Long Acre

Long Acre is a street in the City of Westminster in central London. It runs from St. Martin's Lane, at its western end, to Drury Lane in the east. The street was completed in the early 17th century and was once known for its coach-makers, and later for its car dealers.

Covent Garden tube station is located on Long Acre.

After the dissolution of the Monasteries in 1540, Henry VIII confiscated the land belonging to Westminster Abbey, including the convent garden of Covent Garden and land to the north originally called the Elms and later Seven Acres. In 1552, his son, Edward VI, granted it to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford. The Russell family, who in 1694 were advanced in their peerage from Earl to Duke of Bedford, held the land from 1552 to 1918.

At the time of Charles I it was renamed Long Acre after the length of the first pathway constructed across the land. Charles took offence at the condition of the road and houses along it, which were the responsibility of Russell and Henry Carey, 2nd Earl of Monmouth. Russell and Carey complained that under the 1625 Proclamation concerning Buildings, which restricted building in and around London, they could not build new houses; the King then granted Russell, for a fee of £2,000, a licence to build as many new houses on his land as he "shall thinke fitt and convenient". This licence allowed the development of Covent Garden Square to the south of Long Acre.

The coach-building trade dominated Long Acre in the 19th century – in 1906, 41 buildings in the street were occupied by firms associated with transport, a mixture of traditional coach-builders and those connected with the motor trade. By 1916 the transition to motor cars and related trades was almost complete. The Austin Motors showroom was at 134, and Mercedes-Benz's at No. 127–130, close to Daimler and Fiat.

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