Berners Street is a thoroughfare located to the north of Oxford Street in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, originally developed as a residential street in the mid-18th century by property developer William Berners, and later devoted to larger commercial and semi-industrial buildings or mansion blocks of flats. It has associations with Charles Dickens, and was the location of makers of musical instruments including pianos and harps, as well as furniture and film-makers.
Geography Berners Street runs approximately 315 metres in a northerly direction from the junction of Oxford Street and Wardour Street to join up with Mortimer Street (formerly Charles Street) and the former Middlesex Hospital (now called Fitzroy Place). The street lies in an area known as Fitzrovia and is considered historically to be in East Marylebone. Twenty one trees were added to Berners Street in 2012.
History Berners Street was originally developed as a residential street by the Berners Estate in the mid-eighteenth century.
John Slater, surveyor of the Berners Estate, wrote in 1918:
Edward Walford, wrote in Old and New London (Volume 4), published 1878:
Walford records the proliferation of charitable and medical institutions in Berners Street during the 19th century:
Many of these institutions springing up in proximity to the Middlesex Hospital:
Edward Walford evokes something of the street market atmosphere at the corner of Berners Street and Charles Street so vividly described by Henry Mayhew in the 1840s and 50s:London Labour and the London Poor
Jamaica connections On 2 November 1756, Richard Bathurst delivered his resignation letter to the Board of the Middlesex Hospital, thus:
Genealogist Anne M. Powers wrote a study of the interchange between 18th-century Jamaica and mercantile London in her book and blog 'A Parcel of Ribbons', which gives some insight into Berners Street in colonial times:
Berners Street Hoax
The street was given notoriety by a practical joke, known as the Berners Street hoax, perpetrated by the writer Theodore Hook in 1810. Hook had made a bet with his friend, Samuel Beazley, that he could transform any house in London into the most talked-about address in a week, which he achieved by sending out thousands of letters in the name of Mrs Tottenham, who lived at 54 Berners Street, requesting deliveries, visitors, and assistance. Hook stationed himself in the house directly opposite 54 Berners Street, from where he and his friend spent the day watching the chaos unfold. The site at 54 Berners Street is now occupied by the Sanderson Hotel.
Charles Booth In October 1898, Charles Booth took a series of walks with Police Constable R.J. French of the Tottenham Court Road subdivision of the D police division and recorded observations in his notebooks for Life and Labour of the People of London. On 21 October he walked with PC French around "District 3" including the area "bounded on the North by Mortimer Street and Goodge St. on the East by Charlotte St. and Rathbone Place, on the South by Oxford Street and on the West by Regent St. being part of the parishes of All Souls and All Saints." Setting out from the corner of Goodge Street and Charlotte Street he walked north up Berners Street noting only "4 1/2 storeys, centre for music establishments, piano, instrument, music publishers etc."
Notable residents Arts William Chambers, the architect and interior decorator, was able to build himself a house "in his own speculation", at 13, Berners Street, along with two adjacent houses, no. 14 for James Lacy and no. 15 for Thomas Rouse, all begun in 1764. According to his biographer John Harris, "Chambers's garden is terminated on the mews by a stable and adjacent a large room that must have been his drawing office, allowing access from the mews for the assistants. The rear of his house was decorated in papier mâché in a 'fanciful', perhaps Chinoiserie, style." Images of some of Chambers' interiors are held in the RIBA library. Thomas Collins, an ornamental plasterer who worked for, and was a friend and partner of Sir William Chambers. John Opie, the historical and portrait artist (8, Berners Street) until his death in 1807 Henry Fuseli, the Swiss painter and draughtsman (13, Berners Street, the former home of William Chambers) 1803–
Literature Berners Street is strongly associated with the writer Charles Dickens. Dickens' maternal great aunt, Mrs Charles Charlton, ran a lodging house at 16 Berners Street, and Dickens was often taken here by his mother, and got a job as a result in 1827. One of the lodgers was a young lawyer called Edward Blackmore, who was impressed by the youngster and employed him as a solicitor's clerk at Ellis & Blackmore in Grays Inn at the age of 15 (for more than twice the pay of Dickens' dreaded, and latterly famous, blacking factory job).
It was in Berners Street that, as a boy, Dickens saw a wandering woman, upon whom the character Miss Havisham from Great Expectations was based. Dickens described her as "a conceited old creature, cold and formal in manner" who was "dressed entirely in white with a ghastly white plaiting round her head and face inside her white bonnet." He added that she "went simpering mad on personal grounds alone – no doubt because a wealthy Quaker wouldn't marry her. This is her bridal dress. She is always walking up here… we observe in her mincing step and fishy eye that she intends to lead him a sharp life." This was in his essay "Where We Stopped Growing" which was published in Household Words on 1 January 1853.
