Carnaby Street, symbol of the Swinging Sixties and independent fashion
Carnaby Street might be perceived -with good cause- as a bit of a tourist trap. Yet, the pedestrian shopping area, which celebrates this year its 50th anniversary as an independant fashion centre, remains an iconic destination for anyone interested in the Sixties, with its history currently celebrated in an exhibition about its status as the symbol of Swinging London.
In the 16th century, the Carnaby area was made of open fields used by the Court as a hunting ground. Because the huntsman used the cry “So-o” rather than “Tally-o”, the area became subsequently known as Soho Fields. Its boundaries were Oxford Street, running east to west, and Swallow Street, running north to south on the line of Regent Street, as well as a small lane to the east, which later became Kingly Street.
Following the plagues of the mid 17th century and the Great Fire of 1666, the pressure to build increased, with landlord Richard Tyler starting the development of the area by building a large house in 1683 called Karnaby House, followed by the first houses of Carnaby Street, which was laid out between 1685 and 1697, with its name derived from the house. Meanwhile, Major Foubert, a French Huguenot émigré, established the Royal Riding Foubert’s Academy on the south side of Tyler Street, now Foubert’s Place. A market was developped in the 1820s to provide the surrounding streets.
