Coventry Street

1, Wardour Street (W1) So named from Coventry House, the residence of Henry Coventry, Secretary of State, son of Lord Keeper Coventry, who died here in 1686; a noted gaming-house stood upon this spot at the beginning of the seventeenth century. (Reference: Smith's Streets of London, p. 68) The large house at the east end of this street was formerly Hamlet's, the silversmith and jeweller. Hamlet married a daughter of Thomas Clark, "King of Exeter Change," who died worth half a million of money. But Hamlet was an unfortunate speculator. Among his losses may be reckoned the building of the Princess's Theatre in Oxford Street (Reference: Timbs's London and Westminster, vol. I, p.