Charing Cross Road is a busy thoroughfare at the end of Denmark Street and runs perpendicular to the iconic street. Throughout the series, it’s occasionally mentioned that Charing Cross Road can be seen or heard from the office window, it’s that close.
In The Cuckoo’s Calling
The street is mentioned frequently in the series, with it being so close to the office. In The Cuckoo’s Calling it’s usually in regard to the massive roadworks taking place near the junction with Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street.
| Tottenham Court Road (TBA) | |
| Oxford Street |
All the fuss in this area at the time was down to a major new rail line under development that runs beneath the vicinity. It is now the Elizabeth Line, named after our late Queen.
Here is a mention of the construction in The Cuckoo’s Calling:
“The junction of Tottenham Court and Charing Cross Roads was still a scene of devastation, with wide gashes in the road, white hardboard tunnels and hard-hatted builders. Strike traversed the narrow walkways barricaded by metal fences, past the rumbling diggers full of rubble, bellowing workmen and more drills, smoking as he walked.” – The Cuckoo’s Calling, Part 3, Chapter 9
Here’s the massive worksite that was located at Charing Cross Road; you can see the back of Denmark Street, where Denmark Place was supposed to be:
“Still smoking, he looked out at Charing Cross Road, glittering with car lights and puddles, where Friday-night revellers were striding and lurching past the end of Denmark Street, umbrellas wobbling, laughter ringing above traffic.” – The Cuckoo’s Calling, Part 3, Chapter 1
In Part 1, Chapter 5, Strike walks beneath Centre Point on his way to The Tottenham pub for the first time.
In Part 4, Chapter 5, after eleven pints of Doom Bar, Strike shouts to the whole of Charing Cross Road that Charlotte does not love Jago Ross.
It’s also mentioned in The Cuckoo’s Calling that Strike fetches coffee for himself and Robin from a Starbucks. In the timeline of the book, the closest Starbucks would have been the one opposite the entrance to Denmark Street on Charing Cross Road. There is still one there, just not in the exact same building.
In The Silkworm
“Finally, he pulled on his overcoat and walked, in what was now a downpour, down a sodden, dark Charing Cross Road to buy food at the nearest supermarket. There had been too many takeaways lately.” – Chapter 7
In Chapter 22, Strike and Robin meet in The Cambridge on Charing Cross Road on Strike’s birthday. They discuss the Quine case and Robin gives him a Cornish gift basket.
The bookshop Foyles, where Robin goes to buy an Owen Quine book, is situated on Charing Cross Road, opposite Denmark Street. However, the Foyle’s bookshop has moved a few buildings down from the original location.
In Career of Evil
In Chapter 3, Robin tells Wardle that the man who delivered the leg parcel had then driven off on his bike into Charing Cross Road.
In Chapter 56: “The sun was coming up as he trudged down Charing Cross Road in a dawn that made everything look dusty and fragile, a grey light full of pale shadows.”
Caffè Vergnano 1882, where Strike goes to write a to-do list in Chapter 56, was situated on Charing Cross Road, but the cafe is no longer there.
“After two hours spent walking the streets, Strike reached a decision about his next move. Heading back towards the office, he saw a waitress in a black dress unlocking the doors to the Caffè Vergnano 1882 on Charing Cross Road, realised how hungry he was and turned inside.” (Chapter 56)
In Chapter 58, which is from the killer’s point-of-view: “Perhaps he ought not to have returned to Strike’s place of work, but he had hoped to see the frightened Secretary leaving with a box in her hands, or get a glimpse of a downcast, beaten Strike, but no – shortly after he’d taken up a well-concealed position to watch the street, the bastard had come striding along Charing Cross Road with a stunning-looking woman, apparently completely unperturbed.”
The woman, in fact, is Alyssa Vincent, acting as Strike’s fake new Temp.
In Lethal White
In Chapter 11: “… the traffic continued to swish and rumble along Charing Cross Road.”
In Chapter 29, Strike takes a taxi from Charing Cross Road to go to Lancaster House where the Paralympics reception is being held.
In Chapter 48: “Matthew had been surprisingly accommodating when Robin had called him from Charing Cross Road three-quarters of an hour previously, to say that she needed to meet Strike and Barclay, and was likely to be back late.”
