This article is about the street in London. For the street in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, see Charlotte Street, Brisbane.
Corner of Charlotte Street and Goodge StreetThe Fitzroy Tavern, at 16 Charlotte StreetPercy Chapel, Charlotte Street, 1857 (demolished 1867)
Charlotte Street is a street in Fitzrovia, historically part of the parish and borough of St Pancras, in central London. It has been described, together with its northern and southern extensions (Fitzroy Street and Rathbone Place), as the spine of Fitzrovia.[1]
The southern half of the street has many restaurants and cafes, and a lively nightlife; the northern part is more mixed in character, and includes the large office building of the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, and a University College London student hall of residence, Astor College. The street has a significant residential population living above the ground floor. It gives its name to two architectural Conservation Areas: Charlotte Street conservation area (Camden)[2] and Charlotte Street West conservation area (City of Westminster)[3]
History
Charlotte Street, formed in 1763, was named in honour of Queen Charlotte who married King George III in 1761. Together with Charlotte Place (previously Little Charlotte Street), it was one of four streets in and around Fitzrovia which took her name.[4] The other two have since been renamed Hallam Street and Bloomsbury Street.[5] Fitzrovia itself was named after the Fitzroy Tavern, a public house on Charlotte Street.
From the 19th century onward, the parish and borough of St Pancras was home to a large, mostly middle-class, German population. Charlotte Street and the surrounding locality was a thriving centre of this community, and the street acquired the nickname Charlottenstrasse, after its famous Berlin namesake. Other areas of St Pancras which had a large German community included Camden Town, Kentish Town and nearby Kings Cross,[6] where the German Gymnasium (now a restaurant) survives as a legacy.
The parish and borough boundaries of St Pancras (now part of the London Borough of Camden) and the parish and borough of Marylebone ran through the area, mostly along Cleveland Street; these ancient boundaries, which are many centuries old, have been inherited by the modern boroughs. Charlotte Street (and Charlotte Place) were wholly in St Pancras, but a minor adjustment to that boundary around 1900 now means that a small part of the boundary separating the London Borough of Camden and the City of Westminster runs along a short section of Charlotte Street.
The street has a mix of eighteenth-, nineteenth- and twentieth-century buildings and has reputation for its numerous restaurants serving a wide range of cuisine.
The Scala Theatre, opened in 1905, was located on Charlotte Street. A theatre first stood on the site in 1772. From 1865 to 1882, the theatre was known as the Prince of Wales's Theatre. It was demolished in 1969, after being destroyed by a fire.
The original Channel 4 television headquarters was at 60 Charlotte Street, before the channel moved to 124 Horseferry Road in 1994. The commercial radio station Xfm London originally had its studios in Charlotte Street before moving to Leicester Square.
The late 18th century painter George Morland lived in Charlotte Street.
Pierre-Noël Violet, early 19th century miniaturist painter, lived in Charlotte Street.
Wadham Wyndham purchased a house in Charlotte Street in 1771 and died there in 1812.
Theresa Berkley was an early 19th-century dominatrix who ran a brothel in at 28 Charlotte Street (now 84–94 Hallam Street), specialising in flagellation.
^'Charlotte Place', in Survey of London: Volume 21, the Parish of St Pancras Part 3: Tottenham Court Road and Neighbourhood, ed. J R Howard Roberts and Walter H Godfrey (London, 1949), p. 28. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol21/pt3/p28 [accessed 27 July 2022]
^E Beresford Chancellor, London's Old Latin Quarter, Jonathan Cape, 1930, p202
^Packer, Lona Mosk (1963) Christina Rossetti University of California Press pp. 13–17
^Lindsay Duguid, "Rossetti, Christina Georgina" (1830–1894)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, Jan 2009