Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Wikipedia
Pall Mall (pronounced /ˌpæl ˈmæl/) is a street in the City of Westminster, London, and parallel to The Mall, from St. James's Street across Waterloo Place to the Haymarket; while Pall Mall East continues into Trafalgar Square. The street is a major thoroughfare in the St James's area of London, and a section of the regional A4 road. The name of the street is derived from "pall mall", a mallet-and-ball game that was played there during the 17th century.
Pall Mall is best known for being the home to various gentlemen's clubs built in the 19th century and early 20th centuries. These include the Athenaeum, Travellers Club, Army and Navy Club, Reform Club, United Services Club (now occupied by the Institute of Directors), Oxford and Cambridge Club and Royal Automobile Club.
It was also once the centre of the fine art scene in London; in 1814 the Royal Academy, the National Gallery and Christie's auction house were all here, but none of them stayed for long.[1]
The freehold of nearly all of the southern side of the Pall Mall has belonged to the crown for several hundred years, and is still owned by the Crown Estate. St. James's Palace is on the south side of the street at the western end. Marlborough House, which was once a royal residence, is next to it to the east, opening off of a courtyard just to the south of the street. The Prince Regent's Carlton House once stood at the eastern end of the street. Pall Mall was also once the home of the War Office, with which it became synonymous (just as Whitehall refers to the administrative centre of the UK government). The War Office was based in a complex of buildings based on the ducal mansion of Cumberland House which was designed by Matthew Brettingham and Robert Adam.
There were at least two other architecturally important ducal residences in the street, Schomberg House, and Buckingham House, the London residence of the Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos which was rebuilt for them by Sir John Soane (not to be confused with the Buckingham House which became Buckingham Palace), it was demolished in 1908 to make way for the Royal Automobile Club.
The former branch of the Midland Bank in Pall Mall was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.
[edit] See also
- Schomberg House
- List of London's gentlemen's clubs
- The Diogenes Club, a fictional club located in Pall Mall
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Introductory page from the Survey of London - see also here for the Survey of London's chapters on each of the principal buildings in the street, and here for its diagrams showing the north and south sides in 1814 and the south side in 1960.
- Pall Mall on TourUK
- Panoramic photograph of Pall Mall
- 19th Century Gentleman's Clubs on Pall Mall (including photographs)
- The Institute of Directors' 116 Pall Mall
Coordinates: 51°30′25″N 0°07′59″W / 51.50694°N 0.13306°W / 51.50694; -0.13306
Annotations
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The Pall Mall extends across two segments of the 1746 map. It stretches SWW to NEE from St. James Street, SW of the massive St. James Square,in the SW corner of this segment: http://www.motco.com/map/81002/SeriesSearchPlatesFulla.asp?mode=query&title=Pall+Mall&artist=384&other=335&x=11&y=11
and, moving east, [Pall] Mall continues on to the intersection of The Hay Market and Cockspur. http://www.motco.com/map/81002/SeriesSearchPlatesFullb.asp?mode=query&artist=384&other=336&x=11&y=11
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pell mell be a verb first; then came the game with a mallet to give its name to the place where they played, now a famous street. Pall Mall,
OED [out of sequence]
:1656 T. BLOUNT Glossographia, Pale Maille.., this game was heretofore used at the Alley near St. Jameses, and vulgarly called Pel-Mel.
1661 T. RUGGE Annuall Diurnall Sept., in B.L. Add. MS. 10116 f. 249v, [The road] from charing Cross to St James by St James park wall, and at the back side of pallmall is now altred by reason a new pallmall is made for the vse of his majestie in St James park by the wall.
b. An alley in which the game of pall-mall is played. Obs.
c1660 J. EVELYN Diary anno 1644 (1955) II. 111 A very noble Garden and Parke [sc. St. Germains], where there is a pall-maill.1663 S. PEPYS Diary 15 May (1971) IV. 135, I walked in the park, discoursing with the keeper of the Pell Mell who was sweeping of it who told me of what the earth is mixed that doth floor the Mall, and that over all there is Cockle-shells powdered.
1679-88 Secret Service Money Charles. & James (1851) 133 To Lawrence Dupuy,..to be laid out and expended towards the repayring the Pall Mall in St. James’s Parke.
connection and spelling changes.
Pall-mall Paille- Maille
1. A game in which players use a mallet to drive a boxwood ball through an iron ring suspended at the end of a long alley in as few strokes as possible, or within a given number of strokes. Now hist.
The game was popular in Italy, France, and Scotland in the 16th and 17th centuries, and in England in the 17th cent.
a1566 T. HOBY Trav. (1902) 72 At Chasteubriant the French King shewed my Lord Marquess great plesure and disport, sometime in plaing at tenice,..sometime at the palla malla.4. Polo. Obs. rare.
1678 J. PHILLIPS tr. J. B. Tavernier Trav. IV. v. 154 Here [i.e. at Ispahan] the men play at Pall-mall [Fr. le jeu de mail] on horseback, the Horse-man being to strike the Ball running at full speed, between the two Goals.
Pell-mell
Pell Mell as a verb.
1. trans. To mix up indiscriminately. Obs. rare.
1606 W. BIRNIE Blame of Kirk-buriall xvii. sig. E4, They pel-mell the dead with the liuing all in one kirk. a1649 W. DRUMMOND Wks. (1711) 147 The Game ended, Kings, Queens, Bishops, Knights, Pawns pell-melled are confusedly thrown into the Box.
otherwise it be mingling milling disorderly 1864
a. Chiefly Mil. With reference to combatants: without keeping ranks; hand to hand, man to man; in a mêlée. Also fig. Obs. 1579
1663 S. BUTLER Hudibras I. iii. 201 To come, pell-mell to handiblows.
b. With reference to pursuer and pursued: in such a manner as to be confused with each other; in mingled confusion. Obs.
1677 London Gaz. No. 1181/4 [They] were so closely followed, that our Soldiers entred with them pell-mell into the City
a1641 R. MONTAGU Acts & Monuments (1642) viii. 540 Nor were men and women intermingled pell mell in their Synagogues