F13 - Centre of London - What to See and Where to Eat and Drink (1.7 km)
- philip carey
- Jun 28, 2023
- 14 min read
Updated: Dec 22, 2024
Start at Charing Cross Station
Finish at Charing Cross Station
THE EXPERIENCE
Eating and drinking adventures around the very centre of London
This route takes you on a circular tour around Charing Cross station, showing you the sights and the places to ‘Eat, Drink and be Merry’. These include the area around Trafalgar Square, which has theatres, galleries, fountains, monuments, and some hidden places to eat and drink. The area is rich in history and is a significant junction towards the City of London, Buckingham Palace, Covent Garden, the South Bank, Soho and Chinatown. The route around Charing Cross Station explores the central eating and drinking areas, with many more to the north of the Strand in Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Chinatown and Soho.
The route is excellent for history, iconic sights, museums, hotels, transport links, shops, art galleries, theatres, government buildings, narrow streets, and places to eat, drink and be merry.
BEST TIME
Morning- This route is not too busy, but it can get crowded around Charing Cross Station, Embankment Station and Trafalgar Square. The best time to explore the route is early morning when the lighting is at its best, and few people are around. It is also a great way to discover places for breakfast.
Day - This route will get busier along most of the route, especially around Charing Cross Station, Embankment Station, Villers Street, Whitehall and Trafalgar Square
Evening - This route will be fairly busy in the evening around Charing Cross Station, Embankment Station, and Villers Street,
ROUTE OVERVIEW
This 1.7 km route starts at Charing Cross Station and heads up towards St Martin’s Lane and across to the National Portrait Gallery. It then goes into Trafalgar Square, past the National Gallery and around Canada House to the start of Whitehall by King Charles Island – the official centre of London. The route heads up Great Scotland Yard and onto Northumberland Avenue before heading towards the river Thames by Embankment. It then swings under Embankment Place and up Villers Street before finishing up where it started at Charing Cross Station.
See the route at speed (1:54)
Use this to see what the route looks like as if you were doing it at speed, and to make you more familiar with what you will see along the way.
GOOGLE AND STRAVA MAPS
Use 'My Google Maps' to explore this route's venues. If you are using a mobile device, the map can help you find the start point for the route, navigate to places of interest, and show your position on the map.
What to see and places to eat, drink and be merry.
What to See List
1 Charing Cross and the Strand
2 St Martins-in-the-Fields
3 National Portrait and National Gallery
4 Trafalgar Square and Nelson’s Column
5 Canada House and East Pall Mall
6 Admiralty Arch and the Mall
7 Whitehall and the Admiralty
8 The Arch’s underneath Charing Cross Station
9 Northumberland Avenue and the Corinthia London
10 Whitehall Court and Gardens
11 The Golden Jubilee Bridge
12 Villiers Street and Victoria Embankment Gardens
The Centre of London - Pubs and Bars
This will help you locate the pubs and bars around this Photorun. These are centred near Charing Cross Station, Whitehall, and to the north, towards Covent Garden and Leicester Square.
Here is a listing of nearby pubs and bars.
PUBS
The Princess Of Wales
27 Villiers St, Greater, London WC2N 6ND
Theodore Bullfrog
26-30 John Adam St, London WC2N 6HL
The Harp
47 Chandos Pl, London WC2N 4HS
The Chandos
29 St Martin's Ln, London WC2N 4DD
The Marquis
51-52 Chandos Pl, London WC2N 4HS
www.themarquiscoventgarden.co.uk
The Lemon Tree
4 Bedfordbury, London WC2N 4BP
The Rooftop
7th Floor, 2 Spring Gardens, St. James's, London SW1A 2TS
The Admiralty
66 Trafalgar Sq, St. James's, London WC2N 5DS
Horse & Guardsman
16-18 Whitehall, London SW1A 2DY
Old Shades
37 Whitehall, London SW1A 2BX
Silver Cross
33 Whitehall, London SW1A 2BS
The Clarence
53 Whitehall, London SW1A 2HP
Ship and Shovell Pub & Restaurant
1-3 Craven Passage, London WC2N 5PH
Sherlock Holmes
10 Northumberland St, London WC2N 5DB
BARS
All Bar One Villiers St.
