Marylebone (usually/ˈmɑːrlɪbən/MAR-lib-ən, also/ˈmærɪ(lə)bən/MARR-il-ə-bən,MARR-ib-ən)[1] is an area inLondon, England, and is located in theCity of Westminster. It is inCentral London and part of theWest End.Oxford Street forms its southern boundary.
Anancient parish and latterly ametropolitan borough, it merged with the boroughs ofWestminster andPaddington to form the newCity of Westminster in 1965.
Marylebone station lies two miles north-west ofCharing Cross.
The area is also served by numerous tube stations:Baker Street,Bond Street,Edgware Road (Bakerloo line),Edgware Road (Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines),Great Portland Street,Marble Arch,Marylebone,Oxford Circus, andRegent's Park.
Marylebone was anAncient Parish formed to serve the manors (landholdings) of Lileston (in the west, which gives its name to modernLisson Grove) andTyburn in the east. The parish is likely to have been in place since at least the twelfth century and will have used the boundaries of the pre-existing manors. The boundaries of the parish were consistent from the late twelfth century to the creation of the Metropolitan Borough which succeeded it.[2]
The name Marylebone originates from an ancient hamlet located near today'sMarble Arch, on the eastern banks of theTyburn, where in 1400a parish church dedicated toSt Mary was built. Since the 12th century, the area had been synonymous with theTyburn gallows, where public executions regularly took place at the crossroads of the Tyburn and old Roman road.
Eager to distance themselves from the notorious gallows, the villagers took inspiration from their new church and began calling the hamletSt Mary-burne ("the stream of St Mary",burne coming from the Anglo-Saxon wordburna for a small stream).[3] This stream rose further north in (Hampstead), eventually running along what becameMarylebone Lane, which preserves its curve within the grid pattern.[4]
In the 17th century, under the influence of names likeMary-le-Bow, the French-derived prepositionle appeared midway in the parish name, and eventuallySt Mary-le-bourne became St Marylebone.[5] Other spelling iterations includeMariburn,Marybone, and inSamuel Pepys' diary,Marrowbone.[6] The suggestion that the name derives fromMarie la Bonne, or "Mary the Good", is not substantiated.[7]
Both manors were mentioned in theDomesday Book of 1086.[8] Domesday recorded eight households in each manor,[9][10] implying a combined population of less than a hundred.
At Domesday the Manor of Lilestone was valued at 60shillings and owned by a woman called Ediva. Tyburn was a possession of the Nunnery ofBarking Abbey and valued at 52 shillings. The ownership of both manors was the same as it had been before the Conquest.
Lilestone became the property of theKnights Templar until their suppression in 1312. It then passed to theOrder of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, whose name is the origin of the place nameSt John's Wood.
Early in the 13th century Tyburn was held byRobert de Vere, 3rd Earl of Oxford. At the end of the 15th centuryThomas Hobson bought up the greater part of the manor; in 1544 his son Thomas exchanged it with Henry VIII,[11] who enclosed the northern part of the manor as adeer park, the distant origin ofRegent's Park. Lilestone Manor also passed into the hands of the Crown at this time.[12]
Tyburn manor remained with the Crown until the southern part was sold in 1611 by James I, who retained the deer park, to Edward Forest,[13] who had held it as a fixed rental under Elizabeth I. Forest's manor of Marylebone then passed by marriage to the Austen family. The deer park, Marylebone Park Fields, was let out in small holdings for hay and dairy produce.[14]
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The Ancient Parish's church,St Marylebone Parish Church, has been rebuilt several times at various locations within the parish. The earliest known church dedicated toSt John the Evangelist was established by Barking Abbey, which held Manor of Tyburn, at an unknown date, but probably sometime in the 12th century.[15] This church was located on the north side of Oxford Street, probably near the junction with Marylebone Lane. This site was subject to regular robbery and in 1400 a new church was built, around 900 metres further north. and given the nameSt Mary by the Bourne.[16][17] This church was rebuilt in 1740 with a new building erected a little further north in 1817.
