Wednesday 14 April 2010

Strand

Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. It is just over 3/4 of a mile long. It currently starts at Trafalgar Square and runs east to join Fleet Street at Temple Bar, which marks the boundary of the City of London at this point, though its historical length has been longer than this.

At the east end of the street are two old churches, St Mary-le-Strand and St Clement Danes which are now, owing to road-widening, situated on islands in the middle of the road. The length of road from St Mary's church eastwards up to St Clement's was widened in 1900 and subsumes the former Holywell Street which forked from the Strand and ran parallel with it to the north. In former times the eastern part of Strand was part of the Liberty of the Savoy and had administrative autonomy, distinct from both the City of London to the east and the City of Westminster to the west.