6 Villiers St, London WC2N 6NQ
Champagne Charlies
Unit 17, The Arches, Villiers St, London WC2N 6NG
Gordon's Wine Bar
47 Villiers St, London WC2N 6NE
Retro Bar
2 George Ct, London WC2N 6HH
Halfway To Heaven
7 Duncannon St, London WC2N 4JF
Walkers of Whitehall
15 Craig's Ct, London SW1A 2DD
Velvet
10 Whitehall Pl, London SW1A 2BD
The Pier Bar & Lounge
Embankment Pier, Victoria Embankment, London WC2N 6NU
Boyds Grill & Wine Bar
8 Northumberland Ave, London WC2N 5BY
www.boydsgrillandwinebar.co.uk
Sibin
Hotel, 3-5 Great Scotland Yard, London SW1A 2HN
Tequila Mockingbird Charing Cross
42 William IV St, London WC2N 4DD
The Centre of London - Places to Eat
Several places to eat are available along the way, most centred around Charing Station and towards Covent Garden and Leicester Square. Use the food links to find your perfect spot.
Open Table London prides itself on bringing together people and the restaurants they love in the moments that matter, offering dining options, experiences, and offers.
The Fork—This is a Tripadvisor company that relies as much on its communities of users as its communities of restaurateurs. You can search by price, cuisine, rating, and special offers.
Hardens – This is probably the UK's most comprehensive independent restaurant guide, with reviews written by its members. It ranks each place by its food, services and ambience and has extensive search capabilities.
Design My Night This site is designed to help you discover and unlock secret, new and unique city experiences, from events to bars and restaurants, but it is also a site to help plan and book online. It has categories for restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs, and 'what's on'.
Afternoon tea This is an Afternoon Tea guide to help you find the 'perfect venue for afternoon tea' in London and the UK. It provides descriptions, offers, booking facilities and an extensive search option.
The Centre of London - Things to Do
There are plenty of things to do along this route and to the north in Covent garden and Leicester Sqare and to the south across the river and along the South Bank.
London Coliseum
St Martin's Ln, London WC2N 4ES
The National Gallery
Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN
Theatre Royal Haymarket
18 Suffolk St, London SW1Y 4HT
His Majesty's Theatre
Haymarket, St. James's, London SW1Y 4QL
St Martin-in-the-Fields
Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 4JJ
www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org
Mall Galleries
The Mall, St. James's, London SW1Y 5AS
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Mall, St. James's, London SW1Y 5AH
The Household Cavalry Museum
66 Horse Guards Ave, Whitehall, London SW1A 2AX
Trafalgar Theatre
14 Whitehall, London SW1A 2DY
Benjamin Franklin House
36 Craven St, London WC2N 5NF
British Optical Association Museum
42 Craven St, London WC2N 5NG
Adelphi Theatre
Strand, London WC2R 0NS
Vaudeville Theatre
404 Strand, London WC2R 0NH
www.thevaudevilletheatre.co.uk
The Duke of York's Theatre
St Martin's Ln, London WC2N 4BG
Garrick Theatre
2 Charing Cross Rd, London WC2H 0HH
National Portrait Gallery
St. Martin's Pl, London WC2H 0HE
Charing Cross Theatre
The Arches, Villiers St, London WC2N 6NL
The Centre of London - Breakfast Venues
These are some of the places for breakfast along the route:-
Cafe On The Square
On Trafalgar Square London WC2N 5DU
Breadline café
4 Duncannon Street
Pret A Manger
62-65 Trafalgar Square
7-8 St. Martin's Pl
Café in the Crypt
By St Martin-in-Field Church
Trafalgar Square
https://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org/visit/cafe-in-the-crypt/
Muriel’s Kitchen
National Gallery, Trafalgar Sq, London WC2N 5DN
The Admiralty
6 Trafalgar Square WC2n 5DS
https://www.admiraltytrafalgar.co.uk/food
Notes Coffee Roasters & Bar | Trafalgar Square
31 St Martin's Ln, London WC2N 4DD
Caffè Concerto Northumberland Avenue
4-5 Northumberland Ave, London WC2N 5BW
https://www.caffeconcerto.co.uk/menus/
Caffè Concerto Whitehall
43 Whitehall, London SW1A 2BX
https://www.caffeconcerto.co.uk/locations/united-kingdom/central-london/caffe-concerto-whitehall
Embankment Bistro Café
25 Victoria Embankment, London WC2N 2PB
https://www.embankmentbistrocafe.com
Stack & Still - Pancake Pioneers
17-18 Irving Street, Leicester Square, London, WC2H 7AU
https://www.stackandstill.co.uk
The Northall
10a Northumberland Ave, London WC2N 5AE
https://www.corinthia.com/london/restaurants-bars/the-northall/
Brumus Bar & Restaurant
1 Suffolk Pl, London SW1Y 4HX
https://www.firmdalehotels.com/hotels/london/haymarket-hotel/brumus-bar-restaurant/
La Roche
39-40 St Martin's Ln, London WC2N 4ER
http://places.singleplatform.com/la-roche-restaurant--cafe/menu?ref=google#menu_5216932
PHOTO GALLERY
This gallery provides a descriptive and visual reference to many sights along this route. Double-click to see the image in full size.
