Pepys Street RTM Company Limited

History of One Pepys Street

Samuel Pepys

One Pepys Street was built by Galliard in 2002 on land that is owned by the Drapers' Company of the City of London and on which was formerly situated a Trinity Bonded Warehouse. The Drapers' Company has its origin as a medieval guild and goes back to the 14th century.

Pepys Street is not a long established street and did not exist until about 1912. Previously there was a short street called Colchester Street leading off Coopers Row and ending at Savage Gardens. Land further west at what is now the junction with Seething Lane had long been the site of the Navy Office and nearby had stood Crutched Friars House. About 1912 the former Colchester Street was extended to connect Coopers Row with Seething Lane and the result was Pepys Street.

Samuel Pepys, the 17th century English diarist lived and worked in Seething Lane at the Navy Office which stood on what is now Seething Gardens. In 1660 Pepys was appointed as Clerk of the Acts to the Navy Board and in 1673 he was appointed Secretary to the Admiralty Board and acted as the Navy's spokesman in Parliament. Pepys effectively created the Admiralty as a department of state and dominated naval administration for almost thirty years. He finally retired in 1688. Samuel Pepys is better known for his diary written between 1660 and 1669. The diary provides one of the few eye witness accounts of the Great Fire of London which devastated the City of London in 1666. Pepys and his wife are buried at St Olave's church in Hart Street.

Great Fire of London