 |
| Author's own photo. |
One sunny day I decided to investigate the
history within walking distance of London's,
Bank tube station - and after the initially eye-catching buildings such as the Bank of England
and Royal Exchange... next to strike me were the street names.
Heading out of Bank station towards St
Pauls Cathedral, I walked along Cheapside,
passing side roads with names such at Bread
Street, Honey
Lane and Ironmonger
Lane.
Cheapside.
Cheapside was established in 1104, following the path of a Roman road. In
medieval times the word 'Cheap' meant, market, and as the widest road in the
city, it was a popular trading place. The roads leading off it were named for
the produce they sold, hence Milk
Street, Poultry et.c
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| Modern Cheapside (Saturday 22 September 2012) |
Because Cheapside
was regularly thronged with people, it was also prime site for a pillory - or
place to publicly humiliate those who had broken the law. The offender was
fastened into the pillory by their neck and wrists, on a platform so
everyone had a good view. [Stocks were subtly different, the villain being fastened only by their ankles.] The crowd then pelted the wrong-doer with anything
that came to hand, from rotten eggs and vegetables, to blood and guts from the
nearby slaughterhouses. Concerns about public disorder meant the pillory was
abolished as a punishment in 1837.
 |
| My sons in the pillory! Warwick Castle 2002. |
Bread Street
Bread Street got its name when in 1302, a decree
was passed that bread must not be sold door to door, but in an open market. The
bakers principle market was established here and hence lent its name to the
street.
 |
Bread Steet - now home to a Gordon Ramsay restaurant
and a branch of Gap. |
The poet, John Milton, author of Paradise
Lost and described as "the greatest British writer", was born here.
Also, the commander of the First Fleet, founder and first Governor of
Australia, Admiral Arthur Phillip was baptised in All Hallows
Church, Bread Street in
1738.
 |
| Admiral Arthur Phillip. |
By happy coincidence, I am currently reading "The Gilded Lily" by
Deborah Swift and the central characters live in
Bread Street for a while. It feels such a
lovely connection to history to have such believable characters treading
through snow, bringing the area to life.
Sherborne Lane.
And finally, although London streets were named for the trade that
took place there, sometimes this backfired. 'Sherborne Lane' - quaint as it
sounds, conjuring images of clear running water, (named from the Dorset town
Sherborne, which itself was derived from the Saxon word for 'clear stream') was
actually a cover up, created by the 17th century Protestants to hide a
much cruder descriptive name.
In medieval times an open sewer, rather
than a stream, ran down the middle of the road, hence the much more colourful, "Shitteborne Lane."
However this wasn’t the only street named after human refuse; the nearby Cloak Lane derived
its origins from the Roman word for a sewer, cloaca.
 |
| Sherborne Lane in the modern day - nice and clean. |
So when have you been surprised by the things around you or read a book with a setting familiar to you? Do leave a comment.
