Erection date: 1906
{Around an arrangement of cricket bats, stumps, bails and ball:}
J Wisden & Compy. No. 21.
Site: J. Wisden & Co (1 memorial)
WC2, Cranbourn Street, 21
This is not the building that Wisden occupied in 1872 until his death there in 1884. Hidden London says "{The 1906 station's} Cranbourn Street entrance replaced three houses belonging to Lord Salisbury, which had to be compulsorily purchased from the reluctant peer." Our guess is that they were standard Victorian terraced houses like the ones to the right, just out of our photo, presumably built when Charing Cross Road was constructed in the 1870s-80s. Opened in 1906, Leicester Square tube station with these distinctive ox-blood red tiles, was designed by Leslie Green.
1896 another shop was opened in Great Newport Street and in 1928 The Cranbourn Street shop was closed.
Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk
