Kemble Street in Covent Garden

Kemble Street in Covent Garden

Kemble Street lies on the eastern side of Covent Garden, running between Drury Lane and Kingsway near the Aldwych. It carries a name drawn from the celebrated acting family long associated with the London stage, an apt link in a district defined by its theatres. The street has a more open, modern feel than the tight lanes of the market quarter, with larger post-war and later buildings including office blocks and residential towers along its length. Traffic here is a mix of vehicles and pedestrians, and the street forms part of the everyday network that connects Covent Garden to Kingsway and the wider Holborn edge. It is quieter than the Piazza and its approaches, and its character is more workaday, shaped by offices, flats and the flow of people between the main roads. Its position near Drury Lane keeps it within the orbit of theatreland, close to the stage doors and eating places that serve that trade, while its eastern reach ties it to the busier through-routes. Kemble Street is one of the connecting streets that give the eastern side of Covent Garden its more open grain.