Strand, London
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. It currently starts at Trafalgar Square and runs east to join Fleet Street at Temple Bar, which marks the boundary of the City of London at this point, though its historical length has been longer than this.
The street is popularly referred to as The Strand although the street address is actually just "Strand", hence, strictly speaking, "366 Strand" and not "366, The Strand". On the Monopoly board it is written as "Strand", while on the title deed card it is "The Strand".
Two tube stations were once named after it: the former Piccadilly line Strand tube station, now called Aldwych but no longer in use, and the former "Strand tube station" on the Northern Line now part of Charing Cross tube station.
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[edit] History
[edit] Etymology
Strand derives its name from the Old English word for "shore" or "river bank". (Swedish/Danish/Norwegian/Icelandic, Finnish, German and Dutch have also derived their word for "beach" from the same Germanic root; many beaches in Ireland are still called "strands"). Prior to the construction of the Thames Embankment in the 19th century the street ran directly alongside the River Thames. One of its churches may originate from that time.
[edit] Origins
Along with Aldwych, it has been a major settlement area since Saxon times outside of the old Roman city walls, as well as a route between the ruins of the old Roman city of Londinium and the new Saxon city of Lundenwic, and later in the Middle Ages between the separate settlements of the City of London (the civil and commercial centre) and the Royal Palace of Westminster (the national political centre). Until the 16th or 17th century its only rival as a link of development and activity between these places was the River Thames, and as such contained several palaces inhabited by bishops and royal courtiers:
- Durham House
- Somerset House
- Northumberland House, demolished circa 1866
- Savoy Palace, demolished 1381
- York House, Strand
- Arundel House
- Inn, or residence, of the Bishop of Carlisle [1]
- Cecil House
- Suffolk House
These had their own river gates and landings directly onto the Thames. The line of buildings on the Strand only became separated from the river with the construction of the Victoria Embankment in 1865-70.
In the Victorian era, the Strand became a fashionable address. Many avant-garde writers and thinkers gathered here, among them Thomas Carlyle, Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, and the scientist Thomas Henry Huxley. 142 Strand was the home of radical publisher and physician John Chapman[1] (1821-1894), who not only published many of his contemporaries from this house during the 1850s, but also edited the Westminster Review for 42 years. The American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson was also a house guest. Virginia Woolf also writes about the Strand in several of her essays, including "Street Haunting: A London Adventure." T.S. Eliot alludes to the strand in his 1905 poem "At Graduation" and John Masefield also refers to a "jostling in The Strand" in his well-known poem "On Growing Old".
[edit] Theatre
The Strand was the hub of Victorian theatre and nightlife. However, redevelopment of the East Strand and the construction of the Aldwych and Kingsway roads in the 1890s and early years of the twentieth century led to the loss of the Opera Comique, the Globe, the Royal Strand Theatre and the nearby Olympic Theatre. Other lost theatres on the Strand include the Gaiety Theatre (closed in 1939, building demolished in 1957), Terry's Theatre (converted into a cinema 1910, demolished 1923), the Tivoli (closed 1914 and later demolished; in 1923 the Tivoli Cinema opened on the site and was closed and demolished in 1957 to make way for Peter Robinson's store) and the Sans Souci Theatre (this was a very early theatre on the Strand, extant 1791-1796). Surviving theatres include the Adelphi Theatre, the Savoy Theatre and Vaudeville Theatre and, closely adjacent in Wellington Street, the Lyceum Theatre.
[edit] The Song
The Strand is the subject of a famous music hall song Let's All Go Down The Strand (words and music by Harry Castling and C. W. Murphy), which dilates on its merits as a place of entertainment and relaxation as compared to the Rhineland:
One night a half 'a dozen tourists
Spent the night together in Trafalgar Square.
A fortnight's tour on the Continent was planned,
And each had his portmanteau in his hand.
Down the Rhine they meant to have a picnic
Til' Jones said, "I must decline--"
"Boys you'll be advised by me
to stay away from Germany--
What's the good a' going down the Rhine."
"Let's All Go.....cont.
Let's all go down the Strand -- Have a banana!
Let's all go down the Strand!
I'll be the leader, you can march behind.
Come with me and see what we can find!
Let's all go down the Strand -- Have a banana!
Oh! What a happy land.
That's the place fer fun and noise,
All among the girls and boys.
So let's all go down to the Strand.
[edit] Prominent buildings
- Australia House
- Bush House (whose address is "BBC World Service, Strand, London WC2B 4PH, UK" but whose main entrance is on the North side facing Aldwych and Kingsway)
- King's College London, whose main campus (called the Strand Campus) is located off this street, next to Somerset House
- Royal Courts of Justice
- Shell Mex House
- Simpson's-in-the-Strand
- Savoy Hotel
- Strand Palace Hotel
- The Adelphi Theatre
- Savoy Theatre
- Twinings
- 440 Strand, headquarters of Coutts & Co Bank
[edit] Churches
Two of the churches in the Strand now stand on island sites amidst the traffic. St Clement Danes is believed to date back to the 9th century, but the present building is mainly a 17th century work by Sir Christopher Wren. St Mary-le-Strand was designed by James Gibbs and completed in 1717, to replace one demolished by Protector Somerset for building material for his adjacent Somerset House.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Rosemary Ashton, 142 Strand: A Radical Address in Victorian London, (2006)
- Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson (1968) The Lost Theatres of London. Rupert Hart-Davis.
