Place Name
The former site of Weld House. Wild is a corruption of Weld, after Humphrey Weld, son of a wealthy former Lord Mayor of London, who on February 25, 1640, bought land from the estate of a George Gage for £2,600. Nine years later he bought the neighbouring land and a newly built property called Aldwych Close – later renamed Weld House – from Andrew Gifford for £650, for his mother. At the time the mansion was standing alone in a field but rapid urban expansion meant that within a short while it was surrounded by residential properties, something that Wild himself was able to exploit, later going on to boast that he had, by 1670, laid out £15,600 in building. Weld was still living at Weld House in 1675 but soon afterwards it was subdivided into a number of smaller apartments. As for the name, incomers quickly gave up on Weld and it became Great Wild Street, with Wild Court and Little Wild Street marking the location of the former house and grounds.
