Robin Hood Court (Holborn)

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Site of Robin Hood Court (Holborn).

[[File:|thumb|right|500px|At Shoe Lane. Robin Hood Court ran left where Deloitte and Athene's Place are now found / Google Earth Street View.]]

'Robin-Wood's C[ourt]', John Rocque's Map of London (1746) / Locating London's Past.

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2018-01-17. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2019-04-05.

A now lost Robin Hood Court led west out of Shoe Lane to Great New Street in Holborn (Farringdon Ward Without).[1] It is first recorded in 1623.

On 26 Oct. 1623 at the French ambassador's house in Blackfriars, London, the floor of an upper room collapsed under the weight of three hundred people attending a religious service. Nearly a hundred of them were killed in this disaster known as the Fatal Vespers. A pamphlet about this tragic event published shortly after includes a list of casualties, among whom were a family from Robin Hood Court, Shoe Lane. This is the first mention of the street name. Strype reprints the list, without stating his source, in his Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster (1720) (see Allusions below for both). Harben in his entry on the locality refers to Ogilby and Morgan's 1677 map of London, but though the street appears to be indicated, it is not labelled on copies of the map available online.[2]

Among other early sources to mention this street is a news broadside dated 1697, dealing with a tragic case of infanticide that had evidently just taken place at Robin Hood Court. A contemporary purveyor of smut and gore published a broadside entitled The Unnatural mother: being a full and true account of one Elizabeth Kennet, a marry'd woman, living in Robin Hood's Court in Shoe-lane, who, on Tuesday the 6th April, 1697, privately deliver'd her self, and afterwards flung her infant in the fire, and burnt it all to ashes, but a few of the bones: likewise of her being had before a justice, and her confession there (see Background below). The next reference to Robin Hood Court concerns a pawnbroker who is listed on 12 Nov. 1720 as residing there at the sign of the Three Bowls.[3] From 1722 we have the first of quite a few Old Bailey case summaries (see Records below). A register entitled A New Review of London (1728) lists both "Robin hood's court [...] in shoe lane" and "Robin hood's yard in shoe lane".[4] Maybe the compiler of this work knew something we do not, maybe he inadvertently listed two variants of the name of the court in Shoe Lane, or perhaps the yard he listed was in fact Robin Hood Yard in nearby Leather Lane. A similar double entry (if such it is) is found in the Company of Parish Clerks' New Remarks of London (1732).[5]

On John Rocque's 1746 Map of London the street is named 'Robin-Wood's C[ourt]' (see Maps section and illustration below). The court is included, as "Robin Hood Court, Shoe-Lane", in the list of London street and place-names in the Compleat Compting-House Companion (1763).[6] John Lockie in his Topography of London (1810) lists it as follows: "Robinhood Court, Shoe Lane, Fleet-Street,—at 67, the second on the R. from St. Andrew's church, Holborn-hill" (see Gazetteers below).

In all probability Robin Hood Court took its name from the Robin Hood inn located there at No. 5. Robin Hood Court is included on the 25" O.S. map of the area published in 1936 (see Maps section below) but is not shown on the 1968 edition of Bartholomew's Reference Atlas of Greater London.[7] Evidently it had disappeared by the latter date.Template:PnItemQry

Gazetteers

Maps

Sources

Background

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Notes

  1. Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), p. 300, s.n. Robin Hood Court [1], have "Farringdon Ward Within", but British History Online: A Dictionary of London: Robin Hood Court – Rolls' Yard has "Without".
  2. Harben, Henry A., compil.; [Greaves, I.I., ed.]. A Dictionary of London: Being Notes Topographical and Historical Relating to the Streets and Principal Buildings in the City of London (London, 1918), p. 505, s.n. Robin Hood Court [2]. See Maps section for links to web versions of the map.
  3. Price, F.G. Hilton. 'Some Notes upon the Signs of the Pawn-Brokers in London in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries', Archaeological Journal, vol. LIX (1902), pp. 160-200, see p. 191.
  4. Anonymous. A New Review of London: being an Exact Survey, lately taken, of every Street, Lane, Court, Alley, Square, Close, Green, Wharf, Row, Garden, Field, and aLl Places, by what Name soever call'd, within the Cities, Liberties, or Suburbs of London, Westminster, and the Borough of Southwark. 3rd ed. (London, 1728), p. 30 s.nn. 'Robin hood's court' and 'Robin hood's yard'. Italics as in source. IRHB's brackets
  5. Company of Parish-Clerks, The, compil. New Remarks of London: Or, A Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster, of Southwark, and Part of Middlesex and Surrey, Within the Circumference of the Bills of Mortality. Containing the Situation, Antiquity and Rebuilding of Each Church, the Value of the Rectory or Vicarage; in Whose Gifts They are; and the Names of the Present Incumbents and Lecturers. Of the Several Vestries, the Hours of Prayer, Parish and Ward Officers, Charity and other Schools; the Number of Charity-children, How Maintained, Educated and Placed out Apprentices, or Put to Service. Of the Alms-houses, Work-houses and Hospitals. The Remarkable Places and Things in Each Parish, with the Limits or Bounds, Streets, Lanes, Courts, and Number of Houses. Likewise an Alphabetical Table of All the Streets, Courts, Lanes, Alleys, Yards, Rows, Rents, Squares, &c. Within the Bills of Mortality, Shewing in What Liberty or Freedom They are, and an Easy Method for Finding any of them. Of the Several Inns of Courts, and Inns of Chancery, with Their Several Buildings, Courts, Lanes, &c. Collected by the Company of Parish-Clerks. To which are added, The Places to which Penny Post Letters are Sent, with Proper Directions Therein. The Wharfs, Keys, Docks, &c. near the River Thames. Of Water-carriage to Several Cities, Towns, &c. The Rates of Water Men, Porters of All Kinds, and Car Men. To What Inns Stage-coaches, Flying-coaches, Waggons and Carriers Come, and the Days They Go out. The Whole being very Useful for Ladies, Gentlemen, Clergymen, Merchants, Tradesmen, Coach-men, Chair-men, Car-men, Porters, Bailiffs, and Others (London, 1732), s.nn. Robin Hood's court, Robin hood's yard.
  6. Anonymous. The Compleat Compting-House Companion: or, Young Merchant, or Tradesman's Sure Guide (London, 1763), p. 417.
  7. John Bartholomew & Son Ltd. Bartholomew's Reference Atlas of Greater London, Covering the Whole Metropolitan Police Area, with Larger Scale Maps For Central London and Index For Quick Location of Over 62,000 Names (Edinburgh, 1968), map 8.


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