208 Great Russell Street, Hockley

[RichSmith]

I’m just following up on an address that my grandfather was born at. It appears that it’s a front street facing house and was Mrs Lings Fried Fish Shop according to Kelly’s. I think my great grandad maybe shared the premises with his grocery business and Mrs Ling.

My question is what court was behind 208? My grandad was one of 5 children born in Great Russell Street, but the birth sequence went 35 court, 208, 35 court, 208, 35 court. I can’t see them moving back and forth between the same house over a 8 year period so wondered whether 208 fronted 35 court?

 

[MWS]

It look like court 36 was behind 208 (entrance between 206 & 207) and court 35 was behind 203/204.

Is the address place of birth or residence because you could be born at the first and not be living there.

 

[RichSmith]

I’ve been continuing my research into 208 Great Russell Street and I found this photo on here. There is also a photo of the same row of houses just before demolition in the sixties. The photo isn’t overly detailed but I think I can make out E Smith Greengrocer written in the window. Can’t prove it but that’s likely to be my great grandfather outside his shop between 1911 and 1914 when he went off to war. They lived at 35 court prior to this and likely shared ownership with Mrs Lings fried fish shop until around 1912 when they moved into the main shop 208 and presumably took over rental completely. What i didn’t realise was that this part of Great Russell Street was north of New John Street, I always presumed it was the other end. Always looking for more information about my great grandfather and where he lived. My own father had no idea about his grandfather until I started researching our family history so I find every snippet to be incredible.

 

[Astoness]

hi rich i take it you found that photo on the gt russell street thread where there are many old photos of this street...the below map certainly confirms the location of it with court 36 being behind you can clearly see the entry on the left that leads to court 36..you can move the map around if you want to..i am going to say that there is a very good chance that that could be your gt grandad standing outside the shop or at least another member of the family in which case you are so very lucky..old photos usually showed the owner of the shop/pub etc standing outside...if you move the map you will see that gt russell st finished at farm st and was only a few doors up from the mathias tavern pub..pretty sure there is also a photo of this pub...hope this helps..click on link below

lyn

Georeferenced Maps viewer - Map images - National Library of Scotland