Pre-1700

The 'Roman' bath, though not the buildings over it, dates from the early seventeenth century. The Watch House, once belonging to St Clement Danes, looks early nineteenth century in its present form, but there are documents to show that there was a building of this shape (projecting over the Lane) already in 1724, and a St Clement Danes Watch House on the Lane already in 1607.  The patch of brickwork at bottom left, directly under the Watch House outer wall, is seventeenth century and the last bit of the old Somerset House still visible above ground level.

In 1147 the site was occupied by the church of The Nativity Of Our Lady and the Innocents. This was demolished in 1549 to make way for Somerset House, Protector Somerset promised to rebuild it but never did so and for nearly 200 years the parishioners had used the Savoy Chapel. A maypole used to stand on the green outside. During 1714-1717 the present small baroque church designed by James Gibb, was built as the first of the 50 new churches which were built in London in accordance with the act of 1711. It was Gibbs's first public building and 'Got him great reputation'.

"Although few buildings from Donne's time survive, most of the places associated with his name are within easy walking distance of one another. From Bread Street, where he was born, to Lincoln's Inn, where he studied law and later preached, takes little more than fifteen minutes. Even less time is necessary to walk from the Inns of Court to York House, at the bottom of Drury lane, in which he would serve as Egerton's secretary; and from here to St. Read more »

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In 1603 Mary Brookes, a young London woman, was picked up by constables at the house of Agnes Allowin, a laundress and starcher who was also running a bawdy house in three rooms in Northumberland Alley, near Aldgate. Mary Brookes was taken to Bridewell, London’s house of correction on suspicion of sexual misconduct, where she confessed on another occasion that a captain had fetched her from her mother’s house and brought her to a house in the Strand, where he ‘had the use of her body’. Read more »

This postcard was sent to the Strandlines team by the reindeer in February 2011. Click on the image, then on the link 'Original', to see a larger version.

Shown at an art exhibition at The Connection at St Martins in November 2010. Click here to see more pictures from that exhibition.

Poem titled ‘King’s College School, Strand Days’ from the King’s College Review, 1917, p.63

King's College London Archives (Ref: K/SER1/63), December 1917, King’s College Review, Vol. 19-20 No.2, anonymous poem titled ‘King’s College School, Strand Days’.

Click on the image to see a larger version; to zoom in click on 'Original' at the bottom of the image page.