Harley Street, built in the reign of Queen Victoria, soon became the best address in the world for medical consultants. One end is just a few minutes’ walk from Regent's Park and the other end close to the Oxford Street shops. The film The King’s Speech made 146 Harley Street famous. It was the house King George VI visited often, to have his stammer cured.
The architect was the famous John Nash, one of the best of his day. Lilias Trotter, the pioneer missionary to North Africa, grew up in Devonshire Place House, a few minutes’ walk away; Sherlock Holmes, the fictional detective, had his office about ten minutes’ walk to the west, at 221B Baker Street, close to Madame Tussauds; and Samuel Morse, who invented the morse code, lived nearby for a while, at 141 Cleveland Street.
