Strand

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 be

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.

To find a flat or house to rent in Strand, London contact the Black Katz London Bridge office. Black Katz have flats and houses to rent in Strand and across London. If you are a landlord wishing to rent out your property contact Black Katz.

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. "Strand Bridge" was also the name given to Waterloo Bridge during construction, it was renamed for its official opening on the second anniversary of the victory.

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".

The modern Strand follows the course of Akeman Street, a Roman road running parallel to the river, towards Chiswick from Roman London. 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.

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 Chapman[7], 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.

The song has inspired a version by the group Blur. John Betjeman used the title of the song for a television documentary made for Redifussion in 1967, and in the same year Margaret Williams for a stage comedy. The Strand was also the locale where Burlington Bertie, the hero of another popular music hall song, sauntered along "like a toff".

A long running BBC World Service arts and culture radio series is called The Strand. The World Service broadcasts from Bush House situated on the Strand.

To find a flat or house to rent in Strand, London contact the Black Katz City of London office. Black Katz have flats and houses to rent in Strand and across London. If you are a landlord wishing to rent out your property contact Black Katz.

Other notable buildings

  • Australia House
  • 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
  • Royal Courts of Justice
  • Simpson's-in-the-Strand
  • Strand Palace Hotel
  • 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.

Rent a flat, house or apartment in Strand with Black Katz.