Beautiful Streets

Streets, squares, mews and lanes. The most charming streetscapes in London. Some well known, some hidden gems.

Tell us what we can do better, or what you’re trying to discover.

Drury Lane

One of the oldest streets in London, with the oldest working theatre in the country on it.

Lanes & alleys

Looking up Drury Lane. Photo by Robert Lamb, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Drury Lane is older than most of the city around it: a track between the Strand and Holborn long before Covent Garden was laid out, and named after a Tudor house that stood on it. It has had two lives at opposite ends of respectability. The Theatre Royal opened here in 1663, has been rebuilt four times and is the oldest working theatre in London; Nell Gwyn sold oranges at its door before she went on the stage. Behind it lay the parish of St Giles, one of the worst slums in England, where the plague of 1665 is said to have started.

Where
Drury Lane, WC2B
Nearest station
Covent Garden · 3 min walk

NearbyBeautiful Streets

NearbyOther Categories

See more nearby listings

Submit a correction for this listing.

Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.

Which area are you in?