It was previously referred to as Ficket’s Fields and Whetstone’s Park and was considered very dangerous because of the high level of robberies
The square may also have been known as Cup and Purse Field
Queen Elizabeth I and then James I forbade the building of houses on top of Lincoln’s Inn Fields preserving it as a green space
Then James I changed his mind and the famed architect Inigo Jones was allowed to design a public square
The four sides of the square have distinct names: Newman’s Row, Arch Row, Portugal Row and Lincoln’s Inn Wall
Lord William Russell was beheaded in the middle of Lincoln’s Inn Fields on 21st July, 1683 and Algernon Sidney later that same year
In 1662, the Duke’s Theatre was opened on Portugal Street on the site of an old tennis court and was named after Charles II’s brother, James the Duke of York
After barbers and surgeons became separate professions in 1745 (no, really, that happened), Barber-Surgeons Hall was abandoned with surgeons wanting their own headquarters in London. They chose Lincoln’s Inn Fields
Being so close to Chancery Lane, several Lord Chancellors lived on the square
After the Great Fire of London in 1666, recent archaeology (conducted by Channel Four’s Time Team) suggests that refugees fleeing their burned homes camped in the square. Remains of large tent pegs were discovered
Leicester Square is at the heart of London’s theatres and clubs. It’s not my favourite London square by any stretch and seems to have permanent building work going on. At present, there are plans to demolish the art deco Odeon cinema. So it seems a good moment to point out what was there before the Odeon was thrown up in the 1930s.
The ill-fated Panopticon in 1851
The east side of the square was dominated from the 1850s to 1936 by the Alhambra Theatre. The Victorians loved to mix and match architectural styles and with this theatre, they went a bit mad. It looked like an enormous Moorish palace – the sort of vulgar monstrosity Citizen Kane might have constructed. By the time the wrecking ball swung, the Alhambra had enjoyed decades as one of London’s top music halls but it had started out with loftier and more intellectual ambitions.
The Alhambra, built in the “Saracenic style” was originally called The Royal Panopticon of Science and Arts. Wikipedia claims it opened in 1854. But I have a London guide from 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition, that has the Royal Panopticon already doing business. A certain Mr E. M. Clarke was the managing director and its original aim was to impart knowledge. As the 1851 guide to London gushes:
A subdued and meditative light is felt to pervade it, and at once to win the mind from the external world of bustle and throng from which it has just escaped.
The more successful Alhambra theatre in the 1890s
There were exhibitions of “manufactures in their different processes” and a “department for the practice of photography”. But I’m afraid Londoners just wanted something a bit more grounded and entertaining. Far from wanted their thoughts elevated – they wanted a fun night out. And so the Panopticon idea was dropped and the Alhambra was born as a theatre of varieties. A 1906 London guide I own mentions the dances and “ballets” at the Alhambra and long queues to get in.
