Of Alley and London's Water Gate scandal

“Of” is one of the commonest words in the English language, and one that’s noticeably low on information content. So it’s surprising to see that London once had a thoroughfare called “Of Alley” – as the above photograph demonstrates.

Now officially known as “York Place”, Of Alley can be found between the Strand and Victoria Embankment Gardens, running crosswise between Villiers Street and Buckingham Street. At one time this whole area was occupied by a large mansion called York House. However, in 1672 its then-owner sold it for development – with the rather strange condition that all the new streets should be named after him.

There were five new streets altogether, but they just managed it. The vendor was George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, and the result was George Street, Villiers Street, Duke Street, Buckingham Street ... and Of Alley! While all those streets still exist today, only Villiers Street and Buckingham Street have their original names. George Street is now “York Buildings”, Duke Street is “John Adam Street” and – as already mentioned – Of Alley is “York Place”. Nevertheless, all the old names can be seen on the old map on the Locating London’s Past website – as you can see from the following screenshot:

 

There’s an odd thing about that map, isn’t there? Where you would expect to see Victoria Embankment Gardens, the map shows the river! That’s because the map predates the construction of the Embankment in the 1860s, when the land was reclaimed from the river. A feature of York House that made it a particularly desirable property was the fact that it had direct access to the river. Even though the house was long gone by the time of the above map, you can still see its erstwhile river access in the form of the “York Building Stairs” at the end of Buckingham Street.

And it’s still there today, despite being more than a hundred metres from the edge of the river now! It’s called the “York Water Gate”, and it dates from a renovation of the house in the 1620s. When the rest of the house was demolished 50 years later, the gate was left standing. It can still be seen today, high and dry in Victoria Embankment Gardens, as the following picture shows:

 

Photographs by Andrew May, January 2018.