Where Has Little Compton Street Gone?

Two signs in a utility tunnel under Charing Cross Road are the only visible evidence of the existence of the former Little Compton Street. To see the signs you need to look down through the metal grating on the traffic island at the intersection of Old Compton Road and Charing Cross Road.

There are a couple of theories as to what you are actually looking at when you look through the grate. The first is that you are looking down into what was Little Compton Street while the second, and the one to which I subscribe, is that you are looking into a utility tunnel (part of the Cambridge Circus Utility Tunnels) that ran by the end of the former Little Compton Street.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, during which Charing Cross Road (replacing Crown Street) was laid, the Metropolitan Board of Works had the foresight to start incorporating utility tunnels beneath London streets. Today this one, and other similar tunnels, carry gas mains, water mains, electric cables, telecoms cables and fibre data links. Natually having these tunnels beneath the streets significantly reduces disruptions when work is required on the services there-in.

The second theory better explains the presence of the two signs – one a stencilled sign, typically found in underground tunnels such that those working in them were aware of their location, and the second a chipped enamelled Victorian street sign which originally would have been found above ground, on the street.

As can be seen by comparing the old (left) an current maps below the current eastern section of Old Compton Street (the part east of Greek Street) was formerly called Little Compton Street. At that time Little Compton Street connected Old and New Compton Streets the latter of which has since been separated from Old Compton Street by an office block.

In 1896 Little Compton Street became part of Old Compton Street and the former street sign found its way into the utility tunnel. How it got there is unknown – perhaps an act of preservation by a thoughtful council?

Apart from being the location of the high water mark during the Great Dangaroo Flood (separate review) I can find very little information on Little Compton Street. The only other interesting snippet that I have ascertained is that after French poets Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud escaped the turmoil of the French Commune in 1871 the Hibernia Hotel at 5 Little Compton Street (renumbered as 23-35 Old Compton Street in 1899) in then bohemian Soho provided a congenial place of repose as they played out their short-lived, passionate and tempestuous love affair, fuelled by absinthe and hashish.

To be fair, it should also be said that both men wrote some of their best poetry while in London.

Karl Marx is also recorded as having frequented the Hibernia while the composer Richard Wagner is thought to have stayed there for a while in 1839.