The Strand

The Strand with Somerset House, London Giclee Print 24" x 18" $34.99 Unframed Framed   Mounted

Sir Walter Besant, in The Fascination of London, published in 1903, continues his survey of London with a look at the Strand:

We have now made a circuit, noting all that is interesting by the way, and have returned to busy Charing Cross, from which runs the great thoroughfare, the Strand, which gives the district its name.

This important street might be considered either as a street of palaces - and in this respect not to be surpassed by any street in medieval Europe, not even Venice - or a street full of associations, connected chiefly with retail trade, taverns, shops, sedan-chairs, and hackney coaches.

The Strand, as the name implies, was the shore by the river. It has passed through two distinct phases. First, when it was an open highway, with a few scattered houses here and there, crossed by small bridges over the rivulets which flowed down to the Thames.

One of these was the Strand Bridge, between the present Surrey Street and Somerset House; another, Ivy Bridge, between Salisbury Street and Adam Street.

In 1656 there were more than 800 watercourses crossing it between Palace Yard and the Old Exchange! It was not paved until Henry VIII's reign, and we read of the road being interrupted with thickets and bushes.

Then came a period of great grandeur, when the Strand was lined with palatial mansions, which had gardens stretching down to the river, when the town-houses of the Prince-Bishops, of the highest nobility, and even of royalty, rose up in grandeur.

The names of the streets, Salisbury and Buckingham, York and Durham, Norfolk and Exeter, are no mere fancy, but recall a vision of bygone splendour which might well cause the Strand to be named a street of palaces.

Next: The Strand: Savoy Palace