St Martins Court is shaped like a chair knocked over and lying on its back. It helps fill the gap between Charing Cross Road, once famously home of a hundred book shops (they are now few and far between), and St Martins Lane, the epi-centre of luvvie-dom. It’s a lovely little area which was developed in its current guise in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
There are two points of entry from Charing Cross Lane. You can go in from either side of Wyndham’s Theatre. These alleys reach round to meet behind the theatre which backs on to its sister The Noel Coward Theatre which in turn faces onto St Martin’s Lane. There is an overhead passage that links the two theatres. Both theatres were built and run by theatrical entrepreneur Charles Wyndham, who also ran the Criterion Theatre. Wyndham’s was completed in 1899 and The Noel Coward Theatre in 1903. That younger theatre was originally called The New Theatre but changed its name to The Albery in the 1970’s and was renamed to its current title at the beginning this century. Wyndham had a business partnership with the actress Mary Moore, who was married to a writer called Albery at the time. They had a very successful professional career which included putting on the first productions of some of Oscar Wilde’s plays. When Mrs Wyndham died, Charles married his business partner Mary in old age. It feels like there could be a novel in their story.
Half way along the southern part of the Court is J.Sheekey, the famous oyster and fish restaurant that was opened here in 1893. This is a real London institution. Famous for pre- and post-theatre dinners. Excellent fish and an old-fashioned atmosphere.
If you carry on beyond J.Sheekey’s the Court leads you out past the Lord Salisbury pub onto St Martin’s Lane. This pub is a listed building. Its a fine example of an over the top – indeed theatrical – late Victorian pub, with particularly good examples of polished and etched glass and carved woodwork. In fact the decoration is so full on, its almost overpowering. Oscar Wilde was known to have tippled here and the pub always had a reputation as a gay-friendly pub until recently. Less so these days; the clientele is now heavily tourists. Much of the local land is owned by Lord Salisbury, whose family name is Cecil. They remain the ultimate landlords of the building in which the pub resides. It was named after the Prime Minister who served at the turn of the twentieth century. Nearby Cecil Court which also runs between Charing Court Road and St Martin’s Lane is also named after the owning family.
