Near embankment tube station, is the site of what used to be York House.
York House was one of a string of mansions which once stood along the route from the City of London to the royal court at Westminster.

It was built as the London home of the Bishops of Norwich not later than 1237, and around 300 years later it was acquired by King Henry VIII. It came to be known as York House when it was granted to the Archbishop of York in 1556 and retained that name for the rest of its existence. Its neighbours were Suffolk House (later Northumberland House) on the west and Durham House, London residence of the Bishop of Durham, to the east. For about seventy years from 1558 it was leased to various Lord Keepers of the Great Seal of England, including Nicholas Bacon, Thomas Egerton and Francis Bacon. In the 1620s it was acquired by the royal favourite George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, and after an interlude during the English Civil War it was returned to George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, who sold it to developers for £30,000 in 1672. He made it a condition of the sale that his name and full title should be commemorated by George Street, Villiers Street, Duke Street, Of Alley, and Buckingham Street. Some of these street names are extant, though Of Alley has been renamed York Place, Duke Street is now John Adam Street and George Street is now York Buildings. Villiers Street runs along the eastern side of Charing Cross railway station.

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The mansions facing in the Strand were built where they were partly because they had direct access from their garden fronts to the Thames, which was then a preferred transport artery. The York Watergate (also known as Buckingham Watergate), built ca. 1626, survives, now marooned 150 yards (137 m) from the river, within the Embankment Gardens, due to the construction of the Thames Embankment.

With the Banqueting House it is one of the few surviving reminders in London of the Italianate court style of Charles I.

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Coordinates: 51°30'29.17"N 0°07'22.49"W

Picture: Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net)., CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11327676

It would be nice to believe the claim painted on the front of this shop - that it inspired Charles Dickens - but like his novel, it's fiction. It was renamed The Old Curiosity Shop in 1868 when it was a bookshop, 30 years after the novel's publication and no doubt to cash in on Dickens' fame.

Nevertheless, this is a rare 17th-century timber-framed house and shop, with overhanging first floor and tiled roof.
 

Some say it's London's oldest shop, but there's no evidence it's always been a shop since it was built. Apparently it was originally two small houses, which were later knocked through to make a shop. At various stages it's been a dairy, a bookshop, and a stationer and waste paper merchant.

Alterations were made in the early 19th century, but the wooden-framed shop windows appear to be mostly 17th century or early 18th century. The glazing is early 19th century.

Since 1992, it's been leased by Kimura. He uses the downstairs as a shoe shop - you have to ring a bell to be let inside - where he sells beautiful handmade shoes, hats and accessories, some of which are made upstairs. Kimura says most of his business is wholesaling to overseas, although he does have a handful of UK stockists, including Dover Street Market. He also has a long-running collaboration with English shoemaker Tricker's.

English Heritage has The Old Curiosity Shop listed as Grade II* due to its literary associations, so whether it's true or not, we must thank the man who renamed it - apparently a "chatty fellow" named Palmer (the bookshop owner) - as otherwise the shop wouldn't have survived the demolition of Clare Market, of which it was part, when it was cleared in 1900 to make way for Aldwych and Kingsway.

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Coordinates: 51°30'53.98"N 0°07'02.46"W

This tiny alley dates to 1690 and is still lit by gaslight.

The site was used in the Harry Potter films for Knockturn Alley, although you won't find any Flesh-Eating Slug Repellent here.

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Coordinates: 51°30'39.43"N 0°07'35.43"W

High above eye level sits the sign of Yorke Street (1636).

This is possibly London's oldest street sign although the three houses it is affixed to (34-38) date only to 1733.

Note that the sign is located just under the roof line on the south side of Tavistock Street.

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Coordinates: 51°30'43.90"N 0°07'12.82"W

The district of Adelphi is named after the Adelphi Buildings, a block of 24 unified neoclassicalterrace houses occupying 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 the Royal Society of Arts). They were built between 1768–72, 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. The nearby Adelphi Theatre is named after the Adelphi Buildings. Robert Adam was influenced by his extensive visit to Diocletian's Palace in Dalmatia, and applied some of this influence to the design of the neoclassical 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 the Royal Society of Arts (which has expanded to incorporate two of the former houses). Benjamin Pollock's Toy Shop was located here in the 1940s.

