Drury Lane

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This article is about the street in London; Drury Lane is also the name of a well-known theatre on that street and of a fictional detective created by Ellery Queen writing as Barnaby Ross.

Drury Lane looking south from Long Acre towards Aldwych

Oxfam shop on Drury Lane

Drury Lane and surrounding streets

Drury Lane is a street in the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster.

It took its start from the west end of Wych Street, redeveloped in the later nineteenth century as Aldwych. The lane led to the house built by Sir John Drury, Knight of the Garter in Queen Elizabeth's reign. Drury House, with a coachyard in front and a garden in back, was a scene of the intrigues that led to the ill-fated rebellion of the Queen's favourite, the Earl of Essex. In the 17th century it was the London house of the Earl of Craven, then a public house under the sign of his reputed mistress, the Queen of Bohemia, but by the eighteenth century Drury Lane had become one of the worst slums in London, dominated by prostitution^[1] and gin palaces. The area was eventually cleared to make way for the developments of Kingsway and Aldwych.

The name of the street is often used to refer to the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, which has in different incarnations been located in Drury Lane since the 17th century. Also in Drury Lane is the New London Theatre.

The street Drury Lane is also where The Muffin Man lives as mentioned in a popular children's song:

Do you know the Muffin Man?
The Muffin Man, the Muffin Man.
Do you know the Muffin Man,
Who lives on Drury Lane?

Drury Lane was the location of the first J. Sainsbury's store, now one of the UK's largest retailers.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

^ Sir Richard Steele in The Tatler (No. 46) gives a picture of Drury Lane as a district divided into particular "ladyships," analogous to "lordships" in other places, "over which matrons of known ability preside."