In 1710,John Holles, Duke of Newcastle, purchased the manor for £17,500,[18] and his daughter and heir,Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holles, by her marriage toEdward Harley, Earl of Oxford, passed it into the family of the Earl of Oxford, one of whose titles was Lord Harley of Wigmore. She and the earl, realising the need for fashionable housing north of the Oxford Road (now Oxford St), commissioned the surveyor and builder John Prince to draw a master plan that setCavendish Square in a rational grid system of streets.
The Harley heiress Lady Margaret Cavendish Harley marriedWilliam, 2nd Duke of Portland, and took the property, includingMarylebone High Street, into the Bentinck family. Such place names in the neighbourhood asCavendish Square andPortland Place reflect theDukes of Portland landholdings and Georgian-era developments there. In 1879 the fifth Duke died withoutissue and the estate passed through the female line to his sister, Lucy Joan Bentinck, widow of the 6thBaron Howard de Walden.
Most of the Manor of Lileston was acquired bySir William Portman in 1554, and much of this was developed by his descendants as thePortman Estate in the late 1700s. Both estates have aristocratic antecedents and are still run by members of the aforementioned families. TheHoward de Walden Estate owns, leases and manages the majority of the 92 acres (37 ha) of real estate in Marylebone which comprises the area from Marylebone High Street in the west toRobert Adam'sPortland Place in the east and fromWigmore Street in the south toMarylebone Road in the north.[19]
In the 18th century the area was known for the raffish entertainments inMarylebone Gardens, the scene ofbear-baiting and prize fights by members of both sexes, and for the duelling grounds in Marylebone Fields.[20] TheMarylebone Cricket Club, for many years the governing body of world cricket, was formed in 1787 and initially based atDorset Fields before moving a short distance to its current home atLord's Cricket Ground in 1814. Lord's is also home toMiddlesex County Cricket Club and theEngland and Wales Cricket Board, and is one of several home venues for the England national men's and women's teams. The ground is marketed asthe Home of Cricket by the MCC.[21]
Marylebone has someBeatles heritage. As well as Paul McCartney's residence at the Wimpole Street home of Jane Asher's family, John Lennon had a flat at 34 Montagu Square. The original Apple Corps headquarters were at 95 Wigmore Street and the former headquarters ofEMI (since demolished) were in Manchester Square; it was here that the famous photograph of the four band members looking over a balcony (used as the cover of the album "Please Please Me" was taken.
The Borough of St Marylebone was granted acoat of arms by theCollege of Arms in 1901.[22] The crest includes the Virgin Mary wearing a silver robe with a light blue mantle, holding the infant Jesus, dressed in gold. The wavy light blue bars represent theRiver Tyburn while the gold roses and lilies are taken from the arms ofBarking Abbey, which held the Manor of Tyburn and first established the parish church. The version used by the Abbey was placed against a red border, and some versions of Marylebone's arms have made extensive use of red. The roses and lilies ultimately derive from the legend that when Mary's tomb was opened it contained those flowers.
The motto "Fiat secundum Verbum Tuum" is Latin for "let it be according to thy word", a phrase used in theGospel of Luke.[citation needed]
TheMetropolitan Borough of St Marylebone was ametropolitan borough of theCounty of London between 1899 and 1965, after which, with theMetropolitan Borough of Paddington and theMetropolitan Borough of Westminster it was merged into theCity of Westminster. The Metropolitan Borough inherited the boundaries of the Ancient Parish which had been fixed since at least the 12th century.Marylebone Town Hall was completed in 1920.[23]
Marylebone was the scene of theBalcombe Street siege in 1975, whenProvisional Irish Republican Army terrorists held two people hostage for almost a week.
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Some of Marylebone's major streets form a grid pattern such asGloucester Place,Baker Street,Wimpole Street,Harley Street andPortland Place, with smallermews between the major streets.
