St James's Street in 1880. St James's School can be
seen on the left.
St James’s Street was one of the oldest
streets in Dover, taking its name from old St
James’s Church which
stood at one end. Some of the houses which lined the
street dated back to Elizabethan times or even earlier.
At the western end of the street , where it joined St
James’s Lane, were some half-timbered houses with jettied
upper stories, which may have dated back to the 14 th
century.
Before the opening of Castle
Street in the 1830s, St James’s Street was the main
route for coaches to and from Deal and Thanet. Until
1856 the old rectory stood on the corner Woolcomber
Street making St James’s Street so narrow that a
white stone was placed against the rectory wall to stop
vehicles striking the wall. The four horse coaches must
have made an impressive sight, racing down the street
and taking the sharp turn into St James’s Lane on their
way to the Market Square.
On the north side of the street stood
St James’s School built in 1849 and extended in 1906.
On the south side of the street stood the Gordon Boys’
Orphanage, established by Mr Thomas Blackman in memory
of Gordon of Khartoum, soon after the General’s death
in the Sudan in 1885.
The street was seriously damaged by
bombing in the Second
World War and has more or less disappeared. A few
original houses survive at the eastern end near to the
ruins of old St James’s Church.
In October 2004 plans for a redevelopment
scheme for the St James's area, known as the Dover
Town Investment Zone, were revealed for public consultation.
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