Beak Street is a street in

Soho SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...

, London, that runs roughly east–west between

Regent Street Regent Street is a major shopping street in the West End of London. It is named after George IV of the United Kingdom, George, the Prince Regent (later George IV) and was laid out under the direction of the architect John Nash (architect), J ...

and Lexington Street.

Location

On its south side, Beak Street is joined by Warwick Street, Upper John Street, Upper James Street, Bridle Lane and

Great Pulteney Street Great Pulteney Street is a grand thoroughfare that connects Bathwick on the east of the River Avon with the City of Bath, England via the Robert Adam designed Pulteney Bridge. Viewed from the city side of the bridge the road leads directly to t ...

. On its north side, Beak Street is joined by

Kingly Street Kingly Street is a street in London's Soho district. It runs north to south from Liberty's and Foubert's Place to Beak Street, in parallel to, and between, Regent Street and Carnaby Street. Known as King Street until 1906, the first buildin ...

, Kingly Court,

Carnaby Street Carnaby Street is a Pedestrian zone, pedestrianised shopping street in Soho in the City of Westminster, Central London. Close to Oxford Street and Regent Street, it is home to fashion and lifestyle retailers, including many independent fashion ...

, and Marshall Street. Beak Street is a one-way street for traffic.

History

The section between Regent and Warwick streets were once part of an ancient city highway that ran from

Piccadilly Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, England, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road (England), A4 road that connects central London to ...

Oxford Circus Oxford Circus is a road junction connecting Oxford Street and Regent Street in the West End of London. It is also the entrance to Oxford Circus tube station. The junction opened in 1819 as part of the Regent Street development under John Nash ( ...

. The street is named after Thomas Beake, later one of the Queen's messengers, who, in the late 17th century, obtained the land on the north side, between Regent and Kingly streets. The name Beak Street first appeared in the ratebooks for 1689, and in 1691 it was ordered that the street be paved with stone. The remaining section was known as ''Silver Street'' until 1883, and was part of ''Gelding Close'' until Bridle Lane, where, as Silver Street, it was part of the 'Pulteney estate'.

Inhabitants

The painter Antonio Canaletto lived at number 41 between 1749 and 1752. Artist's model Betty May, and her husband Raoul Loveday who died at Aleister's Crowley Abbey of Thelema in 1923, lived in Beak Street for a time in 1922 before they went to Sicily."Betty May was an early Soho legend"
by Celine Hispiche in

'', No. 156, Spring 2014, p. 6. In 1936, the first classes of the new London Theatre Studio took place in rooms in Beak Street which had once been used as practice rooms by

Serge Diaghilev Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev ( ; rus, Серге́й Па́влович Дя́гилев, , sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈdʲæɡʲɪlʲɪf; 19 August 1929), also known as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario an ...

Listed buildings

There are a number of

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

s in Beak Street. Numbers 19, 21, 23, 41 and 43, 73, 77, and 79 are all listed with

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

References

External links

Streets in the City of Westminster Streets in Soho {{London-geo-stub