A modern office block has replaced Sir Herbert Baker’s 1933 ELECTRA HOUSE in Temple Place, which was the Head Office of Cable and Wireless and at one time THE LARGEST AND BUSIEST TELEGRAPH EXCHANGE IN THE WORLD, a crossroads for telegrams and transmissions from around the world. At the start of the Second World War over half of the world’s 350,000 miles (563,000 km) of cable was controlled from here, and Cable and Wireless were compelled by the Official Secrets Act to supply the Government with copies of all the traffic that passed through, and to monitor calls made to and from every foreign embassy in London.
Cleopatra’s Needle
Time Capsule
STANDING BESIDE THE river, near Charing Cross, is THE SECOND OLDEST OUTSIDE ARTEFACT IN LONDON, CLEOPATRA’S NEEDLE. The pink granite column, 60 feet (18 m) high and carved with dedications to various gods and Pharaohs, comes from the quarries of Aswan in Egypt and was erected at Heliopolis in 1475 BC. The Roman Emperor Augustus had it moved to Alexandria where, after several hundred years, it eventually toppled over into the sand. The obelisk was presented to the British in 1819 by the Turkish Viceroy of Egypt, Mohammed Ali, and towed back to Britain on a specially constructed pontoon. During a storm in the Bay of Biscay it was nearly lost. Six men died in saving it, but it was eventually brought into a Spanish port and from there was transported safely to London, where it was raised on the Embankment in 1878. A time capsule of the Victorian era was buried at its base containing that day’s newspapers, railway timetables, some bibles in different languages, coins, a razor blade and photographs of the 12 best-looking women in England. In 1917, during the First World War, Cleopatra’s Needle became THE FIRST MONUMENT IN LONDON TO BE HIT DURING AN AIR RAID.
Embankment
Vanity of a Duke
IN THE NORTH-WEST corner of the Victoria Embankment Gardens, at the end of Buckingham Street and now some 300 ft (90 m) away from the river bank is an ornate water-gate built in 1626 as a grand entry from the Thames to the Duke of Buckingham’s York House, birthplace in 1561 of the philosopher and scientist FRANCIS BACON. When the house was demolished in 1670, the Duke insisted on having the streets of the new development named after him, hence GEORGE Street, VILLIERS Street, DUKE Street, OF Alley (recently renamed York Place) and BUCKINGHAM Street.
Embankment Station, at the bottom of Villiers Street, was the site of the black boot polish or ‘blacking’ factory where Charles Dickens worked as a 12-year-old, and which he later recreated in David Copperfield as Murdstone and Grinby.
Linking Charing Cross and Waterloo there are now three HUNGERFORD BRIDGES, which take their name from the old Hungerford market, demolished in 1860 to make way for Charing Cross Station on the north bank. The two good-looking new pedestrian bridges were opened in 2002, running along both sides. Thankfully they hide the ugly railway bridge, an excrescence which was opened in 1864 and replaced a suspension bridge built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1845. The chains from Brunel’s bridge were removed to Bristol and used for the Clifton Suspension Bridge.
The name Charing is derived from the Old English for a turn or bend in the river, and the Cross refers to the final and most elaborate of the 12 crosses erected by Edward I to mark the route of his wife Eleanor’s funeral cortège from Nottinghamshire to Westminster. The original cross which stood where the statue of Charles I is now, was knocked down during the Commonwealth, but a copy of it stands in the station forecourt.
Well, I never knew this
ABOUT
THE STRAND
The strand gave its name to a short-lived cigarette in the 1950s, promoted with the slogan ‘You’re never alone with a Strand’, and Strand Magazine, published from 1890 until 1950, in which many of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories first appeared.
The statues above the grand entrance to BUSH HOUSE on the Aldwych symbolise Anglo-American friendship, and the building bears the inscription ‘Dedicated to the friendship of English-speaking peoples’. Bush House was originally constructed for an Anglo-American trading organisation headed by Irving T. Bush, after whom Bush House is named. Built from Portland stone, Bush House was declared in 1929 to be the ‘most expensive building in the world’, having cost around £2 million. The BBC World Service was transmitted from here between 1941 and 2007.
The THAMES POLICE STATION at Waterloo Pier is THE ONLY FLOATING POLICE STATION IN BRITAIN.
In 1878 the VICTORIA EMBANKMENT here became THE FIRST SECTION OF STREET IN BRITAIN TO BE LIT BY ELECTRICITY, with THE FIRST UNDERGROUND ELECTRIC CABLES IN THE COUNTRY.
