Charles Street is a street in the Mayfair area of the City of Westminster, London. Many buildings along the street are listed by Historic England and a number have had distinguished residents over the years.
Charles Street runs roughly north-east from Waverton Street in the west to Berkeley Square in the east, bending slightly northward halfway along. The southwestern end is narrower. [1] It is within the Mayfair Conservation Area. [2]
The street is named after a member of the Berkeley family, and it was built when Lord Berkeley's estate was developed. Most properties along the street were constructed between about 1745 and 1750, chiefly by carpenter John Phillips. [1] Many of them are now listed by Historic England. Most early residents were upper class and wealthy. There were no shops. [3]
After the death of Edward Bulwer Lytton in 1873, a proposal was made to rename the street as Lytton Street. Lytton had resided at 8 Charles Street for two years from 1837. After the success of his novel The Last days of Pompeii, Lytton decked out the drawing room of no. 8 into a replica of a chamber seen at Pompeii. The renaming was quashed following objections from residents led by Lady Dorothy Nevill. [4]
The Cosmopolitan Club met at 30 Charles Street until its demise in 1903. [5]
In 1970, a block consisting of nos. 6–14 Charles Street and 4–12 Hays Mews was the subject of a planning application for a 250–300 bedroom hotel designed by Sir Hugh Casson. Westminster Council's planning department rejected the plan. Alderman David Cobbold, chairman of the planning committee, commented that the scheme was ". . . an inadequate substitute for Charles Street — a street of high intrinsic value". [6]
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Media related to Charles Street, Mayfair at Wikimedia Commons