Catherine Street

Names

  • Catherine Street
  • Catharine Street

Street/Area/District

  • Catherine Street

Maps & Views

Descriptions

from A New View of London, by Edward Hatton (1708)

Catharine str. a pleasant broad Str. in the Strand, on the Nly [northerly] side near against Somerset House.

from Lockie's Topography of London, by John Lockie (1810)

Catherine-Street, Strand,—at 342, opposite Somerset-place, leading into Brydges-street, Russell-street, and Covent-garden.

from A Topographical Dictionary of London and Its Environs, by James Elmes (1831)

Catherine-St., Strand, is opposite Somerset-place, and leads into Bridge's-street, Russell-street, and Covent Garden.

from London Past and Present: Its History, Associations, and Traditions, by Henry Benjamin Wheatley and Peter Cunningham (1891)

Catherine Street, Strand, a street running from the Strand to Russell Street, Covent Garden. The northern half was formerly called Brydges Street. Drury Lane Theatre is at its north-east corner.

Oh, may thy virtue guard thee through the roads,
Of Drury's mazy courts and dark abodes!
The harlot's guileful paths, who nightly stand,
Where Catherine Street descends into the Strand.

Gay, Trivia.

Ogilby (1675) speaks of this street as "a new-made passage to Covent Garden."

Dr. Johnson told us "there was once a pretty good tavern in Catherine Street in the Strand, where very good company met in an evening, and each man called for his own half-pint of wine, or gill if he pleased; they were frugal men, and nobody paid but for what he himself drank. The house furnished no supper; but a woman attended with mutton pies, which anybody might purchase. I was introduced to this company by Cumming the Quaker, and used to go there sometimes when I drank wine.—Boswell, p. 343.

In 1714 a tract was published with this title, "The May-pole's New Year's Gift, or Thanks returned to his Benefactors, humbly inscribed to the Two Corners of Catherine Street, Strand; written by a parishioner of St. Mary, Savoy."