At No. 2 Savoy Hill stands the Institute of Electrical Engineers, on the site of THE BBC’S FIRST PERMANENT RADIO STUDIOS from 1922 until 1932. JOHN LOGIE BAIRD’S FIRST DEMONSTRATION OF HIS TELEVISION SYSTEM was given to the BBC here in 1929. The BBC moved to Broadcasting House in 1932.
Next door to the Savoy Hotel is SHELL MEX HOUSE, which was put up in the 1930s on the site of the 800-bedroom Hotel Cecil. When it was built in the 1880s, the Cecil was THE BIGGEST HOTEL IN THE WORLD. Shell Mex House was the original London headquarters of Shell Petroleum, and the Art Deco clock face, THE BIGGEST CLOCK FACE IN LONDON, was nicknamed ‘BIG BENZINE’.
MADAME TUSSAUD’S FIRST WAXWORK EXHIBITION IN LONDON was put on at the LYCEUM in Wellington Street, off the Strand, in 1802. From 1874 the Lyceum became renowned for Shakespearian plays produced by the actor-manager Sir Henry Irving with Ellen Terry as his leading lady. The last performance was Coriolanus in 1901.
SIMPSON’S-IN-THE-STRAND, a luxury restaurant renowned for its roast beef, is now part of the Savoy Hotel, but opened in 1818 as ‘the home of chess’. During the 19th century all the top chess players came here to play their matches, and in 1851 Simpson’s hosted the famous ‘Immortal Game’ between Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky. The great tournaments of 1883 and 1899 were held at Simpson’s, as was THE FIRST WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL in 1897. After the restaurant was acquired by the Savoy group in 1903, chess was no longer played at Simpson’s.
HQS (Headquarters ship) WELLINGTON, berthed at the Victoria Embankment since 1948, is the floating livery hall of the Honourable Company of Master Mariners.
THE OBSERVER, THE WORLD’S OLDEST SUNDAY NEWSPAPER, was founded at No. 396 the Strand in 1791.
COUTT’S BANK in the Strand is probably the most prestigious of London’s banks and deals with many aspects of the Royal family’s finances. It is consequently known as the Queen’s Bank.
NO 1. THE STRAND was THE FIRST HOUSE IN LONDON TO BE NUMBERED.
THE WEST END
TRAFALGAR SQUARE – LEICESTER SQUARE – SOHO – OXFORD STREET – COVENT GARDEN – LINCOLN’S INN
Nelson’s Column – Adolf Hitler’s most prized target
Trafalgar Square
Heart of Modern London
TRAFALGAR SQUARE STANDS right at the heart of modern London and commemorates Britain’s greatest naval victory, the Battle of Trafalgar of 1805. The main attraction of the square used to be feeding the pigeons, but these have now been banished with the help of a specially trained falcon, and this has helped make the square what it was always meant to be, a ceremonial space. Trafalgar Square serves today as a gathering place for rallies, New Year’s Eve parties and sporting celebrations, where crowds welcomed the Rugby World Cup winners in 2003 and celebrated the success of London’s bid to host the 2012 Olympics in 2005.
Every year a NORWAY SPRUCE is erected as a Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square, a gesture of thanks from the Norwegian people for Britain’s support during the Second World War.
The square is dominated by NELSON’S COLUMN, erected in 1843. It stands 184 ft (56 m) high, and the figure of Nelson at the top is 18 ft (5.5 m) high, although it looks much smaller from the ground. The Admiral faces south-west towards his fleet at Portsmouth. Following a successful invasion of Britain Adolf Hitler was planning to have Nelson’s Column dismantled, declaring that ‘it would be an impressive way of underlining the German victory if the Nelson Column were to be transferred to Berlin’.
There is a plinth at each of the four corners of Trafalgar Square, three of which are occupied by a statue. The fourth plinth, on the north-west corner, was intended for a statue of William IV, but the money ran out and the plinth remained empty. There has never been agreement over who to put there, and in the meantime the plinth is occasionally occupied by an often controversial work of contemporary art.
No Londoner has any excuse to forget Imperial measures, for next to the new central staircase outside the café are the standard measurements of yards, feet and inches rendered in brass. They used to be set into the wall of the north terrace but were moved when Trafalgar Square was re-modelled in 2003.
