Shepherd Market was developed between 1735 and 1746 by Edward Shepherd from an open area called Brook Field
Through Brook Field, the river Tyburn flowed. A May fair was held there.
Edward Shepherd was an architect and he was commissioned to develop the site. It contained a duck pond, paved alleyways and a two-storey market topped by a theatre.
It was associated with prostitution since the eighteenth century.
By the 1920s, Shepherd Market was a rundown area but became popular with writers and artists. Michael Arlen rented rooms opposite ’The Grapes’ pub and used the area as the setting for his best-selling 1924 novel ’The Green Hat’. This prompted Anthony Powell to move into the area in 1926.
’Mama’ Cass Elliot died at flat 12, 9 Curzon Place in Shepherd Market on 28 July 1974. Keith Moon of The Who died at the same flat on 7 September 1978.
