Place Name
After the dukes of Bedford, Bloomsbury landowners, since 1669. The street itself was laid out, along the site of an existing track, by John Russell, the 4th Duke of Bedford (September 30, 1710 – January 5, 1771), in the 1760s as a private road from the Bedford estate (an area covering from Tottenham Court Road to Southampton Road, and Euston Road north to High Holborn south) to the Euston Road. He named it after himself. At first it was called Duke’s Row and was not designed for residents, though in 1822 shops with houses were built on the west side of the street by Thomas Cubitt. Residents listed in the 1841 census included a Scottish-born artist, a copper-plate printer, and the distinguished wax-modeller [Henry] Cephas Pierotti and his family at No. 17. The only remaining part of the original roadway is the north end; the lower part of the road seems to have run alongside the present-day Woburn Place (including Upper Woburn Place). Prior to its development this area was fields.