View of 430-448 Strand, City of Westminster (north side) on the corner of William IV Street with Charing Cross Hospital. A major thoroughfare, the Strand runs east to west from Trafalgar Square to Temple Bar. Named from the Old English ‘strond’, meaning the edge of a river, as before modern embankments and land reclamation it ran alongside the north bank of the River Thames. Part of a triangular island block of shops and offices between the Strand, Adelaide Street and William IV Street (formerly King William Street). Built in 1830-32 as part of the West Strand Improvements, planned by architect John Nash and executed by William Herbert. Number 430 is one of the circular corner pavilions, known as "pepper pots", with three storeys and an attic with balustrade. Shops on the ground floor include 'Weaver to Wearer' menswear, established by Hector Mackenzie Frazer in 1932 until 1977, 'Strand Hosiery' advertising 'Van Heusen and Aertex' brands, a ‘K Shoe’ shop, 'Brook Street Bureau' employment agency and a ‘Camping Centre’. Number 440, Coutts Bank, is a four-storey building with pillars supporting the portico, a balustraded balcony on the first floor and parapet, Corinthian columns and flagpoles overhanging the entrance. 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. The building was rebuilt by Frederick Gibberd & Partners in the 1970s but remains part of the Grade II* listed site, number 1237040. On the right, a white Morris London ambulance is parked outside Charing Cross Hospital on William IV Street. Founded by Dr Benjamin Golding in October 1818, originally in Villiers Street off the Strand, it moved to this site in the late-nineteenth century absorbing the Ophthalmic Hospital, which had been built in 1831 as part of Nash's West Strand Improvements. Grade II listed, number 1224573. Charing Cross Hospital moved to its new site on Fulham Road in 1973. There are numerous pedestrians in the street, and on the corner of Strand and William IV Street is a news stand selling the Evening News and talking to the vendor a man wearing a 'sandwich' news board.
