[1] The street is named after Hong Kong Tai-pan Douglas Lapraik whose dockyard was once located in the area now reclaimed and the site of Exchange Square.

[2][3][4] Douglas Street has been dubbed as a Hawker Blackspot for Central and Western District meaning that the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department would give no warning to hawkers at the location before taking prosecution actions against them if they are caught.

[5] In the 1990s, the street was permanently closed to traffic in order to make way for an entrance to the Central Subway, a tunnel connecting Central and Hong Kong stations of the Mass Transit Railway (MTR).

Underneath Douglas Street runs a major portion of the pedestrian subway linking Hong Kong station to Central station within the paid area.

The Douglas Street MTR entrance is roughly halfway between the two station concourses.