Poland Street is a street in the

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develop ...

district of 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 ...

, London. It runs from

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 ...

in the north to

Broadwick Street Broadwick Street (formerly Broad Street) is a street in Soho, City of Westminster, London. It runs for 0.18 miles (0.29 km) approximately west–east between Marshall Street and Wardour Street, crossing Berwick Street. Broad Street was no ...

in the south. It was named after the "King of Poland" pub, which was renamed in honour of Poland's King

John III Sobieski John III Sobieski ( pl, Jan III Sobieski; lt, Jonas III Sobieskis; la, Ioannes III Sobiscius; 17 August 1629 – 17 June 1696) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1674 until his death in 1696. Born into Polish nobility, Sobie ...

in the heading of a coalition of western armies, crucially defeated the invading Ottoman forces at the 1683 Battle of Vienna. In the eighteenth century, Polish Protestants settled around Poland Street as religious refugees fleeing the Polish Counterreformation. It was the site of the St James Workhouse whose infirmary may have been the original St. James Infirmary (see plan). The lane that led into the workhouse in now the driveway to Q-Park Soho garage.

Notable residents

The poet

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achie ...

lived at 15 Poland Street. The poet

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

lived at 28 Poland Street until 1791. The original building has since been rebuilt. The writer

Fanny Burney Frances Burney (13 June 1752 – 6 January 1840), also known as Fanny Burney and later Madame d'Arblay, was an English satirical novelist, diarist and playwright. In 1786–1790 she held the post as "Keeper of the Robes" to Charlotte of Mecklen ...

had her childhood home (1760–1770) at 50 Poland Street. In 1909, nearby Portland Street was renamed

D'Arblay Street D'Arblay Street is a street in the Soho district of the City of Westminster, London, named after Frances Burney (Madame d'Arblay). It was formerly known as Portland Street and was built on land owned by the Dukes of Portland known as Doghouse C ...

in her honour, after her married name of Madame D'Arblay.Bebbington, Gillian. (1972) ''London street names''. London:

B. T. Batsford HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Publishing#Book publishing, Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette (publisher), Hachette, and Macmillan Publishers, Macmillan. The com ...

. p. 108. Her father was the musicologist

Charles Burney Charles Burney (7 April 1726 – 12 April 1814) was an English music historian, composer and musician. He was the father of the writers Frances Burney and Sarah Burney, of the explorer James Burney, and of Charles Burney, a classicist a ...

, whose other children, also living there, included writer Sarah Burney, explorer

James Burney James Burney (13 June 1750 – 17 November 1821) was an English rear-admiral, who accompanied Captain Cook on his last two voyages. He later wrote two books on naval voyages and a third on the game of whist. Family Burney was born in London, al ...

, and classicist

. Charles Thomas Bale was a still life painter who worked in London during the second half of the 19th century. Little is known of the artist's life, except that he lived at 9 Poland Street in London in 187

References

External links

{{coords, 51, 30, 56.55, N, 0, 8, 15.52, W, scale:1563_region:GB, display=title Streets in the City of Westminster Soho, London