Explore Strand, Holborn and Clerkenwell about Aldwych Area
Tube: Holborn or Temple (Mon-Sat only).
The wide crescent of Aldwych , forming a neat "D" with the eastern part of the Strand, was driven through the slums of this zone in the last throes of the Victorian era. A confident ensemble occupies the centre, with the enormous Australia House and India House sandwiching Bush House , home of the BBC's World Service ( www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice) since 1940. Despite its thoroughly British associations, Bush House was actually built by the American speculator Irving T. Bush, whose planned trade-centre flopped in the 1930s. The giant figures on the north facade and the inscription, "To the Eternal Friendship of English-speaking Nations", thus refer to the friendship between the US and Britain, and are not, as many people assume, the declaratory manifesto of the current occupants.
