Dean Street Area: Portland Estate, Fareham Street

Fareham Street

This street was originally called Titchfield Street, after one of the subsidiary titles of the Dukes of Portland. It was renamed Fareham Street in 1950, the past and present names being those of adjoining villages in Hampshire.

The street was laid out in 1736 (fn. 1) between Dean Street and Great Chapel Street, on vacant or undeveloped land. (fn. 2) Between January 1736/7 and April 1738 the second Duke of Portland granted building leases of four sites on the north side of the newly laid-out street and five sites on the south side. All the leases were subject to rents of £6 per annum, without payment of fines, and all were to expire in 1799. John Jackson of St. Anne's, carpenter, took the lease of the site on the north side at the corner of Great Chapel Street. The other eight sites were leased to Joseph Wayte, also of St. Anne's, carpenter. (fn. 2) John Morris of Walham Green, brickmaker, and John Montigny of St. George's, Hanover Square, blacksmith, probably supplied some of the building materials. (fn. 3)

The erection of the first houses in Titchfield Street began in 1737, a date formerly commemorated by a plaque let into the wall of the house at the corner with Dean Street. (fn. 4) Titchfield Street first appears by name in the parish ratebooks in 1739 when four of the new houses were occupied, but it was not until 1743 that all the houses were rated. (fn. 5)