HISTORY & INTERESTING FACTS
Around Trafalgar Square
Strand
Strand is a London street that runs 1.2 km from Trafalgar Square eastwards, through part of London's West End theatreland, to Temple Bar, where the road becomes Fleet Street. In the Middle Ages, Westminster was separated from the City of London by fields, and the Strand was the main road that linked them. The Strand was popular with the British upper classes between the 12th, and the Strand became well known for its coffee shops, restaurants and taverns. It also became rich in theatres and music halls during the 19th century.
Historically, large mansions were built along its length, including Essex House, Arundel House, Somerset House, Savoy Palace, Durham House, York House, and Cecil House. Somerset House is the only building that is still visible today.
St Martin-in-the-Fields
In the 13th century, the church was ‘in the fields’ between London and Westminster. Henry VIII rebuilt the church in 1542 and changed the parish boundaries to keep plague victims from having to pass through his Palace in Whitehall. The church we see today was built in 1726 by James Gibbs and is known for its regular lunchtime events and services, charitable work, and musical concerts.
The Crypt St Martin-in-the-Fields
The Crypt was where the rich were buried in elaborate stone chambers beneath the Church rather than in the graveyard outside the church. This provided the church with extra income, amounting to around thirty-five per cent of the wardens’ income in the 18th century.
The bodies have since been removed, and the crypt now houses a café that hosts jazz concerts and profits support the church's programmes. The crypt is also home to the London Brass Rubbing Centre, established in 1975 as an art gallery, book, and gift shop. A life-sized marble statue of Henry Croft, London's first pearly king, was moved to the crypt in 2002 from its original site at St Pancras Cemetery.
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is considered to be the centre of London. It is London’s most famous square for celebrations and political demonstrations. This square was designed by Charles Barry and completed in 1845 on the site of the King’s Mews. The square became known as Trafalgar Square to commemorate Nelson’s victory over the French and Spanish in 1805 at the Battle of Trafalgar during the Napoleonic Wars. A Christmas tree has been donated to the square by Norway since 1947 and is erected for the twelve days before Christmas Day.
Centre of London and the statue of King Charles I
The statue of King Charles I was originally located here in 1633, but after the Parliamentary victory in the English Civil War, the statue was sold for scrap, but instead, it was buried for safekeeping. King Charles I was beheaded in 1649 outside Banqueting Hall in Whitehall. After the Restoration, the statue was recovered and placed in its current location in 1675. Those who signed the King’s execution notice were later executed here.
The Centre of London - Getting your Bearings
A plaque on King Charles Island indicates the official centre of London where six routes meet.
Looking south down Whitehall, you will see that the Houses of Parliament is in the distance. To the west, Admiralty Arch points toward Buckingham Palace and St James's Palace. North-west is Cockspur Street, which takes you towards St James’s Piccadilly. To the north by the National Gallery is Charing Cross Road, heading towards Soho and St Giles, and then to the right is the Strand, which takes you to the City of London. Finally, to the southeast is Northumberland Avenue, which takes you to the River Thames on Victoria Embankment and the Golden Jubilee Bridge crossing to the South Bank and the London Eye.
Around the Northern end of Whitehall
The Palace of Whitehall
With the fall of Wolsey in 1529, Henry VIII appropriated the whole area for his personal use. This formed the basis of the new ‘Whitehall’ Palace. (The term ‘Whitehall’ has its origin in the white ashlar stone used for Wolsey’s Palace).
