Wardour Street
Wardour Street (
History
There has been a thoroughfare on the site of Wardour Street on maps and plans since they were first printed, the earliest being
The road is also a major thoroughfare on Faithorne and Newcourt's map surveyed between 1643 and 1647. Although they do not give it a name, it is shown to have about 24 houses, and additionally a large "Gaming House" roughly on the present-day northwest corner of Leicester Square. The map also shows a large windmill, about 50 yards to the west of what is now St Anne's Church, roughly on the current alignment of Great Windmill Street.
The name Colmanhedge Lane did not last, and a 1682 map by Ogilby and Morgan shows the lane split into three parts. The northern part is shown as SO HO, the middle part Whitcomb Street and the remainder, from James Street south, is Hedge Lane. It is not clear from the map where the boundary between SO HO and Whitcombe Street is—probably somewhere between Compton Street and Gerrard Street. These three names are on the Morden and Lea map of 1682.
Wardour Street was renamed and building began in 1686, as shown by a plaque formerly on the house at the corner with Broadwick Street. Sir Edward Wardour owned land in the area, and Edward Street was what is now the stretch of Broadwick Street between Wardour Street and
By the end of the 18th century, Horwood, on a large map of 1799, uses the same names but not Old Soho and Hedge Lane. This leaves just Wardour, Princes and Whitcomb streets. The houses have individual numbers by then, and are shown in detail on Horwood's map.
The names are much the same on Greenwood's map of 1827, although the area at the southern end had been redeveloped. The road now ends at Pall Mall East, and the boundary between Wardour and Princes streets may have moved north a little.
By 1846, Cruchley's new plan of London shows change at the southern end. Wardour, Princes and Whitcomb streets stay the same; however, Whitcomb Street loses a few hundred yards at the southern end, and from James Street to Pall Mall is now Dorset Place.
In Victorian times, Princes Street is still shown on the 1871 Ordnance Survey map. Stanford's Map of Central London 1897, at 6 inches (150 mm) to a mile (1:10560), has just two names, Wardour Street from Oxford Street to Coventry Street, and Whitcomb Street south from there. It has remained like this since, though the numbering of premises was rationalised around 1896.
In the late 19th century, Wardour Street was known for (sometimes slightly shoddy) furniture stores, antique shops, and dealers in artists' supplies. A complicated succession of members of the Wright family were in business in a variety of art and furniture-related fields between 1827 and 1919 at numbers 22 (the first and last), and also 23, 26, 134 and 144, with at least two businesses run by cousins in the latter part of the century. Wright was used for picture frames by the new
20th century
During this period, it became a centre of the British film industry, with the big production and distribution companies having their headquarters in the street. By the end of the century most of the big film companies had moved elsewhere, leaving some smaller independent production houses and post-production companies still based in the area.
From 1935, the Shim Sham Club, an unlicensed jazz club popular with black and gay audiences run by
21st century
The street is home to more than 30 restaurants and bars north of Shaftesbury Avenue. South of Shaftesbury Avenue there are many well-known Chinese restaurants including the large Wong Kei at 41–43. A London County Council blue plaque on Wong Kei's commemorates costume designer and wigmaker Willy Clarkson whose business was based in the building.[5]
The street crosses, or meets with, Lisle Street, Gerrard Street, Rupert Court, Dansey Place, Shaftesbury Avenue, Winette Street, Tisbury Court, Old Compton Street, Brewer Street, Bourchier Street, Peter Street, Tyler's Court, Flaxman Court, Broadwick Street, St Anne's Court, Sheraton Street, D'Arblay Street, Hollen Street, Noel Street and Oxford Street.
See also
References
- ^ The early history of Piccadilly, Leicester square, Soho and their neighborhood: based on a plan drawn in 1585 and published by the London topographical society in 1925, pp. 118-120, google books; Encyclopedia of London, "Wardour Street"
- ^ "British picture framemakers, 1610–1950 – W", National Portrait Gallery
- ^ Archives, The National (5 February 2020). "The National Archives - The Shim Sham Club: 'London's miniature Harlem'". The National Archives blog.
- ^ "St Moritz Club". Time Out London. 26 May 2016.
- ^ "CLARKSON, WILLY (1861–1934)". English Heritage. Retrieved 18 August 2012.
External links
- LondonTown.com information
- The Bristow v Wilson Lawsuit 1585 National Archives (Kew) Item MPB 1/1
- Ogilby and Morgan 1647: Morgan's map of the whole of London in 1682 – Sheet 9
- Morden & Lea 1682 British Library Crace Collection: Maps Crace Port.2 60.
- John Stow (John Strype, editor) 1720: The Parish of St Martins in the Fields
- John Rocque 1746: London, Westminster and Southwark
- Horwood 1799: Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster, the Borough of Southwark, and Parts Adjoining
- The London Directory, Printed for R. Wilkinson 1811: The London Directory
- Greenwood 1827: Greenwood Map of London 1830
- Cruchley's New Plan of London 1827: Cruchley's New Plan of London 1827
- Stanford 1872: The School-Board Map of London, c. 1872
- Stanford 1897: Stanford's Map Of Central London 1897