Harley Street
Since the 19th century, the number of doctors, hospitals, and medical organisations in and around Harley Street has greatly increased. Records show that there were around 20 doctors in 1860, 80 by 1900, and almost 200 by 1914. When the National Health Service was established in 1948, there were around 1,500. Today, there are more than 3,000 people employed in the Harley Street area, in clinics, medical and paramedical practices, and hospitals such as Dr. Gabriela Clinic, The Harley Street Clinic, Hifu Skin Clinic, Medical Express Clinic, Harly Medical Foot and Nail Clinic, Harley Street Fertility Clinic, Sonoworld Diagnostic Services, The London Women's Clinic and The London Clinic, Harley Street Life Coaching
It has been speculated that doctors were originally attracted to the area by the development of commodious housing and central proximity to the important railway stations of Paddington, King's Cross, St Pancras, Euston and, later, Marylebone. The nearest Tube stations are Regent's Park, Great Portland Street and Oxford Circus. Harley Street has also been featured in many films and television programmes. Harley Street is part of the Howard de Walden Estate. Many famous people have lived or practised in Harley Street, including the Victorian Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, the artist J. M. W. Turner, and the speech therapist Lionel Logue. Queen's College, founded in 1848 and one of the oldest girls' schools in England, is situated on Harley Street. In Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway" (1925), medical professional Sir William Bradshaw lives on Harley Street. In Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" (1813), the Dashwood sisters, Lucy Steele, Mrs Jennings, Edward Ferrars, and others spend some of their free time there while in London. P.G. Wodehouse's Sir Roderick Glossop, the “nerve specialist", was said to maintain a practice on Harley Street. Dr. Janet of Harley Street is a novel about a woman doctor published in 1894 by Dr. Arabella Kenealy. In Agatha Christie’s "The Secret of Chimneys" (1925), Lord Caterham ruefully mentions that his doctor advised him to “avoid all worry. So easy for a man sitting in his consulting room in Harley Street to say that.” Earlier in the book, a surgeon in Harley Street is mentioned among names listed in a phone book. In Agatha Christie's "Death in the Clouds" (1935), Dr. Bryan, one of the passengers and suspects of the murder, is a Harley Street physician. In Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None" (1938), murder victim Dr Edward Armstrong is a Harley Street physician. In Agatha Christie's "Crooked House" (1949), Edith de Haviland visits Harley Street. In Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw" (1898), the wealthy uncle at the beginning of the work apparently has a house on Harley Street. In the movie "The Revenge of Frankenstein", Dr Victor Frankenstein aka Dr Franck after his brain transplant begins his medical practice on Harley Street W
In John Banville's "The Untouchable", Victor Maskell visits his doctor and is told "I should have thought you had died already, in a way." ... which is "not the kind of thing you expect to hear from a Harley Street consultant, is it. "
Overview
Harley Street is a street in Marylebone, Central London, which has been noted since the 19th century for its large number of private specialists in medicine and surgery.