
Aldwych (pronounced ) is a street and the name of the
area
Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-di ...
immediately surrounding it, in the
City of Westminster
The City of Westminster is a London borough with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in Greater London, England. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It contains a large par ...
, part of
Greater London
Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...
, and is part of the
West End Theatreland. The street starts
east-northeast of
Charing Cross
Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Since the early 19th century, Charing Cross has been the notional "centre of London" and became the point from which distances from London are measured. ...
, the conventional map centre-point of the capital city.
In the 7th century, the area was an Anglo-Saxon settlement. The name means "old port", and was the port of the
City of London
The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...
.
Current Use
The semi-circular design of the street of Aldwych arises from its function, making navigable the gradient of the fall in levels between the roads connected by the street: the south end of
Kingsway, and the
Strand.
It forms part of the
A4 road from London to
Avonmouth, Bristol.
The Aldwych area forms part of the Northbank business improvement district. It is known for hotels, restaurants, two theatres, the
High Commissions of India and
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
. It gives its name to the now-closed
Underground station on the related section of the
Strand (the return of the crescent), which poses as an active tube station in films and television shows. Marking the east end of the street and in the middle of the crescent return are
Grade I heritage listed churches designed by
Wren
Wrens are a family, Troglodytidae, of small brown passerine birds. The family includes 96 species and is divided into 19 genera. All species are restricted to the New World except for the Eurasian wren that is widely distributed in the Old Worl ...
and
Gibbs. Immediately north-east of
St Clement Danes (St Clements), on Strand, is the
Royal Courts of Justice
The Royal Courts of Justice, commonly called the Law Courts, is a court building in Westminster which houses the High Court and Court of Appeal of England and Wales. The High Court also sits on circuit and in other major cities. Designed by Ge ...
, a complex of courtrooms used by the senior courts of England and Wales, including the
High Court and the
Court of Appeal of England and Wales
The Court of Appeal (formally "His Majesty's Court of Appeal in England", commonly cited as "CA", "EWCA" or "CoA") is the highest court within the Senior Courts of England and Wales, and second in the legal system of England and Wales only to ...
.
Landmarks
Aldwych, the street, is a crescent, connected to the
Strand at both ends, and forms part of the
A4 route. Streets adjoining are
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the boundary between the Covent Garden and Holborn areas of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of London Borough of Camden, Camden and the southern part in the City o ...
,
Kingsway, India Place and Melbourne Place. Notable buildings along its length include:
Theatres:
*
Aldwych Theatre, opened in 1905
*
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 ...
, opened in 1905
High Commissions:
*
India House, the High Commission of India in London
*
Australia House, the High Commission of Australia in London
Hotels and Restaurants:
*
The Waldorf Hilton, London
The Waldorf Hilton, London, formerly known as the Waldorf Hotel, is a historic hotel in Aldwych, London. It is part of the Hilton Hotels & Resorts chain and has a history dating back to 1908. The hotel was originally established by William W ...
, a hotel opened in 1908
* The
ME Hotel, designed by Richard Rogers
* One Aldwych
Universities:
*
Bush House, King House, Melbourne House and Strand House - making up the Aldwych Quarter - formerly the office headquarters of the
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...
from 1941 to 2012 and now part of the Strand Campus of
King's College London
King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...
* Connaught House, Columbia House, Aldwych House, and Clement House, buildings of the
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...
Former buildings include:
*
Gaiety Theatre, opened in 1864 and closed in 1939
*
Television House (now known as 61 Aldwych), former headquarters of several defunct
ITV franchise contractors and
ITN
Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based media production and broadcast journalism company. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, New York City, New York, Paris, Sydney and Washin ...
Facing one end of the street on the Strand is closed-in-1994
Aldwych station, originally named Strand station. It has been used when closed for scenes of films and television dramas.
History
In the seventh century, the area was an
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...
major settlement Lundenwic (the last syllable pronounced as today) ('London port') centred one mile to the west of ''
Londinium
Londinium, also known as Roman London, was the capital of Roman Britain during most of the period of Roman rule. Most twenty-first century historians think that it was originally a settlement established shortly after the Roman conquest of Brit ...
