Wardour Street English, sometimes simply Wardour Street, refers to a pseudo-archaic form of diction affected by some writers, particularly those of historical fiction. The allusion is to Wardour Street's former reputation as a centre for dealers in antique and reproduction furniture and the supposed propensity of their kind for passing off modern imitations as the genuine article.
Often attributed to H.W. Fowler, the phrase was in fact coined by the historian Archibald Ballantyne in an article entitled Wardour Street English, published in Longman's Magazine in 1888, in which, for example, h...