Lower John Street

Lower John Street leads into the south-west corner of Golden Square, in western Soho. It is one of the four approach streets named after the joint owners of Gelding Close, the ground on which Golden Square was built. John Emlyn, who employed a bricklayer of that name, gave his name to Upper and Lower John Streets on the western side, matching the James Streets that James Axtell laid out to the east.

Golden Square was begun in 1675 on land leased from the Crown by Sir William Pulteney, and was completed by 1706. The square became a fashionable address, home in the eighteenth century to foreign diplomatic envoys from Poland, Portugal, Genoa and Russia, and the surrounding streets shared in that standing before the area turned to commerce. The corner of Golden Square and Lower John Street is occupied by a listed building reflecting the later development of the square.

Lower John Street is short and largely commercial today, lined with offices and places to eat and drink, a few steps from the green centre of Golden Square and the older streets around Beak Street.