St Martin-in-the-Fields
Designed for America
ST MARTIN-IN-THE-FIELDS, ON the north-east side of Trafalgar Square, was the inspiration for the style of church often found in America with its rectangular design, portico and high steeple. A result of the ‘Fifty New Churches Act’ of 1711, St Martin’s was rebuilt by James Gibbs in 1726 on the site of an 11th-century church. Charles II was christened in the previous St Martin’s in 1630, as were Francis Bacon, John Hampden and General Oglethorpe, founder of the US State of Georgia. Nell Gwynne is buried there, along with George Farquhar the dramatist, Robert Boyle, who discovered Boyle’s Law for gases, artist Sir Joshua Reynolds, and the cabinet-maker Thomas Chippendale. In 1924, THE FIRST RELIGIOUS SERVICE EVER TO BE BROADCAST came from St Martin’s.
Charles I
Town Centre
THE STATUE OF Charles I that stands in Trafalgar Square was cast in 1633 and is THE OLDEST BRONZE STATUE IN BRITAIN as well as THE FIRST EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF A KING. After the beheading of Charles on 30 January 1649, the statue was given to a brazier called John Rivett who was ordered to melt it down, but instead he hid it in his garden and made a fortune selling bronze trinkets allegedly made from the statue. After the Restoration the statue reappeared and was acquired in 1675 by Charles II, who mounted it where it now stands, with Charles I looking down Whitehall towards the scene of his execution. The pedestal was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and the carving was done by Grinling Gibbons. Every year on 30 January the Royal Stuart Society lays a wreath at the foot of the statue. All distances from London are measured from this spot.
Leicester Square
Premiere Location
LEICESTER SQUARE IS named after Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester, who in 1630 purchased 4 acres (1.6 ha) of land in St Martin’s Field and built himself a large house, known as Leicester House, on the northern edge. Frederick, Prince of Wales, son of George II, died at Leicester House in 1751 after being hit on the head by a cricket ball.
WILLIAM HOGARTH lived at No. 30 Leicester Square from 1733 to 1764 while producing some of his best-known works, including Rake’s Progress and Gin Lane. He died there of an aneurism in 1764. The site is now occupied by a number of radio stations including Capital Radio.
The ODEON LEICESTER SQUARE, which stands on the site of the old Alhambra Theatre, is THE LARGEST CINEMA IN BRITAIN. THE FIRST DIGITAL PROJECTOR IN EUROPE was installed here in 1999.
The EMPIRE LEICESTER SQUARE was the venue of THE FIRST REGULAR PUBLIC FILM SHOW IN BRITAIN, in 1896.
MAURICE MICKLEWHITE was making a telephone call from a call box in Leicester Square when he spotted a poster for The Caine Mutiny and decided to change his name to MICHAEL CAINE.
Soho
Cholera, Marxism and TV
SOHO TAKES ITS name from a hunting cry as used by the Duke of Monmouth, who had a house near where Soho Square is now. Monmouth also used Soho as his battle cry at the Battle of Sedgemoor in 1685.
The celebrated American MARLBORO cigarette, THE WORLD’S BEST-SELLING CIGARETTE BRAND, is named after Soho’s Great Marlborough Street, once the location of the Philip Morris factory where they were first manufactured. LONDON’S FIRST DISCOTHEQUE, LA BOUBELLE, opened in Great Marlborough Street in 1959.
LOUIS ARMSTRONG and DUKE ELLINGTON both made their British debuts at the PALLADIUM in Argyll Street.
WILLIAM BLAKE, who wrote the words to ‘Jerusalem’, was born in 1758 in Broadwick Street, where his parents ran a hosiery shop. The Blake House tower block now stands on the site.
The JOHN SNOW pub in Broadwick Street commemorates the surgeon who, in 1854, uncovered the link between the victims of a cholera epidemic in Soho and those who had drunk from a well in Broadwick Street. Having taken samples from the well and discovered that the water contained infected particles, he persuaded the local council to close the well. Subsequently the spread of the disease diminished, thus proving that cholera entered the body through the mouth rather than being airborne, which had been the accepted theory. John Snow (1813–58) also pioneered the use of anaesthetics by administering chloroform to Queen Victoria at the delivery of her son, Prince Leopold, in April 1853 and daughter Beatrice in April 1857.
