London Neighbourhoods
Charing Cross
Charing Cross denotes the junction of Strand, Whitehall and Cockspur Street, just south of Trafalgar Square in central London. It gives its name to several landmarks, including Charing Cross railway station, one of the main London rail terminals. Charing Cross is named after the Eleanor cross that stood on the site, in what was once the hamlet of Charing. The site of the cross has been occupied since 1675 by an equestrian statue of King Charles I. A loose Victorian replica of the medieval cross, the Queen Eleanor Memorial Cross, was erected a short distance to the east outside the railway station. The name of the area, Charing, is derived from the Old English word "cierring", referring to a bend in the River Thames.
Detail of Eleanor Cross monument
Until 1931, "Charing Cross" referred to the part of Whitehall between Great Scotland Yard and Trafalgar Square. At least one property retains a "Charing Cross" postal address: Drummonds Bank, on the corner of Whitehall and The Mall, which is designated "49 Charing Cross" (not to be confused with Charing Cross Road). Since the early 19th century, Charing Cross has often been regarded as the notional "centre of London", and is the point from which distances from London are now measured.
To the east of the Charing Cross road junction is Charing Cross railway station, situated on the Strand. On the other side of the river, connected by the pedestrian Golden Jubilee Bridges, are Waterloo East station and Waterloo station. The nearest London Underground stations are Charing Cross and Embankment.
By the late 18th century, Charing Cross was increasingly coming to be perceived as the "centre" of the metropolis (supplanting the traditional heartland of the City to the east). From the early 19th century, legislation applicable only to the London metropolis used Charing Cross as a central point to define its geographical scope. Its later use in legislation waned in favour of providing a schedule of local government areas and became mostly obsolete with the official creation of Greater London in 1965. Road distances from London continue to be measured from Charing Cross. Prior to its selection as a commonly agreed central datum point, various points were used for this purpose.
Online Walks
Charing Cross Station
Charing Cross railway station is one of London's iconic railway stations. The station was originally opened by the South Eastern Railway in 1864. After opening, Charing Cross became the main terminus of all SER services instead of London Bridge, including boat trains to Continental Europe. Along with Victoria, it became the main departure point from London to abroad, and was called "the Gates of the World" by Percy Fitzgerald. Thomas Cook established a travel office on the corner of the station forecourt. The SER route became the shortest from London to Dover after a diversion at Sevenoaks was built in 1868, and by 1913 it was possible to travel from Charing Cross to Paris in six and a half hours.
The station was badly damaged following an engineering accident in 1905 and extensively rebuilt, including the construction of the tube lines. It became an important meeting point for military and government traffic during World War I. By this time, Charing Cross station was seen as out of date by some politicians and proposals were made to replace Hungerford Bridge with a road bridge or road / rail combination, with the station moving to the south bank of the River Thames in the case of a road-only replacement. The station was bombed several times during World War II, and was rebuilt afterwards, re-opening in 1951. In the late 1980s, the station complex was redesigned by Terry Farrell and rebuilt to accommodate a modern office block, now known as Embankment Place.
Charing Cross railway station is situated between the Strand and Hungerford Bridge in the City of Westminster. It is the terminus of the South Eastern main line to Dover via Ashford. All trains are operated by Southeastern, which provides the majority of commuter and regional services to south-east London and Kent. It is connected to Charing Cross tube station on the London Underground, and is near to Embankment tube station and Embankment Pier.
Contemporary with the Charing Cross Hotel was a replica of the Eleanor Cross in Red Mansfield stone, designed by Edward Middleton Barry, that was erected in the station forecourt. It was based on the original Whitehall Cross built in 1291, that had been demolished in 1647 by order of Parliament. Distances in London are officially measured from the original site of the cross, now the statue of Charles I facing Whitehall, and not from this replica.
A bronze equestrian statue of Charles I, erected in 1675, stands on a high plinth, situated roughly where a medieval monumental cross had previously stood for 353 years (since its construction in 1294) until destroyed in 1647 by Cromwell and his revolutionary government. The famously beheaded King, appearing ascendant, is the work of French sculptor Hubert Le Sueur.
The statue 'A Conversation With Oscar Wilde' is directly opposite the station. It was erected in 1998 and designed for people to sit on the monument and have a virtual conversation with Oscar Wilde.
Charing Cross is referenced in numerous Sherlock Holmes stories. In The Adventure of the Abbey Grange, Holmes and Watson catch a train from the station towards the fictional Abbey Grange in Kent, while in The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez, they travel to Chatham from the station.
Charing Cross Address Book
Benjamin Franklin's House
The writer and scientist
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1770) was one of the founding fathers of
America. He spent many years in London and lodged at 36 Craven Street
in 1757 and 1764, about a century before the construction of Charing
Cross Station, which now dominates the street. t was diplomatic work
that took Franklin to London. During these years, as agent of the
Pennsylvania Assembly, Franklin encouraged pro-American sympathies,
continued his scientific experiments, mixed in circles that included
James Boswell and Joseph Priestley and was active as a writer.
Franklin was first commemorated in 1869 when the Society of Arts installed a
plaque at 7 Craven Street. However research carried out by Sir Laurence
Gomme showed that this identification was incorrect: the number 7 in
which Franklin had resided had later become number 36. The London
County Council corrected the error in 1914 by mounting the bronze
plaque now seen today. For a short time, until the demolition of number
7, the two plaques to Franklin rather embarrassingly stood on opposite
sides of the street.
Herman Melville is the author of
Moby Dick, which is often described as the definitive American novel. Melville is
commemorated with a blue plaque at 25 Craven Street, where he stayed for a few weeks at the end of 1849. Melville came to
London in the autumn of 1849 to secure a publishing deal for his new
novel White-Jacket, or, The World in a Man-of-War (1850) and to gather
material for an account of the American revolutionary Israel Potter
(published 1855).
Design by W3layouts