One of the many lovely things about the City of London is the abundance of street names coined after the simple necessities of life. Several of these streets are offshoots of Cheapside, formerly the City's main market ('chepe' broadly meaning 'market' in Medieval English) including Milk Street, Bread Street, Honey Lane and Poultry, each reflecting the goods sold there.
Both Bread Street and Milk Street, shown below on John Rocque's beautiful map of 1746, pre-date the Great Fire by hundreds of years. Milk Street is first recorded as early as 1140 and in 1302 the bakers of London were ordered not to sell bread from their houses but rather from the market in Bread Street.
A short wander around the area soon reveals other 'bare necessities' captured in street names. Love Lane is one of many similarly named streets in England 'so-called of wantons', as John Stow put it in his Survey of London.
Further East towards the Tower of London, Water Lane was the site of the offices of the corporation of Trinity House, an organisation responsible for lighthouses and navigation of which Samuel Pepys was Master. It figures frequently in Pepys' Diary.
Finally, as we travel further East we arrive at Brick Lane. Its name stems from the brick manufacturing started in the 15th century, which used the local clay deposits to fuel the eastward expansion of London beyond the City walls. Today Brick Lane is the centre of Banglatown, filled with its famous curry houses and a centre for the clothing trade. But 200 years ago it was home to the subject of my forthcoming book, 'Joseph Merceron: The Godfather of Bethnal Green'. Please follow this blog or my twitter account @HistoryLondon for further updates.
PS. If you enjoyed this post, you may like this one about the lovely old hanging signs of Lombard Street!
Love it too when City streets are named after the old guilds, such as Cordwainer Street. We have a Love Lane where I live. Interestingly, it’s near the site of the old military stables!
Thanks so much Jan for reading and commenting. Much appreciated and glad you enjoyed it.
And let’s not forget Cowcross near Smithfield Market.
Of course! Thanks for reading and for commenting!
Lovely post. The world from Medieval time don’t die in present time, and this is fantastic to remember the history of London. Congratulations.
Thank you for taking the time to comment. Glad you enjoyed it!
Nice – I love all these reminders of the past in the City. I think the City is the most magical part of London, and yet so little-visited by the tourists. Thank you for following Bradshaw and me as we explore London
Thanks Candy! I’m enjoying following your Bradshaw expeditions too!
A very interesting and informative post. My blog, aspiblog.wordpress.com, has its own London related series, “London Station by Station” – there is a link to it on my “about aspiblog” page.
Thanks so much for commenting and for pointing out your page – I will take a look!