Dorset Street in Marylebone

Dorset Street

Dorset Street lies within the W1U postal district, running roughly parallel to Marylebone High Street a short distance to the east, and forming part of the Portman Estate's western Marylebone holdings. At approximately 276 metres in length, it is one of the longer east-west streets in this part of the neighbourhood, maintained by Westminster City Council.

Two facts give the street its historical weight. Charles Babbage, the mathematician whose work on difference engines and analytical engines laid conceptual foundations for the modern computer, lived in a house on this street from 1829 until his death in 1871. A green plaque at number 1 marks the site. Babbage was a prominent figure in London's scientific circles during that period, and Dorset Street was his home for over four decades.

At number 8 stands the Barley Mow, one of the oldest surviving public houses in Marylebone. Dating from 1791, it holds Grade II listed status and is recognised by CAMRA as a heritage pub of national importance. The interior retains original matchboard panelling, prints of eighteenth-century Marylebone, and two small drinking compartments fronting the main bar, all of which give a reasonably unaltered account of how a neighbourhood pub in this area would have appeared in the Victorian period.