A Village in the Heart of London

I arrived at Marylebone Station in plenty of time this morning, so I decided to walk the mile from there to Broadcasting House before my shift started. The area I passed through is known as Marylebone Village and despite being right in the middle of London, parts of it really do have a small community feel - albeit a rather exclusive one. A mews house in a lane like Oldbury Place in my blipfoto currently costs between £1.4m and £4.7m - quite an inflated price for what was once stables with basic living quarters above for the grooms. They are now the height of luxury, especially as these narrow back streets are very quiet away from the main roads.

Marylebone got its name from a little church dedicated to St Mary, now replaced by the much grander St Marylebone Parish Church which was built on the site in 1817. The original church was on the bank of a small stream or "bourne", called the Tybourne or Tyburn, running along what is now Marylebone Lane. The church and the surrounding area later became known as St Mary at the Bourne which, over time, became shortened to Marylebone. The BBC used to own a property on Marylebone High Street, number 35, from where the Radio Times was published for many years. I can remember taking close-to-deadline billings there on foot for inclusion in the listings pages, in the olden days before e-mail. 35 MHS, as we staff knew it, has recently been sold off as part of the current round of money-saving cutbacks. Broadcasting House itself is in Portland Place, also within the Marylebone area.

I long ago made a promise to myself that if ever I won a big jackpot on the lottery I would buy a little pied-à-terre in Marylebone Village. Dream on, Jane, dream on.....