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Coordinates: 51°30'31.03"N 0°07'21.37"W

St John's Smith Square is a former church in the centre of Smith Square, Westminster, London. Sold to a charitable Trust as a ruin following firebombing in the Second World War, it was restored as a concert hall.

This Grade I listed church was designed by Thomas Archer and was completed in 1728. It is regarded as one of the finest works of English Baroque architecture, and features four corner towers and monumental broken pediments. It is often referred to as 'Queen Anne's Footstool' because as legend has it, when Archer was designing the church he asked the Queen what she wanted it to look like. She kicked over her footstool and said 'Like that!', giving rise to the building's four corner towers.

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One of the last remnants of the ingenuity of the Victorian era, around 100 years old, this was designed to burn off methane from the sewers. As well as masking unpleasant smells for guests at the Savoy Hotel, it also gave light to keep ‘ladies of the night’ away from this dark corner. This however, is in fact a replica, after the original was damaged in an accident with a vehicle.

The horizontal bar on the left of this lamp post, was where the lamplighter's rested whilst he lit the lamp - the ladder was then attached to his bike and off to the next lamp (these 'gas' lamps today are ignited by a computer controlled electric spark).

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Coordinates: 51°30'34.98"N 0°07'14.63"W

One of the oldest shops in London is the Floris perfume shop, founded in 1730 by Juan Famenias Floris and his wife Elizabeth, who began selling perfume, combs and shaving products at 89 Jermyn Street, St. James.. In 1820, Floris received their first Royal Warrant as Smooth Pointed Comb Maker to King George IV. Skilfully made combs were a speciality of Floris at this time and greatly valued by the company’s elite clientele. While living abroad in 1818, Mary Shelley, author of ‘Frankenstein’ and wife of the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, wrote to her friend Thomas Love Peacock in London asking him to send her “two hairbrushes and a small toothbrush” from Floris. Today, the shop is still run by the descendants of Juan Famenias Floris.

England’s most famous writer of the 18th century - and creator of the first English dictionary - looks very cuddly and amusing company in this statue, hidden behind St Clement Dane's church, where Johnson attended.

Reverend Pennington, the rector at St Clements, was the donor of the statue. He died just as the statue was ready so it was thought appropriate to unveil the work as the body was conveyed into the church for the lying in state. 
Fitzgerald, the sculptor, modelled the face on the portrait by Reynolds and Nolleken's bust. Fitzgerald also unveiled the statue when the death of Edward VII caused the planned royal unveiling by his daughter, Princess Louise, to be cancelled.

Gordons Wine Bar, at 47 Villiers Street, London, is thought to be the oldest wine bar in London, and has been established since 1890. As you enter the bar, you'll see the old wooden walls covered in historical newspaper cuttings and memorabilia faded with age, and the atmospheric cellar is lit by candles. The bar sells a variety of wines including, Sherries, Madeiras and Ports which are served from the barrel. The building in which the bar is situated was home to Samuel Pepys in the 1680s and in 1820 by Minier & Fair, a firm of seedsmen who used it as a warehouse. This came to an abrupt end when, in 1864, the river was embanked and the warehouse landlocked, following which it was turned into accommodation and Gordon's wine bar began its life. Rudyard Kipling lived in the building in the 1890s as a tenant and famously wrote “The light that failed” in the parlour above the bar, the building is now named Kipling House. Angus Gordon who set up the bar in 1890 was one of the few remaining “free vintners” who were able to set up and sell wine anywhere without applying for a license as a result of Edward III’s Charter to them in 1364, granted as a result of his financial embarrassment at being unable to repay a loan made by the Vintners to him some years earlier! The current Gordon family who own the bar are not actually related to Angus Gordon but Luis Gordon, (now deceased), discovered the bar and took it over in 1975 so was able to maintain the Gordon name, and it is still run by his family.

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Coordinates: 51°30'28.65"N 0°07'23.96"W

This is London

The carvings say it all...

