London’s Alleys: St Martin’s Court, WC2

This is a wide and often very busy alley just off Leicester Square that is now surrounded by theatres and a famous oyster bar.The area developed in the early 1600s when Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury was granted 5 acres of land in the area for building. It was initially lined with large houses with back gardens that faced onto St Martins Lane and Charing Cross Street (at the time Castle Street), so much more of a residential district than it is today.
St Martin’s Court appeared in the