Mercer Street / The Dials to Shaftesbury Ave (N)

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Chapel
Mercer Street Hotel

History

This short northern section, originally called Great White Lion Street, retains none of its original character and is a narrow-seeming chasm between large-scale buildings, with a constant stream of traffic into Shaftesbury Avenue.

It was not always so. Photographs taken circa 1906 show a row of well-preserved, Georgian shopfronts occupied by a picturesque array of businesses: a chimney-sweep, wardrobe dealer, Mr Rocco’s shaving saloon, ‘sala per toiletta’, and a bicycle shop – the latter with a hanging sign in the form of a bicycle wheel.

Long Acre Long Acre Shaftesbury Avenue Charing Cross Road Litchfield Street Mercer Street Mercer Street Earlham Street Earlham Street Shelton Street Shelton Street Shelton Street Shelton Street Dryden Street Arne Street Drury Lane Parker Street Shelton Street West Street Tower Street Monmouth Street Monmouth Street Shorts Gardens Shorts Gardens Neal Street Neal’s Yard Neal Street Neal Street Endell Street Endell Street Endell Street Endell Street Betterton Street Langley Street Langley Ct James Street Floral Street Bow Street Bow Street Shorts Gardens Mercer Street Flitcroft Street Stacey Street New Compton Street St Giles Passage Charing Cross Road Shaftesbury Avenue High Holborn Long Acre