This, the dullest street in Central London, was created as part of an early 19th century urban renewal project of which the primary aim was the demolition of the Rookeries, the most notoriously sordid and dangerous slum area of the West End. New Oxford Street runs straight through this site; however, it has never succeeded in becoming part of anywhere much in particular ("Camden" in Tiefling's writeup above refers solely to the borough of that name; it is nowhere near Camden Town), and is to this day the haunt of tramps and derelicts.
Readers are referred to Peter Ackroyd's excellent London: the biography for extensive coverage of this.