'' (known to the Saxons as ''Lundenburh'' 'London fort'). "Lundenwic" later became the old
wich (old port, that is Aldwych). It is not known if it had a church, and the town either took advantage of the scouring action of the
Fleet or used the mouth itself as a harbour for trading ships and fishing boats. After
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great ( ; – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who both died when Alfr ...
re-built the
London fortifications in the late 9th century, Londinium became known as ''
Lundenburh'' or simply Lunden, and ''Lundenwic'' so became ealdwic or aldwich. (The word "
old" evolved from ald, the
Old English
Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...
being eald and the
German cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language.
Because language change can have radical effects on both the s ...
being alt.) The name was recorded as ''Aldewich'' in 1211.
St Clement Danes is one of the four ancient Westminster parishes and was first recorded in the 1190s; it once covered the whole of Aldwych and all adjoining areas.
Its church, which features in the first line of the nursery rhyme ''
Oranges and Lemons
"Oranges and Lemons" is a traditional English nursery rhyme, folksong, and singing game which refers to the bells of several churches, all within or close to the City of London. It is listed in the Roud Folk Song Index as No 13190. The earliest ...
'', was rebuilt by
Wren
Wrens are a family, Troglodytidae, of small brown passerine birds. The family includes 96 species and is divided into 19 genera. All species are restricted to the New World except for the Eurasian wren that is widely distributed in the Old Worl ...
. The civil parish was abolished in 1922. It is open to - and it is known by residents and businesses to - use the term St Clement Danes interchangeably with Aldwych, which also covered in its final, smallest form the
Adelphi and much of the
Strand.

The urban centre of ''Lundenwic'' was unearthed in the 1980s after extensive excavations, and were reinterpreted as being urban in character. These conclusions were reached independently by two archaeologists (
Vince and
Biddle). Recent excavations in
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist sit ...
adjoining have uncovered an extensive
Anglo-Saxon settlement, covering about , stretching from the present-day
National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...
site in the west, to Aldwych in the east. As the presumed locus of the city, ''Lundenburh'', was moved back within the old Roman walls, the older settlement of ''Lundenwic'' gained the name of ''ealdwic'', 'old port', "eald" and the softer form of "wic" transposed to "ald" and "wich" in
Middle English orthography
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...
.
[Hobley B, ''Lundenwic and Lundenburh: two cities rediscovered'', AHDS Archaeology, University of Yor]
(PDF)
/ref>
The street was created in the early 20th century in a project that saw a new street layout destroying Wych Street
Wych Street was in London where King, Melbourne and Australia Houses now stand on Aldwych. It ran west from the church of St Clement Danes on the Strand, London, Strand to meet the southern end of Drury Lane. It was demolished by the London Coun ...
which was full of overhangs and projections, and the construction of Australia House (built 1913–18) and Bush House (completed 1925). A statue of the 19th-century prime minister William Ewart Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British politican, starting as Conservative MP for Newark and later becoming the leader of the Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party.
In a career lasting over 60 years, he ...
was installed in 1905 near St Clement Danes church, at the eastern end of Aldwych.
In 1906, Aldwych tramway station was opened underneath Kingsway; it closed in 1952. In 1907, Aldwych station was opened on the Strand opposite Aldwych; it closed in 1994.
On 18 February 1996, a bomb
A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechan ...
was detonate
Detonation () is a type of combustion involving a supersonic exothermic front accelerating through a medium that eventually drives a shock front propagating directly in front of it. Detonations propagate supersonically through shock waves wit ...
d prematurely on a number 171 bus travelling along Aldwych, killing its carrier, Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...
member Edward O'Brien and injuring several passengers.
In 2021, the Strand was pedestrianised between Melbourne Place and Lancaster Place, and Aldwych was converted into a two-way street.
References
{{commons category
Streets in the City of Westminster
Areas of London
Districts of the City of Westminster
A4 road (England)