1665

Charles II

Earl Craven’s Pest House was founded during The Great Plague. Pest House Close was located in the area bounded by present-day Marshall Street, Broad Street, and Dufours Place in Soho.

Earl Craven's intention was to establish an environment in which plague sufferers could live in isolation, attended by a physician, without having to be barricaded into their own homes and effectively left to die without any alleviation of suffering. A plague pit attached to the Pest House would then accommodate the bodies of the victims, thus relieving pressure on the parish churchyards.

(Pictured right: Map of Pest House Close, Soho)

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