The end of meteorological summer, 1st September.
Woke early ish refreshed and after showering etc took myself off on fixie first to Post office to post three eBay sales thence to Lambs Conduit Street – a real favourite of mine – for a coffee before heading on to Waitrose Brunswick Centre.
Whilst having my coffee I saw I was sitting on Rugby Street so asked chatGPt and got quite a lot of very interesting info about where I was sitting.
Yes — Rugby Street has a surprisingly good story, and it really does relate to Rugby School.
The land here in Bloomsbury was given to Rugby School in 1567 by its founder, Lawrence Sheriff, as an endowment to provide income for the school. It became part of what is still known as the Rugby Estate.
The street itself was developed from about 1700–1721, so quite a few of the houses you’re looking at are genuinely early Georgian.
Even better, though, it wasn’t originally called Rugby Street. It was Chapel Street, named for the Episcopal Chapel of St John that stood at the eastern end. The chapel was never actually consecrated, but William Wilberforce was among its congregation. It closed in 1848 and was demolished; Chapel Street wasn’t renamed Rugby Street until 1936/37.
And there’s a lovely modern literary footnote: No. 18 Rugby Street was where Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath spent their wedding night in 1956.
Perhaps the most extraordinary survival is that the connection isn’t merely historical: Rugby School still owns property here — CAMRA currently records the freehold of the Rugby Tavern at No. 1 as belonging to Rugby School. So an endowment made in 1567 is still producing property income more than 450 years later.
That little patch around Rugby Street–Lamb’s Conduit Street–Great James Street is exceptionally rich in London history. There are several other street names within a couple of minutes of where you’re standing with equally good stories.
After coffee I cycled and parked at back of Waitrose and there was my ‘happy accident’ found a lovely second hand bookshop you would never naturally stumble across.
This caught my eye so I bought it:
After an hour or so at home – I started Dales book – we headed to Regents Street Cinema for our double bill … preceded by an organ player – he played some of My Fair Lady which I could identify unusually for me just from the music. The first movie was unfaithfully yours with Rex Harrison – was great and apparently Quentin Tarantino’s 9th all time favourite film. I left after that one to walk all way home as didn’t fancy 3h of Laurence Olivier as Richard III.
On my walk home stumbled across another HA, a dedicated blues club on Kingly Street – will definitely be going there when back from Kenya.
Packed a few more bits and bobs then made dinner – garnish and go sea bream from Waitrose (they put it in a brown paper sleeve with lemon and butter then seal it for baking in the oven) – the best way to do fish with British Samphire and a tray of bought roasted vegetables.
And, Veran washed down with a lovely chilled Brouilly (was introduced to chilled Brouilly first time we eat in France after moving there at a pizzeria near Rue du Theatre). I love it and always serve it cold.
This 2024 Brouilly from Domaine des Nazins is a light, fresh Beaujolais red made from Gamay, packed with juicy raspberry, cherry and redcurrant flavours, floral notes and gentle spice, with low tannins and lively acidity. It’s a red that positively welcomes chilling and I like it properly cold — around 8–10°C, essentially straight from the fridge: the cold makes the fruit crisp, bright and wonderfully refreshing, almost thirst-quenching. You sacrifice a little aroma at first, but that simply emerges as the wine warms in the glass — so for me, Brouilly is definitely better served too cold than too warm.
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