Cecil Court

. Since the thirties it has been known as the new Booksellers' Row and it is sometimes used as a location by film companies.

One of the older thoroughfares in Covent Garden, Cecil Court dates back to the end of the 17th century and earlier maps clearly identify a hedgerow running down the street's course. A tradesman's route at its inception, it later acquired the nickname Flicker Alley from the concentration of early film companies in the Court. It is now known to bibliophiles as home to nearly twenty antiquarian and second-hand independent bookshops, including specialists in modern first editions, collectible children’s books, early printing, rare maps and atlases, antique prints, theatrical ephemera, and esoterica , as well as a contemporary art gallery, an antiques shop, shops specializing in philately, numismatics and art deco jewellery and an Indian restaurant.

It has been suggested that the street was named after Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, the 1st Earl of Salisbury, an important courtier to Queen Elizabeth I and renowned as a trailblazing spymaster. However, it seems to be one of a number of nearby streets and places that have been named for the land-owning family including Cranbourn Street and the Salisbury pub on St Martin's Lane.

A substantial part of Cecil Court was razed to the ground in 1735, almost certainly arson on the part of a tenant, Mrs Colloway, who was running a brandy shop/brothel in the street at the time: she purchased kindling, emptied her brandy barrels, over-insured her stock and made certain that she was drinking nearby with friends at the time the fire took hold. However, she was acquitted. The street rose from the ashes to become the temporary home of an eight-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart while he was touring Europe in 1764. The street is still owned by the Cecil family and the buildings one can see today were laid out c. 1894 during the tenure of long serving British Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury.

Today Cecil Court is part of the Jubilee Walkway (opened in 1977 as the Silver Jubilee Walkway).

The nearest Underground station is Leicester Square.

Trivia

*Between April 24th and August 6th 1764 the Mozart family lodged with barber John Couzin at 19 Cecil Court. Deutsch, Otto Erich (1965): "Mozart: A Documentary Biography," pp 32 and 34-36.
*In 1776 Abraham Raimbach the line engraver of "Village Politicians," "Blind Man's Buff" and others, after David Wilkie, was born in Cecil Court. Macmichael, J. Holden (1906): "The Story of Charing Cross and its Environs," p. 190.
*The Aestheticist periodical The Dome was published at number 7 between March 1897 and July 1900.
*Watkins, the oldest bookshop in London to specialise in esoterica, has the longest continuous business history on the street, having occupied their current premises at 21 Cecil Court since 1901.
*Booksellers William and Gilbert Foyle, founders of the world famous Foyles, opened their first West End shop at 16 Cecil Court in 1904, before moving onto the current site in Charing Cross Road in 1906. Low, David (1973): "With All Faults," pp 16-20
*In the 1930s Cecil Court became a well known meeting place for Jewish refugees, which in 1983-4 inspired R.B. Kitaj to paint "Cecil Court W.C.2. (The Refugees)", a work now in the Tate Collection.
*In March 1961 Elsie Batten, a 59 year old assistant in an antique shop at 23 Cecil Court, was stabbed to death. Her murderer, Edwin Bush, was identified and caught within days (he confessed and was hanged) following the circulation of identikit pictures - the first case to be solved using identikit in the UK.
*In 1967 David Drummond opened "Pleasures of Past Times" at 11 Cecil Court, specializing in memorabilia of the performing arts and "printed items evocative of a leisured age", making him the longest-serving bookseller on the street.
*In 2006 Cecil Court was a location for the filming of "Miss Potter", starring Renée Zellweger and Ewan McGregor.

External links

* [http://www.cecilcourt.co.uk/index.php Cecil Court] The official website for the street, organized by the Cecil Court Association, gives details of most the bookshops and other businesses on Cecil Court today, with articles about the history of the street, news and forthcoming events.
* [http://londonfilm.bbk.ac.uk/] The London Project, a major study of the film business in London, 1894-1914, organised by the AHRB Centre for British Film and Television Studies has a searchable database, useful for researching 'Flicker Alley'.
* [http://www.met.police.uk/history/bush.htm] The Metropolitan Police website has a full account of the Cecil Court antique shop murder.