My wife's ancestors - Turner - Contents

King St, Cambridge

Sources yet to be consulted:
- 1888 map of King St. N side and S side.

In modern Cambridge, Hobson St runs N to S and joins King St which runs E to W. See map.
But Hobson St was formerly called King St, and King St was formerly called Wall's Lane.
The re-naming of the streets happened sometime in 1808 to 1838.
To confuse matters further, what is now King St was completely re-numbered in 1897.
We shall now attempt to locate the Turner houses on King St.

John Turner lived on King St at least 1814 to 1816.
His probable brother Samuel Turner lived on King St at least 1813 to 1820.
It is unclear if this is the old King St or the new King St. But in any case, we do not have a house number.

Samuel's apparent sons lived on King St:
Charles Turner lived at 90 King St in 1846. He seems to be on King St at least 1843 to 1847.
Samuel Turner lived at 92 King St in 1846. He seems to be on King St at least 1837 to 1846.
We can locate these houses, and it turns out they are demolished.

The Turner houses were on the modern King St

First we confirm that "King St" for the 1840s Turner houses refers to the modern King St.

Extract from reconstructed map of c.1800 from here.
Shows King St used to be called "Wall's Lane".
And King St formerly referred to Hobson St.
Shows Wray's Almshouses on N side of (what is now) King St.

Extract from 1836 or 1838 map from here.
Shows that by 1840, "King St" meant the modern King St.
So the Turner houses were on the modern King St.

The Turner houses, 90 and 92 King St (old numbering), are demolished

Sources yet to be consulted:
- The Cambridgeshire Collection, Central Library, Cambridge.
  - Catalogue lists "B.King" which are pictures of King St.
  - B.King.K62 174.72. "Wray's Almshouses in King Street being demolished - CDN 6 Oct 1962". I.EA.K62

King St was re-numbered in 1897.
Pages 42 and 43 and 44 and 45 of [Spalding's Directory of Cambridge, 1878] show the old numbering.
No.1 King St starts on the S side of the street at the W end. The numbers increase going E along the S side.
For example, the "Champion Of The Thames" pub was then no.38. (Today it is no.68.)
The old numbers go down to the E end, then cross to the N side of the street and increase going W along the N side.

[Spalding's Directory of Cambridge, 1878] shows that the old 90 and 92 King St were on the N side of King St, between Manor St and Wray's Almshouses (further past Wray's Almshouses was Malcolm St).

Extract from 1903 map.
Shows the location of the Turner houses. They were in the row on the N side of King St, between the "N" of "KING" and Manor St.
This entire row, including Wray's Almshouses, has been entirely demolished and redeveloped. The Turner houses are gone.
Wray's Almshouses were demolished in 1962.
See modern street view.

Not relevant: Jakenett's Almshouses
- The modern 90 to 94 King St are Jakenett's Almshouses.
- But, as explained above, this is a re-numbering of 1897. These buildings are irrelevant.
- [Spalding's Directory of Cambridge, 1878] shows Jakenett's Almshouses were then 48 and 49 King St.