Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the
West End of London
The West End of London (commonly referred to as the West End) is a district of Central London, west of the City of London and north of the River Thames, in which many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government build ...
, in the
City of Westminster.
Oxford Street
Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and ...
, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary.
An
ancient parish and latterly a
metropolitan borough, it merged with the boroughs of
Westminster and
Paddington to form the new
City of Westminster in 1965.
Marylebone station
Marylebone station ( ) is a Central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the Marylebone area of the City of Westminster. On the National Rail network it is also known as London Marylebone and is the southern ter ...
lies two miles north-west of
Charing Cross.
History
Marylebone was originally an
Ancient Parish formed to serve the manors (landholdings) of Lileston (in the west, which gives its name to modern
Lisson Grove
Lisson Grove is a street and district in Marylebone, City of Westminster, London. The neighbourhood contains a few important cultural landmarks, including Lisson Gallery, Alfies Antique Market, Red Bus Recording Studios, the former Christ Chu ...
) and
Tyburn in the east. The parish is likely to have been in place since at least the twelfth century and will have used the boundaries of the pre-existing manors. The boundaries of the parish were consistent from the late twelfth century to the creation of the Metropolitan Borough which succeeded it.
Etymology
The parish took its name from its church, dedicated to St Mary; the original church was built on the bank of a small stream or "
bourne", called the Tybourne or
Tyburn. This stream rose further north in (
Hampstead), eventually running along what became
Marylebone Lane
Marylebone Lane is one of the original streets of the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster, London. It runs from Oxford Street in the south to Marylebone High Street in the north, its winding shape following the course of the River Tybu ...
, which preserves its curve within the grid pattern. The original name of the parish was simply Marybourne, the stream of St Mary; the French "le" appeared in the 17th century, under the influence of names like
Mary-le-Bow. The suggestion that the name derives from ''Marie la Bonne'', or "Mary the Good", is not substantiated.
Manors of Tyburn and Lileston
Both manors were mentioned in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
of 1086. Domesday recorded eight households in each manor, implying a combined population of less than a hundred.
At Domesday the Manor of Lilestone was valued at 60
shillings and owned by a woman called Ediva. Tyburn was a possession of the Nunnery of
Barking Abbey
Barking Abbey is a former royal monastery located in Barking, in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. It has been described as having been "one of the most important nunneries in the country".
Originally established in the 7th century, f ...
and valued at 52 shillings. The ownership of both manors was the same as it had been before the Conquest.
Lilestone became the property of the
Knights Templar until their suppression in 1312. It then passed to the
Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, whose name is the origin of the place name
St John's Wood
St John's Wood is a district in the City of Westminster, London, lying 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Traditionally the northern part of the ancient parish and Metropolitan Borough of Marylebone, it extends east to west from ...
.
Early in the 13th century Tyburn was held by
Robert de Vere, 3rd Earl of Oxford. At the end of the 15th century
Thomas Hobson bought up the greater part of the manor; in 1544 his son Thomas exchanged it with Henry VIII, who enclosed the northern part of the manor as a
deer park, the distant origin of
Regent's Park
Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies of high ground in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden (and historically betwee ...
. Lilestone Manor also passed into the hands of the Crown at this time.
Tyburn manor remained with the Crown until the southern part was sold in 1611 by James I, who retained the deer park, to Edward Forest, who had held it as a fixed rental under Elizabeth I. Forest's manor of Marylebone then passed by marriage to the Austen family. The deer park, Marylebone Park Fields, was let out in small holdings for hay and dairy produce.
[B. Weinreb and C. Hibbert, eds (1995), ''The London Encyclopedia'', Macmillan ]
Shifting parish church
The Ancient Parish's church,
St Marylebone Parish Church
St Marylebone Parish Church is an Anglican church on the Marylebone Road in London. It was built to the designs of Thomas Hardwick in 1813–17. The present site is the third used by the parish for its church. The first was further south, near Ox ...
, has been rebuilt several times at various locations within the parish. The earliest known church dedicated to
St John the Evangelist was established by Barking Abbey, which held Manor of Tyburn, at an unknown date, but probably sometime in the 12th century. This church was located on the north side of Oxford Street, probably near the junction with Marylebone Lane. This site was subject to regular robbery and in 1400 a new church was built, around 900 metres further north. and given the name ''St Mary by the Bourne''. This church was rebuilt in 1740 with a new building erected a little further north in 1817.