Later in life, at 31 Berners Street, Dickens installed his secret young lover, the actress Ellen Lawless Ternan (nicknamed Nelly), who at 19 was 27 years younger than him, and the same age as his eldest daughter. It was September 1858 when she moved in accompanied by her mother Francis, who was an actress, and two sisters, Maria, another actress, and Fanny, a singer. After just a month Ellen and Maria reported to him that they were being pestered by a policeman, whom Dickens suspected of having been bribed by a man sexually interested in either or both of them. He complained of this "extraordinary, and dangerous and unwarrantable conduct in a policeman" whom he thought should be dismissed. But fear of publicity prevented him pursuing it. Perhaps that was why they all moved in March 1859 to Ampthill Square. Ellen had a habit of wearing scarlet geraniums and white heather in her hair. She was persuaded to give up acting by Dickens in August 1859, and received regular payments from his Coutts Bank account. On her death at the age of 75, she was buried in Southsea, close to where Dickens was born. Ellen Ternan, actress and mistress of Charles Dickens (31, Berners Street) Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the poet (71, Berners Street)
Other residents Robert Cooper Lee (26, Berners Street) 30-year lease from 1771, subsequently moved to Bedford Square John Slater, FRSA, architect and surveyor to the Berners Estate (46, Berners Street), c. 1891
By the end of the nineteenth century the area around Berners Street was no longer completely residential and development plots were being amalgamated for the erection of larger commercial and semi-industrial buildings or for mansion blocks of flats. Examples of such mansion blocks include the Edwardian Berners street mansions (34–36, Berners Street) and Lancaster Court.
Businesses and organisations Furniture industry From the 19th century Berners Street was the home of notable cabinet makers, upholsterers and furnishing companies including Lincrusta-Walton Wallcoverings, Showroom (9 Berners Street) Howard & Sons, furniture makers (22, 26 & 27, Berners Street) Filmer & Son, furniture makers (34, Berners Street) Sanderson, fabrics and wallpaper (49–57, Berners Street) Teale Fireplace Company, fireplace showroom (28, Berners Street) Well Fire & Foundry Company (15, Berners Street) Percy Heffer and Company, wallpaper showroom (64, Berners Street) Battam and Heywood, carver and gilder (Corner of Berners Street and 114, Oxford Street) Emerson's, 'art furniture', (Berners Street), c.1890, a shop established by Emmeline Pankhurst, which also acted as an estate agency, later moving to 223 Regent Street opposite Liberty's.
Hotels During the 20th century several hotels became established on Berners Street including York Hotel, later converted into the mansion block known as York House (12, Berners Street) Berners Hotel (10, Berners Street, currently being redeveloped by Ian Schrager and Edition with Marriott International) Sanderson Hotel (49–57, Berners Street, formerly the head office of Sanderson)
Medical and charitable institutions Dr William Beale Marston's Museum of Science, Anatomy and The Wonders of Nature, opened (47, Berners Street) Madame Caplin's Anatomical and Physiological Gallery (for Ladies only) opened 1859 (58 Berners Street)Wikisource:Health and beauty by Caplin/Introduction Society for the Relief of Widows and Orphans of Medical Men, founded 1788 (53, Berners Street) The Medical and Chirurgical Society, established in 1805, and incorporated in 1834 (53, Berners Street) The Obstetrical Society of London, instituted in 1858 (53, Berners Street) The Pathological Society, founded in 1846 (53, Berners Street) The Clinical Society of London, founded 1868 (53, Berners Street) St Peter's Hospital for Stone (54, Berners Street) Ladies' Sanitary Association (22, Berners Street)
Women's suffrage movement The Society for Promoting the Employment of Women (22, Berners Street) Berners Club for Women (9, Berners Street) c. 1871–1898. Elizabeth Crawford noted in her work on the Women's Suffrage Movement:
Central Committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage, founded 1867 (9, Berners Street) Ladies Town and Country Club (registered at Berners Street Mansions c. 1898–1900, secretary L. Jackson) and listed at 73 and 75 Mortimer Street until 1924.
Musical instrument makers Piano makers Various piano makers were located in Berners Street between 1820 and 1860, including: Robert Allison (29, Berners Street) c. 1837–1847 Edward Dodd (3, Berners Street) fl. 1826–46 John Cooper & Son (68, Berners Street) Philip George Holcombe (38, Berners Street) fl. 1855–60 James Kennay & Co (15, Berners Street) fl. 1840–57 Frederick Priestley (15, Berners Street) fl. c. 1850–60 Challen & Son (3, Berners Street) 1859–60 Henry Smart (27, Berners Street) fl. 1823–26 John Cooper & Son (70, Berners Street) 1850–53 Duff & Hodgson fl. 1843–60 (3, Berners Street) 1850 Jacob & James Erart fl. c. 1855 (23, Berners Street) 1855 Sandon & Steadman (Berners Street) c. 1890–1900
Harp makers Thomas Dodd, harp maker. Thomas Dodd came from a family of instrument makers – Dodd violin bows had been famous since the mid-1700. His father Edward died in 1810 at the very respectable age of 95. Dodd was mainly a dealer in instruments from 1809 to 1823, when he moved to Berners Street and then got interested in harps. He was also at Berwick Street in 1827 before returning to Berners Street. Thomas died in about 1830, and the business carried on until 1846 – presumably by means of his 2 sons (see Edward Dodd, 3, Berners Street). There is an 1822 patent for a laminated neck. Haarnack, harp maker (53 Berners Street). There were several generations of Haarnack dating up to the mid-1920s. The business was at Charlotte Street and there was a showroom in Fitzroy Square. For a time they were also at 53 Berners Street down the road from Dodds. The first of the line was chief mechanic at Erards in 1808. Haarnack were one of the last makers to continue trading and also had a thriving repair business. Marie Goosens mentions meeting 3 generations at their shop in her book "Life on a Harpstring".