During the 1850s KARL MARX lived on the top floor of No. 28 Dean Street with his wife Jenny and their children. There was no hot water or lavatory, and they were so poor that three of their children died of disease and malnutrition while they were there. Marx was reduced to sending Jenny to beg for money from her uncle Lion Philips, one of the founders of the Philips Electronics Company, but she was refused because Philips disapproved of Marx’s socialist activities. Since Marx was walking daily to the British Library to research Das Kapital at the time, this parsimony from a capitalist pig probably added spice to that momentous work.
THE FIRST EVER TELEVISION TRANSMISSION OF A MOVING IMAGE was made by JOHN LOGIE BAIRD in his attic workshop at 22 Frith Street, Soho, above what is now the Bar Italia, on 30 October 1925. Baird was so excited when the dummy’s head he was using for a test appeared on the screen that he rushed downstairs and grabbed the first person he saw, a 15-year-old office boy called WILLIAM TAYNTON. With the judicious use of half a crown Baird managed to persuade Taynton to pose in front of the transmitter and thus find immortality as THE FIRST PERSON EVER TO APPEAR ON TELEVISION.
Also in Frith Street, at No. 46, is London’s most famous jazz club, RONNIE SCOTT’S, where JIMI HENDRIX made his last public appearance, a jamming session with jazz rock band War, just a few days before he choked to death in a Notting Hill hotel in September 1970 (see Kensington and Chelsea).
Oxford Street
Street of Firsts
THE FIRST OF the famous stores to appear in Oxford Street was JOHN LEWIS which opened in 1864, selling ribbons and haberdashery.
In 1909 the American GORDON H. SELFRIDGE opened OXFORD STREET’S BIGGEST STORE, run on the lines of his famous phrase, ‘The customer is always right.’ Selfridge was a great innovator and in 1919 he made THE WORLD’S FIRST BUSINESS CHARTER FLIGHT, hiring a biplane to fly from Hendon Aerodrome to a business meeting in Dublin. On 25 March 1925 JOHN LOGIE BAIRD gave THE FIRST EVER PUBLIC DEMONSTRATION OF TELEVISION on the first floor of Selfridges.
THE FIRST HMV STORE was opened by SIR EDWARD ELGAR at No. 363 Oxford Street in 1921 and it was here, in 1961, that the BEATLES CUT THEIR FIRST DEMONSTRATION DISC.
THE FIRST MOTOR MUSEUM IN THE WORLD was founded in 1912 on the ground and first floors at 175–9 Oxford Street by Edmund Dangerfield, proprietor of Motor magazine. Among the exhibits were THE FIRST BRITISH PETROL-ENGINED CAR, the 1894 BREMER built by Frederick Bremer at his mother’s house in Walthamstow, THE FIRST WOLSELEY, designed by Herbert Austin in 1895, and an Arnold Benz of 1897 from BRITAIN’S FIRST RECOGNISED MOTOR MANUFACTURER.
St Paul’s Covent Garden
The Actors Church
DOMINATIN
G THE WEST side of Covent Garden is the church of ST PAUL’S, consecrated in 1638 as THE FIRST NEW ANGLICAN CHURCH TO BE BUILT IN LONDON AFTER THE REFORMATION. It was designed by Inigo Jones for the 4th Earl of Bedford who, being low church, didn’t want to go to ‘any considerable expense’. In fact, ‘I would not have it much better than a barn,’ he said. ‘Then you shall have the handsomest barn in England,’ declared Jones. And indeed it is handsome. The main entrance facing the square has never been used, because it forms the east end of the church where the altar is placed. The entrance is through a pleasant garden square at the west end.
Buried in the church are the painter SIR PETER LELY (1618–80), GRINLING GIBBONS, who lies beneath a wreath of flowers he carved for himself out of lime wood, and THOMAS ARNE, composer of ‘Rule, Britannia!’.
Being at the centre of London’s theatreland, St Paul’s has long been established as ‘the actors church’. The actresses DAME ELLEN TERRY (1847–1928) and DAME EDITH EVANS (1888–1976), best remembered for her unforgettable performance as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest, are both buried here, and there are memorials to a pantheon of stars of stage and screen.
The artist J.M.W. TURNER, who was born in nearby Maiden Lane, was baptised in St Paul’s in 1775.
THE FIRST PUNCH AND JUDY SHOW was performed under the portico of St Paul’s in Covent Garden on 8 May 1662 and recorded by Samuel Pepys in his diary. The tradition of street entertainment is carried on there today.
I Never Knew That About London Page 9