Tavistock Street is a street in the

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 ...

area of London which runs parallel to the Strand between

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 ...

and Southampton Street just south of the market piazza.

History

Initially, the street was a passageway between

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

and Catherine Streets in 1630s. The first mention of the street dates to 1706, until when it was part of York Street. In 1729 Caleb Waterfield erected his first house (no. 15) on the street. In 1733 James Walker built three more, and the same year Robert Umpleby built two more (becoming nos. 34–38). In the early 19th century, the street was the location of many fashionable shops, such as are now to be found in

Bond Street Bond Street in the West End of London links Piccadilly in the south to Oxford Street in the north. Since the 18th century the street has housed many prestigious and upmarket fashion retailers. The southern section is Old Bond Street and the l ...

. The congregation of rich

carriage A carriage is a two- or four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for passengers. In Europe they were a common mode of transport for the wealthy during the Roman Empire, and then again from around 1600 until they were replaced by the motor car around 1 ...

s there was said to be one of the great sights of London at this time. It then became a centre of publishing of periodicals such as '' Country Life'' (no 8, designed in 1904 by

Edwin Lutyens Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens ( ; 29 March 1869 – 1 January 1944) was an English architect known for imaginatively adapting traditional architectural styles to the requirements of his era. He designed many English country houses, war memorials ...

), ''

The Stage ''The Stage'' is a British weekly newspaper and website covering the entertainment industry and particularly theatre. Founded in 1880, ''The Stage'' contains news, reviews, opinion, features, and recruitment advertising, mainly directed at thos ...

'' and '' Vanity Fair''. The auction business

Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

started there as a bookseller.

Famous residents

Thomas de Quincey Thomas Penson De Quincey (; Thomas Penson Quincey; 15 August 17858 December 1859) was an English writer, essayist, and literary critic, best known for his ''Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'' (1821).Eaton, Horace Ainsworth, ''Thomas De Q ...

lived at number 36 where he wrote '' Confessions of an English Opium Eater''. Casanova took rooms at the Star Tavern in 1763 but was unsuccessful in seducing English women there.

Hannah Glasse Hannah Glasse (; March 1708 – 1 September 1770) was an English cookery writer of the 18th century. Her first cookery book, ''The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy'', published in 1747, became the best-selling recipe book that century. It wa ...

, the author of The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, lived there from 1747 to 1757.

Buildings

Number 22 is the former headquarters of the Strand District Board of Works. The seal of the board is visible on the exterior of the building. Museum software company System Simulation was based in Burleigh House at no. 28.

References

Shopping streets in London Streets in the City of Westminster {{London-road-stub