was the "Shakespeare Head," of which Mark Lemon, afterwards editor of Punch, was the landlord when it formed the meeting-place of a little "quoting, quipping, quaffing" club of fellow-workers in Bohemia. Lyon's Inn, a very old legal haunt attached to the Inner Temple, but of no particular architectural pretensions-the hall was built in 1700-was destroyed in 1862. The Globe Theatre filled part of the site. Playgoers will remember the house if only for the amazing success of Les Cloches de Corneville, and afterwards The Private Secretary and Charley's Aunt, all of which were produced there. On another portion of the ground occupied by Lyon's Inn the Opera Comique was built. Gilbert and Sullivan made their first successes there with H.M.S. Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance. These two theatres, as well as the Olympic, were involved in the common ruin out of which Aldwych has resulted, but others have risen near at hand to revive the theatrical associations of this old quarter. The narrow Strand between the two churches possessed little of antiquarian interest at the time its north side came down for the widening, having been much rebuilt. The present pavement marks the line of Holywell Street. So late as 1713 the Strand maypole stood in front of the spot now occupied by St. Mary-le-Strand Church, then was removed nearer Somerset House, and finally disappeared from London in 1718. A print at the beginning of the eighteenth century shows the pole towering high above the surrounding buildings. W. B. |