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St John's Wood is a district in the City of Westminster, London, England, about 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Historically the northern part of the ancient parish and Metropolitan Borough of Marylebone, it extends from Regent's Park and Primrose Hill in the east to Edgware Road in the west, with the Swiss Cottage area of Hampstead to the north and Lisson Grove to the south.

The area includes Lord's Cricket Ground, home of Marylebone Cricket Club and Middlesex CCC and a regular international test cricket venue. It also includes Abbey Road Studios, well known through its association with the Beatles.

The area was once part of the Forest of Middlesex, an area with extensive woodland, though it was not the predominant land use. The area's name originates, in the Manor of Lileston, one of the two manors (the other the Manor of Tyburn) served by the Parish of Marylebone. The Manor was taken from the Knights Templar on their suppression in 1312 and passed to the Knights of St John, whose English headquarters was at Clerkenwell Priory.

The name of the knights was applied to a former wood within the area of the manor, which in turn gave its name to St John's Farm, the farmhouse of which was the site of St John's Wood Barracks on Ordnance Hill from 1804 to 2012.

The Priory allocated the estate to agricultural tenants as a source of produce and income. The estate remained Crown property until 21 March 1675 (1676 New Style) when Charles II granted the St John's Wood estate to Charles Henry Wotton. On 22 March 1732 (1733 New Style), city merchant Henry Samuel Eyre (1676-1754) acquired the majority of the estate, around 500 acres (200 hectares), from Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield. The St John's Wood estate came to be known as the Eyre estate in the 19th century after it was developed by the Eyre brothers. The estate still exists but is much reduced geographically.

A masterplan for the development of St John's Wood was prepared in 1794, but development did not start until 1804 when Henry Samuel Eyre II (1770-1851) and Walpole Eyre (1773-1856) held their first auction. One of the first developers was James Burton.