My wife's ancestors - Gerard - Contents

The Gerard estate, Soho, London

In 1661, Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield (not yet created Earl) first acquired The Military Ground in Soho, London.
The holding was disputed and he did not come into firm possession of it until 1676.
He developed the area as housing from 1677 into the 1680s.
"Gerrard St" and "Macclesfield St" were laid out on his estate.
He himself in 1682 took a newly built house, Gerard House (also called Macclesfield House), on the S side of Gerrard St, opposite Macclesfield St.
He may have died there in 1694.
Gerard House was divided in the 1760s into two dwellings, with two doors.

Destruction, 1887:
Gerard House was destroyed by fire in 1887.
The remains were demolished and a new building was erected on the site in 1889.
This itself was later demolished and a large Post Office was built on the site in 1935-1937.
Gerrard Street is now (since 1970s) the centre of Chinatown, Soho (see map).

The Gerard estate, showing Gerard House, superimposed on modern map.
Broken lines indicate a plot whose exact extent is uncertain.
See full size. From here.

Gerrard St on Homann Heirs' map of London, 1736.
The estate was to the N of Leicester House.
The gardens of some of the houses on the S side of Gerrard St were contiguous to the garden of Leicester House.

Gerrard St and Macclesfield St and the Gerard estate on map of 1746.
From section 3 of Sheet B2 of Rocque's Map of London, 1746.

Gerrard St and Macclesfield St on map of 1792-99.
Gerard House is now divided in two.
The W part (number 3) is smaller.
The E part (number 4) is larger.

Gerrard St and Macclesfield St on map of 1819.

Gerard House

Actress Fanny Kemble (born 1809) recalls living at the old Gerard House as a child in 1820-22.
Her family lived in the E (and larger) section of the old house.
"There were back staircases and back doors without number, leading in all directions to unknown regions; and the whole house, with its remains of magnificence and curious lumber of objects of art and vertu, was a very appropriate frame for the traditional ill-repute of its former noble owners."
From here.

The former Post Office on the site of the vanished Gerard House.
Click to rotate. From street view.
See 2025 photo.

References

Survey of London. Volumes 33 and 34 - St Anne Soho (1966).
- Gerrard Street Area: The Military Ground. Part 1 to Part 6. Also Plate 59 to Plate 67.

Sources yet to be consulted

The Builder, 20 Aug. 1887, p. 263. (Fire destroys Gerard House.)