Homer Street is a quiet one-way street in the Marylebone neighbourhood of the City of Westminster, London. It runs from Old Marylebone Road in the north to Crawford Street in the south. The street is part of the Marylebone Ward of Westminster City Council. Its postcode is W1H.
The street is one of those in the Portman Estate area with classical names, such as Cato Street, Homer Row, and Virgil Place. [1] According to Gillian Bebbington, these names were inspired by Edward Homer who was a friend of John Simon Harcourt, owner of the land on which the streets were built. [2]
Most of the street is within the City of Westminster's Portman Estate Conservation Area. [3]
On Charles Booth's 1898-99 poverty classification map of London, [4] the street is shown in purple meaning ‘mixed, some comfortable others poor’. This is borne out by the late 19th century/early 20th century census returns which include houses of multiple occupation and residents living on ‘independent means' side by side in the same street. One of the town houses was even used as an orphanage by the Church Army. [5]
The terrace of Georgian houses on the east side of Homer Street dates from 1808. [6] Westminster Council describes numbers 6 and 7, 20, 33–37, and Crawford Buildings (nos. 21–67) as Unlisted Buildings of Merit. [7]
Much of the street was demolished at the turn the 20th century to build the Edwardian mansion blocks Crawford Buildings and Cranfield Court. [8]
Halfway along on the west side at number 8 is Octavia House, an unassuming modern building, which was completed as a retirement home for nurses in 1975. The building is named after the great social reformer Octavia Hill. [9]
Crawford Buildings was constructed by the Artizans, Labourers & General Dwellings Company in 1893. It is one of five tenement blocks built by the company in the Marylebone area: Huntsworth Terrace (1877); East Street Buildings (now Wendover Court, Chiltern Street), (1890-2); Portman Buildings, Lisson Grove (1887); and Seymour Buildings, Seymour Place (1889). [10] The main block of Seymour Buildings, situated between Homer Street and Seymour Place was demolished in 1980, [11] but the shop-fronted buildings in Seymour Place survive.
Enid Elliott Linder lived at 67 Crawford Buildings from January 1933 to March 1939 and recalled the poverty and wealth of 1930s Marylebone in her memoir, We Learnt about Hitler at the Mickey Mouse Club, which was published posthumously in 2021. [12]
Cranfield Court, on the opposite side of Homer Street, dates from 1901-2. [13] It consists of five separate blocks which were originally called Clayton House (now number 1-10 Cranfield Court); Hudson House (11-20); Burgoyne House (21-30); Woburn House (31-40); and Cranfield House (41-50). Originally part of the Duke of Portland’s estate, the properties were sold at auction in 1952 with several other properties in Marylebone to help pay death duties. [14]
The intact ceramic archway between Octavia House and Crawford Buildings once led to Freshwater Place, a small terrace of houses tucked away between Homer Street and Homer Row. These buildings were acquired for Octavia Hill by leading Victorian art critic John Ruskin in 1866. [15] The environment was described as 'a bit of desolate ground occupied by dilapidated cowsheds and manure heaps.' [16] which Hill turned into a small playground for the tenants, where Ruskin planted some trees. This was Hill's second project in her ongoing efforts to replace slum dwellings with decent housing. Freshwater Place was demolished in 1961. [17]
Elliot Linder recalled Freshwater Place of the 1930s:
'When [my sister] Joan and I wandered in through that deep archway for the first time, we found ourselves facing a broad rectangle of shaggy grass, like a village green. It was surrounded on three sides by old tumbledown two-storey cottages with small windows and very low doors. Cottagey flowers grew in pots on the windowsills, and the people who lived there seemed to be mainly late middle-aged or elderly.' [18]
Freshwater Place took its name from a large well which was once overlooked by the houses. It measured 6 feet in diameter and had a depth of 145 feet. [19] Water from this well once supplied the nearby Yorkshire Stingo brewery. [20]
In its early days, Homer Street had shops and businesses on the ground floor of many buildings. Whilst some shop fronts have since disappeared, two of Marylebone's old pub buildings remain. The Olive Branch at the corner with Crawford Street is now Italian restaurant Bricioli, and halfway down the street, The Beehive is currently being renovated. The Beehive narrowly escaped demolition linked to St Marylebone Council's slum clearance programme in 1956, when the Freshwater Place/Homer Row scheme was cut back to exclude properties fronting Homer Street. [21] The Olive Branch's 1988 reincarnation as The Quintin Hogg earned a wry put-down from Alan Coren in The Times Diary: 'Where will it end? Are we soon to have The Dog and Tebbit, or The Two Jolly Kinnocks?' [22] Typically for the urban village it's part of, Homer Street is home to long-term residents and young professionals alike.
The Metropolitan Borough of St Marylebone was a metropolitan borough of the County of London from 1900 to 1965. It was based directly on the previously existing civil parish of St Marylebone, which was incorporated into the Metropolitan Board of Works area in 1855, retaining a parish vestry, and then became part of the County of London in 1889.