In Troubled Blood
On Christmas Day, in Chapter 29: “Out on Charing Cross Road, a car passed, blaring from its radio ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’ Frowning, Strike added another bullet point …”
In Chapter 39: Robin gets a call from her brother Jonathan. She emerges into the blustering rain and controlled chaos of Tottenham Court Road and Charing Cross Road, at which there had been building works for three and a half years. Jonathan asks her if he can bring another guy with him to stay at her place. She half-jogs along Charing Cross Road while still on call with Jonathan. On reaching the corner of Denmark Street, she bumps into Saul Morris, who is carrying a small, wrapped bunch of pink gerberas.
In Chapter 49: “… her spirits were raised by the dusty glow of the early morning sunshine illuminating the eternal roadworks at the top of Charing Cross Road.” “… she was happier at work.”
Also in Chapter 49: Strike and Robin head out into the sun on Charing Cross Road. Strike says he doesn’t want to go to the Starbucks, so they go to Bar Italia on Frith Street instead.
In Chapter 59, from the office, Charing Cross Road can be heard: “… a car passed, blaring Rita Ora’s ‘I Will Never let You Down’. Under her breath, Robin sings along.
In Chapter 67, another mention of the noise from Charing Cross Road: “the traffic rolling down Charing Cross Road, occasional shouts and snatches of music from Denmark Street below.”
In The Ink Black Heart
In Chapter 6, there’s still more mention of the roadworks: “There was a lot of noise in the street outside: comprehensive building work continued to cause disruption around Charing Cross Road, and all journeys to and from the office meant walking over planks, past pneumatic drills and the catcalls of builders.” The Ink Black Heart is set primarily in 2015, five years after The Cuckoo’s Calling and the works are still ongoing.
In Chapter 19, Strike suggests a debrief with Robin after taking on the Anomie case. He tells a taxi driver to take him and Robin to “The Tottenham, Charing Cross Road”. This is a slight error on Strike’s part, as the pub is on Oxford Street. But we’ll let him off, since it’s so close.
In Chapter 25: “Strike, who was currently walking up Charing Cross Road towards the office, was tired, sore, and bitterly regretting the Balti curry he’d eaten late the previous evening with Madeline.”
In Chapter 93: ” He couldn’t explain why, but it seemed to him that he might be able to walk more comfortably if he were talking to Robin at the same time, so he pressed her number, then pushed himself off the friendly supporting wall and began to limp off down Charing Cross Road, phone pressed against his hear.” Robin tells him she’s identified Paperwhite. “‘Pure fucking brilliance, Ellacott.'”
In Chapter 94: Strike has a confrontation with Madeline on Denmark Street. “She was still crying, but after a period that might have been seconds or minutes he heard her uneven footsteps heading back towards Charing Cross Road.
In The Running Grave
In Chapter 15, on Easter Monday in 2016, Robin enters the office: “‘God, it’s horrible out there,’ are the first words she says to Strike. It’s Storm Katie “ravaging London, knocking down trees and pylons”. “‘I didn’t mind coming in. Quite bracing, really’, Robin tells Strike.
“‘You wouldn’t say that if you’d got smacked in the head by a flying bin,’ said Strike, who’d just been watching plastic cones tumbling down Charing Cross Road.”
In Chapter 29: “The familiar sounds of traffic grumbling past on Charing Cross Road mingled with occasional shouts and laughter from passers-by as Strike opened the folder on his computer in which he’s already saved the account of Daiyu Wace’s drowning he’d found in the British Library archives…”.
In Chapter 91: Strike talks to Robin on the phone about the UHC and is waiting to cross Charing Cross Road.
In The Hallmarked Man
In Chapter 25, Strike notices a woman on the corner of Denmark Street and Charing Cross Road, on the alert for the possibility of a journalist. He doesn’t think she is working for the papers, but nevertheless suspicious of her.
In Chapter 45, Robin goes to The Montagu Pyke on Charing Cross Road to interview Gretchen Schiff.
In Chapter 95, Strike texts Robin early asking her to call him. She receives the text when she leaves the Tube and is on Charing Cross Road. She calls him and arranges to meet him in the Little Portland Café for breakfast, where he currently is sat. This would have been around a 15 minute walk for Robin from her position on Charing Cross Road.
Charing Cross Road is a longer street than one may initially realise. It stretches from the junction of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street, down to and past Cambridge Circus (where The Cambridge pub is situated) and the junction with Shaftesbury Avenue, and runs right along to the National Portrait Gallery and St Martin’s Lane, near Trafalgar Square.
Find Charing Cross Road in the map below.