Northumberland Avenue

Northumberland Avenue is a street in the City of Westminster, Central London, running from Trafalgar Square in the west to the Thames Embankment in the east.

The street has been commemorated in the Sherlock Holmes novels including The Hound of the Baskervilles, and is a square on the British Monopoly board.

[2] The nearest tube stations are Charing Cross and Embankment, and numerous bus routes serve the western end of the street.

It was formed around 1491 after the Abbott of Westminster granted land to the grocer, Thomas Walker, including an inn known as the Christopher and stables.

[4] In 1608–09, Henry Howard, 1st Earl of Northampton built a house on the eastern side of the former Chapel and Hospital of St. Mary Rounceval, at Charing Cross, including gardens running to the River Thames and adjoining Scotland Yard to the west.

[5] By the 18th century, Northumberland Street was primarily used as a thoroughfare between markets in the West End of London and the wharfs along the Thames.

In 1720, historian John Strype wrote that Northumberland Street was "much clogged and pestered with Carts repairing to the Wharfs".

[5][6] Contemporary planning permissions forbade hotels to be taller than the width of the road they were on; consequently Northumberland Avenue was built with a wide carriageway.

Unlike other hotels on Northumberland Avenue that were taken over by the War Office, the Grand has survived as an entertainment and exhibition venue.

[16] Prince Albert, later King Edward VII, was a regular visitor to the hotel, entertaining guests in its Royal Suite.

Several prominent personalities of the late 19th century had their voices recorded there by phonograph, including Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone and poet Robert Browning.

[27] Mary Helen Ferguson, the first English female audio typist, worked at Edison House and supervised all musical recordings.

[28] In 1890, retired military trumpeter Martin Lanfried recorded at Edison House using a bugle he believed to have been sounded at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and the Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854.

[7] Northumberland Avenue is referenced several times in Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes novels, including The Greek Interpreter and The Hound of the Baskervilles.

The stories refer to wealthy Oriental visitors staying in hotels along the avenue, including the Grand, the Metropole and the Victoria.