Bolsover Street - home to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital since 1907.
Rocque’s map of 1746 shows the area to be mainly open fields - Bilson’s farm located to the north with hand-dug quarries for road construction in the immediate area.
Norton Street and Upper Norton Street were part of the Portland Estate and laid out as part of the development of the area in the 18th century. They were named after the village of Norton on the Duke of Portland’s Welbeck Abbey estate in Nottinghamshire. At first, Norton Street was described to be home to many artist and sculptor studios and was "the smartest of the local streets socially" up to about 1820.
After about 1825, a decline had set in. Norton Street with Cirencester Place became the local focus of a wider outcry against prostitution.
In 1858, the streets had a change of name and were combined to become Bolsover Street – reflecting links to the Cavendish family and their Derbyshire estate. The name change was designed to rescue its reputation.
There was significant rebuilding at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1907, the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital first occupied the northern end of Bolsover Street, when the National Orthopaedic Hospital on Great Portland Street merged with two other hospitals. A factor in Bolsover Street’s changing face has been the growth and development of hospital.
The Howard de Walden Estate sold off its easternmost holdings piecemeal in 1922–3.
Second World War destruction then led to other reconstruction in the second half of the 20th century. St Marylebone Borough Council and the London County Council (LCC) designed a post-war strategy for clearance and renewal. The LCC’s planning policy was to allow office and workshop development up to Clipstone Street but to zone the district further north for rehousing. Redevelopment, much of it for the Holcroft Court housing scheme, transformed the area in the 1960s and after.
