Philosopher and Statesman
Born 1706
Died 1790
In this street too, in Craven Buildings, in the time of William and Mary, dwelt charming Mrs. Bracegirdle who was called the Diana of the stage, and in the same house lived another actress, Madame Vestris. No. 8 is supposed to be the house in which lived Scrooge, of Scrooge and Marley, in Dickens' "Christmas Carol." On the door is the knocker pointed out as the one Scrooge looked at on Christmas Eve, imagining it looked like the face of Marley.
Where the Grand Hotel stands in Northumberland Avenue by Trafalgar Square was once Northumberland House. This was one of the Strand palaces begun by Henry Howard, Earl of Northumberland in 1602. For more than two hundred years it was the home of the Northumberland family and at the time of its demolishment it was looked upon as the finest historical house in London.
Leading from the Strand, close by, is Northumberland Street, called Hortshorne Lane when Ben Jonson lived here with his mother and his step-father the bricklayer who wanted Jonson to follow the bricklaying trade. Here he still lived when he came to be known as the great wit, poet and scholar and the friend of Shakespeare, Bacon and Raleigh.
Trafalgar Square
The statue of Lord Nelson and the four British lions guard Trafalgar Square, where are also statues of Napier, Havelock and Gordon. There is, too, an equestrian figure of George IV. It is told of this king that when he was Prince of Wales he would insist that he had taken part in the Battle of Waterloo, whither he pretended he had gone secretly. He used often to say to the Duke of Wellington, "I was there, wasn't I, Arthur?" To which the duke would invariably reply discreetly: "I have frequently heard Your Royal Highness say so." This statue was to have been placed on the marble arch at Buckingham Palace but was found to be too large so was set up in the square instead. The statue of Charles I. in this square was originally placed close by the church in Covent Garden in 1633 until the Civil War when Parliament sold it to a brasier who was told to break it up. The brasier, however, buried it, and when Charles II. succeeded to the throne at the Restoration it was dug up and placed on a pedestal designed by Grinling Gibbons and set up where it is now. Trafalgar Square was, in 1829, an open space at Charing Cross where St. Martin's Lane, the Strand, Cockspur Street, Pall Mall, Whitehall and Northumberland Avenue came to a point. The 145 foot pillar crowned with the statue of Lord Nelson commemorates his death at the Battle of Trafalgar Bay in 1805.