What does this address mean?

[AudreyF]

I'm researching William Springall and have found him in the 1881 census in the home of his grandmother - Ann Elizabeth Springall. She is 69 and a widow. William is 16 and working and has two younger sisters with him and his grandmother.

The address is given as '8 Warehouse' in St Clement Danes. Neighbouring addresses are Denzell Street. Does anyone know if the odd address of 'Warehouse' means they were living in a warehouse???

The reference is Registration District Strand, Sub-Registration District St. Clement Danes. ED 12, Piece 336, Folio 52, Page 4.

Any thoughts/comment gratefully received!

[arthurk]

In the image I'm looking at, I can see 6 Denzell Street with (Warehouse against it and a U for Uninhabited. 7 Denzell Street has a U and nothing else.

Then there's 8 Denzell Street (identified as just 8) with three separate households, which had schedules 18, 19 and 20. The next page starts with 9 Denzell Street (written in full), which had 4 households (schedules 21-24).

So it looks as though the warehouse was No.6, and your people were living in an ordinary house. As with many city properties there was more than one family living there, but we can't tell from this census how much space each one had.

[AudreyF]

OK, so you think I'm misreading this. The warehouses were uninhabited at 6 and 7 Denzell Street and the enumerator wrote '8' for my family and just too lazy to write '8 Denzell Street'. That makes some sense. Thank you.

[arthurk]

That's about right. It's pretty common for a road name to be written once at the top of a page and then simply assumed for every entry unless and until a different road is named part way down.

I did say that it was only No.6 that had Warehouse written by it, but I'm now wondering whether it applies to No.7 as well, depending on the nature of the bracket immediately before the word "Warehouse". Is it a parenthesis (unclosed) referring to No.6 only, or is it a bracket indicating that the word applies to both No.6 and No.7? However, it's the sort of thing I'd try not to lose sleep over - the important thing is that No.8 wasn't a warehouse.

[AudreyF]

Thank you - a relief to know my relatives were not living in a warehouse!

[helachau]

Checking old maps for the location of Denzell Street, surprised to note it disappeared early 1900s with the development of Kingsway. It's on this 1895 Town Plan -

https://maps.nls.uk/view/101201589 (see Western edge of map)

but no longer exists on this 1913 map https://maps.nls.uk/view/102345864
Travelling north on Kingsway from the Aldwych it would be after Portugal Street and before Kemble Street

This is a photo of the junction of Stanhope Street and Denzell Street
https://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk/v...=1565682657808

[AudreyF]

Now, that is really interesting - thank you. In the first link I can see Wych Street which was an earlier address for the family. Wych Street disappeared in 1901 for the redevelopment of Kingsway and Aldwych. Fascinating to see these old maps and photos which add nice details and feel to a story.