Place Name
This well-established street was named after the English courtier and politician Mountjoy Blount (about 1597 – February 12, 1666), 1st Earl of Newport, who, from 1633, lived in a house which extended along its north side. Between 1616 – 1661 the street was part of Military Street, a path from St Martin’s Lane to the Military Ground which occupied the site of Gerrard Street, Macclesfield Street and Gerrard Place. Blount became a member of James I’s court, where he was something of a royal favourite. He was part of the entourage which accompanied the young Prince Charles (later Charles I) through Paris incognito on his way to Spain to negotiate his ill-starred union with Princess Maria Anna, daughter of Philip III of Spain. In 1627 he was created Earl of Newport, and in 1634, secured the position of Master of Ordnance for his lifetime, from the latter deriving a tidy fortune. That same year he extended his estate north to the present West Street and Cambridge Circus. Less than 20 years after his death, the land was sold for building and the house demolished. Gillian Bebbington in London Street Names says that the prefix Little does not, as would suggest, denote a street of lesser importance, rather it generally indicates the presence of a corresponding Great street, in this case Great Newport Street. The street’s rich history was enough to ensure the survival of its name during London County Council’s move to eliminate all prefixed names from the London Directory in the 1930s. Little almost entirely disappeared from use, and most existing streets were completely renamed. Bebbington explains however that “the rule was sometimes waived when there were complaints that changing well-established names would be harmful to City businessmen or destructive of historical interest.”
