Jermyn Street, London, SW1

Jermyn Street runs parallel to Piccadilly and was named after Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans, who leased the land from the Crown in the 1660s. When Newton left the Warden's house at the Mint in late 1696, he moved into No. 88, built soon after 1675 on land leased from the Earl. This house is now one of the few surviving from the period (see photograph.) In 1700 he moved next door to No. 87 which is no longer standing. He finally left Jermyn Street in 1709 for Chelsea.

The two houses are on the south east side of Jermyn Street, opposite the entrance of Princes Arcade whose other entrance is in Piccadilly near the Royal Academy. No. 88 is now James Bodenham & Company - a gift shop selling candle sticks, vases and wooden apples among other things. The whole of the ground floor is accessible, including the small yard behind the house which now has a glass roof. The building currently occupying the site of No. 87 has two blue plaques with the texts ``SIR ISAAC NEWTON 1642-1727 Lived here'' and ``Tablet fixed 1908. Premises rebuilt & tablet refixed 1915''. It is currently occupied by Hackett's tailor's shop. (Jermyn Street is famous for gentleman's tailors and shirt makers.) There is a photograph of these buildings today.

Also nearby is St James's, a fine Wren church restored after bombing during the Second World War. As a prominent member of its congregation, Newton became one of the trustees of The Tabernacle - a chapel built to accomodate the overflow from St James's.

Among the many other famous people associated with the church is William Blake who was baptised there. A hundred years after Newton's residence in Jermyn Street, Blake would be using him as a symbol of the excessive Rationalism he saw in the world.