Aldwych, the street, is a crescent, connected to the Strand at both ends. It forms part of the A4 route and carries traffic eastbound. Streets adjoining are Drury Lane, Kingsway, India Place and Melbourne Place. Notable buildings along its length include: Theatres:
Television House, former headquarters of several defunct ITV franchise contractors and ITN
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 major settlement Lundenwic centred one mile to the west of Londinium. "Lundenwic" soon became the old wich. 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 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 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 covered this area throughout and originally all adjoining areas. Its church, which features in the first line of nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons, was rebuilt by Wren. 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. Recent excavations in Covent Garden adjoining have uncovered an extensive Anglo-Saxon settlement, covering about, stretching from the present-day National Gallery 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. The street was created in the early 20th century in a project that saw a new street layout destroying Wych Street which was full of overhangs and projections, and the construction of Australia House and Bush House. A statue of the 19th-century prime minister William Ewart Gladstone 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 was detonated prematurely on a number 171 bus travelling along Aldwych, killing its carrier, Provisional Irish Republican Army member Edward O'Brien and injuring several passengers.
