Wardour Street English is the name given to a pseudo-archaic form of diction affected by some writers, particularly those of historical fiction.
[1] It alludes to the former reputation of Wardour Street in the Soho district of London as a centre for dealers in antique and reproduction furniture, and their supposed propensity for passing off modern imitations as original items.
As Wardour Street itself offers to those who live in modern houses the opportunity of picking up an antique or two that will be conspicuous for good or ill among their surroundings, so this article offers to those who write modern English a selection of oddments calculated to establish (in the eyes of some readers) their claim to be persons of taste & writers of beautiful English.Words deprecated by Fowler included anent, aught, ere, erstwhile, haply, maugre, oft, perchance, thither, to wit, varlet, withal, and wot.
Some words that Fowler found objectionable became part of normal English idiom, including albeit, forebears, and proven.
A more recent edition[9] gives as examples "Bread and wine needs a man to fight and die" and "Us enchants he, but eke frightens."