Wikimania 2014 - 0805 - Catherine Street - Duchess Theater221604

Catherine Street, originally known as Brydges Street, is a street in the

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and London boroughs, borough in Inner London. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It occupies a large area of cent ...

, London. It runs from Russell Street in the north to

Aldwych Aldwych (pronounced ) is a street and the name of the List of areas of London, area immediately surrounding it in central London, England, within the City of Westminster. The street starts Points of the compass, east-northeast of Charing Cros ...

in the south. It is crossed midway by

Tavistock Street Tavistock Street is a street in the Covent Garden area of London which runs parallel to the Strand, London, Strand between Drury Lane and Southampton Street just south of the market piazza. History Initially, the street was a passageway between ...

and joined on the western side near Aldwych by the eastern end of Exeter Street.

History

The street was first laid out by

Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford PC (1587 – 9 May 1641) was an English nobleman and politician. He built the square of Covent Garden, with the piazza and church of St. Paul's, employing Inigo Jones as his architect. He is also known fo ...

, in the 1630s at which time it was closed at its southern end near the junction with Exeter Street. Its southern end was the wall of Exeter House garden and the back of the White Hart Inn in the Strand. The south part was named Catherine Street after Queen

Catherine of Braganza Catherine of Braganza ( pt, Catarina de Bragança; 25 November 1638 – 31 December 1705) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England, List of Scottish royal consorts, Scotland and Ireland during her marriage to Charles II of England, ...

, wife of King Charles II. Until 1872 the north part was called Brydges Street after the fourth earl's wife. In that year the whole street was named Catherine Street.

Buildings

The street is part of the theatre district of London's West End and includes 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 Dru ...

on the corner with Russell Street, the

Duchess Theatre The Duchess Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, London, located in Catherine Street near Aldwych. The theatre opened on 25 November 1929 and is one of the smallest West End theatres with a proscenium arch. It has 494 se ...

on the west side and the

Novello Theatre The Novello Theatre is a West End theatre on Aldwych, in the City of Westminster. It was known as the Strand Theatre between 1913 and 2005. History The theatre was built as one of a pair with the Aldwych Theatre on either side of The Waldo ...

on the corner with Aldwych. All three theatres are

listed buildings In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

with

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked wit ...

, as are number 42 Tavistock Street on the corner with Catherine Street and number 15 Catherine Street. The

public houses 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 was ...

in the street are Nell of Old Drury and the Opera Tavern, and there are a number of restaurants and bars. The Opera Tavern was built (with No 21) in 1879 to a design by the architect

George Treacher George Treacher (c.1835 – 28 February 1908) was a Victorian architect known for his pub designs. Early life and family George Treacher was born around 1835 in Clapham Clapham () is a suburb in south west London, England, lying mostly ...

References

External links

1630s establishments in England Transport infrastructure completed in the 1630s Streets in the City of Westminster Catherine of Braganza {{London-geo-stub