Orchard Street
Orchard Street runs north from Oxford Street into the heart of the Portman Estate in Marylebone, terminating at Portman Square. The street was laid out in the mid-eighteenth century as part of the systematic development of the estate under William Baker, who planned Orchard Street alongside Baker Street and other roads north of Oxford Street. It takes its name from Orchard Portman, a village in Somerset long associated with the Portman family, reflecting the estate's practice of commemorating the family's West Country origins in its street names.
The street runs along the eastern frontage of the Selfridges department store, whose building extends the length of its Oxford Street block and wraps around the Orchard Street corner. The proximity to this large retail anchor gives the street a commercial character at its southern end, while the upper section transitions toward the residential and professional character of the Portman Estate proper.
The Portman Estate manages the street as part of its 110-acre holding, bounded by Oxford Street to the south, Marylebone Road to the north, Edgware Road to the west and Baker Street to the east. Orchard Street's position at the southern gateway to the estate means it is among the more pedestrianised and commercially active streets within the Portman holding. Portman Square, to which it leads, provides the formal northern terminus of this approach.
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