Chenies Street

It is the location of a number of notable buildings such as Minerva House, the Drill Hall (now RADA Studios), and a memorial to The Rangers, 12th County of London Regiment.

It was named after Chenies Manor in Buckinghamshire, originally owned by Anne Sapcote, who was the wife of John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford.

[3] Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909), whose literary works scandalised Victorian Britain, lived at 12 North Crescent.

[4] East to west: Minerva House in North Crescent is a former car showroom and workshop that is a Grade II listed building with English Heritage.

The Minerva company originated in Belgium as a manufacturer of bicycles, before branching out into early forms of motorbikes and then motor cars.

The design of the building includes three large bays on the ground floor flanked by two entrance ways each marked Minerva House.

[6] The building and the rest of the crescent once looked out on to gardens until the deep-level shelter was built during the Second World War.

[7] During the Second World War, a number of deep-level shelters were built beneath London tube stations for the protection of the public and military from German bombing.

[13] The Rangers took over The Drill Hall at 16 Chenies Street previously occupied by the Bloomsbury Rifles when all British volunteer units were incorporated into the Territorial Army in 1907.

[16] In the 1900s Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes rehearsed at the hall, and during the Second World War it was the venue for Ralph Reader's Gang Shows.

[20] At number 22, on the corner with Ridgmount Street, once stood the Medical Graduates' College and Polyclinic, founded around 1899.