Meard Street

Meard Street runs between Dean Street and Wardour Street in the middle of Soho, and is one of the best-preserved early Georgian streets in London. It takes its name from John Meard, a carpenter who redeveloped the street in two stages during the 1730s and 1740s. He built a group of smaller houses first, then a row of larger ones, all in London stock brick.

Many of Meard's houses still stand and are listed at Grade II*, reflecting how rare a surviving terrace of this date and completeness is in central London. The brickwork, doorcases and panelled fronts give a clear sense of how Soho looked when it was a fashionable residential quarter, before the trades and entertainment of later centuries moved in.

The street's later history runs alongside Soho's bohemian reputation. During the 1950s and 1960s the basement of number 23 housed Le Macabre, a coffee house remembered for its coffin-lid tables. Today Meard Street is quiet by Soho standards, a short pedestrian-friendly link lined with townhouses rather than shopfronts. It sits a few steps from the busier trade of Dean Street, and rewards anyone who slows down to read the buildings.