Why Is This Road Called Peerless Street?

I love how London’s street names they can give you little clues and hints to the history of an area.

Next to Moorfields Eye Hospital you can find a rather unusually named road: Peerless Street. It has a fascinating and surprising story behind it.

Peerless Street can be found here:

peerless street london — _{What Peerless Street looks like today}

The ‘Perilous Pond’

If we go back a few hundred years to the 17th century, there would have been a spring at this spot that formed a pond at the surface. It was a popular spot for bathers in the area as well as for fishing and duck hunting.

It gained, however, a rather unfortunate nickname; the ‘Perilous Pond’, due to the number of fatal accidents and drownings that took place there.

In 1743, the pond was purchased by a jeweller by the name of William Kemp who converted it into a luxury swimming bath and an adjacent fish pond.

peerless pond — _{The pool in 1745, image from wikimedia commons.}

The ‘Peerless Pool’

To shake off its old associations it went through a bit of a rebranding process and the Perilous Pond became the ‘Peerless Pool’.

peerless pond advertisment — _{An advertisment for the bath from 1846, image from wikimedia commons.}

It is said to be London’s first outdoor public swimming pool and measuring at 107 x 108ft and 3.5-5ft deep, it was the largest in England at the time.

There was a marble changing ‘vestibule’ and trees or a fence around the edge shielded it from prying onlookers.

peerless fishing pond — _{The adjacent fishing pond in 1801 by Charles Tomkins, image from wikimedia commons.}

The price was £1 and 10 shillings for a membership or 1 shilling per use, relatively expensive for the time.

Various other attractions were added from the 1790s, including a small library and bowling green. The pool would also be used as an ice rink in the winter.

The path alongside was known as Peerless Row and later became Peerless Street.

peerless pool map — _{Map of the pool from 1800, image from wikimedia commons.}

Into the 19th Century

In 1805 the site was purchased by a Joseph Watts who constructed Baldwin Street over the fish pond.

There is a great quote from William Hone, a satirist, who visited the pool in 1826:

“Trees enough remain to shade the visitor from the heat of the sun on the brink. On a summer evening it is amusing to survey the conduct of the bathers; some boldly dive, others timorous stand and then descend step by step, unwilling and slow; choice swimmers attract attention by divings and somersets, and the whole sheet of water sometimes rings with merriment. Every fine Thursday and Saturday afternoon in the summer columns of Bluecoat boys, more than a score in each, headed by their respective beadles, arrive and some half strip themselves ‘ere they reach their destination. The rapid plunges they make into the Pool and their hilarity in the bath testify their enjoyment of the tepid fluid.”

I have written previously about the fascinating history of the charitable Bluecoat Schools here.

The pool was closed finally in 1850 and the area built over. Moorfields Eye Hospital, for example, was constructed here in 1899.

There are a couple of other clues in the area to look out for that hint to the area’s history, including the nearby ‘Bath Street’ and the ‘Old Fountain Pub’.