Page 125 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - London

C OVENT GARDEN AND THE STR AND  123

can walk directly through to
one of the Jubilee pedestrian
bridges that run alongside the
Hungerford rail bridge, crossing
to the South Bank.

s London Coliseum
St Martin’s Lane WC2. Map 13 B3.
Tel 020 7845 9300. 1 Leicester Sq,
Charing Cross. Open performances
only. 7 - See Enter tainment p344.
∑ eno.org
London’s largest theatre and
one of its most elaborate, this
flamboyant building, topped
Dominating its neighbours, the office block above Charing Cross station with a large globe, was
designed in 1904 by Frank
p Adelphi talks and events for its fellows Matcham and was equipped
and members of the public (see with London’s first revolving
Strand WC2. Map 13 C3.
1 Embankment, Charing Cross. www.thersa.org). In the same stage. It was also the first
Closed to the public. exuberant idiom are Nos. 1–4 theatre in Europe to have lifts.
Robert Street, where Robert A former variety house, today
Adelphi is a pun on adelphoi, Adam lived for a time, and No. 7 it is the home of the English
the Greek word for brothers – Adam Street. National Opera, and well worth
this area was once an elegant visiting, if only for the Edwardian
riverside residential develop- interior with its gilded cherubs
ment designed in 1772 by a Charing Cross and heavy purple curtains.
brothers Robert and John Strand WC2. Map 13 C3. 1 Charing In 2003, the original
Adam. The name now refers to Cross, Embankment. glass roof
the Art Deco office block, its was restored,
entrance adorned with N A The name derives from the last providing
Trent’s heroic reliefs of workers of 12 crosses erected by Edward I dram atic views
at toil, which in 1938 replaced to mark the funeral route in 1290 over Trafalgar
the Adams’ much admired of his wife, Eleanor of Castile, to Square.
Palladian-style apartment Westminster Abbey. Today a
complex. That destruction is 19th-century replica stands in
now viewed as one of the worst the forecourt of Charing Cross
acts of 20th-century official station. Both the cross and the
vandalism. A number of the Charing Cross Hotel, built London
Adams’ surrounding buildings into the station frontage, Coliseum
survive, notably No. 8, the were designed in 1863 by
ornate Royal Society for E M Barry, architect of the
the encouragement of Arts, Royal Opera House
Manufactures & Commerce just (see p119).
opposite, which hosts many Above the station
platforms rises an
assertive office block,
completed in 1991.
Designed by Terry
Farrell, it resembles
a giant ocean liner,
with portholes
looking on to
Villiers Street,
and is best seen
from the river.
The railway arches
at the rear of the
station have been
modernized as a
suite of small shops.
The façade of No. 7 Adam Street From the station you

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