REPLY1850
THE FIELD OF FORTY FOOTSTEPS
By EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
The fields behind Montague House were, from about the year 1680, until towards the end of the last century, the scenes of robbery, murder, and every species of depravity and wickedness of which the heart can think. They appear to have been originally called the Long Fields, and afterwards (about Strype's time) the Southampton Fields. These fields remained waste and useless, with the exception of some nursery grounds near the New Road to the north, and a piece of ground enclosed for the Toxophilite Society, towards the northwest, near the back of Gower Street. The remainder was the resort of de…
Topics: Legendary Stories, Architecture, Urban Transformation, Theatre
Locations: Montague House, Long Fields, Southampton Fields, New Road, Gower Street, Upper Montague Street, Tottenham Street Theatre, Foundling Hospital, St. Giles's, Bloomsbury, St. Pancras, Baltimore House, Bedford House, Rhodes's Mews, Little Guildford Street, Bedford Place, Bloomsbury Square, Montague Street, Southampton Row