Marylebone High Street – the village in the heart of London's West End

Marylebone High Street was once voted London's best street by Radio 4 listeners, and it's easy to see why. Here is a walk from the parish church in the north to the Wallace Collection – passing what might be the world's first purpose-built bookshop.

Marylebone High Street lies a few blocks north of Oxford Street in London, but feels like another city. The street runs almost parallel to Baker Street and ends in the north at Marylebone Road, and it has been called the West End's hidden wonder. In 2002, listeners of BBC Radio 4 voted it London's best street – "a sanctuary in the midst of the hectic city".

What makes Marylebone so easy to like is its scale. There are no department stores and no flagship shops with queues outside, just a long row of small shops, cafés and wine bars in turn-of-the-century brick houses, with side streets leading on to squares and mews.

From village to street – The history of Marylebone

Marylebone was a village long before it became a district. When St Marylebone Parish Church was built at the northern end of the street around the year 1400, High Street became the village's centre, a role it has held ever since. In 1738, Marylebone Gardens opened on the eastern side of the street, a pleasure garden with a concert hall that attracted composers such as Georg Friedrich Handel and James Hook. The entrance went through the Rose Tavern inn at 35–36 Marylebone High Street, which later became the home of BBC London until 2009.

Most of the houses along the street today date from around 1900. The largest property owner is Howard de Walden Estates, which has been credited with transforming a worn-out part of central London into an elegant street with a carefully balanced mix of shops and small traders, according to Wikipedia.

Daunt Books – the bookshop with the oak galleries

The street's most famous address is Daunt Books. The former banker James Daunt founded the chain in 1990 by buying a bookshop here, and he has since led both Waterstones and Barnes & Noble. The shop is located in an Edwardian bookshop with long oak galleries, skylights and William Morris prints. The older part was completed in 1912 for the antiquarian bookseller Francis Edwards and is said to be the world's first purpose-built bookshop. Near the entrance to the travel section stands a large safe where the most expensive volumes were once kept.

Daunt Books started out as a travel bookshop and still sorts its shelves geographically: guidebooks, phrasebooks, travel writing, history and fiction stand together, country by country. The tote bag with a drawing of the shop façade has become a little cult object in its own right.

Wallace Collection at Manchester Square

A couple of minutes' walk to the south lies Manchester Square and Hertford House, where the Wallace Collection is displayed. The collection was built up by four Marquesses of Hertford and Sir Richard Wallace, and around 5,500 works of art were bequeathed to the nation by Lady Wallace in 1897. The museum opened in 1900 and displays French 18th-century art, furniture, porcelain, armour and paintings by, among others, Titian, Rembrandt, Velázquez and Gainsborough in 25 rooms. Admission is free.

Chiltern Street and the old fire station

One block west runs Chiltern Street, a narrow street with small shops. On the corner stands the old fire station from 1889, built as Manchester Square Fire Station in red brick with stone detailing in free Tudor Gothic style. In 2013, American hotelier André Balazs opened Chiltern Firehouse here, with 26 suites and a restaurant for 200 guests. Following a fire in 2025, the building is closed for repairs, according to Wikipedia.

You walk along Marylebone High Street

Start in the north at St Marylebone Parish Church and Marylebone Road and head south. Stop at Daunt Books, take one of the side streets east towards Marylebone Lane, then turn west towards Manchester Square and the Wallace Collection. Finish on Chiltern Street or continue south towards Wigmore Street and Oxford Street. The whole walk takes a morning at a leisurely pace, longer if you get stuck among the bookshelves.

Read more about the streets in VERA PI's street files for Marylebone High Street and Manchester Square, see the whole of Westminster in VERA PI's London guide, and find more city guides at metromode.co.

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