How London’s iconic Fleet Street is being given a new life

The iconic Fleet Street which connects the City of London with the West End is being given a serious face lift.

Head of a business group on the street describes  what the area is experiencing as a ‘renaissance’, with more than six million square feet of new office, retail and leisure space planned across 34 new and refurbished schemes.

According to MyLondon, the house of Dr Samuel Johnson, the compiler of A Dictionary of the English Language, can be found just off the main drag, while the Ye Old Cheshire Cheese pub, opened in 1538 and rebuilt in 1667 after the Great Fire of London, is one of several well-known jaunts.

St Bride’s Church, which it is claimed inspired the tiered wedding cake, can also be found on the street, while arguably London’s most recognisable landmark, St Paul’s Cathedral, looms in the near-distance on Ludgate Hill as you look east.

As with much of the City, Fleet Street is, however, far from static. It is currently home to a number of major projects, including the City of London Corporation’s Salisbury Square development and the revamping of at least two former national newspaper buildings, the online magazine reports.

It quotes Lady Lucy French, Chief Executive of the Fleet Street Quarter Business Improvement District (BID), as describing the area as going through something of a ‘renaissance’ due to the scale of the works planned.

“One of the really exciting things about this part of London is it’s very famous, everybody knows Fleet Street, it’s a sort of recognisable brand,” she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

“But I think since the journalists left it had slightly lost its way, and I think what’s really encouraging is we’re seeing the most exceptional development pipeline here in the Fleet Street Quarter.”

While the City of London is the local planning authority, Lady French, who become the local BID’s Chief Executive in 2022 on a five-year term, said the group works alongside developers and the Corporation to support forthcoming projects.

According to data provided by the BID, there is currently 5.5 million square feet of new office, retail and leisure space planned across 34 new and refurbished schemes in Fleet Street.

Salisbury Square is one of, if not the largest, of the projects. Completion is expected in late 2026, when it will deliver a new courts complex and City of London Police headquarters.

The story continues on MyLondon.