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  • London street numbering

    One of my most interesting ancestors lived at 36 Bryanston Street, London, from about 1784 to 1806. According to Google, that address is now a hotel.

    Does anyone know how I can find out if the current street numbering is still the same as it was in the late 18th c?

    Would the LMA have that kind of information?

  • #2
    The family record centre - so presumably now tna - had a book where someone had compared street numbering across the censuses, using pubs etc as fixed points.

    That of course is from 1841 onwards.

    There are PO Directories at LMA from c 1806 or earlier. Your best bet is to request a look up of directories, to see if the street numbering changes. Another guide would be to find out the style of housing. If it is 18thC build both sides with no infilling, then it may not have changed.
    Phoenix - with charred feathers
    Researching Skillings from Norfolk, Sworn from Salisbury and Adams in Malborough, Devon.

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    • #3
      I was always under the impression that street numbering is always no1 /no2 are closest to the town hall....it is in Liverpool....is it not that sequence in the towns/city you live in??...allan
      Allan ......... researching oakes/anyon/standish/collins/hartley/barker/collins-cheshire
      oakes/tipping/ellis/jones/schacht/...garston, liverpool
      adams-shropshire/roberts-welshpool
      merrick/lewis/stringham/nicolls-herefordshire
      coxon/williamson/kay/weaver-glossop/stockport/walker-gorton

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      • #4
        Allan, numbering in London is a law unto itself. You can get roads with two number 1s, 1 1/2, 1a etc, and a complete change a few years later when a large mansion is demolished and a terrace run up. As much of London has been rebuilt, and several roads have changed names, or have different starting points at different dates, it is a challenge to be certain that the physical location of a street number is the same as it was a century ago, let alone two.
        Phoenix - with charred feathers
        Researching Skillings from Norfolk, Sworn from Salisbury and Adams in Malborough, Devon.

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        • #5
          Thanks, Phoenix, I'll try asking the LMA for a look-up.

          Judging by the photos on Google the building might still be the same, but I'm no expert in architecture, and as you say, other properties could have been demolished or knocked into one, which might change the numbering.

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          • #6
            Historical Directories

            I can't see it on the earliest directory for London that they have on the Historical Directories website, but on the 1841 directory Bryanstone Street, Portman Square, is listed in numerical order from 1 to 45, odds and evens all together, and at number 36 is Dominick Francis Bourdin, esq.

            Then in the 1915 street directory, the even numbers are on the North side and the odd numbers on the South side, and after 30 & 32 Bryanston Hotel, Victor Dubois, it says - here is Old Quebec Street - then CHURCH OF THE ANNUNCIATION, then 36 Wellesley Mrs Colley, then - Here is Gt Cumberland Place - then number 38.

            So it looks to me as though it may have been renumbered between 1841 and 1915. If you look through the directories or censuses for the years in between hopefully you will see it change from consecutive numbers to odds on one side, evens on the other.
            KiteRunner

            Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh"
            (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")

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            • #7
              Ah, thanks, Kate, I hadn't started looking at directories or the census.

              I did notice on Google that there's now a French restaurant at no. 32 with a frontage on Old Quebec Street, which fits in with what you found.

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              • #8
                By the way, I thought the LMA charged a fortune for doing lookups?
                KiteRunner

                Every five years or so I look back on my life and I have a good... laugh"
                (Indigo Girls, "Watershed")

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                • #9
                  One strange feature of London street numbering is High Holborn, where it starts with No. 1 on the north side near Chancery Lane, goes sequentially all the way west to New Oxford Street and continues back eastwards on the south side to Chancery Lane.
                  Uncle John - Passed away March 2020

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                  • #10
                    London Streets are a law unto themselves.

                    Liquorpond Street is a section of what is now all called Clerkenwell Road. No idea if all the houses were renamed when it changed, or not.

                    And Harrods, arguably the most famous shop in London, has the famous address Knightsbridge - but whisper it quietly - its actually IN Brompton Road.
                    Often a house will have the number of an adjacent square as its more fashionable.

                    Hence Lady Bracknell, on finding out that prospective son-in-law Mr Worthing has a house on the unfashionable side of a square. When she says it can easily be altered Mr Worthing asks "the square or the fashion?" and she crushes him "BOTH, if necessary!"
                    ~ with love from Little Nell~
                    Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by KiteRunner View Post
                      By the way, I thought the LMA charged a fortune for doing lookups?
                      Oh dear, do they? I've never had to do any London research.

                      I won't bother if they do, because it isn't something terribly important.

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                      • #12
                        The A-Z street atlas gives numbering clues on long major roads.
                        Uncle John - Passed away March 2020

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                        • #13
                          Yes, that's true Uncle J and you can see from that how it works, ie whether its consecutive numbering or odds on one side of the road and evens on the other.

                          In my close there's no number 13.
                          ~ with love from Little Nell~
                          Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Little Nell View Post
                            In my close there's no number 13.
                            Oddly enough (pun not intended) I have never ever lived at an odd-numbered house except the one I was in for a short time (grandparents) between being born and being transplanted out of London.
                            Uncle John - Passed away March 2020

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                            • #15
                              The last house before the one I live in now was odd, but all the others including current one are even. I'd never thought about it before.

                              Also, I was thinking of this thread when walking in my town. There's a street which was bisected by a bypass. One end goes from the roundabout towards Luton. The other half of the street stops at a dead end brick wall. But the numbers stay the same, so the closed bit has numbers running up on one side and down on the other but they don't match up, because the middle numbers were demolished to make room for the roundabout and the other numbers are on the Luton road.
                              ~ with love from Little Nell~
                              Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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                              • #16
                                Originally posted by Little Nell View Post
                                The last house before the one I live in now was odd, but all the others including current one are even. I'd never thought about it before.
                                Did you mean to say you'd never even thought about it?:D:D

                                There are at least three Luton streets with West and East (or North and South) suffixes. In one case the street was bisected by a plot of land reserved for the (as then unbuilt) Vauxhall Way. Another I think is bisected by Luton Town football ground.
                                Uncle John - Passed away March 2020

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                                • #17
                                  *groans*
                                  ~ with love from Little Nell~
                                  Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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