 Frith Street facing south early on a July morning | |
  | |
| Type | Street |
|---|---|
| Area | Soho |
| Location | London |
| Coordinates | 51°30′51″N0°07′55″W / 51.51417°N 0.13194°W |
| North end | Soho Square |
| South end | Shaftesbury Avenue |
| Construction | |
| Completion | 1670s |
Frith Street is in the Soho area of London. To the north is Soho Square and to the south is Shaftesbury Avenue. The street crosses Old Compton Street, Bateman Street and Romilly Street.
Frith Street was laid out in the late 1670s and early 1680s and evidently named after Richard Frith, a wealthy builder. [1] In the 18th and early 19th centuries many artistic and literary people came to live in Soho, and several of them settled in this street. The painter John Alexander Gresse was here in 1784, the year of his death. John Horne Tooke, philologist and politician, lived here in about 1804; John Constable lived here in 1810–11; John Bell, the sculptor, in 1832–33; and William Hazlitt wrote his last essays while he was lodging at no. 6 Frith Street prior to his death there in 1830. [1] The lithographic artist Alfred Concanen had a studio at no. 12 for many years. [2]
Samuel Romilly, the legal reformer, was born at no. 18 in 1757, and the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lodged at no. 20 with his father and sister in 1764–65. In 1816 the actor William Charles Macready was living at no. 64, and over a hundred years later, from 1924 to 1926 John Logie Baird lived at no. 22 where on 26 January 1926 he demonstrated television to members of the Royal Institution. [1]
In 1989 Frith Street Gallery was founded here, originally occupying two adjacent townhouses. Initially it was a forum for contemporary drawing, then it expanded into a wide range of artistic media. In 2007 the gallery moved to Golden Square, just a short distance from Frith Street. [3]
The coffee shop Bar Italia occupies no. 22 and there is a blue plaque over the door to commemorate Baird's TV experiments. Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club has been at no. 47 since 1965.
Frith Street is mentioned twice in the lyrics of the 2007 song Glorious by Australian-British singer Natalie Imbruglia, in the first verse and at the end of the song. [4]
John Logie Baird was a Scottish inventor, electrical engineer, and innovator who demonstrated the world's first live working television system on 26 January 1926. He went on to invent the first publicly demonstrated colour television system and the first viable purely electronic colour television picture tube.
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
Mayfair is an affluent area in the West End of London towards the eastern edge of Hyde Park, in the City of Westminster, between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane. It is one of the most expensive districts in the world.
Natalie Jane Imbruglia is an Australian-British singer and actress. In the early 1990s, she played Beth Brennan in Neighbours. Three years after leaving the programme, she began a singing career with her cover of Ednaswap's song "Torn". It reached number one in Sweden, and charted highly in many other countries. Her debut album, Left of the Middle (1997), sold seven million copies worldwide. Imbruglia's five subsequent albums have combined sales of three million copies worldwide, and her accolades include eight ARIA Awards, two Brit Awards, one Billboard Music Award, and three Grammy nominations.
Sir Samuel Romilly, was a British lawyer, politician and legal reformer. From a background in the commercial world, he became well-connected, and rose to public office and a prominent position in Parliament. After an early interest in radical politics, he built a career in chancery cases, and then turned to amelioration of the British criminal law.
Soho Square is a garden square in Soho, London, hosting since 1954 a de facto public park let by the Soho Square Garden Committee to Westminster City Council. It was originally called King Square after Charles II, and a much weathered statue of the monarch has stood in the square, with an extended interruption, since 1661, one year after the restoration of the monarchy.
Philip Thornalley is an English songwriter-producer who has worked in the music industry since 1978. He is perhaps best known for co-writing the song "Torn" and the UK number one hits "Mama Do" and "Boys and Girls" for Pixie Lott. He also produced The Cure's 1982 album Pornography and was later their bass player for eighteen months, producing and performing the distinctive double bass line on their 1983 single "The Love Cats". In 1988, Thornalley released his first solo album Swamp and briefly joined the band Johnny Hates Jazz. He then worked principally as a songwriter for hire for many acts including Bryan Adams. In 2017, he joined Adams' band as bass player for 18 months before releasing two solo albums of his own 1970s inspired music under the moniker Astral Drive.
Joseph Barney, was a British painter and engraver. He is usually described as a pupil of Antonio Zucchi and Angelica Kauffman and as a fruit and flower painter to the Prince Regent.
Dean Street is a street in Soho, central London, running from Oxford Street south to Shaftesbury Avenue. It crosses Old Compton Street and is linked to Frith Street by Bateman Street.
Greek Street is a street in Soho, London, leading south from Soho Square to Shaftesbury Avenue. The street is famous for its restaurants and cosmopolitan nature.
Bar Italia is an Italian café located on Frith Street in the Soho district of London.
Gary Clark is a Scottish musician, songwriter and record producer. As a performer he was the frontman of 1980s pop band Danny Wilson, mid-1990s rock band King L and member of Transister. Since the mid-1990s he has concentrated on songwriting and production.
Come to Life is the fourth studio album released by Australian singer-songwriter Natalie Imbruglia. It was initially released by Island Records on 2 October 2009, and later was the first album released on Imbruglia's self-funded label, Malabar Records.
John Phillips was an English artist and illustrator. He is perhaps best known as a satirical etcher.
Alfred Concanen was, for over twenty-five years, one of the leading lithographers of the Victorian era, best remembered for his illustrated sheet music covers for songs made popular by famous music hall performers of the time. These covers usually featured portraits of the performers or humorous scenes from their songs. Sacheverell Sitwell said of him, "The most painstaking of the Pre-Raphaelites must fail beside Concanen!"
20 Frith Street is a building in the Soho district of London. It is located on the east side of Frith Street, close to the junction with Old Compton Street. The building which currently occupies the site of 20 Frith Street was built in 1858 by William Cooze to replace a house which dated from c1725, which itself may have replaced an even earlier building.
Ethel (Dolly) Kibblewhite (1873–1947) was the host of an important artistic and literary salon in London in the 1910s. The salon was held at her home at 67 Frith Street and presided over by the poet and critic T.E. Hulme.
Monmouth House was a 17th-century mansion in Soho Square built for the Duke of Monmouth, the oldest illegitimate son of King Charles II. After the Duke's execution for attempting to lead a rebellion against the unpopular Catholic successor to Charles, James II, the house was owned by the Bateman family and loaned to various important people including the French ambassador before being demolished in 1773.
This is a list of the etymology of street names in the London district of Soho, in the City of Westminster. The following utilises the generally accepted boundaries of Soho viz. Oxford Street to the north, Charing Cross Road to the east, Shaftesbury Avenue to the south and Regent Street to the west.
