Hi Geoff,
Ormond Place is the short street that connects the Promenade and Regent Street – once known as “the Little Prom” because of its stylish shops (the frontage on the south side was used for the BBC drama series The House of Elliott). Straight across Regent Street from Ormond Place is the side entrance to the Regent Arcade, where the 21 Club and Aquavitae are located.
Anyway, G. Smith’s Ale & Porter Stores is listed at 3 Ormond Place in the 1842 & 1843 Annuaires – I think this would have put it on the southern corner of the junction with Regent Street where Society Cafe is now. This is backed up by the fact that it is listed in the 1844 – 1847 Annuaires as “Smith, G. Ale and Porter Stores, Regent Street.” However, in the 1847 Hunt & Co. Directory, George Smith is listed under “Wine and Spirits Merchants (with a little cross symbol to indicate that he also traded in “ale and porter likewise”), but the address given is 66 Regent Street, which is quite a way further north than Ormond Place.
This had me fooled for a while, because the 1848 Annuaire lists “Ale and Porter Stores…Regent street,” while the 1848 Edwards Directory has it listed under “Ale & Porter Merchants & Agents” at “66 Regent Street” The 1849 Annuaire just lists it as “Smith G., Ale and Porter Stores…Regent street.”
The 1850 Edwards Directory finally sorted the mystery though, because it has an in-order street listing for Regent Street. It seems that G. Smith’s Ale & Porter Store and Wine & Spirits Merchants had moved along Regent Street to no. 66, to a site and number shared with The Star Hotel (proprietor in 1850 C. Scott) and what they list as the “Little Star” – a Tap House, later listed as the Star Inn).
The Annuaires persist in listing it as “Smith G., Ale and Porter Stores…Regent street” and the 1851 & 1852 Edwards Directories as they had in 1850 – at 66 Regent Street along with The Star Hotel and Little Star.
For the 1860s I only had access to Annuaires, and although the 1860 listing is as previous, in the 1861 – 1863 editions, they too gave 66 Regent Street as the address. That was the last edition I had access to until 1867, when it was no longer listed.
In the 1852 Edwards Directory, at 4 Ormond Place (across from where G. Smith had been located, where Bridgman is now), George Atkins Wine, Ale & Porter Merchant is listed. I managed to trace this back a ways: back to 1840 it was recorded in Annuaires in Ormond Place, then 1839 Regent Street, and 1837 Ormond Place.
From 1847, it is listed for a few years at no. 1 Sty. James’s Square (the first property off St. George’s Place on the northern side of the Southern side i.e. just off St. George’s Place on the opposite side to the old Engine Shed and Fire Station). I think they must have maintained the store on the corner of Ormond Place and Regent Street as well though, because later it is once again listed with that address, where it kept going until 1927.
Regards
Alan