Colonnade, WC1

When I was commuting daily to London to earn my daily crust, I rarely ever went anywhere near Russell Square. Now I have retired, whenever I go up to the smoke, the area seems to beckon me with its Siren’s call. And that’s why I recently discovered Colonnade, which runs parallel with Bernard Street to its north and Guilford Street to its south. Not to put it too bluntly, it is the arse end of the Russell Square tube station whose huge ventilators dominate the landscape.

My attention, though, was drawn to a building at the other end of the street, at the corner with Herbrand Street, with a slightly triangular frontage and bearing the legend Horse Hospital. It is now what it calls itself a progressive arts venue providing a venue for art, film, fashion, literature and music and has been so since 1993.

Horses were the principal method of transport through the streets of London in the 18^th and 19^th centuries other than Shanks’ pony. Like other mortal creatures they would get sick or get lame, a major inconvenience for their owners leading to a potential loss of income. There were very few veterinary establishments large enough to accommodate the numbers of nags that were indisposed at any one time in the metropolis. This is where James Burton, a builder who was responsible for some of the development in the Bloomsbury area, comes in.

In 1797 he had a brain wave, to establish a purpose-built establishment where working horses could be stabled and receive the requisite medical attention. A two-storey building made of red brick, it was furnished with concrete ramps, allowing the horses easy access to all areas, with hardwood slats to prevent them from slipping. These are still visible on the ramp in the upper floor. Each floor came with five cast iron pillars for tethering the horses and iron teething rings. There is evidence that the original building was redeveloped sometime after 1860. For those who worked with horses it must have been a godsend.

Until the late 18^th century the area consisted of fields, unbelievable as that may seem today when it is situated right in the heart of a bustling metropolis. The earliest appearance of the Colonnade on a map of London dates to 1801 in Wallis’ Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster. It is thought to have derived its name from a colonnade at the back of Guilford Street and provided stabling for horses and accommodation for coachmen on its southern side whilst the opposite of Colonnade Mews, as it was known at the time, was occupied by shops.

Besides the Horse Hospital, you can see other vestiges of the street’s equine history. Many of the properties retain large timber doors at ground floor level and I don’t think it is too fanciful to think that these were originally doors to stabling. The street is still cobbled.

But in 1870s the mews was described as being little more than a slum. The horse trade had collapsed and the stables were increasingly being rented out to the poor. By 1884 the housing in the street had been declared unfit, even for human habitation, and many of the older buildings were pulled down and rebuilt.

If you are in the area, a possibility if you take a wrong turning from the tube station, you could do worse than pop into the Friends at Hand. The pub, now at 2 – 4 Herbrand Street, was established in 1735 and in various censuses its address was shown as 32, Colonnade (1869 and earlier) and 64, Colonnade (1901). I don’t suppose that it was the pub that was moving around, more a testament to the evolution of the street and changes in street numbering systems.