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Barret Street
Barrett Street is a short street in the W1U district of Marylebone running between Oxford Street and Wigmore Street, sitting on the western fringe of the Portman Estate's territory. It is best known today as the street through which St Christopher's Place passes, a pedestrianised shopping passage that has become one of the more distinctive retail environments in this part of central London.
The street takes its name from John Barrett, a local landowner, and the passage that would become St Christopher's Place was originally known as Barretts Court. During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries the area functioned as a slum, occupying land just off Tyburn Street, now Oxford Street, which at that period led directly to the Tyburn gallows at Marble Arch. The district was redeveloped in the 1870s under the influence of Octavia Hill, the housing reformer and co-founder of the National Trust, who introduced social housing and oversaw a mix of small trades including lampmakers, chandlers, cheesemakers, and drapers.
By the mid-twentieth century the passage had fallen into decline, with many units standing empty by 1967. Subsequent decades brought gradual regeneration, and Wigmore Street at its northern end connects Barrett Street to the broader medical and retail district running east towards Harley Street. The street and its adjoining passage now attract independent retailers and restaurants serving both the local residential population and visitors from nearby Oxford Street.
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