Across the road from Great Ormond Street Hospital stands an old house that catches the eye with its classical Georgian visage supplemented by an unusual extension that runs right over the top of next door Barbon Close. My heart always misses a beat when I come across a strange old place like this as I am dashing from one bit of London to the next and I am compelled to stop my journey and have a good old gawp.
If you look closely, you will find an incredible number of cigarette butts stubbed out on the pavement around the doorway of the house and along the Close. I watched for five minutes as a stream of people came out of the hospital crossed the road and huddled in the alley pulling quickly and deeply on a much needed gasper before tossing the butt on the floor and returning stern-faced to the hospital to deal with whatever challenges lay within. I can only imagine the number of terrified parents who have stolen a quick five minutes under the shelter of the Barbon Close extension as a brief reprieve from dealing with the struggles of their child in the hospital. My heart goes out to them.
This old house remains impassive, though. It has seen much of London life and lays claim to being Bloomsbury’s oldest remaining house. It was certainly not Bloomsbury’s oldest address because this was originally No.13 Great Ormond Street until the numbering of the street was changed in the nineteenth century – previously the buildings that made the formative hospital were at the original No.49 across the road. Such is its import, however, that the old house has a biography written about it (An Address In Bloomsbury by Alec Forshaw). Alec was responsible for rescuing the house and restoring it to its former glory. The ground floor which has been a shop and a famous coffee tavern that William Morris frequented in its day is now a musical recital and rehearsal space.
The passage under the extension boasts a ghost sign to the memory of G.Bailey and Sons, Horse and Motor Contractors which dates from the nineteenth century and gives the smokers something to ponder as they listen to the music coming from the house and take their nicotine