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Carved into the front of the stone pedestal:

Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding, GCB, GCVO, CMG, RAF, Baron of Bentley Priory in the county of Middlesex, Commander-in-Chief Fighter Command Royal Air Force, 1936 - 1940.

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On identical bronze plaques on either side of the pedestal:

Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding was Commander-in-Chief of Fighter Command, Royal Air Force, from its formation in 1936 until November 1940, he was thus responsible for the preparation for and the conduct of the Battle of Britain. 
With remarkable foresight, he ensured the equipment of his command with monoplane fighters, the Hurricane and the Spitfire, he was among the first to appreciate the vital importance of R.D.R. (radar) and of an effective command and control system for his squadrons. They were ready when war came. 
In the preliminary stages of that war, he thoroughly trained his minimal forces and conserved them against strong political pressures to disperse and misuse them. His wise and prudent judgement and leadership helped to ensure victory against overwhelming odds and thus prevented the loss of the Battle of Britain and probably the whole war. 
To him the people of Britain and of the free world owe largely the way of life and the liberties they enjoy today.

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Coordinates: 51°30'46.77"N 0°06'51.61"W

Responsible for the bombing raids that infamously destroyed Dresden, ‘Bomber’ Harris was a fighter pilot during WWI.

Taking charge of Bomber Command in 1942, he applied lessons learned from Nazi Germany’s  tactics: ‘They sowed the wind,’ he said, ‘and now they are going to reap the whirlwind.’ 

This memorial was unveiled by the Queen Mother on 31 May 1992, the 50th anniversary of the first Allied 1,000 bomber raid on 30 May/31 May 1942.

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Protesters against the statue prior to its erection included the Mayor of Cologne.

The Queen Mother's speech was disrupted with shouts of "mass murderer" and following repeated vandalism the statue was subjected to a 24-hour guard for some months.

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Coordinates: 51°30'47.15"N 0°06'51.89"W

Liberal Party statesman and prime minister four times, Gladstone (1809-1898) was cited by Churchill as Britain’s greatest prime minister.

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The Gladstone Memorial is one of the more significant memorials in London. 

Take the Albert Memorial for example, at 176 feet tall, and Victoria Memorial that weighs 2,300 tonnes and is 104ft wide. Then you have the mighty single figure of Achilles on the Wellington Monument produced from melted-down captured enemy cannon. After these you have the two great pillars to Nelson in Trafalgar Square and the Duke of York in Waterloo Place. The next size down is the Gladstone memorial.

The sculptor of the Gladstone Memorial was Hamo Thornycroft, who's works include the gargantuan King Alfred in Winchester, Cromwell outside the Houses of Parliament and General Gordon on the Embankment.

The four allegorical figures around the base of the monument are something special. They represent Brotherhood, Education, Inspiration and Courage.

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Coordinates: 51°30'46.76"N 0°06'52.37"W

When it's bells ring, the Church St Clement Danes play the nursery rhyme 'Oranges & Lemons'.
This church is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster. It is situated outside the Royal Courts of Justice.  There are several possible theories as to the connection between the Danes and the origins of the church. A popular theory is that in the 9th century the Danes colonized the village of Aldwych on the river between the City of London and the future site of Westminster. This was at a time when half of England was Danish and London was on the dividing line between the English and the Danes. At Aldwych the Danes founded a church, hence the final part of its name.

Alternatively, after Alfred the Great had driven the Danes out of the City of London and they had been required to accept Christianity, Alfred stipulated the building of the church. In either case, being a seafaring people, the Danes named the church they built after St Clement, patron saint of mariners.

Other possible ideas are that in the 11th century after Siward, Earl of Northumbria killed the Dane Tosti, Earl of Huntingdon and his men, the deceased were buried in a field near London and a memorial church was subsequently built to honour the memory of the Danes.

Also possible is that the Danish connection was reinforced by a massacre recorded in the Jómsvíkinga saga when a group of unarmed Danes who had gathered for a church service were killed. The 12th century historian William of Malmesbury wrote that the Danes burnt the church on the site of St Clement Danes before they were 
later slain in the vicinity.

