Drury Lane looking south from Long Acre towards Aldwych

Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, running between

Aldwych Aldwych (pronounced ) is a street and the name of the area immediately surrounding it in central London, England, within the City of Westminster. The street starts east-northeast of Charing Cross, the conventional map centre-point of the city ...

and

High Holborn High Holborn ( ) is a street in Holborn and Farringdon Without, Central London, which forms a part of the A40 route from London to Fishguard. It starts in the west at the eastern end of St Giles High Street and runs past the Kingsway and ...

. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster.

Notable landmarks

The street originated as an early medieval lane referred to in Latin as the ''Via de Aldwych'', which probably connected St. Giles Leper Hospital with the fields of Aldwych Close, owned by the hospital but traditionally said to have been granted to the Danes as part of a peace treaty with King Alfred the Great in Saxon times. It acquired its name from the Suffolk barrister Sir Robert Drury, who built a mansion called

Drury House Drury House was a historic building on Wych Street, London. It was the house of Sir Robert Drury, after whom Drury Lane was named. It was a meeting place for Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex and his accomplices in 1601, when they were plotting ...

on the lane around 1500. After the death in 1615 of his great-great-grandson, another Robert Drury, the property passed out of the family. It became the London house of the Earl of Craven, then a

public house A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...

under the sign of his reputed mistress, the

Queen of Bohemia This is a list of the royal consorts of the rulers of Bohemia. The first Duchess of Bohemia (''česká kněžna'') was St. Ludmila, while the first Queen of Bohemia (''česká královna'') was Świętosława of Poland. Some of them were (like ...

. Subsequently, the gardens and courtyards of the house were built over with rows of small houses. The remains of the house itself, which had been progressively demolished, were finally cleared in 1809. By this time, Drury Lane had become one of the worst slums in London, dominated by prostitution and

gin palace A gin palace (also gin house and gin shop) is an English name originally for a lavish bar selling gin, later transferred by association to late Victorian pubs designed in a similar style. Architecture In the 18th century, gin shops or 'dram ...

s. The area was eventually cleared to make way for the developments of Kingsway and

The Muffin Man "The Muffin Man" is a traditional nursery rhyme, children's song, or children's game of English origin. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 7922. The man in question, who lived on Drury Lane in London, may have been a man whose profession w ...

resided on Drury Lane, according to the famous nursery rhyme. I. Opie and P. Opie, ''The Singing Game'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), pp. 379–82. The term "Drury Lane" is often used to refer to the

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, commonly known as Drury Lane, is a West End theatre and Grade I listed building in Covent Garden, London, England. The building faces Catherine Street (earlier named Bridges or Brydges Street) and backs onto Dr ...

, which has in different incarnations been located in the street since the 17th century, even though today the main entrance is on Catherine Street. Also in Drury Lane is the

Gillian Lynne Theatre The Gillian Lynne Theatre (formerly New London Theatre) is a West End theatre located on the corner of Drury Lane and Parker Street in Covent Garden, in the London Borough of Camden. The Winter Garden Theatre formerly occupied the site until 1965 ...

. 173 Drury Lane was the location of the first

J Sainsbury J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company ...

store. The store was opened in 1869 and the company is now one of the UK's largest

retailer Retail is the sale of goods and Service (economics), services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturing, manufacturers, dire ...

s.''Covent Garden and Holborn Young Trails'' - Camden Council, 2006 (booklet)

Notes

External links

'The Strand (northern tributaries): Drury Lane and Clare Market', ''Old and New London'' Volume 3 (1878), pp. 36–44.
Date accessed: 18 March 2007.

Drury Lane history resource {{coord, 51, 30, 54, N, 0, 07, 22, W, type:landmark, display=title West End theatre Streets in the City of Westminster Streets in the London Borough of Camden

Notable landmarks

See also

Notes

External links