George Street runs east to west through Marylebone from Edgware Road to Thayer Street, forming one of the longer cross-streets in the Portman Estate's Georgian grid. The street is thought to take its name from King George III, who reigned when the Portman Estate began laying out this part of Marylebone in the late eighteenth century for affluent residential occupation.
The street's most historically notable address is 34 George Street, now renumbered as 102, where Sake Dean Mahomed opened the Hindoostane Coffee House in 1810. A former captain in the Bengal Army of the British East India Company, Mahomed established what is widely regarded as the first Indian restaurant in the British Isles, catering to former Company employees and offering Indian cuisine and hookah smoking in an orientally decorated interior. The venture was short-lived, Mahomed becoming bankrupt in 1812, but its significance endures. A City of Westminster green plaque was unveiled at the site in 2005.
George Street today is a mixed-use thoroughfare with residential, hotel, and commercial occupants, sitting between the Georgian squares of Bryanston and Manchester to the north and south. Manchester Square, home to the Wallace Collection's Hertford House, lies immediately to the north of the street's eastern section, making George Street a natural approach to one of London's most distinguished small museums.
The Our Gazette
Delivered weekly to your inbox
Join 12,000+ Our insiders