Wardour Street

Wardour Street, looking north from outside St Anne's Church

Wardour Street(/ˈwɔːrdɔːr/) is a street inSoho,City of Westminster, London. It is aone-way streetthat runs north fromLeicester Square,throughChinatown,acrossShaftesbury AvenuetoOxford Street.Throughout the 20th century theWest Endstreet became a centre for the British film industry and thepopular musicscene.

History

There has been a thoroughfare on the site of Wardour Street on maps and plans since they were first printed, the earliest beingElizabethan.In 1585, to settle a legal dispute, a plan of what is now the West End was prepared. The dispute was about a field roughly whereBroadwick Streetis today. The plan was very accurate and clearly gives the nameColmanhedge Laneto this major route across the fields from what is described as "The Waye fromVxbridgeto London "(Oxford Street) to what is nowCockspur Street.The old plan shows that this lane follows the modern road almost exactly, including bends atBrewer StreetandOld Compton Street.

The road is also a major thoroughfare onFaithorneandNewcourt'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 ofLeicester Square.The map also shows a large windmill, about 50 yards to the west of what is nowSt Anne's Church,roughly on the current alignment ofGreat Windmill Street.

Changes of the street's name and extent since 1585

The nameColmanhedge Lanedid not last, and a 1682 map byOgilbyandMorganshows the lane split into three parts. The northern part is shown asSO HO,the middle partWhitcomb Streetand the remainder, from James Street south, isHedge Lane.It is not clear from the map where the boundary betweenSO HOandWhitcombe Streetis—probably somewhere between Compton Street andGerrard Street.These three names are on theMordenand 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, andEdward Streetwas what is now the stretch of Broadwick Street between Wardour Street andBerwick Street,as shown by Roque. Neither side of the street was fully built up by 1720.John Rocqueshows both roads very clearly on hislarge-scale map of 1746.From Oxford Street south toMeard Streetis nowWardour Street;then south to Compton Street isOld Soho;then down toCoventry StreetisPrinces Street.For the length of Leicester Square it isWhicomb Streetand finallyHedge Lane,which now starts at Panton Street rather than James Street.

By the end of the 18th century,Horwood,on a large map of 1799, uses the same names but notOld SohoandHedge Lane.This leaves justWardour,PrincesandWhitcombstreets. The houses have individual numbers by then, and are shown in detail on Horwood's map.

The names are much the same onGreenwood's map of 1827, although the area at the southern end had been redeveloped. The road now ends atPall MallEast, and the boundary betweenWardourandPrincesstreets may have moved north a little.

By 1846,Cruchley's new plan of London shows change at the southern end.Wardour,PrincesandWhitcombstreets stay the same; however,Whitcomb Streetloses a few hundred yards at the southern end, and from James Street to Pall Mall is nowDorset Place.

In Victorian times,Princes Streetis still shown on the 1871Ordnance Surveymap.Stanford's Map of Central London 1897, at 6 inches (150 mm) to a mile (1:10560), has just two names,Wardour Streetfrom Oxford Street to Coventry Street, andWhitcomb Streetsouth 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 newNational Galleryfrom at least 1856, when they made the large new frame fortheAdoration of the MagibyPaolo Veronesethat is still in place.The phrase "Wardour Street English"denotes the use of near-obsolete words for effect, such asanent(apreposition,meaning 'concerning'); this derives from the once great number ofantiqueshops in the area. The Paris-bornluthierGeorges Chanot IIIhad a shop and violin-making business at no. 157 for many years.

20th century

Film House at 142 Wardour Street, formerly the headquarters of the Associated-British Pathé film company

During this period, it became a centre of theBritish 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 andpost-productioncompanies still based in the area.

From 1935, the Shim Sham Club, an unlicensed jazz club popular with black and gay audiences run byIke Hatch,and its successor the Rainbow Roof, were at 37 Wardour Street.The Flamingo Clubwas situated at numbers 33-37 from 1957 until 1967. The Vortex Club at 203 Wardour Street is mentioned in a song bythe Jam,"A-Bomb in Wardour Street". Based in the discothèque Crackers, in 1977 the club hosted early concerts by punk bands such asSiouxsie and the Banshees,the SlitsandAdam and the Ants.From 1964 to 1988, number 90 was the site of theMarquee Club,and since the late 1960s, number 159 has been the home of the St Moritz nightclub.TheEric Gilder School of Musicwas at 195 Wardour Street (its original building is now demolished).

21st century

The former premises ofWilly Clarksonon Wardour Street

The street is home to more than 30 restaurants and bars north ofShaftesbury Avenue.South of Shaftesbury Avenue there are many well-known Chinese restaurants including the largeWong Keiat 41–43. ALondon County Councilblue plaqueon Wong Kei's commemorates costume designer and wigmakerWilly Clarksonwhose business was based in the building.

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

• List of eponymous roads in London
• Wardour Street English

External links

• LondonTown 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",Old London Maps
• John Rocque, 1746: "London, Westminster and Southwark",MOTCO
• Horwood, 1799: "Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster, the Borough of Southwark, and Parts Adjoining. Showing Every House",Old London Maps
• Printed for R. Wilkinson, 1811:The London Directory, or a New & Improved Plan of London, Westminster, & Southwark; with the Adjacent Country, the New Buildings, the New Roads, and the alterations by the Opening of New Streets, & Widening, of Others.,Old London Maps
• "Greenwood Map of London 1830",MOTCO
• "Cruchley's New Plan of London 1827",MAPCO
• Stanford, 1872: "The School-Board Map of London, c. 1872",Old London Maps
• "Stanford's Map Of Central London 1897",MAPCO