Discriminations endured by French Protestants under Louis XIV, which culminated in the 1865 revocation of the Edict of Nantes, pushed many to cross the Channel. In London they settled around Threadneeddle Street, Spitalfields, and Soho, where around 1680 Huguenots had taken over a church built originally for the Greek community (the settlement around the Threadneeddle Street chapel did not expand much as tradesmen there were subject to the regulations of the City companies). The presence of a French community in Soho acted as a magnet for those who came later, even if as noted in A Survey of London, edited by F. H. W. Sheppard and published in 1966,
During the last quarter of the nineteenth century the foreign element in the population of Soho ceased to be primarily French and became cosmopolitan. The original Huguenot immigrants and their descendants had gradually become to a large extent anglicized, and by 1800 only two of their chapels survived in the area. After 1789 more refugees from the various political commotions which have characterized subsequent French history probably settled in Soho. In the 1860's, when Cardinal Wiseman wished to establish a church for French Roman Catholics in London, Soho was still evidently thought to be the centre of the French colony, but had long ceased to be distinctively Huguenot. Shortly after the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune of 1870–1 Soho was said to have 'now a greater French population than it has had for years', and the Marseillaise was the most financially rewarding tune for the organ-grinders of the locality.
Sheppard also mentions them in his study:
French eating-houses, catering specifically for the local French residents, must have existed in the area ever since the arrival of the first refugees in the 1680's but the first known reference to Soho as a resort of English gourmets does not occur until 1816, when the Sablonière Hôtel on the east side of Leicester Square was commended as a French house where 'a table d'hôte affords the lovers of French cookery and French conversation, an opportunity for gratification at a comparatively moderate charge'. The Sablonière had been established in a house on the east side of Leicester Square in 1788, and was the first of a group of foreign hotels and restaurants, mostly French, which existed there for very many years. In the mid nineteenth century the clientèle of these establishments was predominantly foreign, and their respectability had become questionable in English eyes, for the author of a guidebook to London published in 1869 advised his readers, in choosing a hotel or dining-room, to 'avoid Leicester-square'.
It was the presence of these French-owned restaurants and hotels that explains why half of this ad is in French. Click on the picture for a larger version.
Dress Coats From 6 1/6
The Noted House
For Waiters
Cafe Jackets
Dress Coats
Trousers Vests
And All Articles & Wear
For
Hotel Employees
La Maison
Est Renommée Pour les Effets
De Tous Genres
Pour Garçons de Café
Et Tous Les Articles
Pour Employés d'Hotel
Cafe Jackets from 5 1/6
The address 2 Little Crown Court does not exist anymore. Maybe Little Crown Court was just off Crown Court and disappeared when the area was redeveloped?
A very classy waiter holding a tray
The scroll, half in English, half in French. It looks though as if the French part was written over some English text.
Far too much grime covers this waiter...
Location: Tisbury Court / All pictures taken on: 31/03/2008
2 comments:
According to this, Little Crown Court was renamed Tisbury Court at some point. The date of this would be interesting to identify...
Westminster archives have informed me that Little Crown Court became Tisbury Court in 1937, dating this sign to before then.
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