Street features
Every Covent Garden Street has its own history, some more desirable than others.
Please select street below and meet some of Covent Garden’s characters over the years.
- Please choose a street from the below -
The Strand
Let’s all go down the Strand (have a banana), I’ll be the leader you can march behind. Once a high-class residential street with riverside properties, it has also been a theatrical Mecca, a cutpurse’s utopia, a magnet to the top tiers of society, “the playground of the gay” and today’s incarnation: an energetic mix of services and institutions which truly reflect the many functions of this major world city. The Strand has always had a tale to tell, so join us if you will as we take some snapshots of the Strand.
I’m Burlington Bertie
I rise at ten thirty
And saunter alone like a toff
I walk down the Strand with my gloves on my hand
And I walk down again with ’em orf.
The Thistle Charing Cross Hotel has welcomed many, many esteemed guests in its 140 years and most interestingly one particular scoundrel. When he wasn’t out murdering prostitutes, it is thought that Jack the Ripper stayed here. Enthusiasts believe that ‘Jack’ was at least two people and amongst the tantalising clues that suspects left for bamboozled detectives was a bag, apparently discarded by a fleeing Mr Mibrac (a likely nom de poignard of James Maybrick) in the hotel full of incriminating evidence: scraps of inappropriate clothing and personal effects, despite such hints to his (their) identity ‘Jack’ was never arrested and could still be at large...
Number 180 the Strand was once a tobacconist above which the bookseller Peter Kröger dealt. This is the same Peter Kröger who was jailed as a spy for 20 years in 1961 for selling secrets to the KGB, he would annotate his books with secure information which he would send to customers who’d pay him rather more than the book was worth. On this site is now the legal firm Lawrence Graham who have acted for such influential people as King George IV, Napoleon Bonaparte and PM William Gladstone.
On 9 February 1791 the mighty Thames rose to an amazing height and the Strand was flooded, the wharfs which stood here at the time were overflowed and rendered useless and where you see buses today there were the same amount of makeshift rafts ferrying lawyers to and from chambers while bedraggled swains swam through the swamp.
St Clement Danes is one of London’s more unusual churches, situated on a kind of traffic island on this busy thoroughfare, St Clement is patron Saint of sailors and was adopted by the Danish marauders in the 900s. A milennium later, in the 1950s the church was dedicated to the Royal Air Force and prayers are held here daily for the brave men and women of the Force. During Queen Victoria’s reign a famous rector of the church was one William Webb-Ellis. Folklore says that it was he, who as a schoolboy, picked up a football and hence invented the game of rugby, (at which England are world champions).
The last of twelve Eleanor crosses to mark the route of Edward I’s beloved wife’s funeral cortège is situated in the forecourt of Charing Cross station. The cross originally stood in Trafalgar Square (where the statue of Charles I is now) but the present replica has been located here since 1863.
The magnificent Somerset House is home to permanent and temporary exhibitions of a rare opulence and a couple of doors down is King’s College the university which boasts Desmond Tutu as an alumnus and continues to record high standards in higher education.
In Greek mythology Hebe, daughter of Zeus, was the goddess of eternal youth, in her power was the ability to restore youth and energy to the gods and Hebe hair and beauty, which has three outlets on the Strand, has, for 20 years have been continuing her work for us mortals.
EASTER GETAWAYS
If you are planning a jaunt over Easter be sure to step into Strand Travel in the Charing Cross Arcade. This travel agency provides the complete package for the discerning traveller. Strand Travel caters for the world-weary too; if you’ve had enough and just want to get away and lie on a beach, they can sort it with no hassle which takes the headache out of going abroad. Strand Travel will be moving to new, bigger premises on Adam Street in May and will continue to offer travel solutions to would-be globetrotters in Covent Garden.
Refurbishments to the Strand Palace Hotel have recently occurred and all of the 400 rooms have had a facelift for this Spring.