Another possible explanation for the name is that as King Harold I "Harefoot" is recorded as having been buried in the church in March 1040, the church acquired its name on account of Harold's Danish connections.

A new chancel was built over part of the churchyard in 1608, at a cost of more than £1,000, and various repairs and improvements to the tower and other parts of the church cost £496 in 1618. Shortly after the Great Fire, further repairs to the steeple were attempted, but these were found impractical, and the whole tower was rebuilt from the foundations. Work was completed in 1669. Soon afterwards it was decided that the rest of the church was in such a poor state that it too should be completely rebuilt.

St Clement's was rebuilt between 1680 and 1682 to a design by Sir Christopher Wren, incorporating the existing tower which was reclad. The new church was constructed from Portland Stone, with an apse at the east end. A steeple was added to the tower in 1719 by James Gibbs.

The church was almost destroyed by German bombs during the London Blitz on 10 May 1941. The outer walls, the tower and Gibbs's steeple, survived the bombing, but the interior was gutted by fire.

Following an appeal for funds by the Royal Air Force, the church was completely restored under the supervision of Sam Lloyd. It was re-consecrated on 19 October 1958 to become the Central Church of the Royal Air Force.

As part of the rebuilding, the following inscription was added under the restored Royal coat of arms:

AEDIFICAVIT CHR WREN
AD MDCLXXII
DIRUERUNT AERII BELLI
FULMINA AD MCMXLI
RESTITUIT REGINAE CLASSIS
AERONAUTICA AD MCMLVIII

which may be translated as: "Christopher Wren built it 1672. The thunderbolts of aerial warfare destroyed it 1941. The Royal Air Force restored it 1958." [Error in the inscription: MDCLXXII should be MDCLXXXII]

Saint Clement is commemorated every April at St Clement Danes, a modern clementine custom/revival. Reverend William Pennington-Bickford initiated the service in 1919 to celebrate the restoration of the famous church bells and carillon, 
which he'd had altered to ring out the popular nursery rhyme. This special service for children ends with the distribution of oranges and lemons to the boys and girls.

The floor of the church, of Welsh slate, is inscribed with the badges of over 800 RAF commands, groups, stations, squadrons and other formations. Near the entrance door is a ring of the badges of Commonwealth air forces, surrounding the badge of the RAF.

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A memorial to the Polish airmen and squadrons who fought in the defence of the United Kingdom and the liberation of Europe in World War II is positioned on the floor of the north aisle.

Australia House, a Grade II listed building. It is both Australia's first diplomatic mission and the longest continuously occupied diplomatic mission in the United Kingdom.

A major landmark on Strand, London, construction on the building by the Dove Brothers commenced in 1913, but shipping problems caused by World War I delayed completion. It was officially opened by King George V in a ceremony on 3 August 1918 attended by the Australian Prime Minister William Morris Hughes. The cost of the triangular shaped land was £379,756 when purchased by the Commonwealth of Australia in 1912 and building and other associated costs brought total expenditure to 
about £1 million. The building was designed by Scottish architects, Alexander Marshall Mackenzie and his son, Alexander George Robertson Mackenzie following an architectural competition, the judges of which included Bertram Mackennal, John 
Longstaff, George Washington Lambert, Fred Leist and Arthur Streeton. The Commonwealth of Australia's chief architect, John Smith Murdoch, travelled to London to work with the Mackenzie firm on the building.

Although an Official Secretary had been appointed to London as early as 1906, the High Commission to London was the first Australian diplomatic mission and one of the most prominent in London.

The building itself, was built over a 900 year old sacred well drawing from the River Fleet, a subterranean river underneath London. The water in the well is clear and has been tested as safe to drink.

Much of the building materials used in its construction were imported from Australia. The building is of Portland stone on a base of Australian trachyte. The marbles used include dove-coloured Buchan marble from Victoria, the light and dark Caleula from New South Wales, and white Angaston marble from South Australia. The joinery and flooring timbers include timber varieties from all Australian States but the most prominent of these is black bean, a very hard and dense wood similar to English oak, used principally for panels of the first floor Downer Room where the carvings represent arts and sciences. This work is credited to Messrs Wylie & Lockhead of London and Glasgow.

