Bit more of Wardour Street

Wardour Street


Wardour Street derives its name from Edward Wardour, who owned the freehold of Colman Hedge Close. The street developed out of an ancient highway known as Colman Hedge Lane which extended from the Mews (formerly on the site of the National Gallery) to Tyburn Road (now Oxford Street). The southern end of this lane is now known as Whitcomb Street. The stretch between Coventry Street and Old Compton Street has formed part of Wardour Street since 1878, but was previously known as Princes Street and is so marked on the 1746 edition of Rocque's map.

The upper part of Colman Hedge Lane was known as Soho or Soho Street from the fields which bordered its eastern side. The name Wardour Street first appears in the ratebooks in 1689 and applied only to this part of the lane. Nevertheless 'Soho' as a name for this part of Colman Hedge Lane persisted and in July 1691 there is a reference to 'Old Soho, otherwise Wardour Street' in the Middlesex Sessions records, when the street was ordered to be paved. (ref. 22) This older name remained in use until at least 1746, when that part of the modern Wardour Street between Peter Street and Winnett Street is marked as 'Old Soho' on Rocque's map. In 1878 the name Wardour Street was extended to include Princes Street and the whole length of Colman Hedge Lane from Coventry Street to Oxford Street became known by its present name.

Only the western side of Wardour Street is described in the present volume, all the land to the east being in the adjoining parish of St. Anne, Soho. The west side of the street was bordered by four separate fields (see fig. 2)—Doghouse Close (Chapter XV), Colman Hedge Close (described here), Laystall Piece or Knaves' Acre (Chapter IX) and Vesey's Garden and Watts's Close (Chapter VIII).

Ogilby and Morgan's map (Plate 3a) shows that most of the part of the street described in this chapter had been developed by 1681–2. Building tradesmen to whom sub-leases were granted of land in Colman Hedge Close fronting the street between 1685 and 1689 include Nicholas Stone and John Marriott, bricklayers, Richard Tyler, brickmaker and William Oram, plasterer. (ref. 23) Many of the buildings now standing in this section of the street were erected in the 1920's and 30's for the film corporations with which Wardour Street is now associated; none of them is of interest.

Few large houses were built in Wardour Street and the street never seems to have had any pretensions to fashion, the inhabitants being chiefly tradesmen and innkeepers. In the early nineteenth century it was famous for its bookshops, much frequented by Charles Lamb. Later it 'became a by-word and a proverb, as the headquarters of curiosity-shops, antique and modern, genuine and fictitious'. (ref. 24) In the present century Wardour Street has become a centre for the music-publishing business, and more especially, the film-making industry.

From: 'Broadwick and Peter Street Area', Survey of London: volumes 31 and 32: St James Westminster, Part 2 (1963), pp. 219-229. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=41473&strquery=wardour street Date accessed: 18 February 2010.