Charing Cross Road

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Charing Cross Road, London, looking north from its junction with Cranbourn Street

Charing Cross Road is a London street which runs from immediately north of St Martin-in-the-Fields to St Giles' Circus (the intersection with Oxford Street) and then becomes Tottenham Court Road. It is so called because it historically led from the original Charing Cross. This was erected by Edward I as one of the crosses which marked the route of the body of Queen Eleanor of Castile, his wife, to London.

Charing Cross Road was developed, in conjunction with Shaftesbury Avenue, by the Metropolitan Board of Works. The two streets were among several built in the Victorian and Edwardian eras to improve traffic flow through central London (other examples include the Thames Embankment, Northumberland Avenue, Kingsway and Aldwych). Charing Cross Road was developed under an 1877 Act of Parliament at a cost of £778,238. It incorporated part of the routes of several older streets.^[1]

Charing Cross Road is renowned for its specialist and second-hand bookshops. The section from Leicester Square tube station to Cambridge Circus is home to specialist shops such as Zwemmer's (art books), Murder One (crime books and romances) and Comic Showcase (which closed in early 2006). Most of these shops are located on the ground floor of a housing block owned by a housing association. In 2001, the association decided to raise the rents sharply to bring them closer to the market level. This was opposed by the book dealers, who felt that they were providing a valuable service and contributing to the character of the area, and should not be treated in this way by a not-for-profit body such as a housing association. The association's counter-argument was that if the booksellers did not pay a market rent they were being subsidized by its low-income tenants. The booksellers attracted considerable public support and a reduced rent increase was imposed, but several of the bookshops have closed nonetheless. One of the shops that closed was Silver Moon, apparently Europe’s largest women’s interest bookshop, which became part of Foyles. More second-hand and specialist antiquarian bookshops can be found on the nearby Cecil Court.

The venerable Foyles bookshop on the west side of Charing Cross Road. (January 2006)

The northern section between Cambridge Circus and Oxford Street includes more generalist bookshops such as Borders, Blackwell's and Foyles. The music venue the Astoria is also located here as is one of the sites of St Martin's Arts College, as well as the music shops on Denmark Street (known as Britain's Tin Pan Alley). A number of theatres are nearby, such as the Phoenix Theatre which has its entrance on the adjoining Phoenix Street.

An interesting local feature can be found in the middle of Charing Cross Road at its junction with Old Compton Street. Beneath the grille in the traffic island in the middle of the road, the old road signs for the now-vanished Little Compton Street can be seen. This road once joined Old Compton Street with New Compton Street.

A long-standing correspondence between New York based author Helene Hanff and the staff of a real-life bookstore located on the street, Marks & Co., was the inspiration for the book 84 Charing Cross Road (1970). In 1986 the novel was made into a film with Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins. The book has also been adapted into a play and into a BBC radio drama. 84 Charing Cross Road has not been a bookstore for many years - there is however, a brass plaque marking the site where Marks & Co. used to do business.

Beside the road's southern end is a statue of Edith Cavell. Towards the north end is the Phoenix Garden - an environmental garden run by local residents.