After several years of work by Westminster Council, the pedestrianisation of partofthe Strand was completed at the end of last year. A once traffic-choked and polluted road has turned into a quiet space for walking and sitting. The 1717 church of St Mary-le-Strand, having spent most of its life as a traffic island, is now surrounded by planting, trees and benches, while the narrow pavement outside Somerset House has become a wide plaza. The Strand's name comes from its meaningas a shore, it beingthe shallower north bank of a wider RiverThames before theVictoria Embankment was built. It is home to both King's College London (KCL) and the adjacent Somerset House, for which the newly pedestrianised Strand creates a threshold space.
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