Whitefriars Street is located just south of Fleet Street, bordering the Temples to the west and the Blackfriars area to the east. Part of the area is a uniquely preserved Victorian-era neighbourhood, with the rest predominantly composed of modern office buildings and hotels. The area is mainly dedicated to offices and hotels, alongside some institutions such as the Consular Section of the Polish Embassy and the Employment Appeal Tribunal. As traffic in the locality tends to be diverted to Fleet Street, New Bridge Street or the Victoria Embankment, as well as lacking many street-level stores, the area tends to be solely reserved for those doing business there – a quiet yet well-connected business district right next to the City.

In the late 16th century the Whitefriars area, having been formed during Anglo-Saxon times (as part of the new Lundenvic, outside old Londinium’s walls) claimed to be exempt from the City’s jurisdiction, which was permitted by Queen Elizabeth I in 1580 and later confirmed by James I. As such the area developed a reputation as a sanctuary for debtors, criminals and squalor, and was given the name ‘Alsatia’ (after the disputed area of Alsace), showing its quasi-legal status. Though this was eventually repealed in 1697, the reputation lingered, with what is today Hutton Street being known for many years as ‘Wilderness Street.’

Robert Mylne was an architect who won the competition to build nearby Blackfriars Bridge, including the approach roads which define the area’s boundaries today. He was born in Edinburgh in 1733 and underwent his Grand Tour, the traditional trip of Europe undertaken by the upper class young men as an educational rite of passage. Upon returning he entered a competition to design a new bridge over the Thames and won; his bridge would last for over a century. Mylne would pass away at the suitably named New River Head in Clerkenwell on 6 May 1811.

The area has had a long association with the theatre, much like nearby Blackfriars (and Southwark slightly further away). The Whitefriars theatre operated out of a former friary up to the early 17th century, and was followed by the Salisbury Court theatre built by Richard Gunnell and William Blagove, and hostel plays by Prince Charles’ as well as the Queen’s men until Cromwell’s Commonwealth suppressed the theatre in 1641. Plays would still be carried out in secret until it was raided by soldiers in 1649. The theatre would be destroyed in the Great Fire and rebuilt, and continued on until Georgian times.

Most of the area is a limbo of large, tall modern office buildings and is perhaps an even more obscure area than the already largely untraversed Whitefriars. This can create a sense of anonymity, particularly due to the dearth of street-level stores; however, it is amongst the most well-connected areas in London, with easy access to bus routes as well as Blackfriars underground and railway station. In addition, New Bridge Street and Fleet Street, both dynamic and constantly evolving streets, are both a short walk away.

St. Bride’s area is governed by the Fleet Street Conservation Area plan; owing to the area’s architectural heritage, not many new buildings can be made. Furthermore, much of the area is inhabited by institutions which are unlikely to move – such as the St. Bride Foundation as well as the Employment Appeal Tribunal. Nonetheless, numerous large scale projects are planned on nearby land that does not fall under these protections. Centred around Salisbury Square, the first will house facilities for both the City of London Police and Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service. Just across the road at 120 Fleet Street, planning has been approved for a new 21-storey office development. The scheme by architect Bjarke Ingels Group includes the restoration of the neighbouring Daily Express building as well as public roof gardens and terraces.