Dover: Lock and Key of the Kingdom

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 14th 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.  During the Second World War the street was seriously  damaged by bombing 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.