Bulstrode Street runs from Welbeck Street in the east to Thayer Street in the west.
Bulstrode Street is named after Bulstrode Park in Buckinghamshire which was in the ownership of the first Duke of Portland and was the family seat until 1810.
Bulstrode Street was laid out around 1763 and was built up under an agreement taken out by William Franks with fairly large houses, three of which survive. The western portion, on the Hinde estate, was laid out in the later 1780s as William Street, retaining its separate identity until 1928, when the whole street was renumbered.
The large houses were well-adapted to institutional use and by the end of the nineteenth century several were occupied as flats and nursing homes.
The clothing trade was also notable.
The William Street section was largely residential but had businesses such as a watchmaker and a surgical-boot maker. It was not among the better-class streets, and in 1911 was judged unsuitable for a nursing home because of nearby pubs and the ‘rather noisy and disreputable’ character of Marylebone Lane.
The north side of the original Bulstrode Street is now taken up by the largely purpose-built Marylebone Hotel.
