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Charing Cross Road is a street incentral London running immediately north ofSt Martin-in-the-Fields toSt Giles Circus (the intersection withOxford Street), which then merges intoTottenham Court Road. It leads from the north in the direction ofCharing Cross at the south side ofTrafalgar Square. It connects via St Martin's Place and the motorised east side of the square.
Charing Cross road was originally[timeframe?] two narrow streets in the West End, Crown Street and Castle Street. The development ofRegent Street (parallel to the west) in the mid-18th century coincided with not only the building up of great fields west of the area but alsoWestminster Bridge which was built as central London and the wider estuary's second bridge after more than a century of pressure, in 1750.
These pressures therefore congested the north–south axis of the inner West End almost as much as the relieved London Bridge area. Specifically a major increase in traffic occurred[when?] aroundPiccadilly Circus,Charing Cross and Oxford Street, much of it destined from/toTottenham Court Road,Bloomsbury and nearby routes to all northerly directions.
Charing Cross Road was therefore developed, in conjunction withShaftesbury Avenue, by theMetropolitan Board of Works under an 1877Act of Parliament.[1] The Act's total costs, including demolition and rebuilding of many rows of buildings across London was £778,238. The two streets and others such as theThames Embankment,Northumberland Avenue and theKingsway-Aldwych superstructure were built[when?] to improve traffic flow through central London.[2] The scheme abolished some of the worst slums in London which delayed progress in construction while the inhabitants were rehoused.[1]
Charing Cross Road is renowned for its specialist and second-handbookshops. The section fromLeicester Square Underground station toCambridge Circus is home to specialist bookshops, and more general second-hand and antiquarian shops such asQuinto Bookshop, Henry Pordes and Any Amount of Books.Zwemmer's Bookshop, an arts bookshop founded in 1922, was present at 79 Charing Cross Road until 2002.[3][4] Smaller second-hand and specialist antiquarian bookshops can be found on the adjoiningCecil Court.
The northern section between Cambridge Circus and Oxford Street includes more generalist bookshops such as the venerableFoyles. A long-standing correspondence betweenNew York City-based authorHelene Hanff and the staff of a bookshop on the street, Marks & Co., was the inspiration for the book84, Charing Cross Road (1970). The book was made into a1987 film starringAnne Bancroft andAnthony Hopkins and also into a play and aBBC radio drama. As of 2022[update] the building is a restaurant at street level, entered around the corner in Cambridge Circus, but its upper levels of the building remain as originally constructed. A brass plaque on the stone pilaster facing Charing Cross Road commemorates the former bookshop and Hanff's book.[5]
TheLondon Astoria music venue was located here before its demolition in 2009, as is one of the sites ofSt Martin's Arts College, opening in 1939.[1] To the northeast of Charing Cross Road are the music shops onDenmark Street (known as Britain'sTin Pan Alley).[6]
A number of theatres are on or near Charing Cross Road, such as thePhoenix Theatre (which has its entrance on the adjoining Phoenix Street), theGarrick Theatre andWyndham's Theatre.[1]
Beneath the grille in the traffic island between Charing Cross Road's junction withOld Compton Street, in the middle of the road, a road sign reading Little Compton Street can be seen, which was a historic name for the eastern end of Old Compton Street beyond its junction with Greek Street.
On the east side of the road's southern end, at the joining ofSt Martins Lane, is a statue ofEdith Cavell. Towards the north end is thePhoenix Garden, an environmental garden run by local residents.
In theHarry Potter books, theLeaky Cauldron pub is located on Charing Cross Road. Author J.K. Rowling chose this road because "it is famous for its bookshops, both modern and antiquarian. This is why I wanted it to be the place where those in the know go to enter a different world."[7][8]
51°30′42″N0°07′42″W / 51.51167°N 0.12833°W /51.51167; -0.12833
