Birdcage Walk is a street in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, in the City of Westminster

City of Westminster

The City of Westminster is a London borough occupying much of the central area of London, England, including most of the West End. It is located to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and its southern boundary...

. It runs east-west as a continuation of Great George Street, from the crossroads with Horse Guards Road and Storey's Gate, with the Treasury

HM Treasury

HM Treasury, in full Her Majesty's Treasury, informally The Treasury, is the United Kingdom government department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy...

 building on the north east corner, to a junction with Buckingham Gate

Buckingham Gate

Buckingham Gate is a street in London, England, near Buckingham Palace.The Albanian Embassy and 51 Buckingham Gate, a 5* hotel, are located here. At number 59 is Swire House, accommodating the Britain-Australia Society, the The Hong Kong Association and Society, and the Japan Society...

, at the southeast corner of Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...

. St. James's Park

St. James's Park

St. James's Park is a 23 hectare park in the City of Westminster, central London - the oldest of the Royal Parks of London. The park lies at the southernmost tip of the St. James's area, which was named after a leper hospital dedicated to St. James the Less.- Geographical location :St. James's...

 lies to the north, whilst to the south are the backs of buildings on Old Queen Street, Queen Anne's Gate and Petty France, and, at the western end, the Wellington Barracks

Wellington Barracks, London

The Foot Guards Battalions on public duties in London are located in barracks conveniently close to Buckingham Palace for them to be able to reach the Palace very quickly in an emergency. In central London, a battalion is based at Wellington Barracks, Westminster, about 300 yards from Buckingham...

 of the Brigade of Guards

Brigade of Guards

The Brigade of Guards is a historical elite unit of the British Army, which has existed sporadically since the 17th century....

.

The street is named after the Royal Menagerie

Menagerie

A menagerie is/was a form of keeping common and exotic animals in captivity that preceded the modern zoological garden. The term was first used in seventeenth century France in reference to the management of household or domestic stock. Later, it came to be used primarily in reference to...

 and Aviary

Aviary

An aviary is a large enclosure for confining birds. Unlike cages, aviaries allow birds a larger living space where they can fly; hence, aviaries are also sometimes known as flight cages...

 which were located there in the reign of King James I

James I of England

James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

. King Charles II

Charles II of England

Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

 expanded the Aviary when the Park was laid out from 1660. Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys

Samuel Pepys FRS, MP, JP, was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament who is now most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man...

 and John Evelyn

John Evelyn

John Evelyn was an English writer, gardener and diarist.Evelyn's diaries or Memoirs are largely contemporaneous with those of the other noted diarist of the time, Samuel Pepys, and cast considerable light on the art, culture and politics of the time John Evelyn (31 October 1620 – 27 February...

 both mention visiting the Aviary in their diaries. Storey's Gate, named after Edward Storey, Keeper of the Kings Birds at the time of Pepys, was originally the gate at the eastern end of Birdcage Walk: the name is now applied to the street leading from the eastern end to Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...

, which was formerly called Prince's Street.

Only the Royal Family

Royal family

A royal family is the extended family of a king or queen regnant. The term imperial family appropriately describes the extended family of an emperor or empress, while the terms "ducal family", "grand ducal family" or "princely family" are more appropriate to describe the relatives of a reigning...

 and the Hereditary Grand Falconer, the Duke of St Albans

Duke of St Albans

Duke of St Albans is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1684 for Charles Beauclerk, 1st Earl of Burford, then fourteen years old...

, were permitted to drive along the road until 1828, when it was opened to the public. By the mid-19th Century, the walk had gained notoriety as a cruising ground for homosexual trysts. A new roundabout was built at the western end in 1903.

Birdcage Walk is also the name of a march

March (music)

A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's Götterdämmerung to the brisk military marches of John...

 composed in 1951 by Arnold Steck

Leslie Statham

Leslie Statham was born in Solihull, England on 18 December 1905 and died on 28 April 1974. He was an arranger and composer...

.

Birdcage Walk was also the name of a street in Bethnal Green, now called Columbia Road

Columbia Road

Columbia Road is a street in Washington, D.C., that forks from Connecticut Avenue north of Dupont Circle, and branches north and east through 16th Street to the McMillan Reservoir...

.