and Cavendish Street on a 1764 map. map. The street was one of those laid out in the early 1700s when the area north of Oxford Street was urbanised on a
grid pattern. It was named after
Lady Henrietta Cavendish, the heiress to the Manor of Marylebone lands and the wife of
Edward Harley after whom
Harley Street was named. It was renamed Old Cavendish Street to distinguish it from the much longer
New Cavendish Street to the north. In the 1870s it included two
public houses, the Red Lion at No. 5 (rebuilt 1879), on the east side, and the Crown at No. 12A (rebuilt 1885–6) and was a throughway to Oxford Street but it has since been pedestrianised at the southern end. The
cul-de-sac Red Lion Yard, later known as Cavendish Buildings, ran from the eastern side before the construction of the
House of Fraser (previously D.H. Evans) store in Oxford Street. Today, the street is entirely taken up by the
House of Fraser department store on its western side and the
John Lewis store on the east, both of which front Oxford Street. == References ==