:''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 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 seventeenth 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?
See also
★
Covent Garden
★
Restoration comedy
★
Colley Cibber
Notes
1. 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."
External links
★
'The Strand (northern tributaries): Drury Lane and Clare Market', ''Old and New London'' Volume 3 (1878), pp. 36-44. Date accessed: 18 March 2007.
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