This website [visit
link] tells us:
"This page attempts to collate as
many historical records as possible about the Seven Stars, to verify its
continued usage as a pub throughout its 400 year history.
Should it be proved that the
building that stands today does indeed date back to 1602 then it will represent
an amazing record of survival. Had the Seven Stars been located just a few
hundred yards to the East, it would have been engulfed in the Great Fire of
London in 1666. Had it been a few hundred yards to the West, it would have
likely been demolished in the early 20th Century to make way for the building of
Kingsway and Aldwych, a development which claimed many old buildings in the
area. Had it simply been on the South, rather than the North side of Carey
Street, it would have been demolished in order to build the Royal Courts of
Justice.
Prior to the 17th Century:
Carey
Street is in the parish of St. Clement Danes. The church of St. Clement Danes
reputedly takes the "Danes" in its name from Danish (effetctively Viking)
settlers that had lived in this area as early as the 9th Century, and St.
Clement is the patron saint of mariners.
Lincoln's Inn, one of the four Inns
of Court, lies immediately to the North of Carey Street, and has occupied the
site since at least the 15th Century (records go back as far as 1422). Despite
large changes to the surrounding area over the past few hundred years (the Great
Fire in 1666, the building of the Royal Courts of Justice in the latter half of
the 19th Century, and the early 20th Century clearances to make way for Aldwych
and Kingsway), Lincoln's Inn has remained in the same place, and the Old Hall,
dating to 1489, is one of the oldest buildings in the area. The importance and
continuity of Lincoln's Inn is probably a significant contributor to the
survival of the Seven Stars throughout the last four centuries.
As an aside, the location of the
Inns of Court today, just outside the old walls of the city of London, stems
from a decree made by Henry III in 1234 that legal institutes could not reside
within the city walls.
The area which Carey Street now
occupies does not appear to have been significantly developed at the time of
this 1520 map of London - there is a small lane opening out onto Lincoln's Inn
Fields (or Ficket's Fields) but it does not seem to have been singificantly
built upon.
The brick wall around Lincoln's Inn
was erected in 1562. It's possible this may have coincided with development of
the surrounding area, which the map above shows was largely open fields to the
West of Lincoln's Inn in the early half of the 16th Century, but presumably by
the late 16th of early 17th Century had been built upon.
Carey Street is believed to have
been named after Sir George Carey (1547 - 1603), whose father was Elizabeth I's
cousin. As such it's likely the street was built, or at least named, around the
same time that the Seven Stars is believed to have been
established.
17th Century:
Purportedly built
in 1602, the year before Elizabeth I died. The name is believed to have derived
from the "The League of Seven Stars" - referring to the seven provinces of the
Netherlands, and was thought to have at one time been called "The Leg and Seven
Stars", a corruption thereof. The Dutch connection is reputed to stem from a
time when this area was used as a port (the nearby, and now covered, River Fleet
was once navigable), and Dutch sailors were said to have settled close by.
Another possible derivation for the
pub name "Seven Stars" is from the seven stars that make up the plough
constellation, but this tended to be more typical in rural
areas.
A map of London from 1658 shows a
street immediately below Lincoln's Inn, in about the right position to be Carey
Street, although like many of the smaller streets on the map it is
unnamed.
The Great fire of London was 1666,
the Western edge of which was somewhere between Chancery Lane and Fetter Lane.
The nearby church of St. Dunstan in the West narrowly escaped the
fire.
18th Century:
In A.E.
Richardson's "The Old Inns of England", first published 1934, "The Leg and Seven
Stars" is mentioned on page 58. It includes an extract from a poem from
The British Apollo (a periodical which first appears in 1708), written in the
early 18th century:
I'm amazed at the Signs
As I
pass through the Town
To see the odd Mixture:
A Magpie and Crown
The
Whale and the Crow
The Razor and Hen
The Leg and Seven Stars
The Axe
and the Bottle
The Tun and the Lute
The Eagle and Child
The Shovel and
Boot
The next paragraph then reads
"These signs of London taverns are fully discussed in the Spectator of April 28,
1710, quoted in Chapter V, p. 78."
This is probably referring to the
following text (more like No. 28. Monday, April 2, 1711. Addison.):
"My first
Task, therefore, should be, like that of _Hercules_, to clear
the City from
Monsters. In the second Place, I would forbid, that
Creatures of jarring and
incongruous Natures should be joined together
in the same Sign; such as the
Bell and the Neats-tongue, the Dog and
Gridiron. The Fox and Goose may be
supposed to have met, but what has
the Fox and the Seven Stars to do
together?"
Carey Street (at that time written
Cary Street) appears in this 1720 map of the parishes of London. Despite
significant transformations to almost all of the surrounding streets between
1720 and the present day (particularly the building of the Royal Courts of
Justice, and the clearances required for the construction of Aldwych and
Kingsway), the position and route of Carey Street looks largely
unchanged."
The article contains links to maps and
other sources used with respect to the Seven Stars.
The pub is Grade II listed and the
entry at the English Heritage website [visit
link] tells us:
"Formerly known as: The Log and
Seven Stars Public House CAREY STREET. Public house. Perhaps C17 in origins
(dated 1602) with later alterations and additions. Painted brick clads partial
timber frame; slate roof. 2 storeys and attic; 4 windows, that to right broader
and set in projecting jetty which may have been a separate building. Ground
floor with C19 wooden public house frontage of 4 windows and 2 entrances flanked
by pilasters; panelled aprons to windows. Gauged brick flat arches to 1st floor
recessed sashes, except 1 window in jettied bay to right with reeded,
architraved surround.
INTERIOR: two rooms to ground
floor. C19 bar backs with mirrors, that to larger bars with cupboards. Bar
counters to both rooms of similar date. c1900 corner fireplace in right-hand
bar, its joinery continues as ledges round side walls and across windows.
Ceilings with thin beams of similar date masking earlier framing. Narrow stair
to upper floors set behind main bar."