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TRIVIA:

The building's grand interior was used as the setting of Gringotts Wizarding Bank in 
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

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Australia House is usually the single largest polling station in Australian federal elections, with more votes being cast at the London polling station than at any polling station in any of the Australian States or Territories.

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Coordinates: 51°30'46.29"N 0°06'55.86"W

Now part of the Strand Campus of King's College London, Bush House previously served as the headquarters of BBC World Service. The broadcast from Bush House lasted for 70 years, from Winter 1941 to Summer 2012.
 

Sections of Bush House were completed and opened over a period of 10 years: Centre Block was opened in 1925, North-West Wing in 1928, North-East Wing in 1929, South-East Wing in 1930, and South-West Wing in 1935. The full building complex was completed in 1935.

The building was commissioned, designed and originally owned by American individuals and companies. Irving T. Bush gained approval for his plans for the building in 1919, which was planned as a major new trade centre and designed by American architect Harvey Wiley Corbett.

However, by the time the Centre Block was completed in 1923, a slump had hit trade and manufacturing. The original purpose of the building had to be reconsidered and the other wings were adapted for more conventional office use.

Despite this, Bush kept to the original spirit of his plan, and above the main Aldwych entrance you can still see the two imposing figures which represent England and America. They hold between them the torch of human progress above the motto "To the friendship of English speaking peoples". The figures were carved from Indiana limestone by American sculptress Malvina Hoffman in her New Jersey studio.

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Bush House was in 1929 declared the "most expensive building in the world", having cost around £2,000,000.

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In January 1930, during the Bush House excavations for the South-East Wing, a marble head was uncovered from a pile of rubble. The head is an elderly, balding Roman man carved from Carrara marble. He has a finely chiselled face and a rather grim irritated expression. The point of his nose has been broken off, and his ears have been damaged. There are various ideas to its origin. It could be a remnant from a Roman bath or villa outside the walls of Roman London, or it could have been an Italian copy imported in the 18th century and used as a garden ornament. Old maps of the area show a large house occupying a site close by. The marble head is now on display in the Centre Block of Bush House.

The BBC European Service moved into the South-East Wing of Bush House after two Luftwaffe 800 pound bombs damaged Broadcasting House on 8 December 1940. The move was completed in 1941 and the BBC Overseas Service followed in 1958. The BBC World Service occupied four wings of the building.

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In 1944 Bush House suffered external damage from a V-1 flying bomb dropped on Aldwych. One of the Bush House statues lost an arm. The statue remained damaged until 1970 when an American visiting his daughter at the London School of Economics, which is nearby, saw the damaged statue. He worked for the Indiana Limestone Company and persuaded the company to send a new arm and a stonemason to attach it in time for the Silver Jubilee celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II in 1977.

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On 10 March 2015, King's College London announced that they have acquired a 50-year lease for the Aldwych Quarter.

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American tourists often ask whether Bush House has any connection with George W. Bush, as far as we are aware, George W. and Irving T. are not related!

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Coordinates: 51°30'46.85"N 0°07'02.31"W

Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, is a large, mainly Gothic abbey church in the City of Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United Kingdom's most notable religious buildings and the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English and, later, British monarchs. Between 1540 and 1556 the abbey had the status of a cathedral. Since 1560, however, the building is no longer an abbey nor a cathedral, having instead the status of a Church of England "Royal Peculiar"—a church responsible directly to the sovereign. The building itself is the original abbey church.

According to a tradition first reported by Sulcard in about 1080, a church was founded at the site (then known as Thorn Ey (Thorn Island)) in the 7th century, at the time of Mellitus, a Bishop of London. Construction of the present church began in 1245, on the orders of King Henry III.

Since 1066, when Harold Godwinson and William the Conqueror were crowned, the coronations of English and British monarchs have been held there. There have been at least 16 royal weddings at the abbey since 1100. Two were of reigning monarchs (Henry I and Richard II), although, before 1919, there had been none for some 500 years.

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Coordinates: 51°29'57.81"N 0°07'37.86"W

The 1st Duke Of Wellington (1769 – 1852) is one of the country’s most famous soldiers and statesmen.

He defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo and served as Prime Minister... twice.

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One piece of the Duke's legacy remains on a busy London street, with thousands passing it each day unaware of it even being there.

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However, those that do take a look at it may notice that it is in fact a mounting step to get on and off of horses. During the Duke’s tenure as Prime Minister he was a regular at the Athenaeum Club, of which the original building still stands today.

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As the transport of choice for many in the 1800s, the Duke used to arrive at the club on horseback. In 1830 – six years after the club was founded – Prime Minister Wellesley suggested the club should erect some mounting stones to assist in getting on and off horses. Then the Duke was in his 60s, and he would not have been as amble as he once was so the stones would have encouraged a more graceful dismount.

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And here we are, 186 years later. The stones remains on the kerb.

On the stone a rusty plaque reads: ‘This horseblock was erected by desire of the Duke Of Wellington 1830.’

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Coordinates: 51°30'24.56"N 0°07'56.75"W

This bath lay to the south of the remains, under what is now the Norfolk Building (formerly the Norfolk Hotel) of King's College London. Since it was also on Arundel land, the tale of construction by the Earls of Essex – whose home in theTudor period lay further to the east – is fanciful. There is a theory that the baths were built under James I, for use by Anne of Denmark, in 1612. The true origin of the baths is lost in time, but it may be that they were built as cisterns for Arundel House over the spring. They were subsequently lost in the 16th century when the estate was broken up, the area was then built over by row houses, and later rediscovered after a fire in 1774.

​The baths are administered and maintained by the City of Westminster, on behalf of the National Trust. The baths are open free of charge on Wednesday afternoons from 6 April to 19 October by appointment only. Appointments must be made one week in advance.

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The first written reference to the bath occurs in a 1784 book by John Pinkerton, describing a "fine antique bath" in the cellar of a house in "Norfolk Street in the Strand formerly belonging to the Earl of Arundel whose house and vast gardens were adjacent [to the site]". In April 1792, antiquarian, collector and MP William Weddelldied "from a sudden chill" when bathing there.

Charles Knight wrote in London (1842) of the "Old Roman Spring Bath" at Strand Lane, suggesting that it shared a source with the nearby Holy Well, just north of the site of the church of St Clement Danes. Of the water he noted, "it is clearly natural, and not artificial, and sparkles as clear as crystal". In David Copperfield (1849–50), Charles Dickens speaks of the old Roman Bath "at the bottom of one of the streets out of the Strand", in which Copperfield had many cold plunges.

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Coordinates: 51°30'42.01"N 0°06'55.37"W

The Household Cavalry Museum is a living museum about real people doing a real job in a real place. Through a large glazed partition you can see troopers working with horses in the original 18th century stables.

The museum sits within Horse Guards in Whitehall in one of the city's ,ost historic buildings dating from 1750.

Here you will find the Household Cavalry perfroming the daily 'changing of the guard, in a ceremony that has unchanged for over 350 years.

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The changing of the Queen's Life Guards takes place daily at 11am on Horse Guards Parade and the daily inspection takes place at 4pm.

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Coordinates: 51°30'17.85"N 0°07'38.63"W

The Guards Museum is a military museum in Wellington Barracks on Birdcage Walk near Buckingham Palace. It is the home of the five regiments of Foot Guards (the Grenadier Guards, Coldstream Guards,Scots Guards, Irish Guards, and Welsh Guards).

The museum opened in 1988. It tells the story of the regiments it represents, from the 17th century to the present day. The displays include many examples of different Guards uniforms, chronicling the evolving dress over time of the five regiments. There are also paintings, weapons, models, sculptures, and artefacts such as Mess Silver – all of which are aimed at explaining to the visitor the history of the regiments and what being a soldier in the Guards is all about.

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Coordinates: 51°30'02.17"N 0°08'09.67"W

The original cross stood at the top of Whitehallon the south side of Trafalgar Square, but was destroyed on the orders of Parliament in 1647 during the Civil War, and was replaced by an equestrian statue of Charles I in 1675 following the Restoration. This point in Trafalgar Square is regarded as the official centre of London in legislation and when measuring distances from London.

