20-517: Aldwych (pronounced / ˈ ɔː l d w ɪ tʃ / AWLD -witch ) is a street and the name of the area immediately surrounding it, in the City of Westminster , part of Greater London , and is part of the West End Theatreland . The 450 metres (1,480 ft) street starts 600 metres (2,000 ft) east-northeast of Charing Cross , the conventional map centre-point of the capital city. In
40-644: A parliamentary constituency and civil registration district. The district is named after the Adelphi Buildings , a block of 24 unified neoclassical terrace houses that occupied the land between The Strand and the River Thames in the parish of St Martin in the Fields , which also included a headquarters building for the "Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce" (now generally known as
60-469: A project that saw a new street layout destroying Wych Street which was full of overhangs and projections, and the construction of Australia House (built 1913–18) and Bush House (completed 1925). A statue of the 19th-century prime minister William Ewart Gladstone was installed in 1905 near St Clement Danes church, at the eastern end of Aldwych. In 1906, Aldwych tramway station was opened underneath Kingsway; it closed in 1952. In 1907, Aldwych station
80-675: A two-way street. List of areas of London London is the capital of and largest city in England and the United Kingdom . It is divided into the City of London and 32 London boroughs , the result of amalgamation of earlier units of administration that can be traced back to ancient parishes . Each borough is made up of many smaller areas that are variously called districts, neighbourhoods, suburbs, towns or villages. John Strype 's map of 1720 describes London as consisting of four parts: The City of London , Westminster , Southwark and
100-784: Is the Royal Courts of Justice , a complex of courtrooms used by the senior courts of England and Wales, including the High Court and the Court of Appeal of England and Wales . Aldwych, the street, is a crescent, connected to the Strand at both ends, and forms part of the A4 route . Streets adjoining are Drury Lane , Kingsway , India Place and Melbourne Place. Notable buildings along its length include: Theatres: High Commissions: Hotels and Restaurants: Universities: Former buildings include: Facing one end of
120-508: The Greek ἀδελφοί adelphoi , meaning "brothers") is a district of the City of Westminster in London. The small district includes the streets of Adelphi Terrace , Robert Street and John Adam Street . Of rare use colloquially, Adelphi is grouped with Aldwych as the greater Strand district (a main street of London between the two areas and those immediately adjoining) which for many decades formed
140-513: The Old English being eald and the German cognate being alt.) The name was recorded as Aldewich in 1211. St Clement Danes is one of the four ancient Westminster parishes and was first recorded in the 1190s; it once covered the whole of Aldwych and all adjoining areas. Its church , which features in the first line of the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons , was rebuilt by Wren . The civil parish
160-574: The Royal Society of Arts ). They were built between 1768 and 1772 by the Adam brothers (John, Robert, James and William Adam), to whom the buildings' Greek-derived name refers. The ruins of Durham House on the site were demolished for their construction. Robert Adam was influenced by his extensive visit to Diocletian's Palace in Split , Dalmatia (present day Croatia ), and he applied some of this influence to
180-446: The 7th century, the area was an Anglo-Saxon settlement. The name means "old port", and was the port of the City of London . The semi-circular design of the street of Aldwych arises from its function, making navigable the gradient of the fall in levels between the roads connected by the street: the south end of Kingsway , and the Strand . It forms part of the A4 road from London to Avonmouth , Bristol. The Aldwych area forms part of
200-669: The LSE had moved a few blocks east, to its current Clare Market address. While in Adelphi, the LSE’s scholars and students were active in the surrounding neighbourhood and community. Adelphi has no formally defined boundaries, though they are generally agreed to be: Strand to the north, Lancaster Place to the east, Victoria Embankment to the south and Charing Cross station to the west. The small set of streets east of Northumberland Avenue are included here for convenience. Several streets are or were named using
