The Strand is one of the most famous streets in London. If people don’t know the street by name, they do know many of the buildings which lie along it. Officially, it doesn’t require “The” in the name, as it was originally “Strond” or “Strand”. This means beach or riverside, so it is no surprise the road dates from as far back as Roman times, before the redevelopment of the embankment area, when the location was much closer to the edge of the River Thames.

Eventually, the road became the site of large mansions with grand names linking them to their owners, often dukes and minor royals such as Essex House, Somerset House etc. Around the 17th Century, these rich owners moved their residencies further west, and the Strand became a more commercial location, with particular links to the theatrical world.

For Lockwood and Co fans, The Strand is important because, in the books, it is the site of Fittes House and Marissa Fittes’ tomb, although the precise location of either is not obvious.

The Fittes’ Mausoleum is described as on an island in the middle of The Strand, on the site of a bombed out church. There are actually two churches on islands in the street. St Mary-le-Strand and St Clement Danes. Whilst the former looks most mausoleum-like, the much larger St Clement Danes was indeed destroyed during the second world war. It has been re-built, however, with contributions from many different countries, and is now known as the RAF church. When you see pictures of how effectively the church was flattened, it is quite breath-taking to see the re-built version. Though, you can still see shrapnel marks on the exterior walls. It has one further claim to Stroudverse fame. It hosts the city’s largest memorial to Gladstone in the form of a statue outside the church and is mentioned in the Bartimaeus series.

Another key Strand location for Lockwood & Co fans is Fittes House. Described in The Screaming Staircase as “The Old Grey Lady of the Strand” – with uniforms to match! – it is a large complex building with its front on the Strand and the rear overlooking the Thames, with basements running back under the river. We are given more information in The Whispering Skull, when Lucy tells us it lies “on the Strand just down from Trafalgar Square.”

It’s close enough to Trafalgar Square that the crowds had gathered near Charing Cross station.

“At the marbled entrance, fires burned in braziers on either side of the doors.”

In The Hollow Boy, the Strand is where the grand carnival takes place. The carnival floats (lorries) line up to the east of Marissa’s Mausoleum and then drive along the Strand towards Charing Cross. They barely make it beyond the junction with Waterloo Bridge before they encounter the visitors, however, and everything stops.