Perhaps the most important street in the neighborhood, Wardour Street in Soho was once called Colmanhedge Lane and changed its name in honor of Sir Edward Wardour who owned land in the area and who managed to obtain fresh water for the street’s houses from a spring not far away from`sw12 Wardour Street was called Prince’s Street until 1878 when the whole street became the current street.
In this street there was the church of St Anne dating back to 1600 which was seriously bombed during the Second World War, now it is used as a community centre. Mystery writer Dorothy L Sayers is buried here.
Wardour Street is one-way street. At number 33 was the famous Flamingo club in the 50s and 60s, which became an important venue for the mods of the time. Oddly enough, the Flamingo didn’t sell alcoholic beverages.
The history of Wardour Street in Soho
The street also existed in medieval times but was developed, like many parts of Soho in the late 1600s and became a centre for building and selling furniture and antiques and in the early 1800s there were also many used book shops. Many houses were rebuilt in the early 1800s.
After the Second World War, Wardour Street in Soho became an area for movie distributors, nightclubs and live music venues. In this street was the legendary Marquee which was the place that launched dozens and dozens of musicians from The Rolling Stones, The Who, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin and The Sex Pistols, almost all of them played here in their early days It was located until 1988 at 80 Wardour Street in Soho. Jimi Hendrix only played once in 1967 after the success at the Monterey festival, the queue for tickets went all the way to Cambridge Circus!
Leave a Reply