Muscovy Court

A Dictionary of London by Henry A Harben.

West out of Trinity Square, Tower Hill, at No.5 (P.O. Directory). in Tower Ward (O.S.).


Earliest mention: Strype, 1720.

The buildings are described as new (I. ii. 54). It had an entrance into the Navy Office (ib.).

Mentioned in circumference of the Tower set out in Pat. Jas. II. (Bayley, II. cxviii. App.).

Demolished 1913-14 for the erection of the Port of London Authority's new offices.

Derivation of name: Said to be so named from the offices of the Muscovite Ambassador in this locality (Maskell, p. 180).

Wheatley suggests that the name is derived from the sign of the Czar of Muscovy, a public-house in Great Tower Street, to which Peter the Great is said to have resorted to drink and smoke after his day's work was done.

The "Ould Muscovye House" was in the parish of St. Dunstan in the East, 31 Eliz. 1589 (Lond. I. p.m. III. p.132).

Related Words