Urbanisation
In 1710,
John Holles, Duke of Newcastle, purchased the manor for £17,500, and his daughter and heir,
Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holles, by her marriage to
Edward Harley, Earl of Oxford, passed it into the family of the Earl of Oxford, one of whose titles was Lord Harley of Wigmore. She and the earl, realising the need for fashionable housing north of the Oxford Road (now Oxford St), commissioned the surveyor and builder John Prince to draw a master plan that set
Cavendish Square in a rational grid system of streets.
The Harley heiress Lady Margaret Cavendish Harley married
William, 2nd Duke of Portland, and took the property, including
Marylebone High Street
Marylebone High Street is a shopping street in London, running sub-parallel to Baker Street and terminating at its northern end at the junction with Marylebone Road. Given its secluded location, the street has been described as "the hidden wonde ...
, into the Bentinck family. Such place names in the neighbourhood as
Cavendish Square and
Portland Place reflect the
Dukes of Portland
Earl of Portland is a title that has been created twice in the Peerage of England, firstly in 1633 and secondly in 1689. What proved to be a long co-held title, Duke of Portland, was created in 1716 and became extinct in 1990 upon the death of t ...
landholdings and Georgian-era developments there. In 1879 the fifth Duke died without issue and the estate passed through the female line to his sister, Lucy Joan Bentinck, widow of the 6th
Baron Howard de Walden
Baron Howard de Walden is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created by writ of summons in 1597 by Queen Elizabeth I for Admiral Lord Thomas Howard, a younger son of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, by his second wife, the Honourabl ...
.
Most of the Manor of Lileston was acquired by
Sir William Portman in 1554, and much of this was developed by his descendants as the
Portman Estate in the late 1700s. Both estates have aristocratic antecedents and are still run by members of the aforementioned families. The
Howard de Walden Estate owns, leases and manages the majority of the of real estate in Marylebone which comprises the area from Marylebone High Street in the west to
Robert Adam
Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him. With his ...
's
Portland Place in the east and from
Wigmore Street
Wigmore Street is a street in the City of Westminster, in the West End of London. The street runs for about 600 yards parallel and to the north of Oxford Street between Portman Square to the west and Cavendish Square to the east. It is named aft ...
in the south to
Marylebone Road in the north.
Social history
In the 18th century the area was known for the raffish entertainments in
Marylebone Gardens
Marylebone Gardens or Marybone Gardens was a London pleasure garden sited in the grounds of the old manor house of Marylebone and frequented from the mid-17th century, when Marylebone was a village separated from London by fields and market ga ...
, the scene of
bear-baiting and prize fights by members of both sexes, and for the duelling grounds in Marylebone Fields. The
Marylebone Cricket Club, for many years the governing body of world cricket, was formed in 1787 and initially based at
Dorset Fields before moving a short distance to its current home at
Lord's Cricket Ground in 1814. Lord's is also home to
Middlesex County Cricket Club and the
England and Wales Cricket Board
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the national governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was formed on 1 January 1997 as a single governing body to combine the roles formerly fulfilled by the Test and County Cricket Board, ...
, with the England national team as one of a number of home venues. The ground is nicknamed ''the Home of Cricket''.
Coat of Arms
The Borough of St Marylebone was granted a
coat of arms by the
College of Arms in 1901. The crest includes the Virgin Mary wearing a silver robe with a light blue mantle, holding the infant Jesus, dressed in gold. The wavy light blue bars represent the
River Tyburn while the gold roses and lilies are taken from the arms of
Barking Abbey
Barking Abbey is a former royal monastery located in Barking, in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. It has been described as having been "one of the most important nunneries in the country".
Originally established in the 7th century, f ...
, which held the Manor of Tyburn and first established the parish church. The version used by the Abbey was placed against a red border, and some versions of Marylebone's arms have made extensive use of red. The roses and lilies ultimately derive from the legend that when Mary's tomb was opened it contained those flowers.
