Holles Street is a street in

Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) 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. An Civil parish#Ancient parishes, ancient parish and latterly a ...

in the

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and London boroughs, borough in Inner London. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It occupies a large area of cent ...

in central London that runs from the south side of

Cavendish Square Cavendish Square is a public garden square in Marylebone in the West End of London. It has a double-helix underground commercial car park. Its northern road forms ends of four streets: of Wigmore Street that runs to Portman Square in the much lar ...

Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and as ...

History

The street was one of those laid out around 1729 when the area north of Oxford Street was urbanised on a

grid pattern In urban planning, the grid plan, grid street plan, or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid. Two inherent characteristics of the grid plan, frequent intersections and orthogo ...

. It was named after

John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle John Holles, Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, KG, PC (9 January 1662 – 15 July 1711) was an English peer. Early life Holles was born in Edwinstowe, Nottinghamshire, the son of the 3rd Earl of Clare and his wife Grace Pierrepont. Grace was a d ...

, who in 1710 purchased the Manor of Marylebone. His daughter was

Henrietta Harley, Countess of Oxford and Countess Mortimer Henrietta Harley, Countess of Oxford and Countess Mortimer (''née'' Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holles; 11 February 1694 – 9 December 1755) was an English noblewoman, the only child and heiress of John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle and his wife, ...

who married Edward Harley after whom

Harley Street Harley Street is a street in Marylebone, Central London, which has, since the 19th century housed a large number of private specialists in medicine and surgery. It was named after Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer.< ...

was named and who built Holles Street.Bebbington, Gillian. (1972) ''London Street Names''. London: B.T. Batsford. pp. 164 & 176.

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...

was born on the street on 22 January 1788 – his birthplace is now supposedly occupied by a branch of the department store

John Lewis John Robert Lewis (February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) was an American politician and civil rights activist who served in the United States House of Representatives for from 1987 until his death in 2020. He participated in the 1960 Nashville ...

Today

Once the location of small shops and houses, the street is now almost entirely taken up the

department store on the western side and the former

British Home Stores British Home Stores, commonly abbreviated to BHS and latterly legally styled BHS Ltd, was a British department store chain, primarily selling clothing and household items. In its later years, the company began to expand into furniture, electron ...

department store (1962–63) and other commercial units on the east, both of which have their main entrances on Oxford Street. The John Lewis store was started in 1936 but damaged by bombing during the Second World War and rebuilt in 1958–60.

Barbara Hepworth Dame Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth (10 January 1903 – 20 May 1975) was an English artist and sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism and in particular modern sculpture. Along with artists such as Ben Nicholson and Naum Gabo, Hepworth was a leadi ...

's sculpture '' Winged Figure'' (1963) is on the Holles Street side of the John Lewis department store.

Gallery

File:Cavendish Square and Old Cavendish Street 1870s Ordnance Survey map.png, Holles Street (centre right) on an 1870s

Ordnance Survey , nativename_a = , nativename_r = , logo = Ordnance Survey 2015 Logo.svg , logo_width = 240px , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = , picture_width = , picture_caption = , formed = , preceding1 = , di ...

map. File:Barbara Hepworth Winged Figure 1963.jpg, Barbara Hepworth's '' Winged Figure'', 1963, on the side of the John Lewis department store in Holles Street and Oxford Street.

References

External links

Streets in the City of Westminster Marylebone {{London-road-stub