View of 58-61 Strand, City of Westminster (south side). This terrace of houses was built c1737 on a site once part of Durham Place, the most easterly of the mansions along the south side of the Strand and home to the Bishops of Durham since 1220. A terrace of three- and four-storey buildings over shops and basements. The shop at 58 is occupied by 'S. Nathan Jeweller Silversmith' with advertisements in the window. Number 60 with a shop selling 'The Unique Fountain Pen' advertising 'Great Sale of Fountain Pens at Manufacturers Cost Price 4/11d', and below the window a sign 'A Most Useful Birthday Present'. On the first floor are several signs for ‘R. Roberts, Foreign Stamps Bought and Sold' with one that states the business had 'Removed to 430 Strand, corner of King William Street, opposite Charing Cross Hospital'. On the third floor is a faded sign for 'Photo Studios'. Number 61 is vacant, formerly the workshop of Dent and Company, chronometer makers, founded by Edward John Dent in 1814. On the first floor is a compass and clock face without hands. The Royal Navy were equipped with Dent chronometers, and they also made the Standard Clock at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. In February 1852 Dent was awarded the contract for constructing Big Ben's clock. Costing £1,800, the clock was constructed to Edmund Beckett Denison's design. Edward John Dent died in 1853 and it was left to his son, Frederick Dent, to complete the job. A sign on the building advertises 'London County Council, Building Site to be Let on Lease of 99 years'. Number 59 was first leased to George Middleton, goldsmith, and part of the banking business of Middleton and Campbell. After he died in 1747, the bank was taken over by Thomas Coutts and 59 Strand became the original business address of Coutts Bank. Founded in 1692 by John Campbell of Lundie, a goldsmith-banker, at the sign of The Three Crowns in Strand. He offered a comprehensive banking service, and many of his customers were fellow Scots, including his clan chief, the Duke of Argyll. In 1755, John Campbell's granddaughter Mary married a merchant and banker, James Coutts, and the bank became known as Campbell & Coutts. Royal patronage began with Queen Anne in the eighteenth century, and continues today, although the bank is now part of the NatWest group. Coutts Bank moved to 440 Strand in 1832, but number 59 remained the "shop" of Coutts' Bank until 1904 and the premises were extended to include numbers 58, 57 and 56 early in the nineteenth century. These buildings were demolished in 1923 and the site has since been redeveloped into a modern office block with retail units on the ground floor.