St James's is a central district in the City of Westminster, London, forming part of the West End. In the 17th century the area developed as a residential location for the British aristocracy, and around the 19th century was the focus of the development of gentlemen's clubs. Once part of the parish of St Martin in the Fields, much of it formed the parish of St James from 1685 to 1922. Since the Second World War the area has transitioned from residential to commercial use.
The Portman Estate, covering 110 acres of Marylebone in London’s West End, was founded in 1532 when the land was first leased to Sir William Portman.
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 Church, now the Greenhouse Centre, and the Seashell of Lisson Grove.
The Yorkshire Stingo was a public house in Marylebone in the 18th to mid-20th century. Its name came about because it was customary for Yorkshiremen in London to gather at the pub and its adjoining pleasure gardens on the first three days of May each year. In May 1808 it was reported that over 20,000 people gathered there, drinking strong ale, playing football and other 'rustic Yorkshire sports'. The Stingo part of its name comes from a fashionable slang word of the 18th century for strong or old ale. The term is possibly derived from the sharp, or "stinging" flavour of a well-matured beer.
Marylebone is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary.
In British usage, the term townhouse originally referred to the town or city residence, in practice normally in Westminster, near the seat of the monarch, of a member of the nobility or gentry, as opposed to their country seat, generally known as a country house or, colloquially, for the larger ones, stately home. The grandest of the London townhouses were stand-alone buildings, but many were terraced buildings.
Nottingham Place is a street in the City of Westminster that runs from Marylebone Road in the north to Paddington Street in the south. The street was named after the Harley family estates in Nottinghamshire. Former residents include the social reformer Octavia Hill, who also had a school there, stained glass artist Charles Eamer Kempe, the London Bible College,and The Kashmir Klub. Current residents include the High Commission of the Maldives and the Latvian embassy.
Crawford Street is a street in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster, London. The street contains two grade II listed public houses.
Homer Row is a street in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster, London, that runs form Old Marylebone Road in the north to the junction of Crawford Place and Crawford Street in the south.
Crawford Place is a street in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster, London. The street was developed in the first decade of the 1800s and was original known as John Street West.
Henrietta Place, originally known as Henrietta Street, is a street in Marylebone in the City of Westminster in central London that runs from Marylebone Lane in the east to Cavendish Square in the west. It is joined on the north side by Welbeck Street and Wimpole Street, and on the south side by Vere Street, Chapel Place, and Old Cavendish Street.
This is a list of the etymology of street names in the London district of Mayfair, in the City of Westminster. It utilises the generally accepted boundaries of Mayfair viz. Marble Arch/Cumberland Gate and Oxford Street to the north, Regent Street to the east, Piccadilly to the south and Park Lane to the west.
This is a list of the etymology of street names in the London district of Marylebone. The following utilises the generally accepted boundaries of Marylebone viz. Marylebone Road to the north, Great Portland Street to the east, Marble Arch and Oxford Street to the south and Edgware Road to the west.
Lisson Green is described as a hamlet in the Domesday book in 1086, the edges of the settlement defined by the two current Edgware Road stations facing onto Edgware Road or Watling Street as it was previously known, one of the main Roman thoroughfares in and out of London. Occasionally referred to as Lissom Grove, originally Lisson Grove was part of the medieval manor of Lilestone which stretched as far as Hampstead. Lisson Green as a manor broke away c. 1236 with its own manor house. Paddington Green formed part of the original Lilestone estate.
Gloucester Place is a street in Marylebone in Central London. Located in the City of Westminster, it runs north from Portman Square across the Marylebone Road eventually merging into Park Road. It is parallel to Baker Street to the east and forms part of the A41 road from nearby Marble Arch.
Seymour Place is a street in Marylebone in Central London. Located in the City of Westminster, it runs north from Seymour Street until it meets Marylebone Road, where it becomes Lisson Grove. It is crossed by Crawford Street, George Street, and York Street and runs parallel to Gloucester Place, which lies to its east. Its southern end is about 180 metres northwest of Marble Arch and about 40 metres east of Edgware Road.
York Street is a street in Marylebone in Central London. Located in the City of Westminster, it runs west from Baker Street in a straight line until it begins curving when it becomes Harcourt Street towards the Old Marylebone Road. It crosses a number of streets including Seymour Place, Upper Montagu Street and Gloucester Place.
George Street is a street in Marylebone in Central London. Located in the City of Westminster, it runs east from Edgeware Road until it reaches Marylebone High Street at its junction with Thayer Street. It crosses a number of streets including Seymour Place, Gloucester Place, Manchester Street and Baker Street.
Chiltern Street is a road in the Marylebone area of Central London. Located in the City of Westminster, it runs north to south connecting Marylebone Road and Blandford Street. Baker Street runs parallel a little way to the west. It meets Dorset Street, Crawford Street and Paddington Street along its route. Manchester Square is located beyond the southern end of the street.
Media related to Homer Street, London at Wikimedia Commons Coordinates: 51°31′10″N0°09′53″W / 51.5194°N 0.1647°W