Mansfield Street is a short continuation of Chandos Street built by the Adam brothers in 1770, on a plot of ground which had been underwater. Most of its houses are fine buildings with exquisite interiors, which if put on the market now would have an expected price in excess of £10 million. At Number 13 lived religious architectJohn Loughborough Pearson who died in 1897, and designer ofCastle Drogo and New DelhiSir Edwin Lutyens, who died in 1944.[24] Immediately across the road at 61New Cavendish Street lived Natural History Museum creatorAlfred Waterhouse.[25]
Queen Anne Street is an elegant cross-street which unites the northern end of Chandos Street with Welbeck Street. The painterJ. M. W. Turner moved to 47 Queen Anne Street in 1812 from 64 Harley Street, now divided into numbers 22 and 23, and owned the house until his death in 1851. It was known as "Turner's Den", becoming damp, dilapidated,[26] dusty, dirty, with dozens of Turner's works of art now in the National Gallery scattered throughout the house, walls covered in tack holes and a drawing room inhabited by cats with no tails.
During the same period a few hundred yards to the east,Chandos House in Chandos Street was used as theAustro-Hungarian Embassy and residence of the fabulously extravagant Ambassador Prince Paul Anton III Esterhazy,[27] seeing entertainment on a most lavish scale. The building is one of the finest surviving Adam houses in London, and now lets rooms.
Wimpole Street runs from Henrietta Place north to Devonshire Street, becoming Upper Wimpole en route – the latter whereArthur Conan Doyle opened his ophthalmic practice at number 2 in 1891; Conan Doyle's fictional detectiveSherlock Holmes also had his residence in Marylebone at221b Baker Street. Nearby at a six-floor Grade II 18th-century house at 57 Wimpole Street is wherePaul McCartney resided from 1964 to 1966, staying on the top floor of girlfriendJane Asher's family home.John Lennon wrote "I Want to Hold Your Hand" on a piano in the basement. A further Beatles connection is that they, and many other musicians have recorded at theAbbey Road Studios. At her father's house at number 50 Wimpole Street lived for some time between 1840 and 1845, Elizabeth Barrett, then known as the author of a volume of poems, and who afterwards escaped and was better known asElizabeth Barrett Browning. Today, at the bottom end of Wimpole at Wigmore can be found a sandwich shop named Barrett's.
Bentinck Street leaves Welbeck Street and touches the middle of windingMarylebone Lane.Charles Dickens lived at number 18 with his indebted father (on whom the character Wilkins Micawber was based) while working as a court reporter in the 1830s, andEdward Gibbon wrote much ofThe Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire while living at number 7 from the early 1770s.James Smithson wrote the will that led to the foundation of the Smithsonian Institution while living atnumber 9 in 1826, while number 10 was briefly graced by Chopin in 1848, who found his apartment too expensive and moved to Mayfair. Cambridge spiesAnthony Blunt andGuy Burgess lived at 5 Bentinck Street during the Second World War.[28] In the 1960s, the artistJohn Dunbar and Alexis Mardas, known as "Magic Alex", lived on the street.Princess Alexandra, 2nd Duchess of Fife, who was a qualified nurse, founded a nursing home in Bentinck Street, and served as its matron.[citation needed]
Manchester Square, west of Bentinck Street, has a central private garden with plane trees, laid out in 1776-88.[29] The mansion on the north side of the square, now the home of theWallace Collection, once housed the Spanish ambassador, whose chapel was inSpanish Place. From the north-west corner is Manchester Street, final home of Georgian-era prophetJoanna Southcott, who died there in 1814.
Bulstrode Street, small and charming, is named after a Portman family estate in Buckinghamshire, itself named after a local family there made-good in Tudor days. Tucked away, with a few terraced houses, Bulstrode Street has been the home of minor health care professionals for hundreds of years. The RADA student and aspiring actressVivien Leigh, aged twenty in 1933, gave birth at the Rahere Nursing Home, then at number 8, to her first child.
