B/W print; The south side of the western end of the Strand by London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company, circa 1870
Main details
| Reference number | 1999/3210 |
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| Description | The south side of the western end of the Strand, showing the front of Northumberland House, circa 1870. White notes that Bernard Janssen, Garrett Christmas and Moses Glover were associated with the design of the building. The lion and the pedestal on top of the building were set up when the Strand front was rebuilt in the middle of the eighteenth century. The house was eventually sold, under a compulsory Act, to the Metropolitan Board of Works as the site was required for a thoroughfare between Charing Cross and the Embankment. The text on the back on the print (page 52) is continued from two previous typescript pages which no longer appear to be in this album. It continues in 1999/12341 (CW8 p56). |
| Photographer | |
| Dates | circa 1870 |
| Collection | |
| Object type |
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| Photograph number | Ukn |
| Location | |
| Topics | |
| Completeness | 72% |
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Physical description
Item content Attribute Value Annotation THE STRAND: THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE WESTERN END, SHOWING NORTHUMBERLAND HOUSE, circa 1870. This, the last of the old Strand palaces, was built on the site of the Hospital of St. Mary Rounceval by Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, the son of the poet Earl of Surrey, about 1605. Bernard Janssen, Garrett Christmas, and Moses Glover have all been associated with the design, which has also been attributed to the cultured Earl himself. Originally the mansion formed three sides of a quadrangle, the Water Front (by Inigo Jones) being added in 1642, the courtyard thus inclosed being 81 feet square. The Strand Front (162 feet long) was rebuilt in the middle of the XVIIITH Century, when the lion and pedestal were set up. It was a standing joke with our country cousins of other days that if they stared long enough they would see the lion wag its tail. The entrance arch is generally attributed to Christmas. From Northampton the House came by marriage to the Dukes of Suffolk, and was known as both Northampton House and Suffolk House till, in the latter part of the XVIIITH Century, it passed to the first Duke of Northumberland of the present creation. With the gardens, the House was sold to the Metropolitan Board of Works for £479,000, under a compulsory Act (the Duke was reluctant to dispose of his property), the site being required for making a thoroughfare between Charing Cross and the Embankment (Northumberland Avenue). The sale of materials realised £6,376, and the ground was cleared in June, 1875. The Lion and pedestal now surmount Syon House at Isleworth. PHOTOGRAPH (SUPPLIED DEC., 1923) by LONDON STEREOSCOPIC CO.
(3)
THE STRAND, -Contd.
has gone. Somerset House - the erstwhile palace of the Protector and dower of the English queens - now alone remains, rebuilt. The Protector built his grand mansion of the masonry of demolished churches - the "Reformers" were great builders, and great destroyers. Among these churches was the original St. Mary-le-Strand - the Strand front of Somerset House marks its site. To this sacrilege we owe the existence of one of the road-set churches that are among the chief architectural adornments of the modern Strand. The new St. Mary, erected one hundred and seventy years after its precursor had been dismantled, was built where the old maypole had stood, in the middle of the roadway. Of the Savoy, the beautiful old chapel remains; of York House, the Water Gate; of Essex House, the water-gate approach area. Of the religious foundations of the Fleet St. section of the original Strand, the Temple Church survives; survive, too, the gardens of the haughty Knights. These relics of the past, with the Roman bath, are as milestones in the history of the Strand.
The Thames influenced the development of the Strand, and it was the Thames that contributed in later times to the decline of the Strand. It had provided a water front to the garden-set mansions; it afforded a water frontage for wharves and warehouses, and wharves and warehouses took the place of the old gardens. The Strand byways led down to the wharves, and byways leading to wharves must inevitably - soon or late, in great or small degree - partake of something of the uncomely aspect of wharves. The Strand byways were no exceptions.
Behind the houses on the north side, after the great mansions had gone, slums arose; Bedfordbury at the western end, Clare Market at the eastern end. The noble square of Covent Garden became a market place. Here a digression; it is a far cry from the Strand to Esher and there is nought in common between Clare Market and Claremont - save the name, and in both cases it commemorates his Grace of Newcastle and his town house and country seat.
If one could picture the Strand in the middle of the Eighteenth Century, one would see the former street of lordly mansions a hotch-potch thoroughfare of small residences, shops, factories, inns, coffee taverns, banks, palaces (Somerset House and Northumberland House), a military prison (the Savoy, or, rather, what was left of the palace of time-honoured Lancaster), and places devoted to "shows" of one kind or another. It had a touch of the picturesque, however, in parts, with its gabled houses of timber and plaster. At the rear, on the south, were the river wharves, with a bit of garden here and there. But the Strand, whatever the stage of progress or decline, were ever the main highway between London and Westminster, and as an artery of traffic the Strand still maintained its old importance.
Continued.Design Attribute Value Shot Close-up -
People involved
Role Person(s) involved Photographer London Stereoscopic and Photographic Company, circa 1870 -
Associated companies, people and places
Places Location Strand, Westminster, WC2People Attribute Value People Charles White -