Piccadilly

History

The street has been part of a main road for centuries, although there is no evidence that it was part of a Roman road, unlike Oxford Street further north. In the Middle Ages it was known as "the road to Reading" or "the way from Colnbrook". During the Tudor period, relatively settled conditions made expansion beyond London's city walls a safer venture. Property speculation became a lucrative enterprise, and developments grew so rapidly that the threat of disease and disorder prompted the government to ban developments. Owing to the momentum of growth, the laws had little real effect. A plot of land bounded by Coventry, Sherwood, Glasshouse and Rupert streets and the line of Smith's Court was granted by Elizabeth I to William Dodington, a gentleman of London, in 1559–60. A year or so later it was owned by a brewer, Thomas Wilson of St Botolph-without-Aldgate. The grant did not include a small parcel of land, acres in area, on the east of what is now Great Windmill Street. That plot may have never belonged to the Crown, and was owned by Anthony Cotton in the reign of Henry VIII. John Cotton granted it to John Golightly in 1547, and his descendants sold it to a tailor, Robert Baker, in –12. Six or seven years later, Baker bought 22 acres of Wilson's land, thanks largely to money from his second marriage. Shortly after purchasing the land, he enclosed it (the parishioners had Lammas grazing rights) and erected several dwellings, including a residence and shop for himself; within two years his house was known as Pickadilly Hall. Devonshire House survived until 1921, before being sold for redevelopment by Edward Cavendish, 10th Duke of Devonshire for £1 million. Burlington House has since been home to the Royal Academy of Arts, the Geological Society of London, the Linnean…

Most-observed species

• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  1,752
• American herring gull, Smithsonian Gull

  Larus smithsonianus Coues, 1862 · Aves
  1,482
• Great Black-backed Gull

  Larus marinus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,111
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  888
• American Black Duck

  Anas rubripes Brewster, 1902 · Aves
  784
• American Wigeon

  Mareca americana (J.F.Gmelin, 1789) · Aves
  776
• Red-breasted Merganser

  Mergus serrator Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  768
• Iceland Gull

  Larus glaucoides B.Meyer, 1822 · Aves
  736