Percy Street is a street in the

London Borough of Camden The London Borough of Camden () is a London borough in Inner London. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the area of the former boroughs of Hampstead, Holborn, and St ...

that runs from Rathbone Street in the west to

Tottenham Court Road Tottenham Court Road (occasionally abbreviated as TCR) is a major road in Central London, almost entirely within the London Borough of Camden. The road runs from Euston Road in the north to St Giles Circus in the south; Tottenham Court Road tub ...

in the east. At its western end it is joined by

Rathbone Place Rathbone Place is a street in central London that runs roughly north-west from Oxford Street to Percy Street. it is joined on its eastern side by Percy Mews, Gresse Street, and Evelyn Yard. The street is mainly occupied by retail and office pre ...

and

Charlotte Street Charlotte Street is a street in Fitzrovia, historically part of the parish and borough of St Pancras, in central London. It has been described, together with its northern and southern extensions (Fitzroy Street and Rathbone Place), as the ''s ...

. Nearby Percy Mews is off Rathbone Place. The street was built in the 1760s and is known for the number of artists that have lived there.

History

The land on which Percy Street is built was owned by Francis and William Goodge. They granted leases on the south side in 1764 and the north side in 1766. Twenty-eight houses had been completed by 1770.Percy Street
, ''Survey of London, Volume 21, The parish of St Pancras part 3: Tottenham Court Road & Neighbourhood''. 1949. British History Online. Retrieved 13 November 2014.

Buildings

The architecture of Percy Street is undistinguished. Most of the buildings are generic three-storey Georgian

town house A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residence ...

s with standard interior features. The ground floors of around half the houses on the street have been converted to retail use, and on the north side a large modern office block is situated on the corner of

. Number 21 was destroyed by bombing during the Second World War. Some of the houses have been resurfaced in concrete and had extra storeys added. Number 1 Percy Street was the site of the White Tower restaurant, formerly the Eiffel Tower hotel and restaurant. The restaurant was taken over by Rudolf Stulik, the former chef to Lord Kitchener, in 1910 and became very popular with painters of the

Vorticist Vorticism was a London-based Modernism, modernist art movement formed in 1914 by the writer and artist Wyndham Lewis. The movement was partially inspired by Cubism and was introduced to the public by means of the publication of the Vorticist mani ...

movement in 1914 and was frequented by

Augustus John Augustus Edwin John (4 January 1878 – 31 October 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. For a time he was considered the most important artist at work in Britain: Virginia Woolf remarked that by 1908 the era of John Singer Sarg ...

in the 1930s. John took the young lady who became Dylan Thomas's wife to one of the Eiffel Tower Hotel rooms on an assignation before her marriage. Among its patrons were Archduke Rudolph, Madame Kharsavina,

Lord Birkenhead Earl of Birkenhead was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1922 for the noted lawyer and Conservative politician F. E. Smith, 1st Viscount Birkenhead. He was Solicitor-General in 1915, Attorney-General from 1915 to ...

Chaliapin Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin ( rus, Фёдор Ива́нович Шаля́пин, Fyodor Ivanovich Shalyapin, ˈfʲɵdər ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ ʂɐˈlʲapʲɪn}; April 12, 1938) was a Russian opera singer. Possessing a deep and expressive bass v ...

, the

Duke of Gloucester Duke of Gloucester () is a British royal title (after Gloucester), often conferred on one of the sons of the reigning monarch. The first four creations were in the Peerage of England and the last in the Peerage of the United Kingdom; the curren ...

, and

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

, as well as the Prince of Wales, later

King Edward VIII Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire and Emperor of India from 20 January 1 ...

. It was memorialised in William Roberts' painting ''

The Vorticists at the Restaurant de la Tour Eiffel, Spring 1915 ''The Vorticists at the Restaurant de la Tour Eiffel, Spring 1915'' is a 1961–1962 painting by the English artist William Roberts. It depicts the Vorticist group gathered at a French restaurant in London. Description The painting shows a crow ...

