The origin of the name of Birdcage Walk has been disputed. It has been derived from "boccage," meaning avenue; another account says it was from the bird-cages of the King's aviary, which were hung in the trees. This seems more probable.
For many reigns St. James's Park continued to be a fashionable place of resort. In 1770 Rosamund's Pond was filled up, and the moat round Duck Island was filled in. In 1779 a gentleman was killed in a duel in the park.
In 1827-29 the park was finally laid out and the canal converted into a piece of ornamental water under the superintendence of Nash. In 1857 the lake was cleared out to a uniform depth of four feet and the present bridge erected, and the park became something like what we see at the present time. The vicinity of Marlborough House and Buckingham Palace still give it a certain distinction, but it cannot be called in any sense fashionable, as it was in the later Stuart times. And in the midst of the park we must take leave of our present district, having rambled within its borders east and west, north and south, and having met in the process the ghosts of kings and queens, of statesmen and authors, of men of the Court and men of the Church, those who have made history in the past and laid the foundations for the glory of the future.
Almshouses: Butler's, 8, 29 Henry VII.'s, 37 Hill's, 8 Palmer's, 8, 29 Vandon's, 29
Churches: St. Ann's Chapel, 37 Cathedral (Roman Catholic), 4 Chapel Royal, 88 Christ Church, 28 Duke Street Chapel, 81 Guards' Chapel, 31 St. John the Evangelist, 17 St. Margaret's, 57 St. Mary's, 9 St. Matthew's, 23 New Chapel, 28 St. Stephen's, 8 St. Stephen's Chapel, 70 Westminster Abbey, 45 Westminster Chapel, 26
Hospitals: Coldstream Guards, 9 Emanuel, 26 Grenadier Guards, 8 Grosvenor Hospital for Women & Children, 9 Scots Guards, 12 Westminster, 40
Schools: Bluecoat, 27 Greencoat, 5 Greycoat, 6 Medical, 28 St. Andrew's, 25 United Westminster, 5, 24 Westminster, 62
BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Westminster, by Sir Walter Besant and Geraldine Edith Mitton and A. Murray Smith