Property:
Tottenham Court Road
Board: London - Here and Now Limited
Edition (2005)
Colour:
Yellow
Original 1935
Property: Atlantic Avenue
Detailsof Property:
Wikipedia [visit link] tells
us:
"Tottenham
Court Road is a major road in central London, United Kingdom, running from St
Giles Circus (the junction of Oxford Street and Charing Cross Road) north to
Euston Road, near the border of the City of Westminster and the London Borough
of Camden, a distance of about three-quarters of a mile. It has for many years
been a one-way street: all three lanes are northbound only, the equivalent
southbound traffic using the parallel Gower Street. It is generally regarded as
marking the boundary between Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, linking Somers Town with
Soho at either end.
The south end
of the road is close to the British Museum and to Centre Point, the West End's
tallest building. There are a number of buildings belonging to University
College London along the road, and University College Hospital is at the north
end of the road at the intersection with Euston Road.
The road is
served by three stations on the London Underground—from south to north these are
Tottenham Court Road, Goodge Street and Warren Street—and by numerous bus
routes.
The area
through which the road is built is mentioned in the Domesday Book as belonging
to the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral. In the time of Henry III
(1216–1272), a manor house slightly north-west of what is now the corner of
Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street belonged to one William de Tottenhall. In
about the 15th century, the area was known variously as Totten, Totham, or
Totting Hall. After changing hands several times, the manor was leased for 99
years to Queen Elizabeth, when it came popularly to be called Tottenham Court.
In the next century, it appears to have become the property of the Fitzroys, who
built Fitzroy Square on a part of the manor estate towards the end of the 18th
century.
Tottenham
Court Road is a significant shopping street, best known for its high
concentration of consumer electronics shops, which range from shops specialising
in cables and computer components to those dealing in package computers and
audio-video systems. Further north there are several furniture shops including
Habitat and Heals.
In the 1950s
and 1960s, Tottenham Court Road and a few of the adjoining streets had become a
mecca for World War II surplus radio and electronics equipment. Shops such as
Proops Brothers and "Z & I Aero Services" lined both sides of the road in
those days, and thousands of British young men travelled there to buy
amplifiers, radios and electronic components. There were many stores selling all
kinds of electro-mechanical and radio parts. By the 1960s, they were also
selling Japanese transistor radios, audio mixers, and other electronic gadgets.
Many British-made valve stereos were offered too.
Opposite
Habitat and Heals is a public open space called Whitfield Gardens. On the side
of a house is a painting, the "Fitzrovia Mural", which is over 60 feet high and
shows many people at work and at leisure. It was painted in 1980 in a style
resembling that of Diego Rivera. The mural has suffered from neglect and has
been daubed with graffiti. There is a proposal to restore the mural after the
current works to renovate the gardens are completed. In 2005, 12 so-called "Our
Glass" panels were erected in the gardens. Each is about five feet high, with
two sides showing a collage of people associated with the area, from satirical
cartoonist Hogarth to the popular singer Boy George. There is a 13th panel
showing an index of the people depicted.
During the
period leading up to and during the First World War, 92 Tottenham Court Road in
London was the location of a shooting range called Fairyland.
In 1909, it
was reported in a police investigation that the range was being used by two
Suffragettes in a possible conspiracy to assassinate Prime Minister Herbert
Asquith.
It was the
place where, in 1909, Madan Lal Dhingra practised shooting prior to his
assassination of Sir William Hutt Curzon Wyllie.
Other
residents of India House and members of Abhinav Bharat practiced shooting at the
range and rehearsed assassinations they planned to carry out.
It was also
the place where, with regard to in R v Lesbini (1914), Donald Lesbini shot Alice
Eliza Storey. R v Lesbini was a case that established in British, Canadian and
Australian law that, with regard to voluntary manslaughter, a reasonable man
always has reasonable powers of self control and is never
intoxicated.
The shooting
range was owned and run by Henry Stanton Morley (1875-1916)."
Board link: Wikipedia.