The Strand Hotels
Stretching northeast for almost a mile from Trafalgar Square to Fleet Street, the Strand is one of London’s most famous thoroughfares. Its name derives from the fact that it was once a waterside street, running alongside a much wider River Thames before the construction of the Victoria Embankment. Though it has faded somewhat since its heyday in the 19th century as a fashionable address for authors like Carlyle, Dickens and Thackeray, it is still lined by many notable buildings, including Somerset House, the Royal Courts of Justice, Simpson's-in-the-Strand restaurant and the Savoy Hotel.