Cecil Court - Background

Background

One of the older thoroughfares in Covent Garden, Cecil Court dates back to the end of the 17th century and earlier maps clearly identify a hedgerow running down the street's course. A tradesman's route at its inception, it later acquired the nickname Flicker Alley from the concentration of early film companies in the Court. It is now known to bibliophiles as home to nearly twenty antiquarian and second-hand independent bookshops, including specialists in modern first editions, collectible children’s books, early printing, rare maps and atlases, antique prints, theatrical ephemera, and esoterica, as well as a contemporary art gallery, an antiques shop, shops specializing in philately, numismatics and art deco jewellery and two restaurants.

It has been suggested that the street was named after Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, the 1st Earl of Salisbury, an important courtier to Queen Elizabeth I and renowned as a trailblazing spymaster. However, it seems to be one of a number of nearby streets and places that have been named for the land-owning family including Cranbourn Street and the Salisbury pub on St Martin's Lane.

A substantial part of Cecil Court was razed to the ground in 1735, almost certainly arson on the part of a tenant, Mrs Colloway, who was running a brandy shop/brothel in the street at the time: she purchased kindling, emptied her brandy barrels, over-insured her stock and made certain that she was drinking nearby with friends at the time the fire took hold. However, she was acquitted.

The street rose from the ashes to become the temporary home of an eight-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart while he was touring Europe in 1764. For almost four months the Mozart family lodged with barber John Couzin. Tickets for Mozart's first London concerts were sold from Couzin's shop and, while living there, the young Mozart performed twice for King George III and was tested for his musical ability by Dr Charles Burney. According to some modern authorities, Mozart composed his first symphony while a resident of Cecil Court. In September 2011, the Cecil Court Traders' Association installed a plaque commemorating Mozart's relatively brief, but significant, period of residence in the street. The plaque sits at Number 9 Cecil Court, which - contrary to earlier assumptions placing the Mozart lodgings at Number 19 - has been confirmed as the site of John Couzin's barber shop. Cecil Court bookseller Tim Bryars consulted original source material, including the parish rate books of the time and a number of antique maps, to establish where in the street the young Mozart lived.

The plaque was unveiled by actor and author Simon Callow, who created the role of Amadeus on stage. The ceremony was accompanied with music from members of Opera Holland Park and the City of London Sinfonia including pieces from Mozart's London Sketchbook which it is quite possible might have been composed during his stay in Cecil Court.

Cecil Court was an important focus of the early British cinema industry, with over forty entries to be found in the database of the study of the film business in London, 1894-1914, organised by the AHRB Centre for British Film and Television Studies, searchable online as part of the London Project. Arising from this, the street is sometimes called "Flicker Alley".

The street is still owned by the Cecil family and the buildings one can see today were laid out c. 1894 during the tenure of long serving British Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury. Today Cecil Court is part of the Jubilee Walkway (opened in 1977 as the Silver Jubilee Walkway). The nearest Underground station is Leicester Square.