The motto "Fiat secundum Verbum Tuum" is Latin for "let it be according to thy word", a phrase used in the
Gospel of Luke.
Latter administrative history
The
Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone was a
metropolitan borough of the
County of London between 1899 and 1965, after which, with the
Metropolitan Borough of Paddington
Paddington was a civil parish and metropolitan borough in London, England. It was an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, governed by an administrative vestry. The parish was included in the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board ...
and the
Metropolitan Borough of Westminster it was merged into the
City of Westminster. The Metropolitan Borough inherited the boundaries of the Ancient Parish which had been fixed since at least the 12th century.
Marylebone Town Hall
Marylebone Town Hall, also known as the Westminster Council House, is a municipal building on Marylebone Road in Marylebone, London. The complex includes the council chamber, the Westminster Register Office and an educational facility known as t ...
was completed in 1920.
20th century
Marylebone was the scene of the
Balcombe Street siege
The Balcombe Street siege was an incident involving members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and London's Metropolitan Police lasting from 6 to 12 December 1975. The siege ended with the surrender of the four IRA members and the r ...
in 1975, when
Provisional Irish Republican Army terrorists held two people hostage for almost a week.
Streets
Marylebone is characterised by major streets on a grid pattern such as Gloucester Place,
Baker Street,
Marylebone High Street
Marylebone High Street is a shopping street in London, running sub-parallel to Baker Street and terminating at its northern end at the junction with Marylebone Road. Given its secluded location, the street has been described as "the hidden wonde ...
,
Wimpole Street
Wimpole Street is a street in Marylebone, central London. Located in the City of Westminster, it is associated with private medical practice and medical associations. No. 1 Wimpole Street is an example of Edwardian baroque architecture, comple ...
,
Harley Street and
Portland Place, with smaller
mews between the major streets.
Mansfield Street is a short continuation of Chandos Street built by the Adam brothers in 1770, on a plot of ground which had been underwater. Most of its houses are fine buildings with exquisite interiors, which if put on the market now would have an expected price in excess of £10 million. At Number 13 lived religious architect
John Loughborough Pearson who died in 1897, and designer of
Castle Drogo
Castle Drogo is a country house and mixed-revivalist castle near Drewsteignton, Devon, England. Constructed between 1911 and 1930, it was the last castle to be built in England. The client was Julius Drewe, the hugely successful founder of the ...
and New Delhi
Sir Edwin Lutyens
Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memoria ...
, who died in 1944. Immediately across the road at 61
New Cavendish Street lived Natural History Museum creator
Alfred Waterhouse.
Queen Anne Street is an elegant cross-street which unites the northern end of Chandos Street with Welbeck Street. The painter
J. M. W. Turner moved to 47 Queen Anne Street in 1812 from 64 Harley Street, now divided into numbers 22 and 23, and owned the house until his death in 1851. It was known as "Turner's Den", becoming damp, dilapidated, dusty, dirty, with dozens of Turner's works of art now in the National Gallery scattered throughout the house, walls covered in tack holes and a drawing room inhabited by cats with no tails.
During the same period a few hundred yards to the east,
Chandos House in Chandos Street was used as the
Austro-Hungarian Embassy and residence of the fabulously extravagant Ambassador Prince Paul Anton III Esterhazy, seeing entertainment on a most lavish scale. The building is one of the finest surviving Adam houses in London, and now lets rooms.
Wimpole Street runs from Henrietta Place north to Devonshire Street, becoming Upper Wimpole en route – the latter where
Arthur Conan Doyle opened his ophthalmic practice at number 2 in 1891; Conann-Doyle's fictional detective
Sherlock Holmes also had his residence in Marylebone at
221b Baker Street
221B Baker Street is the London address of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, created by author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In the United Kingdom, postal addresses with a number followed by a letter may indicate a separate address within a ...
. Nearby at a six-floor Grade II 18th-century house at 57 Wimpole Street is where
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...
resided from 1964 to 1966, staying on the top floor of girlfriend
Jane Asher
Jane Asher (born 5 April 1946)The International Who's Who of Women, 3rd edition, ed. Elizabeth Sleeman, Europa Publications, 2002, p. 29 is an English actress and author. She achieved early fame as a child actress and has worked extensively in f ...
