34 Tavistock Street

34 Tavistock Street is a listed building, constructed in 1711 along with the rest of the block. The street first came into existence in the middle of the seventeenth century as part of the massive building project that constructed Covent Garden Market and surrounding streets. At that time, and until the twentieth century, the street was called York Street, and its shops were part of the fringes of the Covent Garden Market. During the heyday of coffee houses, at which many political and literary meetings were held, the street was frequented by many grandees on the way to the street's well-known coffee house and meeting place.

Number 34 at various times it housed any number of businesses, including florists, but at a couple points it has been a bookseller. Local archival records show that one Richard P. Nodder, a painter, stationer and bookseller, worked and resided here 1805-1823. A number of features of the original interior are still intact, including the wooden floor, and an interior plaster archway in a neo-classical style, which is topped with dancing nymphs and fauns.

Though our building can boast no famous past residents, the street's literary credentials are quite impressive. Next door to us, at number 36, Thomas de Quincey composed his haunting Victorian classic, Confessions of an Opium Eater. On our other side, in the building on the corner, Charles Dickens worked for twenty years, 1850-1870, at the offices of his magazine, All the Year Round.

In more recent years the street has been less literary and more gourmet, our short block alone is home to no less than five restaurants. Many customers combine a visit to Treadwell′s with a meal at one of the award-winning eating establishments adjacent to us.