This replacement cross was erected in 1865 in front of Charing Cross railway station, a few hundred yards to the east along the Strand. It is not a faithful replica, being more ornate than the original. It stands 70 ft (21 m) high and was commissioned by the South Eastern Railway Company for their newly opened Charing Cross Hotel. The new cross was designed by the architect of the hotel, E. M. Barry, who is best known for his work on Covent Garden. It was constructed by Thomas Earp of Lambeth from Portland stone, Mansfield stone (a fine sandstone) and Aberdeen granite. It was restored to a substantial extent between October 2009 and July 2010.

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Coordinates: 51°30'30.40"N 0°07'31.11"W

The Courtauld Gallery UK is an art museum in Somerset House, on the Strand in central London. It houses the art collection of the Courtauld Institute of Art, a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art. The Courtauld collection was formed largely through donations and bequests and includes paintings, drawings, sculptures and other works from medieval to modern times; it is particularly known for its French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings. In total, the collection contains some 530 paintings and over 26,000 drawings and prints.

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Coordinates: 51°30'41.58"N 0°07'03.32"W

Benjamin Franklin House is a museum in a terraced Georgian house at 36 Craven Street, London, close to Trafalgar Square. It is the only surviving former residence of Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. The house dates from c. 1730, and Franklin lived and worked there for sixteen years.

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Coordinates: 51°30'27.10"N 0°07'29.85"W

The Banqueting House, Whitehall, is the only remaining component of the Palace of Whitehall in London. The building is important in the history of English architecture as the first structure to be completed in the neo-classical style.

Banqueting House was completed in 1622 at a cost of £15,618, 27 years before King Charles I of England was beheaded on a scaffold in front of it in January 1649.

Today, the Banqueting House is a national monument, open to the public and preserved as a Grade I listed building.

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Coordinates: 51°30'16.50"N 0°07'33.54"W

Under a large tree, behind a fence is a tiny grave considered the only Nazi memorial in London. It’s the grave of a dog, Giro.

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In 1934, when Giro died, 9 Carlton Terrace was the German Embassy. The ambassador was Leopold von Hoesch, who began serving Germany as a statesman in 1923 under the Weimar Republic. An ambassador in Paris for several years, he was transferred to London in 1932, and transitioned to serving Hitler’s regime following the Nazi takeover in 1933.

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Giro chewed through a cable in the back garden and died from electrocution.

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Coordinates: 51°30'22.61"N 0°07'55.00"W

Situated on the Strand is the disused Aldwych station.

The line from Aldwych to Holborn was first suggested in the late 1890's.

The plans were then incorporated into the 1899 Great Northern and Strand Railway (GNSR) Act of Parliament; which would run from Wood Green to Stanhope Street on the north side of Aldwych, an area that was under development.

Funds for the new line were hard to find until eventually the project was taken over by an American sponsor, Charles Tyson Yerkes, who was already financing other underground railway projects in London, one of which was the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus Railway.
Yerkes decided that to make both schemes financially viable they should be incorporated into one line, which resulted in a further Act of Parliament in 1902 to extend the line from Piccadilly Circus to join with the GNSR at Holborn. Alexander Ross & Co began work on the line in 1902, with most of the tunnelling completed by 1904.

Aldwych station stands on the site of what was the Royal Strand Theatre (exactly occupying its footprint).

Some people have said that the station is haunted by the ghost of an actress; indeed some line engineers claim to have been frightened by a ghostly figure down at track level at night...

The platforms at the station were only 250' long, 100 feet shorter than most other platforms on the main line and they were only tiled along part of their length as the company only intended running short trains.
The branch opened on 30th November 1907, with the Aldwych station initially being opened as Strand.

Traffic was light from the opening day; bus and tram services in the area were good, both Temple and Holborn Stations were close enough to walk and the office development in the area did not progress as quickly as expected. On March 3rd 1908 an all day service was provided by a single car in the westbound tunnel only and a few months later the late night theatre train was withdrawn.

