Tottenham Court Road is a street in Central London, England, running from St Giles' Circus (the junction of Oxford Street and Charing Cross Road) north to Euston Road, near the border of the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden, a distance of about three-quarters of a mile. It has for many years been a one-way street: all three lanes are northbound only, the equivalent southbound traffic using the parallel Gower Street. It is generally regarded as marking the western boundary of Bloomsbury.
The south end of the road is close to the British Museum and to Centre Point, the West End's tallest building. The road is served by three stations on the London Underground - from south to north these are: Tottenham Court Road, Goodge Street and Warren Street - and by numerous bus routes.
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History
The area across which the road is built is described in the Domesday Book as belonging to the Dean and Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral. In the time of Henry III (1216 – 1272) a manor house slightly north-west of what is now the corner of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street belonged to one William de Tottenhall. In about the 15th century, the area was known variously as Totten, Totham, or Totting Hall. After changing hands several times, the manor was leased for 99 years to Queen Elizabeth, when it came popularly to be called Tottenham Court. In the next century it appears to have become the property of the Fitzroys, who built Fitzroy Square on a part of the manor estate towards the end of the 18th century.[1]
Commercial district
Tottenham Court Road is a significant shopping street, best known for its high concentration of consumer electronics shops, which range from shops specialising in cables and computer components to those dealing in package computers and audio-video systems. Further north there are several furniture shops including Habitat and Heals. The road gained notoriety in 2001 when the first branch in Central London of the Spearmint Rhino chain of lap-dancing clubs opened.[citation needed]
In the 1950s and 1960s Tottenham Court Road and a few of the adjoining streets became a mecca for World War II surplus radio and electronics equipment. Shops such as Proops Brothers and "Z & I Aero Services" lined both sides of the road in those days, and thousands of British young men travelled there to buy amplifiers, radios and electronic components.[citation needed] There were many stores selling all kinds of electro-mechanical and radio parts. By the 1960s they were also selling Japanese transistor radios, audio mixers, and other electronic gadgets. Many British-made valve stereos were offered too.
Opposite Habitat and Heals is an open public space called Whitefield Gardens. On the side of a house is a painting, the "Fitzrovia Mural" over 60 feet high, showing many people at work and at leisure. It was painted in 1980 in a style resembling that of Diego Rivera. In 2005 12 so-called "Our Glass" panels were erected in the gardens. Each is about 5 feet high, with two sides showing a collage of people associated with the area, from satirical cartoonist Hogarth to the popular singer Boy George. There is a 13th panel showing an index to the people. Each panel has a title, for example "1. Whitefield Gardens and the Reverend Whitefield", "2. The Soul Catchers", "3. Hub of the Anti-Slavery campaign", and so on, up to "12. Our Glasses Public Art Club Land".[citation needed]
In popular culture
Music
Pink Floyd played many early concerts at the UFO Club at 31 Tottenham Court Road where they were the house band.[2] The road is referred to in the lyrics of Underworld (band)'s Born Slippy .NUXX and Andrew Lloyd Webber's song "Grizabella the Glamour Cat", from his musical, Cats.
The Pogues mention Tottenham Court Road in the song Transmetropolitan, written by Shane MacGowan, from their first album, released in 1984, entitled Red Roses For Me. The lyrical reference is here:
From a 5 pound bet in William Hills/ To a Soho sex-shop dream/ From a fried egg in Valtaro's/ To a Tottenham Court Road ice cream/ We'll spew and lurch, get nicked and fixed/ On the way we'll kill and maim/ When you haven't got a penny, boys/ It's all the bloody same!
Books
The road is featured briefly in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling as well as Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, Saturday by Ian McEwan, several Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, several stories by John Collier and A Room with a View by E.M. Forster.
Movies
It is mentioned briefly as the location where 'I' was allegedly arrested for 'toilet trading' in the 1986 Bruce Robinson cult-classic movie Withnail and I. It is also featured briefly in the 2008 crime film, The Bank Job.
References
- ^ Tottenham Court Road in Old and New London: Volume 4 (1878), pp. 467-480, from British History Online.
- ^ "Syd Barrett" (obituary), Daily Telegraph, London, 12 July 2006.
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