Goad London 223A—W1—Marylebone—Wigmore & Oxford Street—Debenhams 1932 (1970) map

Charles Goad Insurance Plan of London, sheet 223A [Marylebone: Oxford Street, Wigmore Street, Welbeck Street and Debenhams]

Goad's fire insurance plan of London, sheet 223A, covers Marylebone's Oxford Street, Wigmore Street and Welbeck Street (W1), and it shows a brutalist landmark going up for Debenhams. The multi-storey car park shown under construction for the store in October 1970 was the Welbeck Street car park, with its distinctive concrete lattice. It was demolished from 2019, and the BoTree Hotel opened on the site in 2023, turning department-store parking into visitor accommodation. Marshall & Snelgrove's Oxford Street store was rebuilt and renamed Debenhams as the group's flagship. It closed in 2021 and has become The M Building, with offices over three floors of shops. St Peter's Chapel in Vere Street, James Gibbs's Oxford Chapel of 1721–24, has housed the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity since 1982–83. Goad's plans were made to assess property and fire risk, and they were kept current with pasted overlays recording changes of use, altered layouts, demolition and new building. Here the dated car park records that the department-store district was then still expanding, and the latest dated correction is October 1970. The sheet was reissued in September 1932, with a 1950 copyright date, and the key plan acquired with the group records corrections to October 1970. Other streets on the sheet include Marylebone Lane, Welbeck Way, Wimpole Street, Henrietta Place and Chapel Place.

CAPTION BELOW PICTURE: 'Charles Goad Insurance Plan of London, sheet 223A [Marylebone: Oxford Street, Wigmore Street, Welbeck Street and Debenhams]'

IMAGE SIZE: Approx 62.5 x 53.0cm, 24.5 x 20.75 inches (Large)

ARTIST/CARTOGRAPHER/ENGRAVER: Charles Goad & Co

PROVENANCE: Insurance Plan of London, Volume IX. Charles E. Goad, London.

TYPE: Vintage hand-coloured fire-insurance plan with later overpasted amendments

VERSO: The reverse side is plain, with nothing printed…