's family home in a room overlooking Browning Mews in the back, and with
John Lennon writing "
I Want to Hold Your Hand
"I Want to Hold Your Hand" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and recorded on 17 October 1963, it was the first Beatles record to be made using four-track equipment.
With advance orders ...
" on a piano in the basement. A further Beatles connection is that they, and many other musicians have recorded at the
Abbey Road Studios. At her father's house at number 50 Wimpole Street lived for some time between 1840 and 1845, Elizabeth Barrett, then known as the author of a volume of poems, and who afterwards escaped and was better known as
Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Today, at the bottom end of Wimpole at Wigmore can be found a sandwich shop named Barrett's.
Bentinck Street leaves Welbeck Street and touches the middle of winding
Marylebone Lane
Marylebone Lane is one of the original streets of the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster, London. It runs from Oxford Street in the south to Marylebone High Street in the north, its winding shape following the course of the River Tybu ...
.
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
lived at number 18 with his indebted father (on whom the character Wilkins Micawber was based) while working as a court reporter in the 1830s, and
Edward Gibbon wrote much of ''The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' while living at number 7 from the early 1770s.
James Smithson wrote the will that led to the foundation of the Smithsonian Institution while living at
number 9 in 1826, while number 10 was briefly graced by Chopin in 1848, who found his apartment too expensive and moved to Mayfair. More recently, Cambridge spies
Anthony Blunt and
Guy Burgess lived at 5 Bentinck Street during the Second World War. In 1960s two-some
John Dunbar and TV repairman "
Magic Alex
Yannis (later John) Alexis Mardas ( el, Αλέξης Μάρδας; 2 May 1942 – 13 January 2017), also known as Magic Alex, was a Greek electronics engineer who was closely associated with the Beatles. His nickname was given to him by John Le ...
" lived on the street, where the former introduced the latter to John Lennon in 1967.
Princess Alexandra, 2nd Duchess of Fife, who was a qualified nurse, founded a nursing home in Bentinck Street, and served as its matron.
Manchester Square, west of Bentinck Street, has a central private garden with handsome plane trees, laid out in 1776. The mansion on the north side of the square, now the home of the
Wallace Collection, once housed the Spanish ambassador, whose chapel was in
Spanish Place. From the north-west corner is Manchester Street, final home of Georgian-era prophet
Joanna Southcott
Joanna Southcott (or Southcote; April 1750 – 26 December 1814) was a self-described religious prophetess from Devon, England. A "Southcottian" movement continued in various forms after her death; its eighth prophet, Mabel Barltrop, died i ...
, who died there in 1814.
Marylebone has some
Beatles heritage, with John Lennon's flat at 34 Montagu Square, and the original Apple Corps headquarters at 95 Wigmore Street.
Bulstrode Street, small and charming, is named after a Portman family estate in Buckinghamshire, itself named after a local family there made-good in Tudor days. Tucked away, with a few terraced houses, Bulstrode Street has been the home of minor health care professionals for hundreds of years. The RADA student and aspiring actress
Vivien Leigh, aged twenty in 1933, gave birth at the Rahere Nursing Home, then at number 8, to her first child.
The north end of Welbeck Street joins New Cavendish Street, the name of which changed from Upper Marylebone Street after
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. Number 13 in New Cavendish Street, at its junction with Welbeck Street and on the corner of Marylebone Street, was the birthplace in 1882 of the orchestral conductor
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski (18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was a British conductor. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra and his appear ...
, the son of a Polish cabinet maker. He sang as a boy in the choir of St Marylebone Church.
At the northern end of Marylebone High Street towards the Marylebone Road there is an area with a colourful history, which includes the former Marylebone Gardens, whose entertainments including bare-knuckle fighting, a cemetery, a workhouse, and the areas frequented by
Charles Wesley
Charles Wesley (18 December 1707 – 29 March 1788) was an English leader of the Methodist movement. Wesley was a prolific hymnwriter who wrote over 6,500 hymns during his lifetime. His works include "And Can It Be", "Christ the Lord Is Risen T ...
, all shut down by the close of the 18th century, where today there are mansion blocks and upper-end retail.
