Watford, Hertfordshire Beggars Bush Lane ?

Beggars Bush Lane is adjacent to the canal, near Cassiobury Park, which was the  home of the Earls of Essex from c.1800. It is possible to connect George Capel-Coningsby, the 5th Earl of Essex (1757-1839) who remodelled the house from 1799 with the revival of the play The Beggars Bush as The Merchant of Bruges in December 1815.

He was at the time on the committee of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, together with Douglas Kinnaird, who had rewritten the play, and Lord Byron. His place on the committee was not honorary; he corresponded with the manager abuot the pantomine later the same month when social commitments required him to be at Cassiobury. He clearly took great interest in the theatre, marrying an actress & opera singer. He allegedly acted as a go-between in correspondence between the Prince of Wales and a young actress, Mary Robinson, as he was a frequent visitor to the theatre, and friend of the one of the managers.

In the absence of any earlier record of the place name it seems likely that the play was the source of the use here, however I have not been able to establish a reliable date for the first record of the place name here. There is one other connected record, at Drayton Beauchamp (1860) where this name was used for a gate there of a turnpike which ended at the Park.

OS Grid

TQ089958

Sources

Hertfordshire RO
Dibdin, Thomas, The Reminiscences of Thomas Dibdin, of the Theatres Royal, Covent Garden, Drury Lane, Haymarket, & cet., (London, 1837, pp.76-77)

Posted: April 24th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: Drayton Beauchamp, Hertfordshire, The Play, Watford | No Comments »