The line still failed to attract passengers and after 1912 the service ran from the eastern platform at Holborn to the Western Platform at Strand with a spare train being kept on the other line. In 1915 the station was renamed Aldwych and at the same time Charing Cross on the Hampstead Line was re-named Strand. Two years later the Sunday service was withdrawn and the eastern line was abandoned altogether and the track was lifted.

During the First World War the disused platform at Aldwych was used to store art treasures from the National Gallery. Between the wars, the single car service was maintained.

As the international situation deteriorated during the build up to the Second World War London's museums looked to safeguarding their treasures and as in WW1 tube tunnels figured in the authorities’ plans.
On 30th June 1938 London Transport granted the government a licence for 'emergency storage of articles' at Dover Street for the London Museum (Lancaster House). It agreed to provide the same facilities at Brompton Road for the Victoria & Albert Museum but this consideration was overruled by interests of national security.
In the same month, representatives of the British Museum, the Public Record Office and Office of Works made a joint inspection of the Aldwych branch, which led to an agreement that the museum and PRO would have joint custody of the tunnel for the duration of any coming war. The passenger service was suspended from 21st September 1940 to allow the station to be put to war time uses.
Only a small proportion of the museums artifacts were destined for tube stations and others were dispersed to locations much further away in Wales and Northamptonshire. Nonetheless on 2nd September the famous Elgin Marbles (or Parthenon Sculptures), weighing 100 tons, were transported in crates by low-loader lorry to the London Transport depot at Lillie Bridge, Kensington, and then transferred to railway wagons for their final journey to Aldwych. Later part of the British Museum library and various oriental antiquities joined these treasures and the public war memorial to the Machine Gun Corps was also housed in Aldwych station for safekeeping.

As time passed doubts arose over the safety and suitability of tube tunnels for storage and in January 1941 Sir John Forsdyke of the British Museum informed the Office of Works that the tubes were not to be regarded as safe enough to house irreplaceable objects and serious damage might occur if they received direct hits from bombs weighing 1,OOOlb or more.
 Following a visit on 20th September 1940 by Lord Ashfield, chairman of London Transport and Sir John Anderson, Minister of Home Security, part of the tunnel was handed over two days later to the local authority (Westminster City Council) for use as a public air raid shelter to relieve overcrowding at Holborn station. Spaces were provided in the station area and along 320 yards of running tunnel towards Holborn for 2,500 people until the shelter closed in May 1945.

Over the years, Aldwych has often felt the shadow of an overhanging axe due to low patronage and for many years had been run as a peak-hours only service.
In 1994, the straw that broke the camel's back was the need to replace the old (original) lifts.
Although still in good working order, the lift machinery contained exposed moving parts and high voltage components, the equipment was therefore deemed no longer safe to maintain.
Since the refurbishment was estimated to cost between £3 million and £5 million, the number of people who used the station daily (about 600) couldn't justify the cost of the conversion so the line was closed.
The last train carrying the general public left Aldwych on the evening of the 30th September 1994, just less than 87 years after being first opened to the public.
Today, the station is being maintained by London Underground mainly as a museum piece, film set and the ticket hall is frequently rented out for art exhibitions, book launches and other private parties.
The underground section will slowly deteriorate over time since little maintenance is now performed (apart from redecoration for filming!), however if you go to the surface entrance, you can peer through the gates and see that the ticket area has been restored almost to the same condition as when it was built.

Aldwych is almost certainly the most "used" of the disused stations on the London Underground today, not by passengers, but by film and television companies.
The fact that it's on a branch line still connected to the main network and that it's now deserted, yet at the same time being in reasonably good condition down at platform level makes the station an ideal filming location.
Films and TV programmes that have used it as a location include Paramount's Patriot Games, the All Saints film Honest, the BBC production of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere and pop groups for their videos such as Prodigy's FireStarter and Everlast's Black Jesus.

The station is especially interesting since there are three distinct types of passageway and platform that exist beneath the ground.
There are sections of the station that were in daily use up until its ultimate closure in 1994. There are also sections that fell into disuse by 1917 and remain largely untouched since then and there are other parts which were never even completed and have a rather rough look about them since they were never decorated.

London Transport Museum occasionally arrange tours of Aldwych.

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Coordinates: 51°30'44.03"N 0°06'57.45"W