Hallam Street

Hallam Street

Tree lined Hallam Street
Former name(s) Charlotte Street
Duke Street
Length 0.3 mi (0.5 km)
Postal code W1W
Coordinates 51°31′17″N 0°08′38″W / 51.5213°N 0.1439°W
south end Broadcasting House
Langham Street
north end no junction
View of Hallam Street in Marylebone, London

Hallam Street is a road situated in the Parish of St Marylebone and London’s West End. In administrative terms it lies within the City of Westminster's Marylebone High Street Ward as well as the Harley Street Conservation Area.[1] Formerly named both Charlotte Street and Duke Street,[2] it was renamed in the early 1900s after Henry Hallam (1777–1859), a noted historian who had been a local resident, and his son Arthur Henry Hallam (1811–1833), poet and the subject of Tennyson's elegy In Memoriam.[3]

History

Hallam Street is situated within the boundaries of the ancient Manor of St Marylebone. The history of the Manor can be traced back to the Domesday Book in the 11th century, when the area was divided into two manors: Lilestone and Tyburn. Much of the area was covered with forest and marshland and formed part of the great forest of Middlesex.[4]

Like the better known Portland Place and Great Portland Street, Hallam Street was originally developed by the Dukes of Portland, who owned most of the eastern half of Marylebone in the 18th and 19th centuries. Richard Horwood’s 1790s map of London shows that Charlotte Street had by then been laid out exactly as Hallam Street is today.[5] Maps from that period show houses lining the entire length of the street by that time. In the late 19th/early 20th century, following the expiration of individual buildings’ 99-year leases, Hallam Street was redeveloped and many of its original Georgian houses[6] were replaced by larger mansion and office blocks.

Buildings and notable residents

Hallam Street, view south from Weymouth Street
Blitz damage to Hallam Street

The street has buildings of mainly five to eight storeys with a strong residential presence.[7] Notable residents who lived for a time in the street include the Pre-Raphaelite artist and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882), the painters John Sell Cotman (1782-1842), Cornelius Varley (1781-1873),[8] Sir Peter Francis Bourgeois(1753–1811), dominatrix Theresa Berkley (d.1836), the writer William Gerhardi (1895–1977), the conductor and founder of The Proms Sir Henry Joseph Wood (1869–1944),[9] American journalist and broadcaster Edward R Murrow (1908–1965), World War Two hero Wing Commander Forest Frederick Edward Yeo-Thomas (1901–1964), the radio and television writer Ernest Dudley (1908–2006), and the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig (1881–1942).

Numbers 44 and 50 Hallam Street, originally the offices of the General Medical Council, received Grade II designation in 1954. A large number of the street’s buildings have been characterised as “unlisted buildings of merit” in the Harley Street Conservation Area Audit[10] and are either part of the Howard de Walden Estate[11] (originally the Portland Estate)[12] or the Langham Estate (also once part of the Howard de Walden Estate).[13][14]

Broadcasting House at the South end of Hallam St, London W1W

Hallam Street contains a number of institutional buildings (including the BBC’s Broadcasting House) from the Edwardian and inter-war periods. Blitz bomb damage was extensive at the south end of the street, its synagogue was also destroyed while other buildings experienced blast damage.[15]

The redevelopment of Broadcasting House, whose modern rear elevation lies on Hallam Street, is now complete. Its redevelopment is the BBC's single largest capital project ever, has created a new centre for radio, news and world service in the heart of London.[16] The BBC's facilities, a majority of the street's office buildings and its two hotels lie at the southern end of the street.

Notable buildings

There are a number of notable buildings on this Marylebone Street:

Other buildings with elevations on Hallam Street


Transport

The nearest London Underground stations to Hallam Street are Oxford Circus, Great Portland Street, and Regents Park tube stations. Buses numbered 88, C2, 18, 27, 30, 205, 189, 3, 12, and 55 stop within a close distance (<5 minutes walk) from Hallam Street.[17]

See also

External links


References

  1. "Harley Street Conservation Area Map September 2007". Westminster City Council. Retrieved 2010-05-21.
  2. "Marylebone District Map 1902". Gutenberg Project: Charles and Adam Black. Retrieved 2010-05-20.
  3. "Henry Hallam entry in Classic Encyclopedia October 2006". www.1911encyclopedia.org. Retrieved 2010-05-21.
  4. "Harley Street Conservation Area Audit 2008". Westminster City Council. Retrieved 2010-05-21.
  5. "Horwood's Plan of the Cities of London and Westminster 1792-1799". Old London Maps Com. Retrieved 2010-05-21.
  6. "Georgian Architecture". Wikipedia. Retrieved 2010-05-21.
  7. Image catalogue of Hallam St 2011 http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/577048690pTElbR
  8. Gordon Mackenzie, Marylebone - Great City North of Oxford Street, Macmillan; 1st Edition (2 Nov 1972)
  9. David Brandon and Alan Brook, Marylebone & Tyburn Past - An illustrated history of this wealthy suburb. Historical Publications, 2007
  10. "WCC Conservation Area Audit June 2008". Westminster City Council. Retrieved 2010-05-21.
  11. "The Howard de Walden Estate from 1086 to present day". Howard de Walden Estate. Retrieved 2010-05-21.
  12. "History of Harley Street Area". Harley Street Guide. Retrieved 2010-05-21.
  13. "History of Langham Estate". Langham Estate. Retrieved 2010-05-22.
  14. Revealed Samuel Tak Lee: the secretive tycoon who controls a huge swathe of the West End, Evening Standard, 13 June 2003, p.19
  15. http://www.westendatwar.org.uk/page_id__117_path__0p2p.aspx West End at War web site, Bomb Damage File Nos. 105, 489, 491 & 549 of 1940-41, and Bomb Damage Maps, Westminster City Council Archive Centre, London, England
  16. "New Broadcasting House". BBC British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2010-05-23.
  17. "Transport for London - Bus Routes May 2010". Transport for London. Retrieved 2010-05-23.