Who put the Villiers in Villiers Street? Art, culture and élite life on the seventeenth-century Strand

The Strand from the corner of Villiers Street by George Scharf, 1824 (British Museum)

Villiers Street has always captivated me. Linking the Strand to the Embankment, it remains one of the most vibrant walkways in the area and it plays an important part in connecting people to some of central London’s main visitor attractions – historical buildings and palaces, galleries, theatres, cinemas, museums and parks. It has a buzzy…

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#MyStrand: Brian, Platform Staff at Charing Cross

During lockdown, I’ve been finding myself searching the ‘Strand’ geolocation tag on Instagram. This is what led me to come across Brian’s posts. Brian is a keyworker, and as Platford Staff at Charing Cross he hasn’t stopped going to the Strand every day. His photos have documented how much the Strand has changed during lockdown,…

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Repost from Courtauld Digital Media: Pictures of London in the Age of Social Media

The National Gallery and St Martins-in-the-fields. CON_B04092_F001_004. The Courtauld Institute of Art. CC-BY-NC.

Editors’ note: The Strandlines editors are always scouring for news and research about the Strand area. Below we’re delighted to be sharing a short extract from ‘The Strand Statues’, a piece by Ruby Gaffney, a Courtauld Connects Digitisation Placement student. Thank you to the Courtauld Digitisation team for allowing us to share. The Courtauld Connects…

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Snapshots from lockdown

Lockdown in London was announced on 23rd March 2020, but many folks had been social distancing for a week or more before. It’s been heartening to see that the – very few – photos that are being posted on social media with the Strand tagged as the location are showing this main artery emptied of…

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The Eleanor (Charing) Cross

The story of the Eleanor Cross begins with the death of Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I, on 28th of November 1290. A series of twelve crosses marked the resting places of the funerary cortège which began in Nottingham, where Eleanor died, and made stops at towns between Lincoln and Westminster Abbey. Charing Cross…

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Three Poems for Strandlines by Ruth O’Callaghan

Ruth O’Callaghan starred in Strandlines 1.0’s ‘Cabinet of Artists’. She is an acclaimed poet, mentor, reviewer, adjudicator and workshop leader: see ruthocallaghan.wordpress.com for further details of her published poems and poetry-related activities. Her next collection of poems will be published by Shoestring Press in 2020. We are delighted to have three of her poems written…

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