Trafalgar Square was laid-out in the 1820s as a result of John Nash’s plans to remodel extensive swathes of the West End. Before the Square was laid out, the area formed the junction of Charing Cross and the Strand (the major link to the City) and included the Great Mews and Crown Stables to the …
Category: WC2
The Fascination of London: The Strand
THE STRAND DISTRICT. By SIR WALTER BESANT and G. E. MITTON. PART I WEST AND NORTH OF CHARING CROSS Beginning at the extreme westerly limit of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, on the south side of Hyde Park Corner, we find ourselves in the Green Park. This is a triangular piece of ground, which was formerly called Little …
St. Giles-in-the-Fields, WC2
Giles (St.) in-the-Fields, at the east end of Oxford Street was originally a village separated from London and Westminster by broad fields, and its church was so designated to distinguish it from St. Giles, Cripplegate. In 1413 Sir John Oldcastle was charged by the Parliament with having 20,000 rebels apud villam et parochiam Sancti Egidii …
Adelphi
The Adelphi area lies to the south of the Strand which developed as the link between the settlements of the City of London and Westminster/Thorney Island. By the 12th century the Strand was lined with large palaces with gardens running down to the Thames. Within the area were York House (later Buckingham House) and Durham …
Ackermann’s
Rudolph Ackermann (born 20 April 1764 in Stollberg, Electorate of Saxony and died on 30 March 1834 in Finchley, London) was an Anglo-German bookseller, inventor, lithographer, publisher and businessman who opened a shop at 101 The Strand. The “Repository of Arts” became a most fashionable place for the upper classes of London to visit. The shops was …
Northumberland Avenue, WC2
In 1608–09, Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton built a house on the eastern side of the former Chapel and Hospital of St. Mary Rounceval, at Charing Cross, including gardens running to the River Thames and adjoining Scotland Yard to the west. The estate became the property of Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland when …