The Siddons and Stirling Courts are situated at the Drury Lane end of Tavistock Street. To walk past our two red-brick buildings would give you the impression that we were very lucky - so close to the heart of Covent Garden and yet just off the beaten track. We have no themed restaurants, noisy pubs or sprawling cafés. And no-one is queuing to get inside a club at one o'clock in the morning! First impressions, however, can be deceiving. Directly opposite us is the back of the Waldorf Meridian Hotel. From the front, its crescent-shaped grandeur is a sight to behold, but from the back, on Tavistock Street, a continuous flow of large delivery vans, a growling generator, late-night parties in the ballroom and a row of unsightly rubbish bins is a more accurate picture. Then, directly behind us, is the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Again, in one sense, it's great to be next door to one of London's glamorous landmarks.... but the glamour soon fades with the routine crashing of empty bottles, the 2am refuse collections ad the screeching noises from their rehearsal rooms! In the last 12 months, we have been battling with old and new issues alike. Victories have included: Onyx changing their unsociable collection times on our end of Drury Lane; the Westminster Noise Team instructing the Theatre Royal to put better sound insulation around their massive new boiler; convincing the Westminster planning department to stop the building of an ugly, external fire escape overlooking our courtyard; and retaining the concessions we won over the Waldorf's application for a late licence last year. We are currently in the middle of a battle to stop developers turning the office block on the corner of our street into a bar/restaurant. You might argue that, living in Covent Garden, we should just put up with all the problems that go hand-in-hand with living somewhere like here. But the reality is, we love Covent Garden and it's our home. The success we have in tackling some of the problems we face not only make Covent Garden a better place t live in, but also continue to bring us together as a community. And this, as so many of us know, is such a rarity in central London.

 

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