Henry VIII not only continued Wolsey’s building programme but extended it, acquiring properties on the west side of the thoroughfare from Westminster to Charing Cross and enclosing the adjacent fields to form what is now St. James’s Park.
The palace covered 23 acres between St James’s Park and the river. On the park side of the road, Henry VIII built his pleasure buildings, which included four covered courts for Real or ‘Royal’ tennis, a bowling alley, a cockpit, a tiltyard (enclosed courtyard for jousting), and a pheasant yard. On the river side of the road were the Royal Apartments, the Great Hall, the Chapel, the Privy Gardens, nobleman’s lodgings and, towards Charing Cross, numerous service buildings such as kitchens, a coal wharf and stables at Charing Cross itself. Whitehall became the premier palace of the Tudors and Stuarts. However, in 1698, in the reign of William III, it was almost entirely destroyed by fire.
Banqueting House
Banqueting Hall is the only building to survive the Palace of Whitehall fire of 1698. You can visit the museum and see its chapel and impressive Rubens ceiling paintings. The area outside the Banqueting Hall was where Charles I was executed in 1649, which was then wide enough to accommodate the scaffold.
Admiralty House
Admiralty House was constructed on the site of two seventeenth-century houses: Walsingham House, the London residence of Lady Walsingham, and Pickering House, the residence of Sir Gilbert Pickering.[1]
Admiralty House was designed by Samuel Pepys Cockerell and opened in 1788. It was built at the request of Admiral of the Fleet Viscount Howe, First Lord of the Admiralty, and was the official residence of the First Lord of the Admiralty until 1964.
It has also been home to several British Prime Ministers when 10 Downing Street was being renovated.
Winston Churchill lived in the house while serving as First Lord of the Admiralty for two terms, 1911–15 and 1939–40. It now contains government function rooms and three ministerial flats.
The Trafalgar Studios
The Trafalgar Studios opened as the Whitehall Theatre on the 29th of September 1930 with a play called 'The Way To Treat A Woman' by Walter Hackett. The Theatre was built on a site previously home to a public house called 'Ye Old Ship Tavern', which had been there since 1650. The Tavern was demolished and rebuilt on the opposite side of the road, and the Whitehall Theatre arose in its place
Great Scotland Yard Buildings
In Tudor times, Great Scotland Yard was where the diplomatic representatives of the Kingdom of Scotland and the Scottish kings resided when they visited the English court –acting as the Scottish embassy. However, such an institution was not formalised. Scotland Yard was built by 1515, and it is known that Henry VIII's sister, Margaret Tudor, Queen of Scots, had lodged there.
In 1829, 4 Whitehall Place, which backs onto Great Scotland Yard, became the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, making the name "Scotland Yard" synonymous with the police service.
Today, Great Scotland connects Northumberland Avenue and Whitehall. The Mounted Branch of the Metropolitan Police still uses the premises here.
At its Whitehall end, Clarence Public House is named after the Duke of Clarence. The pub dates from 1896.
A little further up the street is a five-star Hyatt luxury hotel on the former site of the Ministry of Defence Library. The hotel has 152 rooms, 15 suites, and a stand-alone townhouse at 1 Great Scotland Yard. The Edwardian townhouse has its own private entrance and two bedrooms across five floors. The hotel also contains four bars, restaurants, and a gym.
Since 1953, the Civil Service Club has been based in the Old Fire House at numbers 13–15. It is a social club for current and former Civil Service members.
Around Northumberland Avenue
Northumberland Avenue
Northumberland Avenue runs from Trafalgar Square to the River Thames next to Victoria Embankment. It was built between 1874 and 1876 on the site of Northumberland House, the London home of the Percy family, the Dukes of Northumberland.
When built, the street was designed for luxury accommodation, including the seven-storey Grand Hotel, the Victoria and the Metropole, now the Corinthia Hotel.
From the 1930s onwards, properties were used less for hotels and more for British Government departments, including the War Office and the Air Ministry. Today, it is reverting to a hotel area with hotels such as Corinthia, Royal Horseguards, Citadines, Club Quarters, and the new OWO Raffles Hotel, which is nearby.
