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Chiltern Street
Chiltern Street runs through the western edge of Marylebone in W1U, within the Portman Estate. Barely 400 metres end to end, it has developed over the past two decades into one of the more distinctive retail and hospitality addresses in the neighbourhood, anchored by independent boutiques and specialist retailers rather than chain operators. Its compact red-brick Victorian streetscape sets it apart from the stucco-fronted Georgian terraces that dominate much of the surrounding district.
The street's Victorian architecture dates largely from the 1880s. Originally known as East Street, it was renamed Chiltern Street in the 1930s, the new name referencing the Chiltern Hills. Its most significant building is the former Manchester Square Fire Station, built in 1889 to designs by the London County Council's architects department in Tudor-Gothic style with red brick and stone dressings. Decommissioned in 2005, the building was restored and reopened in 2013 as the Chiltern Firehouse, a 26-suite hotel and restaurant that became the first British establishment by American hotelier André Balazs. The building is Grade II* listed.
The street also contains Wendover Court, a philanthropic housing project from the 1890s, reflecting the social reformist impulses that shaped some of the Portman Estate's later Victorian development. Marylebone High Street lies parallel to the east, and Baker Street station provides the nearest Underground access.
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