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|
The winning entry in the 2004
'Places
on Maps That Relate to David Hasselhoff'
competition.
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"So called…of Knights well-armed and mounted at the Tower Royal [
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| Knightrider Street as it appears today. |
According to Louis Zetterson in his 1917 book "
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| Here I'm standing in Knightrider Court with my back to the Thames, facing towards St Pauls Cathedral. |
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| With my back to St Pauls, walking in a straight line from Knightrider Court, I'm standing on the Millenium Bridge looking to my left over at The Shard. |
Staying in the same area, Ben Johnson's London: a Jacobean Place Name
Dictionary, by Prof. Chalfont, sites a road near Knightrider Street Do-Little Lane Knightrider
Street Carter Lane Knightrider
Court Sermon Lane
Again, Stow
"A
place not-inhabited by Artificers, or shop keepers…but serving as a passage
from Another reference is found in the work of the Jacobean playwright, Middleton, "Family of Love", where a character praises a physician as neither:
"The wise-woman of
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| I'm standing in the same spot as the photo above, but looking right instead of left, towards Tower Bridge. |
There are two main theories as to how Knightsbridge got its name. The first involves two knights getting into a fight passing over the bridge, falling in the river and drowning, and the second theory is that the area was synonymous with highwaymen and that it was not safe to pass without a knight as chaperone.
Whatever the explanation, is it me or do
street names not have the same resonance these days?
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| With thanks to Cheezburger.com |
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Wonderful article. I've met and interviewed Hasselhoff a couple of times and Rebecca Holden, the young lady who played the mechanic in the first couple of years of Knight Rider is a friend.
ReplyDeleteYour articles are so interesting. You should do more and offer them in a book.
That must have been interesting, interviewing the Hoff!
DeleteI'm ashamed to say, as a series Knight Rider largely passed me by but even so I'm aware of it as part of popular culture.
Thank you for the kind comment, much appreciated.
G x
London street names are wholly fascinating with their references to the past. Even when derivation is lost, speculation has its rewards. Unlike the Aboriginal names so much in use in Australia, whose meanings are unknown or debatable and not exactly euphonious! EVen our western historical names are taken from the British politicians of the day.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this, thank you! I found your post while trying to find out why Knightrider Street in Maidstone was given its name, partly to satisfy my own curiosity and partly because I plan to include it in a talk I'll be giving to our group in November. However, not finding anything locally I cast my net wider and found you! Our Knightrider Street leads towards All Saints Church and Archbishops Palace, so it is possible that Knights would ride along it in the past ... if I find out, I'll let you know! Thank you for a very interesting post. (Linda Weeks, Hon.Secretary - and other things - to Maidstone Area Archaeological Group)
ReplyDeleteGreat Knightrider Street was, of course, the location of Doctors' Commons - the "inn of court", if you will, of the canonists (or ecclesiastical lawyers) of mediaeval England, which continued to function until the later mid-19th century. This does not assist with the etymology, of course, but it does guarantee a number of references to it in legal literature across the ages.
ReplyDeleteMiddleton's "Family of Love" was an interesting play. The Family of Love did actually exist (I have at least one ancestor - a great x10 grandfather - who was a Familist) and Christopher Marsh has undertaken some masterful scholarly research into Familism. Familist influence in Elizabethan Court circles was disproportionate to the size of this introverted and little-known sect, and Middleton's play is a grotesque cariciature (not unlike "The Puritan" in this respect) which was expected to be played to audiences who were weall aware - and quite possibly resentful - of Familism and Familists at large.
Jeremy Burrows (legal historian, canon lawyer, family historian, and direct descendant of Familists)