A Short History Of Number 8 Silver Place
History Of Number 8 Silver Place – Our address, which you can easily find thanks to the contact page on our website, is number 8 Silver Place. Silver Place is a short pedestrianised alleyway that runs on from Beak Street (previously called Silver Street). At the other end of this delightful alley is Ingestre Place.
The Silver part of our street name is derived from when this area was a hub for craftsmen working in the silver and gold trades. Beak Street used to be called Silver Street. Golden Square is still here today and used to be an old plaque pit.*
‘[it was] a field not to be passed without a shudder by any Londoner of that age. There, as in a place far from the haunts of men, had been dug, twenty years before, when the great plague was raging, a pit into which the dead carts had nightly shot corpses by scores. It was popularly believed that the earth was deeply tainted with infection, and could not be disturbed without imminent risk to human life.’**
Golden Square is still there today. Charles Dickens described the gardens as “a little wilderness of shrubs.”***
The entire area of Soho was green fields until the late 1680s. Our building is a Georgian-Victorian House, probably from around 1730, and we have been working in this five-storey building since 2017. This house is a beautiful place to be. It’s right in the centre of Soho along with all its charms and vices and we fit each other perfectly. We love it. It is our home.
AND A LITTLE NOTORIETY
In 1867, when our street was called Pulteney Court, a barrel of gunpowder was stored in our house, one of four barrels that were used by members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood to blow open Clerkenwell Prison in an attempt to rescue the Irish nationalist (and ex-American union soldier Richard O’Sullivan-Burke.
The breakout attempt went awry, too much gunpowder perhaps, as the blast demolished shops and houses as well as blowing a huge hole in the prison wall; people were killed, over a hundred injured and the incident was one of Britain’s worst terrorist attacks of the 19th century. Michael Barrett, another Irish republican, identified as one of those involved by a witness who said he had seen him in Silver Place, was tried and convicted at the Old Bailey and became the last man to be public hanged in England on 26 May 1868. He was 27 years old. So when you visit our workshop, remember that when we open the door you will find yourself standing on or near the spot where once stood a barrel of gunpowder used in a prison break!****
NUMBER 8 SILVER PLACE WORKSHOP
We follow in the tradition of Soho workshops. Many are much older than us. W. Sitch & Co for example began making light fittings in the 18th century. John Wilkes began making shotguns a few doors away from us in the early 19th century. It closed a while back but the name The Riflemaker, once an art dealer and gallery is still above the door. The house too is wonderful, almost exactly as it was nearly 200 years ago.
It is in this old house that we make all of our finely carved custom designed picture frames, round frames, as well as our beautiful hand-finished frames that we offer, most of which you can find on this website. Many probably walk right past us without even realising we are here, but we like to say that the entire world passes through here. We are lucky enough to make frames for many amazing and interesting people we feel continue to fill our place with stories.
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE MEANING OF LIFE
Someone once said when interviewing a potential new member of our team that they were looking for a stop-gap kind of job: ‘Do you think working here is my dream?’ they asked. ‘Do you think it was mine?’ I replied. ‘I wanted to be an astronaut.’ And then I realised that in fact, all of us here at SohoFrames are living the dream.
Apart from the sheer joy of making beautiful things, our greatest pleasure is our clients. We get to make frames for airline pilots and Las Vegas poker players, and solicitors, lawyers and judges. Artists, both professional and amateur come to see us. We design and build frames for shops and restaurants, for opera houses theatres and world famous Soho music venues. And also for Presidents and Pime Ministers, Hollywood directors and actors, plumbers and painters. We meet pop stars and comedians, and so on and so on. It really is the best job anyone could ask for.
On a hot day, we might take a break outside to catch a few rays to think about what we do and why we do it while contemplating the listed bollards at the end of the street (yes, in England we list bollards.***** So yes, it’s a Wonderful Life indeed, just to be ordinary, but immersed in the world of extraordinary.
THANKS & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
History Of Number 8 Silver Place
Photograph by SohoFrames. The Endless Column carved on-site from a spare shelving support inspired by the great Romanian sculptor Constatin Brancusi. Brancusi’s Endless Column Ensemble
We are extremely grateful to our Landlord and especially to Daniel Graham of Managing Agents HB Surveyors and Valuers for all the help, guidance and opportunities they have given us over the years. We wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for their continued support.
*Discover more about the plaque pit in Golden Square, previously Gelding Close here on this Wikipedia page Golden Square – Wikipedia.
**Golden Square quote by Lord Macaulay, 1685. For more of his wisdoms see here. TOP 25 QUOTES BY THOMAS B. MACAULAY (of 238) | A-Z Quotes
***Charles Dickens reference from Square gardens | Westminster City Council
****For further reading about the Clerkenwell Outrage please see this report from The Irish Times, which has some excellent and truly atmospheric drawings and photographs.
***** Find out more about listed bollards of Silver Place here on the Historic England website.
You can discover more about Soho, or “The Real Square Mile,” on this excellent Wikipedia page. Find too some fabulous old maps here.
It’s A Wonderful Life 1946. Directed by Franz Capra, starring James Stewart and Donna Reed.