THE GOLDEN MILE

LET’S all go down the Strand,’ cries the Edwardian music-hall song, hailing it as ‘the place for fun and noise’. In the 1890s, it had more theatres, music halls, pubs and smoking rooms than any other street in London. However, more recently, it’s been just another traffic-dominated thoroughfare, more noted for its poor air quality. In 2019, it was the first in the capital to breach annual legal limits for nitrogen dioxide. Now, however, Westminster City Council has begun a £32 million programme to pedestrianise the area around St Mary le Strand and King’s College, as well as creating a two-way traffic system on the Aldwych. The council