Bolsover Street - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Bolsover Street is in the Parish of St Marylebone

Marylebone

Marylebone is an affluent inner-city area of central London, located within the City of Westminster. It is sometimes written as St. Marylebone or Mary-le-bone....

in London’s West End

West End of London

The West End of London is an area of central London, containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings, and entertainment . Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross...

. In administrative terms it lies within the City of Westminster

City of Westminster

The City of Westminster is a London borough occupying much of the central area of London, England, including most of the West End. It is located to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and its southern boundary...

's Marylebone High Street

Marylebone High Street

Marylebone High Street is a shopping street in London, running sub-parallel to Baker Street and terminating at its northern end at the junction with the Marylebone Road...

Ward and is partly in the Harley Street Conservation Area whilst also sitting on the edges of the Regents Park and East Marylebone Conservation Areas.

The predominant land use on Bolsover Street is office business use, mixed with hotels (and YHA Hostel), medical and professional activity. Numerous communications, new media and broadcast entities are located in offices on the street. Residential presence on the street is strongest at its northern and closest end to Regents Park and Regent's Place

Regent's Place

Regent's Place is a mixed use business and retail and residential quarter on the north side of Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden...

. The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital

Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital

The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital is a specialist orthopaedic hospital located in London, United Kingdom and a part of Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust...

has been present on the street since 1907.

Bolsover Street's History

Bolsover Street – part of the Portland Estate – was laid out as part of the overall development of this area in the 18th century, originally under the name of Norton Street and Upper Norton Street. Prior to this, Rocque’s map of c 1746 shows the site to be mainly open fields with Bilson's farm located to the north and further buildings to the east. Small scale hand-dug quarries (pits) for road construction and ponds were also noted to be in the area at that time.

Later, in the 1870s, it had a change of name – to Bolsover Street – reflecting its links to the Cavendish family and their estate in Derbyshire

Derbyshire

Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...

. Unlike the gradual development of Great Portland Street

Great Portland Street

Great Portland Street is a street in the West End of London. Linking Oxford Street with Albany Street and the busy A501 Marylebone Road and Euston Road, the road forms the boundary between Fitzrovia to the east and Marylebone to the west...

, this street was almost entirely built up before the end of the 18th century with fairly consistent small terraces

Terraced house

In architecture and city planning, a terrace house, terrace, row house, linked house or townhouse is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Great Britain in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls...

. Also around this time, the area was described to be home to many artists' and sculptors' studios. Richard Wilson

Richard Wilson (painter)

Richard Wilson was a Welsh landscape painter, and one of the founder members of the Royal Academy in 1768. Wilson has been described as '...the most distinguished painter Wales has ever produced and the first to appreciate the aesthetic possibilities of his country.' He is considered to be the...

, the landscape painter, Sir David Wilkie

David Wilkie (artist)

Sir David Wilkie was a Scottish painter.- Early life :Wilkie was the son of the parish minister of Cults in Fife. He developed a love for art at an early age. In 1799, after he had attended school at Pitlessie, Kettle and Cupar, his father reluctantly agreed to his becoming a painter...

, the Scottish painter and Sir William Chambers, the architect are said to have lived on Bolsover Street.

However, there was significant rebuilding at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1907, the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital

Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital

The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital is a specialist orthopaedic hospital located in London, United Kingdom and a part of Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust...

first occupied the northern end of Bolsover Street, when the National Orthopaedic Hospital on Great Portland Street

Great Portland Street

was amalgamated with two other hospitals. In the street as a whole, the rebuilding along the western side was mostly related to the redevelopment along Great Portland Street

Great Portland Street

, where the large Edwardian buildings were constructed to take up the whole width of the block with their backs facing on to Bolsover Street. There was also much rebuilding along the eastern side, with several of the terraced houses from the first development demolished in small groups and built over with larger buildings.
As such, much about Bolsover Street was already altered from its original form and character even before The Blitz

The Blitz

The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...

, in which some buildings were only superficially damaged but others were damaged beyond repair. This destruction necessarily led to a fair amount of reconstruction in the second half of the 20th century. Another factor in Bolsover Street’s changing face in the last century has been the continued growth and development of the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital

Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital

The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital is a specialist orthopaedic hospital located in London, United Kingdom and a part of Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust...

. The most recent instance of this has been the opening of the new central London Outpatient Assessment Centre and the associated residential development. The Centre maintains the Hospital's original Outpatients’ Hall with murals by Nan West, a student of the Slade School, The murals cover some 90 square metres and are reminiscent of the pre-Raphaelites. These murals were restored in 1996, and were listed Grade II in 1998 as being of special historic interest This latest initiative has brought some of the activity and visual interest over from the neighbouring streets to enliven Bolsover Street for the 21st century.
Bolsover Street's streetscape is a mix of Edwardian institutional and mansion-block style buildings, modern offices and other commercial buildings and a large post-war hotel building and residential buildings. Its buildings are typically presented in red, red/brown or stock brickwork with stone dressings to the windows, entrances and cornice lines. Its buildings are mostly 6-9 storeys high with mansard roofs and one or two levels of dormer windows. The predominant land use on Bolsover Street is office business use, hotels mixed with medical and professional activity. Numerous communications, new media and broadcast entities are located on the street.

Recent development activity is leading to a growing residential presence especially at the north end of Bolsover Street. Community efforts have successfully led to trees lining the length of Bolsover Street. Alan Titchmarsh

Alan Titchmarsh

Alan Fred Titchmarsh, MBE DL is an English gardener, broadcaster and novelist. After working as a professional gardener and a garden journalist, he established himself as a media personality through appearances on gardening programmes...

, celebrity broadcaster and gardening expert, planted an elm tree to mark the arrival of 48 new trees in Bolsover Street in April 2011.

Bolsover Street & Public Transport

Local London Underground stations for Bolsover Street are in order of proximity Great Portland Street

Great Portland Street tube station

Great Portland Street is a London Underground station near Regent's Park. It is between and on the Hammersmith & City, Circle and Metropolitan lines...

, Regents Park, Warren Street

Warren Street tube station

Warren Street tube station is a London Underground station, located at the intersection of Tottenham Court Road and Euston Road. It is on the branch of the Northern Line, between and , and the Victoria Line between and Euston. It is in Travelcard Zone 1 and is the nearest tube station to...

, and Oxford Circus

Oxford Circus tube station

-External links:* ** ** * Plans of the station after the Victoria Line works , , *...

. Buses numbered 88, C2, 18, 27, 30, 205, 189, 3, 12, and 55 stop within a close distance (<5 minutes walk) from Bolsover Street. A large underground parking facility is located close by in Clipstone Mews.

Sources

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.