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RBT
Site: Royal Brunswick Theatre bollards (1 memorial)
E1, Ensign Street
When the theatres were here the street was named Well Street. There are 10 bollards, some damaged, but the survival of the collection is remarkable. They were probably erected in the first place to keep the carriages of those attending the theatre off the pavement (plus ça change).
Arthur Lloyd has published an article from The Mariners' Church Gospel Temperance Soldiers' and Sailors' Magazine, January 1843. This describes how, following the destruction of the theatre, George Charles Smith RN, minister of the Mariners' Church, Welclose Square arranged for a Sailors Home to be built on the site in 1835. It "is partly built from the bricks and materials that formed the ruins of those intemperance and immoral playhouses". Even more interesting, the article finishes: "The iron posts in front were part of the first purchase made by G. C. Smith, through the agency of Mr Sargent and paid for by Captain Robert Elliot, RN."
It's not clear why the posts/bollards had to be bought separately. Perhaps, being on the pavement and not actually on the site, their ownership was complicated. But it seems they were deliberately saved as a memorial for the theatre and those that died.
We have found a few commemorative bollards: Hyde Park bollards; Millbank Prison; Royal Military Asylum.
2022: Londonist reviewed a book, Bollardology. And you do, of course, follow the World Bollard Association on Twitter/X.
