A 400-yard-long Georgian street running westwards off the northern end of Tottenham Court Road. In the latter part of the
eighteenth century this was an access road for the newly built properties on what is now Euston Road. Warren Street was laid
out with three-storey terraces in 1799 by Charles Fitzroy, first Baron Southampton. Variations in architectural detail have
led to suggestions that several speculative builders may have been involved in the project. Fitzroy named the street after
his wife, Anne Warren (1737–1807). Anne was the daughter of Admiral Sir Peter Warren, who founded New York’s Greenwich
Village and gave his name to more than one Warren Street in America. The new street soon became a popular place of residence
for artists, especially engravers. During the nineteenth century Warren Street was in the news when the radical MP Sir Charles
Dilke was accused of conducting an adulterous affair here, and when a gunman murdered a resident and a pursuing policeman.
The Northern Line station opened in 1907, originally as Euston Road, but this was changed to Warren Street within a year.
The station’s 1930s stone façade is by Charles Holden. The street deteriorated in the second half of the twentieth century
as used car dealers operated premises at street level while leaving the upper floors empty. Other properties were neglected
by absentee landlords. In 1967 Warren Street became the Victoria Line’s southern terminus for the first three months
of the line’s existence. The street now possesses a diverse mixture of retailers and providers of professional services.
Among the specialist shops are a couple of noteworthy booksellers. In April 2006 a local worker’s assertion that Warren
Street was “the most boring area in the whole of central London” sparked a heated debate in the London by London newsletter.
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