Marking the east end of the street and in the middle of the crescent return are Grade I heritage listed churches designed by Wren and Gibbs.

In the seventh century, the area was an Anglo-Saxon major settlement Lundenwic (the last syllable pronounced as today) ('London port') centred one mile to the west of Londinium (known to the Saxons as Lundenburh 'London fort').

It is open to - and it is known by residents and businesses to - use the term St Clement Danes interchangeably with Aldwych, which also covered in its final, smallest form the Adelphi and much of the Strand.

Recent excavations in Covent Garden adjoining have uncovered an extensive Anglo-Saxon settlement, covering about 150 acres (0.61 km2), stretching from the present-day National Gallery site in the west, to Aldwych in the east.

As the presumed locus of the city, Lundenburh, was moved back within the old Roman walls, the older settlement of Lundenwic gained the name of ealdwic, 'old port', "eald" and the softer form of "wic" transposed to "ald" and "wich" in Middle English orthography.

A statue of the 19th-century prime minister William Ewart Gladstone was installed in 1905 near St Clement Danes church, at the eastern end of Aldwych.

On 18 February 1996, a bomb was detonated prematurely on a number 171 bus travelling along Aldwych, killing its carrier, Provisional Irish Republican Army member Edward O'Brien and injuring several passengers.