Posts by Mary Shannon
The Mineral Shop at 149 Strand
Stanley Gibbons’s stamp shop was not the only mecca for nineteenth-century collectors, as Dr Adelene Buckland (English Department, King’s College London) demonstrated at the ‘Shows of London’ seminar series last Monday night at King’s. On the opposite side of the street to Gibbons’s establishment, at 149 Strand, was a mineral shop from 1804-1881. Dr Buckland told us…
Read MoreKing's College London
If you look across to the south side of the Strand, you can see the entrance to the original Strand Campus of King’s College London. The College was founded in 1829, and subsequently joined the University of London. The original entrance looked very different; it was a small, undemonstrative gateway off the busy nineteenth-century Strand.
Read MoreThe Vaudeville Theatre
A few doors down from the Adelphi is the pretty building which houses the Vaudeville Theatre.Built in 1870, Henry Irving acted on this stage for a while, as Ronald Bergan’s book The Great Theatres of London tells us.
Read MoreCoutts Bank
If we carry on walking down the Strand away from Charing Cross station, we soon see, on the north side of the street, the imposing sight of Coutts bank: Dickens would probably be pleased to see that his old bank is still on the Strand, although it used to be on the other side of…
Read MoreAdelphi Theatre
Carrying on along the north side of the Strand, heading east towards Fleet Street and away from Trafalgar Square, we reach the Adelphi theatre. This gorgeous Art Deco-style building is the latest incarnation of the theatre, built in 1930. However, the Adelphi started life as the Sans Pareil in 1806. It was renamed in 1819,…
Read MoreNorthumberland House
Northumberland House was one of the last survivors of the noblemen’s palaces which originally lined the Strand. It stood on the south side of Trafalgar Square at the start of the Strand, and was recognised by its distinctive lion on the top of the roof. This lion is the symbol of the Dukes of Northumberland,…
Read MoreCharing Cross Station
To me, Charing Cross Station is such a fixture of the western end of the Strand that is difficult to think that it is not yet 150 years old. I pass the station often when I leave the tube at Embankment on my way to King’s College. In the nineteenth-century, Charing Cross was an example…
Read MoreBuilding construction and demolition Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square marks the western entrance to the Strand. Trafalgar Square was begun in 1840, to provide a more dignified frontage to the new National Gallery as well as a memorial to Nelson’s naval victory at Trafalgar and a reminder of the might of the burgeoning British Empire. After much arguing, Nelson’s column was finally…
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