Wardour Street in a street in Soho, London. It is a one-way street south to north from Leicester Square, through Chinatown, then across Shaftesbury Avenue to Oxford Street.
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History
It is named after Sir Archibald Wardour, who was the architect of several buildings on the street. There has been a thoroughfare here on maps and plans since they were first printed, the earliest being Elizabethan.
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 where Broadwick Street is today. The plan was very accurate and clearly gives the name Colmanhedge Lane to this major route across the fields described as “The Waye from Vxbridge to London” (Oxford St) to what is now Cockspur St. The old plan shows that this lane follows the modern road almost exactly, including bends at Brewer and Old Compton Streets.
The road is also a major thoroughfare on Faithorne and Newcourt’s map surveyed between 1643 and 1647. Although they do not give a name, it has about 24 houses, and a large “Gaming House” roughly on the site of the Odeon cinema on the north west corner of Leicester Square. The map also shows a large windmill, 40-50 yards to the west of what is now the Church of St Anne, roughly on the current position 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 St and the remainder, from James St south is Hedge Lane. It is not clear from the map where the boundary between SO HO and Whitcombe St is, probably somewhere between Compton Street and Gerrard St. These three names are on the Morden and Lea map of 1682.
John Rocque shows the road very clearly on his large scale map of 1746, however the names have changed again. From Oxford St south to Meard St is now Wardour Street'. Then south to Compton Street is Old Soho; then down to Coventry St is Princes Street. For the length of Leicester Square is Whicomb St and finally Hedge Lane which now starts at Panton St rather than James Street.
By the end of the 18th century things, Horwood on a massive map of 1799 uses the same names but not Old Soho' and Hedge Lane. This leaves just Wardour, Princess 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 re-developed. The road now ends at Pall Mall East, and the boundary between Wardour and Princes St 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 but 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” to a mile, has just two names, Wardour Street from Oxford Street to Coventry St and Whitcomb St south from there. It has remained this since, though numbering was rationalised around 1896.
 The name changes since 1585 |
In the late 19th century, Wardour Street was known for slightly shoddy furniture stores. Wardour Street prose implies the use of near-obsolete words for effect, such as anent, which refers to a large number of antique shops in the area.
20th Century
It became a centre of the British film industry, and still is home of much current film industry. The street is also famous for associations with the music industry. It is home to The Ship and The Intrepid Fox, which relocated to St Giles High Street in 2006, two pubs known for being full of aspiring musicians.
Number 90 was the site of the Marquee Club from 1964 to 1988 and is mentioned in the title of a song by The Jam, "A-Bomb in Wardour Street". It is also mentioned in the spoken introduction to Long John Baldry's "Don't Try to Lay No Boogie Woogie on the King of Rock and Roll". It is now home to a restaurant and bar called Floridita and above it Soho Lofts, an exclusive block of flats.
21st Century
The street is home to over 30 restaurants and bars north of Shaftesbury Avenue. South of there are lots of well-known Chinese restaurants including the infamous Wong Kei at no. 41-43.
External links
- ViewLondon.co.uk information
- LondonTown.com information
- Wardour Street (east side) and Wardour Street (west side)
- The Bristow v Wilson Lawsuit 1585 National Archives (Kew) Item MPB 1/1
- Ogilby and Morgan 1647 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/lmap.asp?compid=22025&slice=774&buffer=1#iframe
- Morden & Lea 1682 British Library Crace Collection: Maps Crace Port.2 60.
- John Stow (John Strype, editor) 1720 http://www.oldlondonmaps.com/stowpages/martinfield.html
- John Rocque 1746 http://www.motco.com/map/81002/
- Horwood 1799 http://www.oldlondonmaps.com/horwoodpages/horwoodmain.html
- The London Directory, Printed for Wilkinson .R 1811 http://www.oldlondonmaps.com/1811pages/1811MAIN.html
- Greenwood 1827 http://www.motco.com/map/81003/
- Cruchley's New Plan of London 1827 http://archivemaps.com/mapco/cruchley/cruch11.htm
- Stanford 1872 http://www.oldlondonmaps.com/stanfordpages/westminster03b.html
- Stanford 1897 http://archivemaps.com/mapco/stanford/stan33.htm
- Hummus Bros has a branch on Wardour Street http://www.hbros.co.uk/soho/
- Just Falafs has a branch on Wardour Street http://www.justfalafs.com/
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