PLACE NAME
After Karnaby House, built in about 1683 by 17thCentury bricklayer Richard Tyler, which stood on the east side of the street. The meaning of Karnaby itself is unknown. The street, built a couple of years later, appears to have been structured around the house. Before its development the land was part of a small estate called Six Acre Close which is thought to have originated in 1590 when two small adjoining fields came into the possession of Thomas Poultney. Roger Looker, a gardener, leased the land in 1671 and built himself a house and laid out market gardens here. After he died his widow sold the sublease to a party of purchasers while the Pulteney family offloaded their interests to pay off debts. Dan Cruickshank in Soho says “Carnaby Street was lined by buildings by 1690, most of them small and occupied by Huguenots, and rebuilt during the 1720s when the land came under the control of William Lowndes. The street remained modest in its social aspirations and was again largely rebuilt from 1821 to 1825, along with the streets to its east, after the closure and demolition of Carnaby market. Consequently, between Carnaby and Newburgh Streets and up to Ganton and Marshall Streets there are substantial remains of an 1820s ‘model’ shopping and residential area, with uniform houses and shop fronts.”
