Place Name
Cosmo George Gordon, 3rd Duke of Gordon (April 27, 1720 – August 5, 1752), styled the Marquess of Huntly, was the grandfather of Lady Georgiana, wife of local landowner John Russell, 6th Duke of Bedford, whose family had owned Bloomsbury since 1669. This was in the west of the their Bloomsbury estate which covered the area from Southampton Row to Tottenham Court Road, and north to south from Euston Road to High Holborn. The UCL Bloomsbury Project says that the street was built in the late 18thCentury (it is shown on Horwood’s plan of 1792 – 9), a time which saw the radical transformation of the area from marshy, unimportant fields, to a restricted, upper to middle class suburb. Until the 1870s, the street ran south from Pancras Street as far as Francis Street, after which point it incorporated the former Alfred Street and thus continued as far south as Chenies Street. Originally it was known as Upper Thornhaugh Street, after the Thornhaugh estate which had been brought into the Russell family by Anne Sapcote, the wife of the 1st Earl of Bedford. It is presumed to have been renamed in 1828. However Cary’s map of 1837 still names it Upper Thornhaugh Street, while Mogg’s map of 1834 names it Huntley Street.