Hooper Squares

In May 2020 Richard mentioned that a friend of his lived in Hooper Square, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. With our Catchpole ancestry in Suffolk there seemed to be a possibility of some sort of connection. And there was - but in a roundabout sort of way. The research into that connection led on to researching other streets called Hooper Square. And that's what this page is all about. There are four Hooper Squares that we've found.

There are many more streets in Great Britain carrying the Hooper name. There's a list at the bottom of the page. There might well be more. It seems likely that they are all named after prominent  Hoopers  in their local area. But we've been able to identify just one of them so far.

Hooper Square, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

Hooper Square in Bury St Edmunds was built in the 1960s - part of what is called the Westley Estate. As you can see it's a typical estate of the period.  All the roads on the estate are named after  mayors of the town. Hooper Square is named after  Alfred John Hooper, mayor in 1893 and his son John Ridley Hooper,  mayor in 1910, 1920 and 1922. The Hooper family were involved with tanning and leather work.  The firm later on evolved into Ridley & Hooper, tanners;  later coal merchants and ironmongers in Bury St Edmunds.  Here's a picture of the staff of Ridley & Hooper in the 1970s.

The mayor John Ridley Hooper had a son called Harold Ridley Hooper who became a quite prominent architect. He has a number of listed buildings to his name. One in particular is a pub in Ipswich built in the 1930s and called the Margaret Catchpole! We first came across her when we were researching our Catchpole ancestors and haven't as yet found a connection to her. But she does originate from an area not too far away from our Catchpoles so there is possibly a connection. 

Why does she have a pub named after her? Check out the link below.

https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/catchpole-margaret-1886

Hooper Square, Whitechapel, London

It comes as no surprise to find a Hooper Square in London. This one is much older, the earliest reference to it that we have found is in 1693/4 - in a tax record raised by King William III to fund a European war. But as yet we have found nothing to shed any light on why it's called Hooper Square.

So where is it? This map from 1837 shows Hooper Square circled in yellow  before the railways were built. The Tower of London is in the bottom left hand corner.

And this is a more detailed view in about 1914. Hooper Square has been extended to include Hooper Street which runs underneath the railway. 

The area continued to be industrial with the large railway goods area until the 1970s.  It was redeveloped in the 2000s and today there is a block of luxury flats on the site. Check this out   https://hoopersquare.com/

Hoopers Square, Rochester, Kent

The Troy Town area of Rochester was first built  between about 1800-1830. The ground was owned by John Cazeneuve Troy, a wealthy wine merchant of Chatham, who let it on building leases. To begin with there were four principal streets: King Street, Cazeneuve Street, John Street, and Union Street, but later expansion took place.  One street was called Hoopers Road, with two side streets off it,  Hoopers Place and Hoopers Square, and three separate houses known as Hooper's Cottages. We haven't yet discovered which Hooper these were named after.  Maybe he was the builder.  The earliest mention of Hoopers Square that we have found is 1858. The pub on the corner of Hooper's Place was the Bricklayers Arms, and the one on the corner of Henry Street was the Life Boat.  The houses were just ordinary workers houses. The whole area was redeveloped in the 1970s.

Hooper's Square, Kingsbridge, Devon

This last Hooper's Square is an odd one because it seems to keep changing its name. Its existence is clear from the 1881 census - there are 9 houses and the adjacent streets can be seen, which gives a rough location. But when you look at a map there is no Hooper's Square - the nearest likely place is Devon Square. And in the 1891 census it becomes clear that it is Devon Square that was named Hooper's Square in the 1881 census. There is a reference to Hooper's Square in a newspaper advert in 1868 - so we would expect to find it in the 1871 census. But no, it seems then to have been called Trinity Square. Very strange.

And here's a list of all the others we've found. There may well be more:

Hooper Avenue Wells, Somerset

Hooper Avenue Berechurch, Essex

Hooper Close Hatherleigh, Devon

Hooper Close Kempston, Bedfordshire

Hooper Close Gilwern, Monmouthshire

Hooper Close Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset

Hooper Close Highbridge, Somerset

Hooper Court Liskeard, Cornwall

Hooper Drive Abbotswood, Hampshire

Hooper Drive Hillingdon, Middlesex

Hooper Gate Milton Keynes, Bedfordshire

Hooper Lane Norwich, Norfolk

Hooper Lane Camborne, Cornwall

Hooper Road Street, Somerset

Hooper Road Bristol, Gloucestershire

Hooper Road Canning Town, London

Hooper Street Birmingham, Warwickshire

Hooper Street Cambridge, Cambridgeshire

Hooper Street Whitechapel, Middlesex

Hooper Street Manchester, Lancashire

Hooper Street Oldham, Lancashire

Hooper Street Torpoint, Cornwall

Hooper Street Stockport, Cheshire

Hoopers Barton Frome, Somerset

Hoopers Close Lewes, East Sussex

Hoopers Close Bottesford, Leicestershire

Hoopers Close Landrake, Cornwall

Hoopers Close Leigh Sinton, Worcestershire

Hoopers Lane Astwood Bank, Worcestershire

Hoopers Lane Broomfield, Kent

Hoopers Lane Stoke, Kent

Hoopers Lane Gunnislake, Cornwall

Hoopers Mews Bushey, Hertfordshire

Hoopers Place Swindon, Wiltshire

Hoopers Way Great Torrington, Devon

Hoopers Way Oakley, Hampshire

Hoopers Yard London

Hoopers Yard Stroud, Gloucestershire