Berners Street runs from the junction of Oxford Street and Wardour Street to join up with Mortimer Street and the former Middlesex Hospital.
Berners Street was originally developed as a residential street by the Berners Estate in the mid-eighteenth century. Originally, Josias Berners bought a small estate close to Hanway Street.
Edward Walford records the proliferation of charitable and medical institutions in Berners Street during the 19th century. From the 19th century Berners Street was also the home of notable cabinet makers, upholsterers and furnishing companies.
Berners Street is strongly associated with Charles Dickens. Dickens’ maternal great aunt, Mrs Charles Charlton, ran a lodging house at 16 Berners Street, and Dickens was often taken here by his mother, and got a job at Ellis & Blackmore in Grays Inn as a result in 1827.
It was in Berners Street that Dickens’ saw a wandering woman, upon whom the character Miss Havisham from Great Expectations was based.
Later in life, at 31 Berners Street, Dickens installed his secret young lover, the actress Ellen Lawless Ternan (nicknamed Nelly), who at 19 was 27 years younger than him, and the same age as his eldest daughter.
