A road, Musa acuminata and Gertrude Astbury

A coupe of weeks ago my feet were bitterly complaining that I’d taken them for granted after a couple of days walking around testing out two new audio tours and without my permission had guided me into a local hostelry and bid my brain to order a pint.

As I sat there trying to ignore my throbbing plates (I use the rhyming slang for reasons that will become clear later) I started to look at my notes, checking what I had written on the locations already visited and those on the itinerary. Finishing my pint I made a mental note of my onward directions, “right into Maiden Lane, right into Southampton Street, left onto the Strand and then left into……..hang on!”

The Strand, possibly the street that I walk along the most in the whole of London. Exit Charing Cross station and the Strand gets me to most places that I want to write about within about a miles radius of the station. I had thought of it as a route only and not a location of interest. Sure, I knew some of the history associated with it and prime locations along it’s length, but I had never considered it as anything else than a conduit to reach other destinations. Obviously to consider this revelation thoroughly I would have to get another pint and settle back to have a think.

As you may already know, central London is actually two separate areas, The City of London and the City of Westminster. When the City of London, or Londinium was founded by the Romans, the area of Westminster was no more than a fetid swampy marsh, rather apt considering the type of people that now inhabit the area. It wasn’t until it was settled by a monastic order in the 9th century that it became fully inhabited. By this time Londinium had been abandoned by the Romans, partially used by the local inhabitants, left to fall into ruins and then eventually rebuilt and resettled by the Anglo Saxons.

The City of London was and still is all about trade and commerce, while the City of Westminster was home to Kings and Queens and the seat of power that governed the country. So where did that leave the area of the Strand, perfectly placed is the answer, an ideal halfway house between the two.

It was home to all levels of society from the poorest to the very richest in the country. Some chose the area because they had nowhere else to go, living in very poor and unsanitary conditions, like the medieval village of Cierring, the old English word for a bend in the river, now known as Charing Cross where the Strand begins (or ends depending on your direction of travel). Others deliberately placed themselves equidistant between their dual interests of power and money, building themselves some of the grandest houses ever seen in the city.

So that’s the road, and as for the Musa acuminata? Well that’s a banana. You may be thinking, how’s he going to connect these two? Well the link is Gertrude Astbury, ever heard of her?

Born Gertrude Mary Astbury in 1887 to Stoke pottery workers she started performing on the music hall stage at the age of four

Her first London appearance was in 1900. On account of her petite form and supposed Gipsy origins, she was sometimes billed as “The Staffordshire Cinderella”.

By the age of 15, she was earning over £100 per week, more than her father earned in a year and had adopted the stage name Gertie Gitana.

Harry Castling was a prolific composer of music hall songs and ballads in the 1890s. He wrote a song titled “Let’s all go down the Strand”, which became very popular in the music halls when first performed by Charlie Whittle.

For some unknown reason when it comes to the chorus “Let’s all go down the strand” there is a refrain of “Av a banana”. This was considered by some performers to be a bit common or even too risque in certain theatres, so the name Gertie Gitana, was substituted and to this day the cockney rhyming slang for a banana is a Gertie.

Sing along with the chorus.