Street fighting men
▻http://marylebonejournal.com/history/street-fighting-men
How class warfare helped prevent clarity coming to Marylebone street names
In 1971, an American writer had a caution for his countrymen who might wish to explore the precincts of Marylebone. “You are walking along James Street. All of a sudden it’s Mandeville Place, which becomes Thayer Street, which becomes Marylebone High Street, and you’ve never turned a corner.” Nearly half a century later, that same perplexing succession of names for what appears to be the same street has not changed. And frankly, the residents and merchants are quite chuffed to keep it that way. After all, their ancestors stared down the once almighty London County Council over that very issue.
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The planning boffins thought it made eminent sense as the four streets formed a direct north-south route and the streetscapes were “more or less uniform”. The Times reported that the LCC’s plan was in for, well, a difficult road: “While geographically simple, it is strongly objected to by residents.”
A good deal of the opposition came from the denizens of Mandeville Place who, from behind their rococo battlements, could hardly agree that any uniformity existed between their grand address and the ironmongers and chemists to their north and south. Mandeville Place had become home to many members of the medical profession, who strongly felt that the tone of their address was essential to place them on the same plane as their exalted colleagues on nearby Harley and Wimpole Streets. To suddenly have to change out their meticulously polished bronze doorplates and expensive embossed stationery and replace it with something as tatty as “Marylebone High Street” was unthinkable. What mandarin of medicine could hope to attract the right patients to a surgery beset with such “a clumsy and unattractive name suited only to a shopping street”.