51°30′03″N0°08′06″W / 51.50083°N 0.13500°W /51.50083; -0.13500
Birdcage Walk is a street in theCity of Westminster inLondon. It runs east–west as a continuation ofGreat George Street, from the crossroads withHorse Guards Road and Storey's Gate, with theTreasury building and theInstitution of Mechanical Engineers on the northeast corner, to a junction withBuckingham Gate, at the southeast corner ofBuckingham Palace.St. James's Park lies to the north, whilst to the south are the backs of buildings on Old Queen Street,Queen Anne's Gate andPetty France, and, at the western end, theWellington Barracks of theBrigade of Guards.
The street is named after the RoyalMenagerie andAviary which were located there in the reign ofKing James I.King Charles II expanded the Aviary when the Park was laid out from 1660.Samuel Pepys andJohn Evelyn both mention visiting the Aviary in their diaries.[1][2] Storey's Gate, named after Edward Storey, Keeper of the King's Birds at the time of Pepys, was originally the gate at the eastern end of Birdcage Walk: the name is now applied to the street leading from the eastern end toWestminster Abbey, which was formerly called Prince's Street.[3]
Only theBritish royal family and theHereditary Grand Falconer, theDuke of St Albans, were permitted to drive along the road until 1828, when it was opened to the public.[3] A new roundabout was built at the western end in 1903.[4]
Birdcage Walk formed part of themarathon course of the2012 Olympic andParalympic Games,[5][6] and is part of the current route of the annualLondon Marathon.
Media related toBirdcage Walk at Wikimedia Commons