Wimpole Street
Wimpole Street runs north to south through the heart of the Howard de Walden Estate in Marylebone, from New Cavendish Street in the north to Wigmore Street at its southern end, in the W1G postal district. It was laid out as part of the Cavendish-Harley Estate development in the mid eighteenth century, the street name taken from Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire, a property associated with the Harley family. Georgian terraced houses were built along its length from the 1720s onwards, and the street was substantially complete by the close of the eighteenth century.
Wimpole Street is best known for its literary association with the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who lived at number 50 from 1838 to 1846. It was there that she met Robert Browning in May 1845; he visited her 91 times before the couple eloped and married secretly at St Marylebone Parish Church. The house at number 50 was demolished in 1935, and a plaque on the current building marks the site. The Royal Society of Medicine opened its premises on Wimpole Street in 1912 and remains there today.
The street developed strong medical associations during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, complementing the established Harley Street district to the immediate west. Today it carries a mix of consulting rooms, professional offices, and residential properties, operating firmly within the Howard de Walden Estate. Several Georgian buildings along its length carry listed status.
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