SOHOE SO FANCY
SOHO SQUARE
Carlisle Street leads to what was originally Kings Square.
The eighteenth century was Soho's heyday- when it housed no less than three generations of royals — the first being the eldest son of King George I — during this period it was also home to twenty-seven Members of Parliament.
For those who were “less than royal but more than doctors”, the best address in mid-eighteenth-century Soho remained Soho Square, which, even by the end of the seventeenth century had already been surrounded by the grand houses of the Restoration aristocracy — a status the rest of Soho benefited from by association.
Georgiana The famed Duchess of Devonshire - Westminster Archives
The area also boasted other distinguished residents, now better remembered than the aristocrats who once considered themselves their superiors, including the poet John Dryden and Sir Isaac Newton.
In the second half of the 18th century, Soho began losing ground to the newer, more fashionable Mayfair. It didn't decline immediately, though — first, it gained a reputation for raffishness, in part thanks to one remarkable woman- Theresa Cornelys, born in Venice where she'd been one of Casanova's mistresses as a teenager.
Mrs Cornelys House now a Catholic chapel - sketch 1850 - Westminster archives
Very Fancy Dress Carlisle House Westminster archives
She arrived in London in 1759 to sing at the Haymarket Theatre, her performance wasn't the success she'd hoped for, so the next year, she took a bold new direction: leasing Carlisle House and turning it into a venue for "masked balls and other fashionable amusements."
Carlisle House -Subscription Ticket Westminster Archives
Carlisle House - Female Coterie - Westminster Archives
Head to the East side of the square to see what is now St Patrick’s Church on the corner of Sutton Row - this is where Carlisle house once stood..
For over a decade, Carlisle House hosted London's most fashionable and notorious parties. What began modestly as "Mrs Cornelys's entertainments" — dancing and card playing — soon revealed itself as a big money-spinner. She spent a borrowed fortune converting a former Embassy’s chapel into a sumptuous saloon with a supper room below, and created a garden for outdoor parties that stretched the length of Sutton Street, from Soho Square to Hog Lane(Charing cross rd).
According to records Carlisle House was capable of accommodating more than two thousand guests in considerable style.
Throughout the 1760s, twice or three times each month, Mrs Cornelys arranged her entertainments, later expanding them to include full-scale operas. She was a mistress of publicity- advertising in all the best-read journals of the time, and she ensured the loyalty of her clients by organising a special ball once a quarter for their valets, butlers and housekeepers.
1777 Advert for Mrs Cornelys Grand Masquerade and below 1769 - advert for Mrs Cornelys Festival for the kings birthday - Westminster Archives
Her entertainments became more and more risqué as the decade wore on, and were described as "strong on quality but of questionable morality."
A 1770 account stated “ Soho-square and the adjacent streets were lined with thousands of people, whose curiosity led them to get a sight of the persons going to the Masquerade; nor was any coach or chair suffered to pass unreviewed, the windows being obliged to be let down, and lights held up to display the figures to more advantage " -"Adam, in flesh-coloured tights and an apron of fig-leaves”, “Lady Augusta Stuart as a vestal”, and “the Duke of Devonshire, very fine but in no particular character."
Carlisle House gaming tables by permission of Westminster Archives
Such goings-on inevitably provoked expressions of strong moral outrage, but blame was always placed on her patrons. One critic said -"The nobility of the Kingdom long protected Mrs Cornelys in entertaining their masquerades and gaming assemblies, in the violation of the law and lo the destruction of their sober principles."
In 1772 a rival establishment, the Pantheon,(now a Marks & sparks) opened on Oxford Street, stealing much of Mrs Cornelys's custom, her response to the competition was to splash out on more elaborate decor, but this time round she overreached herself and was declared bankrupt.
In 1775 Carlisle House was auctioned off, and Mrs Cornelys moved to "Knightsbridge where she eked out a living selling asses' milk, -”a cure-all for a variety of ailments and an anti aging tonic”,
She died in the Debtors' Prison at the Fleet in 1787, still fantasising about how best to arrange bigger and better parties.
Carlisle House was pulled down in 1791, and St Patrick’s church now stands where it once stood.