PLACE NAME
It has been suggested that, like other nearby streets, this is named after the Dukes of Argyll, however Gillian Bebbington in London Street Names puts forward, perhaps, the more convincing suggestion that it is one of a cluster of streets named after locations in the north of Britain, in this case Argyll, in Scotland; other examples include Belgrove Street (Warwickshire); Crestfield Street, formerly Chesterfield Street (Derbyshire); and Birkenhead Street (Cheshire). There were also once Liverpool and Derby Streets here. Either way, the street was laid out in the early 19thCentury on the site of the Battle Bridge field (the abbots of Battle owning land and a large house in London up until the dissolution of the monasteries), which covered an area to the east and west of Gray’s Inn Road. The UCL Bloomsbury Project says that work on it began in 1832, although had been planned by its developers Dunstan, Flanders, and Robinson as early as 1823–1824, and had been completed by 1849. In a continuation of the theme, it was first called Manchester Street. It was renamed in the early 20thCentury, sometime before 1953.