Lower Berwick Street is bordered by Lexington Street, Broadwick Street, Brewer Street and Wardour Street. There are a few streets through the middle of the area as well, though not part of the regular ‘grid’. The area is a patchwork of buildings, with a long vertical car park building (cleverly hidden by having its sides fronted by shops), two post-war council towers, and an assortment of Victorian terraces, Brutalist builds, and modern buildings. The area is home to a mix of stalls – from restaurants, to retail stores, cafes, comic books stores and pop-ups. Many start-ups also operate their businesses from here. Berwick Street runs through the area, and towards the northern side, there are a few food stalls which form Berwick Street Market, open every day except Sunday. There is also a healthy residential population, and a small film production industry in the area, mostly a result of its history as the centre of the British film industry.

Wardour Street runs from Chinatown to Oxford Street, and has existed since Elizabethan times; a 1585 document shows the old street alignment being nearly identical to the road today. Today’s incarnation of the street started in 1686, when it was named Wardour Street and more buildings started to be erected along it, being fully built up by 1720. It was known in the late-1800s was known for its furniture stores, antique shops and artist suppliers.

The proliferation of antique stores on the street in the past gave rose to the name ‘Wardour Street English’, which refers to a semi-archaic form of English written by authors. This was due to the supposed frequency of the antique stores here for passing off modern fakes as genuine antiques.

Some areas in the middle of the postcode sector can be quite quiet at night, particularly with much of the area being covered with scaffolding. The area could improve when construction finishes, and the area is steadily improved.

A development on 2 Hopkins Street has been recently completed, consisting of 78 apartments, of which 65 will be intermediate rent and 13 private housing. The building also provides restaurant and retail space on the ground floor where it faces Broadwick and Berwick Streets, as well as a communal roof terrace for residents. To qualify, one’s household income must be below £90,000 a year, and a member of the household must either live or work in the borough. Those on housing benefit, however, do not qualify for the development.