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. In former times the eastern part of the Strand was part of the Liberty of the Savoy and had administrative autonomy, distinct from both the the City of London to the east and the City of Westminster to the west.1
Two tube stations were once named 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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History
Origins
Strand derives its name from the Old English word for "shore" or "river bank". (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Finnish, German and Dutch have all derived their word for "beach" from the same Germanic root; many beaches in Ireland are still called "strands".)
The street is popularly referred to as the Strand although the street address is actually just "Strand", hence, strictly speaking, "377 Strand" and not "377, the Strand". On the Monopoly board it is written as "Strand", while on the title deed card it is "The Strand".
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The modern Strand follows the course of Akeman Street, a Roman road running parallel to the river, towards Chiswick from Roman London.2 Together with Aldwych, it has been a major settlement area since Saxon times outside of the old Roman city walls. In the Middle Ages it became the principal route between the separate settlements of the City of London (the civil and commercial centre) and the Royal Palace of Westminster (the national political centre). In the archaeological record, there is considerable evidence of occupation to the north of Aldwych, but much along the former foreshore has been covered by rubble from the demolition of the Tudor Somerset Place, a former Royal residence, to create a large platform for the building of the first Somerset House, in the 17th century.3
Palaces
Starting in the medieval period, several palaces inhabited by bishops and royal courtiers were constructed on the Strand, mostly located on the south side, with their own river gates and landings directly on the Thames. Those on the south side of the street were, from east to west:
- Essex House, built around 1575 for Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and originally called Leicester House. Re-named Essex House after being inherited by Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex in 1588. It was demolished some time between 1674 and 1679 and Essex Street, leading up to the Strand, was built on the location by property speculator Nicholas Barbon.
- Arundel House, originally the town house of the Bishops of Bath and Wells, later in the possession of Earls of Arundel. It was demolished in 1678 and Arundel Street, adjoining the Strand, built on the site.4
- Somerset House
- Savoy Palace, the London residence of John of Gaunt, Richard II's uncle and the nation's power broker. In the 14th century the Savoy was the most magnificant nobleman's mansion in England. However, during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, rebels, led by Wat Tyler, inflamed by opposition to the poll tax promoted by John of Gaunt, systematically demolished the Savoy and everything in it. In 1512 it was rebuilt as the Savoy Hospital for the poor. However it gradually fell into dereliction and was divided into multiple tenacies, eventually being demolished in the nineteenth century.5
- Worcester House, formerly the Inn, or residence, of the Bishop of Carlisle6
- Salisbury House.
- Durham House, the historic London residence of the Bishop of Durham, built circa 1345 and demolished in the mid seventeenth century.
- York House, Strand, built as the London home of the Bishops of Norwich not later than 1237. At the time of the Reformation it was acquired by King Henry VIII and came to be known as York House when he granted it to the Archbishop of York in 1556. In the 1620s it was acquired by the royal favourite George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham and after an interlude during the English Civil War it was returned to George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, who sold it to developers in 1672. It was then demolished and new streets and buildings built on the site.
- Northumberland House, a large Jacobean mansion, the historic London residence of the Dukes of Northumberland; built in 1605 and demolished in 1874.
On the north side of the street were:
- Cecil House, also called Exeter House or Burghley House, was on the north side of the Strand; it was built in the 16th century by Lord Burghley as an expansion of an existing Tudor house.
- Bedford House.
- Wimbledon House.
Apart from a rebuilt Somerset House, all these grand buildings are now gone, and are overlaid by later streets lined by humbler tenements. These were built by property developers on the sites of the old mansions, from the seventeenth century onwards. From this time the area acquired a dissolute reputation and became notable for its low taverns and cheap women.
Later History
In the ninetenth century much of the Strand was rebuilt and and the houses to the south no longer backed onto the Thames, separated from the river by the Victoria Embankment constructed 1865-70. This moved the river some 50 metres (164.0 ft) further away. The Strand became a newly fashionable address and 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 Chapman7, 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".
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 Strand include the Gaiety Theatre (closed in 1939, building demolished in 1957), Terry's Theatre (converted into a cinema 1910, demolished 1923), and 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).
Surviving theatres include the Adelphi Theatre, the Savoy Theatre and Vaudeville Theatre and, closely adjacent in Wellington Street, the Lyceum Theatre.
Popular culture
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 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.
The song has inspired a version by the group Blur8. John Betjeman used the title of the song for a television documentary made for Redifussion in 1967,9 and in the same year Margaret Williams for a stage comedy.10 A long running BBC World Service arts and culture radio series is called The Strand.11
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)
- Courtauld Institute of Art (at Somerset House)
- King's College London, whose main campus (called the Strand Campus) is located off this street, next to Somerset House
- Roman Baths, Strand Lane {National Trust}
- 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
Churches
Two of the churches on 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.
See also
References
- ^ John Stow (1598) A Survey of London. Republished by Sutton 1994: 399-404
- ^ Archaeology: The Romano-British Period, A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 1: Physique, Archaeology, Domesday, Ecclesiastical Organization, The Jews, Religious Houses, Education of Working Classes to 1870, Private Education from Sixteenth Century (1969), pp. 64-74. Date accessed: 22 July 2008.
- ^ The Strand (southern tributaries)', Old and New London: Volume 3 (1878), pp. 63-84 accessed 22 July 2008
- ^ Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert (1983) The London Encyclopedia: 28
- ^ VCH: "Hospital of the Savoy"
- ^ Inn of the Bishops of Carlisle (London Online) accessed 22 July 2008
- ^ Rosemary Ashton, 142 Strand: A Radical Address in Victorian London, (2006)
- ^ See Sunday Sunday.
- ^ Betjeman's London: Let's All Go Down the Strand (BFI) accessed 18 December 2008
- ^ Margaret Williams Let's All Go Down the Strand (Evans Plays, London 1967)
- ^ Arts and Culture ((BBC World Service) accessed 18 December 2008
- Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson (1968) The Lost Theatres of London. Rupert Hart-Davis.
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