At No. 1 Dorset Street resided mid-Victorian scientist
Charles Babbage, inventor of the analytical engine. Babbage complained that two adjacent hackney-coach stands in Paddington Street ruined the neighbourhood, leading to the establishment of coffee and beer shops, and furthermore, the character of the new population could be inferred from the taste they exhibited for the noisiest and most discordant music. An acclaimed international venue for chamber music, the
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a concert hall located at 36 Wigmore Street, London. Originally called Bechstein Hall, it specialises in performances of chamber music, early music, vocal music and song recitals. It is widely regarded as one of the world's leadi ...
, opened at 36 Wigmore Street in 1901. It hosts over 500 concerts each year.
The Marylebone Low Emission Neighbourhood was established in 2016 to improve the air quality of the area. Westminster City Council in partnership with local residents, businesses and stakeholders completed a green grid of 800 new trees on Marylebone's streets in 2019.
Representation
The area was represented by the
St Marylebone UK Parliament constituency between 1918 and 1983.
The area is currently divided between the
Cities of London and Westminster and
Westminster North parliamentary constituencies. These are represented by
Nickie Aiken and
Karen Buck
Karen Patricia Buck (born 30 August 1958) is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Westminster North, previously Regent's Park and Kensington North, since 1997. A member of the Labour Party, she was Parliamentary Und ...
respectively.
Geography
The Parish and Borough was bounded by two Roman Roads,
Oxford Street
Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and ...
to the south and
Watling Street (
Edgware Road
Edgware Road is a major road in London, England. The route originated as part of Roman Watling Street and, unusually in London, it runs for 10 miles in an almost perfectly straight line. Forming part of the modern A5 road, Edgware Road undergoes ...
) to the west, and positioned on both side of the former
River Tyburn which flowed from north to south. To the north (Boundary Road in St John's Wood) and east (running through
Regent's Park
Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies of high ground in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden (and historically betwee ...
and along
Cleveland Street), the area's boundaries have been inherited as part of the north and eastern boundary of the modern
City of Westminster.
This area includes localities such as
St John's Wood
St John's Wood is a district in the City of Westminster, London, lying 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Traditionally the northern part of the ancient parish and Metropolitan Borough of Marylebone, it extends east to west from ...
,
Lisson Grove
Lisson Grove is a street and district in Marylebone, City of Westminster, London. The neighbourhood contains a few important cultural landmarks, including Lisson Gallery, Alfies Antique Market, Red Bus Recording Studios, the former Christ Chu ...
and East Marylebone. East Marylebone has since the 1970s been viewed as a part of
Fitzrovia
Fitzrovia () is a district of central London, England, near the West End. The eastern part of area is in the London Borough of Camden, and the western in the City of Westminster. It has its roots in the Manor of Tottenham Court, and was urban ...
.
Local places of interest include Marylebone Village, most of
Regent's Park
Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies of high ground in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden (and historically betwee ...
,
Marylebone Station
Marylebone station ( ) is a Central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the Marylebone area of the City of Westminster. On the National Rail network it is also known as London Marylebone and is the southern ter ...
,
Lord's Cricket Ground the home of the
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the original site of the MCC at Dorset Square.
Areas and features of Marylebone include:
*
All Souls Church, Langham Place (designed by
John Nash)
*
Baker Street (including the fictitious
221B Baker Street
221B Baker Street is the London address of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, created by author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In the United Kingdom, postal addresses with a number followed by a letter may indicate a separate address within a ...
)
*
Broadcasting House (
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, demolished in 1961.
, English romantic poet, born in Marylebone and baptised St Marylebone Parish Church.
, English writer, lived in 1 Devonshire Terrace, a building that was demolished in the 1950s.
” whilst living at 57 Wimpole Street.
.
(comprehensive specialist school in Performing Arts, Maths & Computing for girls founded in 1791)
*
by G. E. Mitton at
The amenities society for Marylebone representing its residents, businesses and people who live and/or work in Marylebone. The Association's area is bounded by Oxford Street (South), Edgware Road (West), Marylebone Road (North) and Great Portland Street (East).
is the designated neighbourhood planning forum for the area of Marylebone.
{{Authority control