Strand Lane

Posted on 2012/04/15 12:34:05 (April 2012).

[Tuesday 10th April 2012]
Yesterday I'd started to use Pinwheel, a site which lets you leave notes on a map for other people to find. I'd added notes about some of my favourite old curios of London, and wanted to add a couple about Strand Lane - with its Old Roman Bath and Watch House, but then realised I didn't really have any photos of it. So I decided to pop out at lunchtime and take a few.

Strand Lane is a narrow little alleyway near the Strand proper. It is only open Mondays to Fridays and in the daytime, so I'd only been down it a few times before. I'd first seen a picture of it in a book called Lost London, and was intrigued that the author said the scene was largely unchanged today. The lane is home to not just one but two interesting historical curious. The Old Roman Bath has been around for centuries (although whether or not it is actually Roman is open to debate) and apparently Dickens bathed here. It is now managed by the National Trust, and whilst you can't go in without a prior appointment you can get a glimpse through a large diocletian window.

Next door to that is the old Watch House, dating to the early 19th Century, which apparently was built to look over the church yard of nearby St. Clement Danes, in a bid to prevent body snatchers. There are also some oldparish boundary markers here, and overall Strand Lane has a pleasing feeling of having been forgotten about.

In the evening Michelle and Steve came to stay with us, as they'd been to a concert in London.

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