Charing Cross - only intersection. On the other hand the most important crossroads of London, its official center: hence all the distances are measured in the city. This place - a long, sometimes touching, sometimes bloody history.

Here, south of Trafalgar Square, the famous streets intersect - Strand, Whitehall, Cockspur Street. Each of them is famous in its own way: the Strand for thousands of years, Whitehall - the center of concentration of the British power on Kokspert Street housed the company that owned the liner "Titanic." The very same crossroads named for the once located here Charing village in which King Edward I erected a cross in memory of his wife, Eleanor of Castile. Edward dearly loved his wife, he had no mistresses, no illegitimate children - unusual for those times. The queen died in 1290, inconsolable Edward accompanied her body in London, and all along the sorrowful way to the ground overnight stays put then memorial crosses.

In 1647, during the Civil War cross Charing Cross was demolished by order of Parliament. In 1675, after the Restoration, just at this place we put the equestrian statue of Charles I, who was executed there, in Whitehall. In 1865, about two hundred meters from this point, in the Strand, installed a copy of the demolished cross, carved from Portland stone carver Thomas Earp (project architect Edward Middleton Barry). Victorian version of the original will be brighter: the neo-Gothic octagonal spire richly decorated with carvings on its second tier - eight statues of Queen Eleanor, he himself lifted up on the cross twenty meters tall.

Here, at Charing Cross, in 1554 it was the last battle of the uprising White, whose goal was to overthrow the Queen Mary I, - the rebels defeated, their leader, Sir Thomas White was brutally tortured and beheaded. Here, in the pillory at the monument to Karl I, publicly flogged criminals upon conviction. Around the settled mass taverns where visitors watched the punishment - it was Londoners popular entertainment.

In 1864, near Charing Cross, the Strand was built railway station (architect Sir John Hokskhou), a year later - the adjacent hotel (the architect Edward Middleton Barry), who gave a magnificent facade of the station in the French Renaissance style. In 1905, the roof collapsed Station, trains had to evacuate, but six people were killed. During the Second World hotel and train station were bombed, but by 1951 traces of destruction have been eliminated.

Today Charing Cross - a popular tourist destination. Hence, two steps to the prime minister's residence in Downing Street to Parliament. At the intersection adjacent to the Charing Cross Road - dozens of wonderful bookshops.