The north end of Welbeck Street joins New Cavendish Street, the name of which changed from Upper Marylebone Street afterWorld War I. Number 13 in New Cavendish Street, at its junction with Welbeck Street and on the corner of Marylebone Street, was the birthplace in 1882 of the orchestral conductorLeopold Stokowski, the son of a Polish cabinet maker. He sang as a boy in the choir of St Marylebone Church.
At the northern end of Marylebone High Street towards the Marylebone Road there is an area with a colourful history, which includes the former Marylebone Gardens, whose entertainments including bare-knuckle fighting, a cemetery, a workhouse, and the areas frequented byCharles Wesley, all shut down by the close of the 18th century, where today there are mansion blocks and upper-end retail.
At No. 1 Dorset Street resided mid-Victorian scientistCharles Babbage, inventor of the analytical engine. Babbage complained that two adjacent hackney-coach stands in Paddington Street ruined the neighbourhood, leading to the establishment of coffee and beer shops, and furthermore, the character of the new population could be inferred from the taste they exhibited for the noisiest and most discordant music.[30] An acclaimed international venue for chamber music, theWigmore Hall, opened at 36 Wigmore Street in 1901. It hosts over 500 concerts each year.[31]
The Marylebone Low Emission Neighbourhood was established in 2016 to improve the air quality of the area.[32] Westminster City Council in partnership with local residents, businesses and stakeholders completed a green grid of 1000 new street trees on Marylebone's streets in 2020.[33][34][35] An initiative to establish Marylebone Community Hall on Moxon street was launched in 2024.[36][37]
Marylebone was in theSt Marylebone UK Parliament constituency between 1918 and 1983. From 1983 to 2024, the area was divided between theCities of London and Westminster andWestminster North parliamentary constituencies. Following the2023 review of Westminster constituencies, the area is mostly in the Cities of London and Westminster constituency but Church Street ward, Lisson Grove is inQueen's Park and Maida Vale.[38][39] As of 2025[update], the MPs for Cities of London and Westminster and Queen's Park and Maida Vale areRachel Blake (Labour and Co-operative) andGeorgia Gould (Labour) respectively.[40][41]
TheMarylebone ward elects 3 councillors toWestminster City Council.
The parish and borough were bounded by two Roman roads,Oxford Street to the south andWatling Street (Edgware Road) to the west, and positioned on both sides of the formerRiver Tyburn which flowed from north to south. To the north (Boundary Road in St John's Wood) and east (running throughRegent's Park and alongCleveland Street), the area's boundaries have later been inherited as part of the northern and eastern boundary of the modernCity of Westminster.
This area includes localities such asSt John's Wood,Lisson Grove and East Marylebone.[42] East Marylebone (East of Great Portland Street) has been viewed being part ofFitzrovia since the 1970s.[43][44][45]
Local places of interest include Marylebone Village, most of Regent's Park;Marylebone Station; andLord's Cricket Ground, the home of theMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the original site of the MCC at Dorset Square.
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Areas and features of Marylebone include:
The area is served by routes2,13,18,27,30,74,113,139,189,205,274,453 and night routesN18 andN74.
Theatre Royal Marylebone 71 Church Street, NW8; 1832–1959
He was born in Marylebone and was taught to play saxophone by a sax-playing father. While at Marylebone grammar school, where he said he was "uneducated", Green, aged 13, took to the sax seriously. He played for his first paying audience at a Marble Arch church hall in 1943 with a repertoire of only two tunes - Whispering and Whispering Grass.
Robin was born in Marylebone, London, in March 1958 to company director Arthur Hurlstone and his wife, Mary, a Welsh farmer's daughter 21 years his junior. In his teens, Robin inherited 20,000 of money and worked as a model. However, he made art and antiques his business and is now a director of three companies.
William Oliver Guillemont Lofts was born in Marylebone, London, in 1923.
Born in Marylebone, West London, on February 4, 1915, Wisdom endured terrible suffering at the hands of his father Fred, a violent drunk. Once, when he was just nine, his dad hurled him into a ceiling.
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