Bentinck Street
Bentinck Street is a Georgian street in the W1U district of Marylebone, running east from Manchester Square towards Welbeck Street, within the estate managed today by the Howard de Walden Estate. Its name reflects the complex inheritance history of this part of Marylebone. When the Harley heiress Lady Margaret Cavendish Harley married William, 2nd Duke of Portland, the Marylebone estate passed into the Bentinck family. The name persisted through successive generations, and Bentinck Street commemorates that connection.
The street's most celebrated historical resident is Edward Gibbon, the historian and author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, who lived and worked here. Gibbon's presence on Bentinck Street places the street within the tradition of Georgian Marylebone as a preferred address for scholars, writers, and professional men of means, a tradition shared with neighbouring streets in the Howard de Walden portfolio.
The broader estate history is relevant here. In 1879 the 5th Duke of Portland died without a male heir, and the Portland Estate, covering much of Marylebone, passed to Lucy Joan Bentinck, widow of the 6th Baron Howard de Walden. Through her the property transferred to the Howard family, who continue to own and manage the estate. The Howard de Walden Estate now covers approximately 92 acres bounded by Marylebone Road, Wigmore Street, Portland Place, and Marylebone High Street, with Bentinck Street sitting near the estate's southern boundary.
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