A4200 road

It runs between the A4 at Aldwych, to the A400 Hampstead Road/Camden High Street, at Mornington Crescent tube station, via Holborn, Bloomsbury, Euston and Somers Town.

It runs from High Holborn, at its north end in the London Borough of Camden, and meets Aldwych in the south in the City of Westminster at Bush House.

In 1958 the disused tunnel was reopened at the southern end to make a new connection, the Strand Underpass, for light traffic between Waterloo Bridge and Kingsway in order to reduce congestion.

Also beneath Kingsway was a branch of the Piccadilly tube line from Holborn to Aldwych station on the Strand; this was closed in 1994.

During the Second World War the branch was used to store art treasures from the British Museum, including the Elgin Marbles.

[3] On 1 April 2015, electrical cables under the pavement in Kingsway caught fire, leading to serious disruption in central London.

The fire continued for the next two days, with flames shooting out of a manhole cover from a burst gas main,[4] before being extinguished.

[19][20][21] The trams ceased to run in the 1950s and, since 1961, the southern end of the tunnel has been used by cars under the name of the Strand Underpass.

[22][23] The northern entrance to the tunnel still exists[24] (with its tram lines still in situ, see image right)[25] and can be found at the junction of Southampton Row and Vernon Place.

On 27 December 1909, a song by the English composer Edward Elgar, named The King's Way, celebrates the opening of Kingsway.

[26] [27][28] Southampton Row is a major thoroughfare running northwest–southeast in Bloomsbury, Camden, central London, England.

[31] The first studio of the sculptor Robert William Sievier (1794–1865) was in Southampton Row until 1837, where he relocated to Henrietta Street, near Cavendish Square, and he also had a separate residence in Upper Holloway.

[38] In 1938, the Institute moved to the Senate House complex of the University of London on Malet Street, not far away to the northwest.

Also in 1953, John Cass opened a bookshop on Southampton Row, where he began publishing books and journals which were acquired by Taylor & Francis in 2003.

Map showing proposed route, c. 1900
A 1910s Ordnance Survey map showing Kingsway just after it had been built and showing the entrance to the tramway tunnel at the north end
Kingsway
Kingsway tram tunnel entrance in Southampton Row
Part of the subway is now a tunnel for cars.
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design , Southampton Row campus at the junction with Theobald's Road.
Blue plaque for the architect William Lethaby (1857–1931), a key figure in the foundation of the original Central School.
Southern end of Southampton Row looking south from the junction with Theobald's Road.
Woburn Place, facing the Royal National Hotel
Map of Somers Town in 1837 before the building of Euston station and which shows the street as "Seymour Street".
Map of Somers Town in 1837 before the building of Euston station and which shows the street as "Seymour Street".