Diary of John Adams, volume 3
1783-10-26
Went to London and the Post Boy carried Us to the Adelphi Buildings in the Strand, to John's Street.1
We are at Osbornes Adelphi hotel. I am obliged here to give Thirteen Shillings a day, for a Parler, a bed Chamber, and another Bed Chamber over it for my Son, without any dining Room or Antichamber. This is dearer than my Lodgings at the Hotel du Roi in Paris—half a Guinea for my bed Chamber and Parlour, and half a Crown for my Sons bed Chamber. My Servants Lodging is included in the half Guinea. The Rooms and Furniture are more to my Taste than in Paris, because they are more like what I have been used to in America.
“1783. Sunday, October 26–Went to London; and the post-boy (who upon asking where I would be carried, was answered, to the best inn in London, for 149all are alike unknown to me) carried us to the Adelphi Buildings in the Strand. Whether it was the boy's cunning, or whether it was mere chance, I know not; but I found myself in a street which was marked John‘s-street,' the postilion turned a corner, and I was in ‘Adams-street.' He turned another corner, and I was in ‘John Adams-street.' I thought surely we are arrived in fairy land. How can all this be?” (JA in the
Boston Patriot, 6 May 1812).
The Adelphi Buildings had been erected in 1768 by the Adam brothers on arches thrown over the slope below the Strand to the Thames, and handsome streets, some of them named for the builders, were laid out around them (Wheatley, London Past and Present
, 1:4–7).