Carey Street

Carey Street in London is a narrow lane behind the Royal Courts of Justice that became synonymous with financial ruin after the Bankruptcy Court moved there in the 1840s. Designed by Sir John Taylor in 1892, the original Bankruptcy Building was damaged in the Blitz and demolished. Carey Street also hosted King's College Hospital from 1839 to 1913 and the Seven Stars pub, established in 1602.

London Β· from the walk β€œBeneath the Bar: Lincoln's Inn & Legal London” Β· audio ~4 min Β· Generated

Carey Street, London WC2A 2JB

Why was Carey Street in London associated with bankruptcy?

You're standing on one of the most quietly devastating streets in all of London. It looks harmless... a narrow lane tucked behind the Royal Courts of Justice. But for well over a century, this little road carried a meaning that made grown men Tremble.......... "He's gone to Carey Street."

...... That's all you had to say. Everyone knew what it meant. You were ruined. Bankrupt. Finished.......... The street takes its name from Sir George Carey, second cousin to Queen Elizabeth the First, a man who was patron of Shakespeare's own acting company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men. Quite the colourful character. But the street's fame has nothing to do with him.......... In the eighteen forties, the Bankruptcy Court moved here from Westminster. And by eighteen ninety two, an enormous new Bankruptcy Building was unveiled, designed by architect Sir John Taylor. A contemporary account described its long, broad corridors "crowded daily with learned expounders of our bankruptcy laws." The place was Packed with the desperate and the indebted.......... And what happened to that grand building? The Blitz. It took extensive damage during the Second World War and was eventually demolished, replaced by the rather less impressive Thomas More Building in the nineteen sixties.......... But here's a detail most people miss. Before the bankruptcy courts dominated this street, King's College Hospital stood right here on Carey Street. Established in eighteen thirty nine for the sick poor, it served an area surrounded by overcrowded slums, with two patients sometimes sharing a single bed! The hospital eventually moved to Denmark Hill in nineteen thirteen.......... Now, look across the road. At number fifty three, there's a tiny pub called the Seven Stars. Its sign proudly declares the date sixteen oh two... which would make it older than the Great Fire of London! Its original name was the League of Seven Stars, a nod to the seven provinces of the Netherlands, meant to lure Dutch sailors from the nearby Fleet River when it was still navigable. Shakespeare himself may have tipped back a pint here.......... So one small street... a royal cousin, a hospital for the desperately poor, a court for the desperately broke, and a pub that has seen it all. Carey Street. Where London's stories of fortune and misfortune have always lived side by side.

Nearby stories