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Holles Street
Holles Street runs north to south, connecting the southern edge of Cavendish Square to Oxford Street. It was laid out around 1729 as part of the grid urbanisation of the fields north of Oxford Street, and takes its name from John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, who purchased the Manor of Marylebone in 1710. Through the Duke's daughter Henrietta, the land passed to the Harley family and subsequently shaped the entire Cavendish-Harley estate nomenclature of this part of Marylebone.
The street carries two substantial historical associations. The poet Lord Byron was born on 22 January 1788 at a house in Holles Street. The site was marked by what is considered the world's first official blue plaque, erected in 1867; when Byron's birthplace was demolished in 1889, the plaque was lost with it. Westminster City Council later installed a green plaque on the successor building, unveiled on National Poetry Day 2012.
The western frontage of Holles Street is dominated by the John Lewis flagship department store, which traces its Oxford Street origins to the 1860s and rebuilt on this site after wartime bombing damage. On the Holles Street elevation, Barbara Hepworth's Winged Figure (1963) is mounted on the facade, making it one of Marylebone's more prominent pieces of public sculpture.
The street is short but historically dense, linking Cavendish Square to the retail energy of Oxford Street.
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