The Strand: Savoy Palace

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Sir Walter Besant, in The Fascination of London, published in 1903, continues his survey of the London with a mention of Henry III's bequeathal of all the houses on the river side of the Strand to Peter of Savoy:

The palaces, which occupied at one time the whole of the south side of the Strand, were at first the town-houses of the Bishops.

They were built along the river because, in their sacred character, they were safe from violence (except in one or two cases), and therefore did not need the protection of the wall, while it was perhaps felt that even if the worst happened, as it did happen in Jack Straw's rebellion, the river offered a liberally safe way of escape.

In the thirteenth century Henry III gave Peter of Savoy "all those houses in the Thames on the way called the Strand."

Here Peter built Savoy Palace, on the site of the present Savoy Hotel. The palace was destroyed during the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.

Gay speaks of the change that had fallen upon the Strand in his time:

Through the long Strand together let us stray;
With thee conversing I forget the way.
Behold that narrow street which steep descends,
Whose building to the shining shore extends;
Here Arundel's fam'd structure rear'd its frame,
The street alone retains an empty name:
Where Titian's glowing paint the canvas warm'd,
And Raphael's fair design with judgment charm'd,
Now hangs the bellman's song, and pasted here
The colour'd prints of Overton appear;
Where statues breath'd the work of Phidias' hands,
A wooden pump or lonely watch-house stands;
There Essex's stately pile adorn'd the shore,
There Cecil's, Bedford's, Villiers's - now no more.

Disraeli, in "Tancred," says: "The Strand is, perhaps, the finest street in Europe."

Charles Lamb said: "I often shed tears in the motley Strand for fulness of joy at so much life."

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