Wimpole Street is a street in Marylebone, City of Westminster, in London. It is associated with private medical practice and medical associations and has had several notable residents.
The name Wimpole comes from the Wimpole Estate in Cambridgeshire, which in the 18th century was the seat of the Harley family, who developed the street.
Arthur Conan Doyle, who created the character of Sherlock Holmes, worked and wrote in 2 Upper Wimpole Street in 1891. A green plaque has been installed to commemorate the cultural heritage of the City of Westminster.
November 1935 fire
At 6.30am on 10 November 1935, there was a fire at No. 27, where five people died. It was the house of dental surgeon and otorhinolaryngologist, Philip Julius Franklin. Franklin had been born in the Umited States in 1878, the son of Julius Franklin of San Francisco. He and his wife, Ethel Julia White of 127 Portsdown Road, had been married on 18 February 1903, at the New West End Synagogue, by Hermann Adler, the chief rabbi of the UK.[1]
On 11 November 1935 The Times published a letter by dentist N J MacDonald of 58a Wimpole Street.[4] On 9 December 1935, the fire was discussed in Parliament,[5] where it was raised by the Conservative MP Alec Cunningham-Reid.[6]
The houses and the notable people who have lived and worked here
No. 6 is Grade II listed.[8]Sir Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet (1853–1923), a prominent surgeon, and an expert in anatomy, lived here. Treves was renowned for his surgical treatment of appendicitis, and is credited with saving the life of King Edward VII in 1902.[9] He is also widely known for his friendship with Joseph Merrick, dubbed the "Elephant Man" for his severe deformities.
Sir Henry Goldfinch (1781–1854), officer in the Royal Engineers who served during the Peninsular War of 1807 to 1814, ending his career as one of the colonels commandant of the Corps of Royal Engineers, lived here.
No. 20 is Grade II listed.[19]Ethel Gordon Fenwick (née Manson; 1857–1947), nurse, who played a major role in the history of nursing in the United Kingdom, lived here. She founded the Royal British Nurses' Association in 1887.[20] In 1999 an English Heritage blue plaque was attached to her former home.[21]
Wimpole House at Nos. 28–29a is a group of three Grade II listed town houses at the street's junction with New Cavendish Street. The building was designed by Charles Worley in a Flemish renaissance style and built in 1892–93[27] as a speculation for Samuel Lithgow, whose legal practice was based in Wimpole Street and centred on Marylebone. The foundation stone was laid by his mother, Mary Mason Lithgow, in September 1892. When it was complete, Lithgow moved his business there and let some of the rooms to medical practitioners, but most of the building was used as a nursing home until 1940, when the proprietor died.[12]
No. 30
No. 30 is Grade II listed.[28] Its past residents include Marcus Beck (1843–1893), professor of surgery at University College Hospital and an early proponent of the germ theory of disease.[12]
Sir Henry Thompson (1820–1904), surgeon and polymath and his wife, pianist and composer Kate Loder (1825–1904), composer and pianist, lived here. The first complete English performance of Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem was performed on 10 July 1871 at No. 35, Loder's private residence from 1851. The arrangement, which came to be known as "the London version", was for piano duet (played by Loder and Cipriani Potter) with soloists and choir. Around 30 voices were used in the performance.[30]
It was later the home of the poet Edward James (1907–1984), known for his patronage of the surrealist art movement, and his wife Tilly Losch (1903–1975), dancer, choreographer, actress, and painter.
No. 37 was the townhouse of William Mayne, 1st Baron Newhaven (1722–1794), who was known as Sir William Mayne, Bt,[33] from 1763 to 1776. Mayne was a British merchant and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1774 to 1790. The house was rebuilt after its destruction in the Second World War and is now used as offices for the British Dental Council.[33]
No. 44 is Grade II listed.[36]James Samuel Risien Russell (1863–1939), Guyanese-British physician, neurologist, professor of medicine, and professor of medical jurisprudence, lived here.
The poet Elizabeth Barrett[39] (1806–1861) was one of the residents most associated with the street. She lived at No. 50 with her family from 1838 until 1846 when she eloped with Robert Browning. The street became famous from the play based on their courtship, The Barretts of Wimpole Street.
Dr. David Rowlands' home at No. 57 (also the former home of Paul McCartney)
No. 57, which is now a private clinic,[42] is Grade II listed.[41]
David Rowlands (1778–1846), naval surgeon, who became the Inspector of H.M. Hospital and Fleets for the Royal Navy, lived here.
Later it became the home of Richard Asher (1912–1969), endocrinologist and haematologist, his wife Margaret Eliot (1914–2011), a musician who taught oboe at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, their son Peter Asher (born 1944), who was one half of the pop duo Peter & Gordon and a successful music producer, and their daughter Jane Asher (born 1946), an actress. Jane was, in the mid-1960s, the girlfriend of Paul McCartney, who lived there for nearly three years.[43][44]John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in No. 57's front basement room, while McCartney wrote the tune to "Yesterday" in a box room at the top of the house.[43]
No. 59
Ivor Walsworth (1909–1978), composer, violinist, BBC sound engineer and music producer, lived with his wife, concert pianist Joan Davies (1912–1982) at No. 59 in the 1960s and 1970s.[45]
At No. 94, in 1932, Marjorie Abbatt (1899–1991) and her husband Paul opened a toy shop, Paul & Marjorie Abbatt Ltd, designed by their friend, the architect Ernő Goldfinger.[56][57] The shop was unique in that children were allowed to touch and play with the displayed toys.
In Flush: A Biography (1933), her imaginative biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's cocker spaniel, blending fiction and non-fiction, Virginia Woolf describes Wimpole Street as " the most august of London streets, the most impersonal. Indeed, when the world seems tumbling to ruin, and civilisation rocks on its foundations, one has only to go to Wimpole Street...".[59]
The street was also given as the home of Henry Higgins by George Bernard Shaw in his play Pygmalion (1913) and in the musical adaptation My Fair Lady (1956), with 27a given as the address.[60] (No. 75 was the inspiration for the 1964 movie set design.)
22a Wimpole Street is referenced in the Monty Python sketch 'Secret Service Dentists'.[61][62]
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