Thursby HouseFennell Square, Marylebone
The brick front of Thursby House on Fennell Square on a grey morning, with an oxblood door and plane treesThursby House at dusk with lamp light in the tall windows and a lantern lit over the door

A quiet housea few streets from everything

Sixteen rooms in a 1791 townhouse on Fennell Square, Marylebone. Baker Street station is six minutes on foot.

LondonBy day the square gate opens at seven and breakfast is laid until eleven.By evening the lamps are on downstairs and the library bar stays open until midnight.

Built by a carpenter in 1791and lived in ever since

Edward Thursby was a carpenter. He put up four houses on the north side of Fennell Square and kept number 11 for his own family. After him came two centuries of tenants, among them a bookbinder, a widow who let her top floor to students from the music academy on Marylebone Road, and a doctor who saw patients in the front parlour until 1961.

In 2019 we joined numbers 11 and 12. The repair took three years. The walls are limewash again, mixed by hand in four shades of cream. The oak boards are the ones Thursby laid, sanded once and oiled. Every room kept its fireplace, and nine of them still draw.

The top of the stair at number 11, lit from a sash window, with a small landscape under a brass picture light
The stair at number 11
A carved marble fireplace with a brass fender and old books on the mantel
Marble, about 1790, in a Square Room
The first-floor drawing room by day, with velvet chairs and a tall window onto the plane trees and railings of the squareThe drawing room at night with lamps and a fire lit, the square lamp glowing outside

The key to the squareis on your bedside table

Fennell Square belongs to the houses around it. Behind the railings are gravel paths, eleven plane trees and a teak bench that the neighbour at number 4 has repainted every April for as long as anyone on the square can remember. Each room has a key. Take your coffee out at seven, or a glass of wine at dusk when the lamp by the gate comes on.

Marylebone High Street
3 min walk
Baker Street station
6 min walk
Regent’s Park
9 min walk
Bond Street, Elizabeth line
12 min walk
Paddington, Heathrow Express
14 min by taxi

Sixteen roomsin three shapes

Every room has its own fireplace, linen sheets, an oak floor and a rain shower. What changes is the light, the ceiling height and the view.

Garden Room

Six rooms on the lower ground floor

Glazed doors open onto the walled garden, its fig tree and the old flagstones that turn dark the moment it starts to rain. You hear the rain from bed.

Size
22 m²
Bed
King
Sleeps
2
View
Walled garden

From £340 a night

A day in Maryleboneon foot from the front door

Imogen keeps a list at the front desk and rewrites it each season. This is the autumn one.

  1. A gravel path between rose beds in a London park on a misty morning

    8 am

    The rose garden in Regent’s Park

    The gardeners start early, and the beds hold their roses into late October.

    9 minutes on foot

  2. Long oak galleries and green lamps inside an old bookshop

    10.30 am

    An Edwardian bookshop on the High Street

    Oak galleries under a skylight, with travel books shelved by country. Allow an hour.

    3 minutes on foot

  3. Hands cutting a wedge from a wheel of cheese on a wooden counter

    1 pm

    Lunch from the cheesemonger

    Ask for something from the West Country, buy bread from the bakery next door and eat it on the bench in the square.

    4 minutes on foot

  4. A cobbled mews with painted houses and wisteria over the doors

    3.30 pm

    The mews behind Marylebone Lane

    Cobbles, wisteria and old carriage doors. People live here, so walk them slowly.

    6 minutes on foot

  5. The library bar at night with velvet armchairs, a lamp and a low fire

    6 pm

    Back to the library bar

    The fire goes on at five, and Ade pours from a short list by the window.

    Your front door

The ground floorchanges with the light

The breakfast table in north light, with a brass coffee pot, eggs and marmalade

7 until 11, weekends until 11.30

Breakfast room

The eggs come from a farm near Framlingham, the kitchen makes marmalade every January and the bread arrives warm from the corner. It is included when you book with us.

The library bar with oak shelves of books, velvet armchairs, candles and a whisky glass on marble

5 pm until midnight

Library bar

Seven hundred books line the walls, and you may take any of them upstairs, though Ade will ask for the poetry back by morning because there are only two shelves of it and guests want it after dinner. From October to April the fire is lit every evening. The list runs to about twenty drinks.

Choose your datesand we will hold the room

Booking here costs 10 percent less than on the travel sites, and breakfast is included. Imogen or one of the porters confirms every booking by email within two hours, between 8 am and 10 pm.

Check in from 3 pm and leave by 11 am. You can cancel without charge up to seven days before you arrive.

Per night for two, breakfast included. A third guest in a suite adds £60.

Imogen placing a brass room key on the oak hall desk

Imogen Rookanswers the door

Imogen ran the front desk at two Mayfair hotels before she took on Thursby House in 2019. She knows the square, the neighbours and which rooms stay coolest in August. Call her. Send a WhatsApp or an email if that suits you better, and she or a porter will reply within two hours at any time between 8 am and 10 pm.

Call the house

020 7946 0381

Book a room

Choose your dates

Breakfast is included. Imogen or a porter confirms by email within two hours, 8 am to 10 pm.