Simon Pembroke Historian

 

From Simon Pembroke, Fellow of Kings College, Cambridge with a Double First from Cambridge University and unusually a Distinction in Ancient History. 

"I am now quite certain in my own mind that the proposition that Thomas Rule gained some kind of foothold at Maiden Lane in 1798 (in the oyster line) is unassailable.  He never paid the rates, but only one person per building was a ratepayer (not 'dwelling' - there were as many as three separate households an incredible total of 30 person recorded in the Census of 1841, which is the first year for which we have these details). The census was instituted in 1801 and took place every ten years, although individuals are not named until 1841. But we do know who did, and that for various reasons they were equivocal about the real nature of their activities and livelihoods. I see Thomas paving the way for his son Benjamin, who quite certainly turns up (as ratepayer, shell fishmonger, and newlywed) in 1828. You may also recall that in the Minories (Fountain Court), William (elder brother of Thomas) first turns up with Thomas next door, both paying Land Tax for the year 1799.

Prior to this date, William was already ensconced in 'Little George Street' (later and now = Vine Street, parallel with but to the West of Minories), married and with child. All this lends weight to the restaurant tradition that when Black Sheep Thomas was made to get his mind right by brother William in Fountain Court (from which he ventured forth to the West End, as we know Joseph Sheekey did 100 years later from Billingsgate) it was under the heavy hand of brother William. Some further evidence about Willaim's neighbour (Mrs) Ann Green, together with whom he dissapears from sight in 1817, and an almost certain connection with Benjamin's future wife Hannah Green, who in a later Census record (1851) reveals herself  as hailing from 'Dangee' = Dengie in Essex on the River Blackwater = Oyster Country."

Some History of Maiden Lane.

"The painter, J.M.W. Turner, was born on the site of what is now No.21, then his father's barber's shop; and the metaphysical poet, Andrew Marvell, lodged at No.9 in 1677. His father, Andrew Marvell senior, had expired thirty-six years earlier under curious circumstances. He had no sooner embarked on a ferry and uttered a cheery: 'Ho, for heaven!', than the boat sank.

Maiden Lane forms part of an ancient track which linked the convent garden of the monks of Westminster Abbey to St.Martin's Lane. Houses began to go up along its boundaries about 1630, although none of the originals survive. Until 1857 it was a cul-de-sac linked to Southampton Street by a footpath. Then a way through was made so that Queen Victoria's carriage did not have to turn round after dropping her at the Adelphi Theatre.