions over the years (like Neal mentioning Bo in his newest special Blocks). Should be up by this weekend! 🙌🏼

I am still researching my The Bear article, but it will be posted soon! I also finally got a (very crappy) screenshot of the Bo reference, but if any skilled GIF creator could make one from “Forks,” I’d be forever grateful!

Finally, I am in the middle of conducting interviews with attendees of Kate Berlant’s one-woman play. If you were an audience member for ANY of her shows (last fall or the winter encore) and would like to tell me about your experiences, PLEASE reach out by DMing me here or emailing me at standupcomedyhistorian@gmail.com. Thanks to everyone who has participated so far!

As a special treat, I did post an old parody song I had written in 2021 after Inside premiered that's like a Sesame Street-style version of Comedy called "Comma D." It's pretty goofy, and you can see my AMAZING artistic skills (hahahaha). 👀

Keep it here for more comedy fun! ✌🏼

[filosofablogger]

♫ Foolish Heart ♫

This song, written by Steve Perry, formerly of the band Journey, and Randy Goodrum, was performed by Perry from his first solo album, Street Talk. It was released as the fourth single from the album in November 1984 and peaked at #18 in the U.S. Says Goodrum of the joint effort … “It seemed like such an unlikely match, Steve and me. Shortly before I flew out, I thought, I’ve got to put together…