Specialists in Marylebone
Blandford Street
Blandford Street runs through the heart of Marylebone village, connecting Marylebone High Street to the east with Manchester Street and the grid of streets approaching Baker Street to the west. It falls within the Howard de Walden Estate, which has managed the eastern portion of Marylebone since the estate passed to the Howard de Walden family in 1879 following the Portland inheritance. The original street layout dates from the Georgian development of the area in the eighteenth century, when Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holles and her husband Edward Harley began building out a rational residential grid northward from Oxford Street.
The street takes its name from the Portman family's connections to Blandford in Dorset, reflecting the common practice of honouring landowners' country estates in the naming of London streets during this era. Its Georgian terraces, though altered at ground-floor level over the decades, retain much of their original scale and rhythm.
Today Marylebone High Street draws much of the neighbourhood's dining and retail activity, but Blandford Street has developed a notable concentration of independent restaurants. Jikoni at numbers 19 to 21 has received significant critical attention since opening, and Clarette wine bar at number 44, established in 2017, has contributed to the street's reputation as a destination for food and drink. Number 48 carries a blue plaque commemorating the scientist Michael Faraday, installed in 1976.
The Marylebone Gazette
Delivered weekly to your inbox
Join 12,000+ Marylebone insiders