'' (completed 1961–2). It became the White Tower in 1943. Since then it became Bam-Bou, an Asian restaurant. Today it is the flagship venue, House of Ho, a fine dining modern Vietnamese restaurant with a sister site in Soho. In 1922 the street was home to the New Court Club where Freda Kempton met the Chinese drug dealer

Brilliant Chang Brilliant (Billy) Chang (real name Chan Nan; born c. 1886, death date unknown) was a Chinese restaurateur and drug dealer who was implicated in supplying the drugs that killed Freda Kempton in 1922. Among the people who have lived in Percy Street have been: *Painter and author

Wyndham Lewis Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''BLAST,'' the literary magazine of the Vorticists. His novels include ''Tarr'' ( ...

lived at number 4 in 1914 and at number 31 in the 1930s. *Painter William Roberts lived at number 32 in 1918–19. *Illustrator and draughtsman

Godefroy Durand Godefroy Durand (1832, Düsseldorf – 27 September 1896, Paris) was a German-born French illustrator and draughtsman, who worked in both France and Great Britain. Life Durand was born in Düsseldorf to French parents. He trained in Paris un ...

lived at No. 8 in 1881. * Samuel Cotes (1734–1818), miniature painter, lived at number 8 between 1794 and 1798. Sculptor

Edward Hodges Baily Edward Hodges Baily (10 March 1788 – 22 May 1867; sometimes misspelled ''Bailey'') was a prolific English sculptor responsible for numerous public monuments, portrait busts, statues and exhibition pieces as well as works in silver. He carved ...

lived in the same house between 1825 and 1828, and at number 10 from 1830 to 1846. *Landscape painter

Peter de Wint Peter De Wint (21 January 1784 – 30 January 1849) was an English landscape painter. A number of his pictures are in the National Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum and The Collection, Lincoln. He died in London. Biography De Wint was ...

lived at number 10 from 1817 until 1826. *

Henry Pierce Bone Henry Pierce Bone (6 November 1779 – 21 October 1855 London) was an English enamel painter. Life Bone was the son of Henry Bone, the notable enamel painter, and Elizabeth Van der Meulen, a descendant of the distinguished battle-painter Ada ...

, enamel painter to George II, George IV and William IV, lived at number 12 between 1832 and 1846, and later at number 22. *Actor

Charles Laughton Charles Laughton (1 July 1899 – 15 December 1962) was a British actor. He was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and first appeared professionally on the stage in 1926. In 1927, he was cast in a play with his future w ...

lived at number 15 in 1928–31, and a

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...

notes the fact.Google street view
July 2014. Retrieved 14 November 2014. *

Sonia Orwell Sonia Mary Brownell (25 August 1918 – 11 December 1980), better known as Sonia Orwell, was the second wife of writer George Orwell. Sonia is believed to be the model for Julia, the heroine of ''Nineteen Eighty-Four''. Sonia collaborated with ...

(1918–1980), literary editor and wife of

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitar ...

lived at no. 18 from 1949 to the late 1950s. Barbara Bagenal lived at no 18 on the floor below Sonia Orwell between 1951 and 1964, and frequently shared her accommodation with her partner Clive Bell. *The

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

and Catholic poet

Coventry Patmore Coventry Kersey Dighton Patmore (23 July 1823 – 26 November 1896) was an English poet and literary critic. He is best known for his book of poetry ''The Angel in the House'', a narrative poem about the Victorian ideal of a happy marriage. A ...

lived at number 14Williams, George G. Assisted by Marian and Geoffrey Williams. (1973) ''Guide to Literary London''. London:

Batsford Batsford is a village and civil parish in the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. The village is about 1½ miles north-west of Moreton-in-Marsh. There is a falconry centre close to the village and Batsford Arboretum is nearby, ...

, p. 315. which is also marked by a blue plaque. *

Henry Tidey Henry Tidey (7 January 1814 – 21 July 1872) was a British watercolourist. Life The younger brother of Alfred Tidey, he was born at Worthing House, Worthing, on 7 January 1814. Like his brother, he was taught drawing in his father John Tidey' ...

, watercolourist, lived at number 30 where he died in 1872. *

Jacob George Strutt Jacob George Strutt (4 August 1784 – 1867) was a British portrait and landscape painter and engraver in the manner of John Constable. He was the husband of the writer Elizabeth Strutt, and father of the painter, traveller and archaeologist ...

, engraver and painter, lived at number 34 from 1821 until 1826. *

Saxon Sydney-Turner Saxon Arnold Sydney-TurnerMiddle name sometimes spelt, seemingly deliberately, as Arnoll (28 October 1880 - 4 November 1962) was a member of the Bloomsbury Group who worked as a British civil servant throughout his life. Early life Sydney-Turne ...

, Treasury mandarin and associate of the Bloomsbury Group lived in a top-floor at no. 28 from 1943 to 1955, and then sub-let it to Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, who redecorated it and lived there intermittently until 1961.

References

External links

{{Coord, 51, 31, 5.68, N, 0, 8, 1.08, W, scale:1563_region:GB, display=title

Percy The English surname Percy is of Norman origin, coming from Normandy to England, United Kingdom. It was from the House of Percy, Norman lords of Northumberland, derives from the village of Percy-en-Auge in Normandy. From there, it came into use ...