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The Strand is one of London's oldest and most important thoroughfares, running along the southern boundary of Covent Garden between the City of London and Westminster. For centuries it carried travellers and traffic between the two centres of power, and it retains the scale and grandeur of a major route, lined with substantial buildings, hotels and public institutions. Somerset House, the great neoclassical quadrangle overlooking the river, sits on its southern side, while the Savoy hotel and theatre occupy their own approach nearby. Theatres, banks, churches and commercial premises line the road, and the two island churches of St Mary-le-Strand and St Clement Danes stand in the carriageway further east, marking the historic character of the street. The Strand functions today as a busy arterial road and a working commercial address, carrying buses and taxis between Trafalgar Square and the approaches to the City. Pedestrian activity is heavy throughout the day, drawn by the theatres, the offices, the hotels and the cultural draw of Somerset House with its courtyard events and galleries. The street links directly into the network of lanes that climb north into Covent Garden proper, making it both a boundary and a principal point of arrival for visitors to the district.
