The Strand

About The Strand

The Strand is the major thoroughfare that runs east from Trafalgar Square to join Fleet Street which marks the boundary of the City of London. From the 13th century onwards it was lined with the water-side mansions of the aristocracy. Among these great houses were the medieval Savoy Palace, now the site of the Savoy Hotel, and the 16th century Renaissance palace of the Dukes of Somerset, replaced in the 18th century by William Chamber's Somerset House. Today it plays host to a mixture of theatres, hotels, shops and Charing Cross railway station. Being the southern main artery from the City to the West End, it is invariably thronged with vehicles and people, especially when the theatres which abound in the neighbourhood empty of their patrons.

The Strand Map