Charing Cross Road

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Charing Cross Road, London, looking North from its junction with Long Acre.

Charing Cross Road is a London street which runs north from Trafalgar Square to St Giles' Circus (the intersection with Oxford Street) and then becomes Tottenham Court Road. It is so called because it leads from Charing Cross. The original Charing Cross was erected by Edward I as one of the crosses which marked the route of his wife's body, Queen Eleanor of Castile, to London. At its north end, it forms the border between Soho in the city of Westminster and St. Giles in the old Borough of Holborn.

Charing Cross Road was developed by the Metropolitan Board of Works in conjunction with Shaftesbury Avenue. The two streets were one of several built in the Victorian and Edwardian eras to improve traffic flow through central London (other examples include the Thames Embankment, Northumberland Avenue, Kingsway and Aldwych). Charing Cross Road was developed under an 1877 Act of Parliament at a cost of £778,238. It incorporated part of the routes of some older streets.^[1]

Charing Cross Road is renowned for its specialist and second-hand bookshops. The section from Leicester Square tube station to Cambridge Circus is home to specialist shops such as Zwemmer's (art books), Murder One (bookshop) (crime books and romances) and Comic Showcase (which closed in early 2006). Most of these shops are on the ground floor of a housing block owned by a housing association, and in around 2001, the association decided to raise the rents sharply to move them closer to the market level. This was opposed by the book dealers, who felt that they were providing a valuable service and contributing to the character of the area, and should not be treated in this way by a not-for-profit body such as a housing association. The association's counter argument was that if the booksellers did not pay a market rent they were being subsidized by its low-income tenants. The booksellers attracted considerable public support and a reduced rent increase was imposed, but several of the bookshops have closed nonetheless. One of the shops that closed was Silver Moon, apparently Europe’s largest women’s interest bookshop, which became part of Foyles. More second-hand bookshops can be found on the nearby Cecil Court.

The venerable Foyles bookshop on the west side of Charing Cross Road. (January 2006)

The top section from Cambridge Circus has more generalist shops such as Borders, Blackwell's and Foyles. Also notable are the music shops on Denmark Street (known as Britain's Tin Pan Alley).The music venue the Astoria is also located here as is St Martin's Arts College. A number of theatres can also be found here such as the Phoenix Theatre - with its entrance to be found on the adjoining Phoenix Street.

An interesting local feature can be found in the middle of Charing Cross Road - at its junction with Old Compton Street. Beneath the grill in the traffic island in the middle of the road, can be seen the old road signs for the now vanished Little Compton Street, which once joined Old Compton Street with New Compton Street.

A long-standing correspondence between New York based author Helene Hanff and the staff of a real-life bookstore located on the street, Marks & Co., was the inspiration for the book 84 Charing Cross Road (1970). In 1986 the novel was made into a film with Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins. The book has also been produced as a play and a BBC radio drama. 84 Charing Cross Road has not been a bookstore for many years (the address is currently an All Bar One). There is however, a brass plaque marking the site where Marks & Co. used to be.

At the road's southern end is a statue of Edith Cavell. Towards the north end is the Phoenix Garden - a local environmental garden run by local residents.

Charing Cross Road is also the site of The Leaky Cauldron in J K Rowling's fantastically popular Harry Potter series (mentioned in the 6th book). The pub, bartended by a man named Tom, is a gathering place for magical folk and provides housing as well. There is a passageway in the courtyard of the Leaky Cauldron that leads to Diagon Alley, where magical folk shop surreptitiously.

The street has also been immortalized in the song "Home For A Rest" by Canadian Celtic band Spirit of the West: "We arrived in December/And London was cold/We stayed in the bars/Along Charing Cross Road."