"Wardour-Street English"

Question

Re-reading the first Chapter of Fowler and Fowler's "The King's English" he gets into slagging off the writing of affected, antiquarian rubbish and characterises this as "Wardour-Street English".

What did Wardour Street do to deserve this?

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]Re-reading the first Chapter of Fowler and Fowler's "The King's English" he gets into slagging off the writing of affected, antiquarian rubbish and characterises this as "Wardour-Street English". What did Wardour Street do to deserve this?[/nq]
MEU explains: 'The name of a street in London mainly occupied by dealers in antique and imitation-antique furniture' OED. Fowler notes that "it is now (1926) occupied by the film industry". That in turn was replaced by strip clubs, which I think are mainly gone now.

Don Aitken
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Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]What did Wardour Street do to deserve this?[/nq]
I think Kipling is to blame for the term. Around that time, Wardour Street was the home of antique dealers, some of whom were rather fond of playing up the antiquarian nature of their pieces with put-on airs and fake archaic speech. "Wardour Street English" is a term Kipling used in a novel to poke fun at this affectation.
A few years ago (when I discovered this) I heard advertising copy referred to derisively as "Wardour Street English", because the local trade is now more to do with the meeja than antiques.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Re-reading the first Chapter of Fowler and Fowler's "The King's English" he gets into slagging off the writing of affected, antiquarian rubbish and characterises this as "Wardour-Street English". What did Wardour Street do to deserve this?[/nq]
(OED2)
Wardour Street ("wO;d@stri;t)
1. The name of a street in London, formerly occupied mainly bydealers in antique and imitation-antique furniture. Used attrib. in Wardour-street English, applied to the pseudo-archaic diction affected by some modern writers, esp. of historical novels. Also in other attrib. phrases.
1888 A. Ballantyne in Longm. Mag. Oct. 585 (title) Wardour-StreetEnglish.
Ibid. 589 This is not literary English of any date; this is Wardour-Street Early Englishâ??a perfectly modern article with a sham appearance of the real antique about it.

1896 Sat. Rev. 8 Feb. 154/2 Our Wardour Street romancers andwhimpering Scotch humourists.

1918 Spectator 20 Apr. 422/1 What we are obliged by our sincerity todescribe as thoroughly bad, Wardour Street English. Ibid. 422/2 There are obvious reminiscences of .. Ivanhoe in this piece of most unblushing but rather vivid Wardour Street.
1958 L. Forster in Aspects of Translation 20 The peculiar WardourStreet language which some classical scholars used for English a generation or so ago.

1976 New Yorker 19 Apr. 118/3 To the difficulty of followingBorgese's Wardour Street diction (â??Bread and wine needs a man to fight and dieâ??; â??Us enchants he, but eke frightensâ??) Sessions adds that of hearing the words.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Re-reading the first Chapter of Fowler and Fowler's "The King's ... "Wardour-Street English". What did Wardour Street do to deserve this?[/nq]
[nq:1]MEU explains: 'The name of a street in London mainly occupied by dealers in antique and imitation-antique furniture' OED. ... occupied by the film industry". That in turn was replaced by strip clubs, which I think are mainly gone now.[/nq]
No doubt to be replaced by antique shops.

Usenet · Answer

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Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]MEU explains: 'The name of a street in London mainly ... by strip clubs, which I think are mainly gone now.[/nq]
[nq:1]No doubt to be replaced by antique shops.[/nq]
Not so far off the truth: Soho has undergone a process of gay gentrification like Islington, but with more fake-leopardskin furniture.

Ross Howard

"Wardour-Street English"

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