At its southern end is the Playhouse Theatre. This originally opened as the Royal Avenue Theatre in 1882 and hosted comic operas and burlesques in its early years. In 1951, the BBC took over the theatre and turned it into a live performance studio. Legendary bands such as The Beatles, Queen and The Rolling Stones performed here. Today, the Playhouse Theatre has been transformed into the famous Kit-Kat Club, with an intimate production of CABARET - This is Berlin.
Northumberland Avenue has also been commemorated in the Sherlock Holmes novels, including The Hound of the Baskervilles, and there is a pub called the Sherlock Holmes at 10 Northumberland Street.
Northumberland Avenue is also a light blue square on the British Monopoly board.
Corinthia Hotel
Initially opened in 1885 as the Metropole Hotel. The hotel was the venue for the annual dinners of the Aero Club and the Alpine Club for several years and acted as the gathering point for competitors in the first London to Brighton run in 1896. The Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, entertained guests at the hotel on various occasions, having a reserved box in the ballroom and the Royal Suite, which was thought to be the first-floor rooms with bow-fronted windows fronting Whitehall Place.
The hotel's location close to the Palace of Westminster and government offices in Whitehall meant it was commandeered in both world wars. After the Second World War, it was purchased by the Ministry of Defence and used as a government office until it was declared surplus to requirements and sold by Crown Estates in 2007. It was then restored as a hotel and renamed the Corinthia Hotel, which is both a hotel and a residential building.
Whitehall Court
Whitehall Court consists of two separate buildings. The southern part was built in 1884 and is mainly apartments, whereas the north, which was built in 1887, is the National Liberal Club.
The National Liberal Club is a private members' club open to both men and women. It was established by William Ewart Gladstone in 1882 to provide club facilities for Liberal Party campaigners among the newly enlarged electorate following the Third Reform Act in 1884,
The central section is taken up by the Royal Horseguards Hotel, which opened here in 1971 at number three Whitehawk Court.
Founded in 1842, the Farmer's Club, which champions all that is good about farming in the UK, moved here in 1942. Whitehall Gardens at the front was formed as part of the Victoria Embankment and laid out in the 1870s.
Around Villiers Street
The Arches and Charing Cross Theatre
The Arches links Villers Street to Craven Passage (by the Ship and Shovel Pub.
As its names suggest, a covered area beneath the Charing Cross Station with Arches serves as shops, a theatre (The Charing Cross Theatre), a nightclub called Heaven and a bar called Champaign Charlies.
The Charing Cross Theatre was founded in 1936 and moved to Arches in 1942 as a Victorian-style music hall named ‘Players Theatre’. It was refurbished in 2005 and reopened under new management in 2006 as The New Players Theatre before being taken under new management by Broadway producer Steven M. Levy and Sean Sweeney in 2011, when the theatre changed its name to the Charing Cross Theatre, with the Players Bar & Kitchen. It is one of the smallest West End Theatres, built to meet the demands of national and international producers wanting a theatre which offers a degree of intimacy in an off-Broadway space.
Villiers Street
Villiers Street connects the Strand with the Embankment Station. It was built by Nicholas Bourbon in the 1670s on the site of York House, the property of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, whose name the street commemorates. A water gate in nearby Embankment Gardens is the only remnant of the mansion and shows the original position of the River Thames.
John Evelyn lived here in the 17th century, and the Irish writer Richard Steele lodged here in 1712 and founded both The Spectator and The Tatler magazines. The Charing Cross Hospital Medical School was founded here in 1834 and is now part of the Imperial College Faculty of Medicine.
Housing on the west side of Villiers Street was demolished in the 1860s to make way for Charing Cross Station.
Rudyard Kipling lived at number 43 in 1889-91, where he wrote the partly autobiographical novel 'The Light That Failed', which contains references to the area. Kipling remarks that:
“From my desk I could look out of my window through the fanlight of Gatti’s Music Hall entrance, across the street, almost onto its stage. The Charing Cross trains rumbled through my dreams on one side, the boom of the Strand on the other, while, before my windows, Father Thames under the Shot Tower walked up and down with his traffic.”
After World War II, Gatti became the noted Players' Theatre Club, specialising in music hall entertainment.
VIRTUAL TOUR OF THE AREA
Click on the picture below to go on a 360 virtual tour of the shopping areas and look around.
Use the route to explore this location by looking around in 360, taking in the sights and sounds, listening to an audio recording about the area and going on a virtual tour.
Browse the gallery to find out what you can see along the way.
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