A quirk of history in London’s Mayfair
Weighhouse takes its name from Weighhouse Street
A modern economy requires accurate measurements – of time, length, volume and weight.
When England introduced the short-cross silver penny in 1180, these new coins specified exact weight and purity, driving renewed efforts to improve and regulate weighing.
By 1268, City of London records show that the King’s Weigh House was already an important source of revenue for the Crown. Located on Cornhill from at least early 1500s, the King’s Weigh House relocated to Little Eastcheap following the Great Fire of London in 1666.
It was upstairs in this building that in 1695 became a meeting house for dissenters from the Church of England: the King’s Weigh House Chapel. The congregation outgrew this space and moved to a larger building on Fish Street Hill in 1834, but the construction of Monument Station in 1883 forced another relocation. A new site was found in Mayfair, at the corner of Duke Street and Robert Street. Here, a new church was built, designed by Alfred Waterhouse, the renowned architect of the Natural History Museum, and consecrated in 1891.
Robert Street was subsequently renamed Weighhouse Street, and today, the building serves as London’s Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral.