30-653: Great Queen Street is a street in the West End of central London in England . It is a continuation of Long Acre from Drury Lane to Kingsway . It runs from 1 to 44 along the north side, east to west, and 45 to about 80 along the south side, west to east. The street straddles and connects the Covent Garden and Holborn districts and is in the London Borough of Camden . It is numbered B402. The street
60-800: A member of the Society of Antiquaries who took on William Blake as an apprentice in 1772 for seven years. The novelist R H Barham (aka Thomas Ingoldsby) lived at No 51 between 1821 and 1824 after gaining a minor canonry at London's St. Paul's Cathedral , where he served as a cardinal . Playwright, writer and politician Richard Brinsley Sheridan lived at No 55/56 between 1770 and 1790. James Boswell , lawyer, diarist and author, lived at 56–58 from 1786 until 1788. Actress, songster and star comedienne of British playhouse entertainment Kitty Clive lived at No 59 between 1743 and 1747. Artist John Opie lived at No 63 between 1783 and 1791 and painted The Schoolmistress there in 1784. At No 67 there
90-472: A small, new square by redesigning the Great Queen Street junction with Drury Lane. The London Borough of Camden saw the potential of improving this junction as it was on their walking corridor between Leicester Square and Holborn. It was realised that to make this the best space for walking the traffic signals should be designed out as they were more of a hindrance than a help to pedestrians. Thus
120-832: Is another shop where Masonic regalia is sold. At 30–31 is the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys, a charity that provides for the education of orphaned children of Masons. From 1882 to 1959, the Novelty Theatre (later renamed the Great Queen Street Theatre and the Kingsway Theatre) was at 8 Great Queen Street. It staged the English première of Ibsen ’s A Doll’s House in June 1889. At 31 Great Queen Street lived James Basire ,
150-537: The City of London in the east, and the City of Westminster in the west. Over time they came to form the centre of modern London, although each kept its own distinct character and its separate legal identity (for example, the City of London has its own police force and is a distinct county ). The City of London became a centre for the banking, financial, legal and professional sectors, while Westminster became associated with
180-617: The City of Westminster wards is called " West End ". This electoral unit includes some of the most prosperous areas of the borough, including Soho , Mayfair and parts of southern Marylebone . The population of this ward at the 2011 Census was 10,575. The West End is laid out with many notable public squares and circuses. London Underground stations in the West End include: 51°30′48″N 0°07′43″W / 51.51333°N 0.12861°W / 51.51333; -0.12861 Freemasons%27 Tavern The Freemasons' Tavern
210-610: The 1,000 seat Grand Temple, which, with the Library and Museum are open to the public with hourly guided tours. The Masonic Charitable Foundation (MCF) is also located in Freemasons' Hall. The MCF comprises four former charities: The Freemasons' Grand Charity, a grant-making charity, the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution (RMBI), which operated 17 care homes for Freemasons and their dependents,
240-485: The City around Holborn , Seven Dials , and Covent Garden contained poorer communities that were cleared and redeveloped in the 19th century. As the West End is a term used colloquially by Londoners and is not an official geographical or municipal definition, its exact constituent parts are up for debate. Westminster City Council 's 2005 report Vision for the West End included the following areas in its definition: Covent Garden , Soho , Chinatown , Leicester Square ,
270-459: The Great Queen Street scheme created the trend for traffic signal removal in the UK, which together with removing guard railings and lighting columns it set a new standard for decluttering. It was also the first scheme to explain how shared space works and can be designed, and how to make it inclusive. Then to ensure that the space was more than just paving it was necessary to provide some seating. This
300-687: The Royal Masonic Trust for Boys and Girls, which provided education for the children of Freemasons; and the Masonic Samaritan Fund, providing medical care and support. The MCF took over the activities of the four charities in 2016. In 1775 the Freemasons' Tavern stood at 61–65, later the Connaught Rooms and now the Grand Connaught Rooms hotel and conference centre; like the hotel, the original Tavern
330-502: The West End ) is a district of Central London , London, England, west of the City of London and north of the River Thames , in which many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings and entertainment venues, including West End theatres , are concentrated. The term was first used in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross . The West End covers parts of
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#1732766225028360-530: The boroughs of Westminster and Camden . While the City of London is the main financial district in London, the West End is the main commercial and entertainment centre of the city. It is the largest central business district in the United Kingdom. It is one of the most expensive locations in the world in which to rent commercial and office space. Medieval London comprised two adjacent cities –
390-407: The districts falling within the West End are Mayfair , Soho , Covent Garden , Fitzrovia and Marylebone . By this definition, the West End borders Temple , Holborn and Bloomsbury to the east, Regent's Park to the north, Paddington , Hyde Park and Knightsbridge to the west, and Victoria and Westminster to the south. Other definitions include Bloomsbury within the West End. One of
420-470: The early 1900s led to the building of the broad Kingsway road, clearing away some of the maze of small streets in Holborn including part of Great Queen Street, all of Little Queen Street and the surrounding slum dwellings. Plans were published by London County Council in 1898, authorised in 1899, and the road was formally opened in 1905. In about 2005 a local architect's practice won a competition to create
450-485: The first floor to the eaves. The regular design of the houses proved influential. According to John Summerson they "laid down the canon which put an end to gabled individualism, and provided a discipline for London's streets which was to endure for two hundred years." In 1710, the Great Queen Street Academy was founded here with Godfrey Kneller as its first governor. A major redevelopment in
480-462: The future George IV who was the Grand Master of the Freemasons in 1809. The north side of the road is also partly occupied by Masonic regalia shops, Masonic charities and administrative offices. At numbers 19–21 is the premises of the regalia manufacturer Toye, Kenning & Spencer , which has been located at this address since acquiring the rival manufacturer George Kenning in 1956. At 23
510-513: The hall included: In 1909 the Grand Lodge demolished most of the Freemasons' Tavern and replaced it over succeeding decades with a new building designed by H. V. Ashley and Winton Newman, who also designed the adjoining Freemasons' Hall . The new building, costing £30,000, was named the Connaught Rooms after the Lodge's Grand Master, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn . After
540-420: The leisure, shopping, commerce, and entertainment sectors, the government, and home to universities and embassies . The modern West End is closely associated with this area of central London. Lying to the west of the historic Roman and medieval City of London, the West End was long favoured by the rich elite as a place of residence because it was usually upwind of the smoke drifting from the crowded City. It
570-513: The painter Richard Dadd lived in Great Queen Street while studying at the Royal Academy . Opposite Freemason's Hall was one of the "feature sites" for the Camden bench when it was first introduced. 51°30′56″N 0°07′16″W / 51.51556°N 0.12111°W / 51.51556; -0.12111 West End of London The West End of London (commonly referred to as
600-539: The shopping streets of Oxford Street , Regent Street and Bond Street , the area encompassing Trafalgar Square , the Strand and Aldwych , and the district known as Theatreland . The Edgware Road to the north-west and the Victoria Embankment to the south-east were also covered by the document but were treated as "adjacent areas" to the West End. According to Ed Glinert's West End Chronicles (2006)
630-531: The street clutter from the junction it then became possible to see that when the Freemasons owned this end of Great Queen Street they faced the facades of all three building blocks in Portland stone . Roughly half of the south side is occupied by Freemasons' Hall , the headquarters of the United Grand Lodge of England . The first English Grand Lodge was founded in 1717, which explains the dates on
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#1732766225028660-518: The top of the current building. Their first buildings on this site were replaced in 1860 by the architect Frederick Pepys Cockerell . However, this is the third Freemasons' Hall, which was built by international subscriptions in 1927–33 as a Masonic Peace Memorial after the Great War. It is a grade II listed building, and the only Art Deco building in London that is unaltered and still used for its original purpose. There are 29 meeting rooms and
690-561: Was a chapel from circa 1709, taken over by the Methodists in 1789 and expanded. This venue became West London Mission in 1906 and was renamed Kingsway Hall in 1907. But then the building was condemned due to the development of Kingsway. A new Kingsway Hall was built in 1912. Shanks and Co. ran their well-known coachbuilding business at 70–71 Great Queen Street from the 1850s, becoming F & R Shanks in 1860. The business moved out of Great Queen Street around 1905. The Shanks coachworks
720-474: Was called "Queen Street" from around 1605–9, and "Great Queen Street" from around 1670 to distinguish it from Little Queen Street. In 1646 William Newton was given permission to build fourteen large houses, each with a forty-foot frontage, on the south side of the street. Although he did not build all the houses himself, selling on some the plots, they were constructed to a uniform design, in a classical style, with Ionic pilasters rising through two storeys from
750-500: Was close to the royal seat of power at the Palace of Westminster (now home to parliament ), and is largely contained within the City of Westminster (one of the 32 London boroughs ). Following initial development by Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St Albans in the 1660s, during the late 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, it was built as a series of palaces, expensive town houses, fashionable shops and places of entertainment. The areas closest to
780-499: Was difficult in an area with a high crime and anti-social behaviour due to it being on the edge of the night time economy in Covent Garden and one block from a substance abuse hostel. Therefore, the project manager also wrote a brief to create the Camden bench to encourage walking and make this a social space, which subsequently won awards in designing out crime, simplifying street cleaning and inclusive design. By removing all
810-470: Was established in 1775 at 61–65 Great Queen Street in the West End of London . It served as a meeting place for a variety of notable organisations from the 18th century until it was demolished in 1909 to make way for the Connaught Rooms . In 1769, the Premier Grand Lodge of England decided to build a Central Hall. A building was purchased in Great Queen Street in 1775 and Thomas Sandby
840-471: Was located in 'New Yard'; this land was sold to the Freemasons around 1920 to build the Freemasons' Hall. The orchestral music hire business Goodwin & Tabb was at 71 Great Queen Street from 1826 until 1906, when they moved to 34 Percy Street . At 72 is the Kingsway Hall Hotel, built on the site of Kingsway Hall and redeveloped into a four-star hotel in 1999. Between 1837 and 1840,
870-503: Was tasked with building a hall in the garden. The original house became the tavern with a second house providing office space for the Freemasons . In 1813 the Premier Grand Lodge and rival Ancient Grand Lodge of England merged to form the United Grand Lodge of England . The hall was not only used for Masonic purposes, but also became an important venue in London for a variety of meetings and concerts. Organisations using
900-579: Was used by the public as well as Freemasons for their receptions and dinners. There are conflicting stories about the founding in 1863 of the Football Association to set down the rules of the game. The existing pub " The Freemasons Arms " on Long Acre is sometimes said to be the site of this event, but other sources say it was the Freemason's Tavern. There is a pub called "The Prince of Wales" at 45 Great Queen Street, presumably named after
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