Obituary: Diana Marks - ‘Queen of Fitzrovia’ and community champion

Published: 12 February 2010
by JAMIE WELHAM

DIANA Marks, who was known as the “Queen of Fitzrovia” by those that knew her for her regal composure and tireless community work, has died aged 93.

During the Second World War Ms Marks, the daughter of an Austrian father and a Polish mother who met in London, worked as an air-raid warden at Goodge Street Tube station to protect neighbours from the nightly shellings from the Luftwaffe. 

Soon after, she married the photographer George Harrison Marks, who owned a studio in Gerrard Street. 

Ms Marks made a useful deputy, charming the showbiz faces of the day in theatre dressing rooms and pubs, and managing to eke out an unlikely role as photographer of the stars. 

Among those she snapped were Norman Wisdom, Harry Secombe, Alfred Marks, Tommy Cooper and Sophie Tucker. Ms Marks went on to divorce her husband, who fast gained notoriety as a producer of soft porn films, among them the blue movie classic Naked as Nature Intended. 

She returned to the tailoring roots of her parents, who once ran a shop in Hanway Street but, despite the rag trade career change, glamour still followed her. 

The Goodge Street flat that she moved back into with her mother made her neighbours with a young Boy George, earning her a mention in his biography. 

Friends remember Ms Marks as someone who was never too busy to lend a hand, and it was that which spurred her to carry on working through what should be have been a well-earnt retirement. 

She was appointed the local community liaison officer for Camden Council, shortly before her death. 

She was also recognised with an award for her work with Fitzrovia’s most vulnerable residents.

Ms Marks’s warmth and cheery disposition will be greatly missed by those that knew her.