220-468: The Middle Ages." London boroughs are the result of amalgamations of hundreds of ancient parishes that date from at least the 12th century and are in some cases based on earlier manors . Download coordinates as: These are the areas of London that are variously described as districts, neighbourhoods, suburbs, towns or villages. Adelphi, London Adelphi ( / ə ˈ d ɛ l f i / ; from
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#1732854789084240-668: The Northbank business improvement district. It is known for hotels, restaurants, two theatres, the High Commissions of India and Australia . It gives its name to the now-closed Underground station on the related section of the Strand (the return of the crescent), which poses as an active tube station in films and television shows. Marking the east end of the street and in the middle of the crescent return are Grade I heritage listed churches designed by Wren and Gibbs . Immediately north-east of St Clement Danes (St Clements) , on Strand,
260-795: The Royal Society of Arts headquarters (which has expanded to incorporate two of the former houses). Benjamin Pollock's Toy Shop was located here in the 1940s. The South Australian Colonization Commission (1834–1843) had their offices at 6 Adelphi Terrace in 1840. Rowland Hill was secretary to this body, and it was during this period that he devised his penny postage scheme. The London School of Economics (LSE) held its first classes in October 1895, in rooms at 9 John Street, Adelphi, before setting up more permanent operations in Number 10 Adelphi Terrace. By 1920,
280-562: The design of the neoclassical Adelphi Buildings. The nearby Adelphi Theatre is named after the Adelphi Buildings. Many of the Adelphi Buildings were demolished in the early 1930s and replaced with the New Adelphi, a monumental Art Deco building designed by the firm of Collcutt & Hamp . Buildings remaining from the old Adelphi include 11 Adelphi Terrace (formerly occupied by numismatic specialists A.H. Baldwin & Sons Ltd) and
300-587: The eastern 'That Part Beyond the Tower'. As London expanded, it absorbed many hundreds of existing towns and villages which continued to assert their local identities. Mark Twain described London in 1896 as "fifty villages massed solidly together over a vast stretch of territory". Steen Eiler Rasmussen observed in 1934 that "London became a greater and still greater accumulation of towns, an immense colony of dwellings where people still live in their own home in small communities with local government just as they had done in
320-598: The old wich (old port, that is Aldwych). It is not known if it had a church, and the town either took advantage of the scouring action of the Fleet or used the mouth itself as a harbour for trading ships and fishing boats. After Alfred the Great re-built the London fortifications in the late 9th century, Londinium became known as Lundenburh or simply Lunden, and Lundenwic so became ealdwic or aldwich. (The word " old " evolved from ald,
340-456: The present-day National Gallery site in the west, to Aldwych in the east. As the presumed locus of the city, Lundenburh , was moved back within the old Roman walls, the older settlement of Lundenwic gained the name of ealdwic , 'old port', "eald" and the softer form of "wic" transposed to "ald" and "wich" in Middle English orthography . The street was created in the early 20th century in
360-529: The street on the Strand is closed-in-1994 Aldwych station , originally named Strand station. It has been used when closed for scenes of films and television dramas. In the seventh century, the area was an Anglo-Saxon major settlement Lundenwic (the last syllable pronounced as today) ('London port') centred one mile to the west of Londinium (known to the Saxons as Lundenburh 'London fort'). "Lundenwic" later became
380-731: Was abolished in 1922. It is open to - and it is known by residents and businesses to - use the term St Clement Danes interchangeably with Aldwych, which also covered in its final, smallest form the Adelphi and much of the Strand . The urban centre of Lundenwic was unearthed in the 1980s after extensive excavations, and were reinterpreted as being urban in character. These conclusions were reached independently by two archaeologists ( Vince and Biddle ). Recent excavations in Covent Garden adjoining have uncovered an extensive Anglo-Saxon settlement , covering about 150 acres (0.61 km), stretching from
400-402: Was opened on the Strand opposite Aldwych; it closed in 1994. On 18 February 1996 , a bomb was detonated prematurely on a number 171 bus travelling along Aldwych, killing its carrier, Provisional Irish Republican Army member Edward O'Brien and injuring several passengers. In 2021, the Strand was pedestrianised between Melbourne Place and Lancaster Place, and Aldwych was converted into
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