London town is full of intriguing street names, many derived from derivations of derivations... but always somehow managing to end up sounding charming or antiquated or gruesome.
Birdcage Walk
Running along the southern length of St. James's Park, Birdcage Walk marks the former site of the Royal Aviary, built by James I in the early 17th century to house the royal hunting falcons and hawks. For 200 years, only members of the royal family and the Hereditary Grand Falconer were allowed to ride alongside the Aviary in carriages. Until 1828, all others had to walk (hence the name).
Taken from National Geographic London Book of Lists: The City's Best, Worst, Oldest, Greatest, and Quirkiest (National Geographic Books; ISBN 978-1-4262-1382-3; $19.95) by Tim Jepson and Larry Porges.
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Bleeding Heart Yard
Legend has it that the body of Lady Elizabeth Hatton, brutally murdered in 1626, was found in Farringdon—her heart, torn from her body, was still beating nearby. Skeptics who frown on this urban legend claim the street was actually named after an old pub located there.
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Cheapside
Market streets Cheapside—"cheap" broadly meaning "market" in medieval English— is the former site of one of the principal markets in London. The names of several streets in the area derive from the ancient businesses plied there, making it pretty clear what was sold on Wood Street, Poultry, Milk Street, Honey Lane, and Bread Street, all located on or near Cheapside. Less obvious is the origin of Friday Street's name, until we learn that it led directly to the market's fishmongers.
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Cockpit Steps
In Westminster, a walkway named Cockpit Steps, running south of Birdcage Walk, marks the former site of royal cockfights. For much of London's history, cockfighting (and betting on cockfighting) was a popular pastime among the upper classes. The old Royal Cockpit was built in the 1700s. While this structure no longer exists, the steps remain, reminding travelers—for better or worse—of the old sport.
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Fetter Lane
Fetter Lane (running north of Fleet Street) was apparently a place where medieval vagabonds congregated to feign diseases and other afflictions to evoke the pity of (and open the pocketbooks of) passersby. The name may be derived from the Middle English word faitour, which by medieval times had come to mean "false beggars."
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Flask Walk
This Hampstead lane was the location of several taverns that sold flasks of water—from a medicinal spring nearby—to London's eating houses and others in the rapidly expanding 17th- and 18th-century city.
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Houndsditch
Houndsditch, at the east end of London, was the medieval final resting place for the city's deceased dogs and the rubbish disposed with them. Ironically, Jeremy Bentham—philosopher, legal and social reformer, and champion of animal rights—was born on the street in 1748.
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Mount Pleasant
Mount Pleasant was the tongue-in-cheek name for the medieval dumping ground of household refuse, ashes, and other trash, along the banks of the woefully polluted Fleet River in Clerkenwell (before the river was buried underground). The street name remains, though the irony is lost.
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Old Jewry Old Jewry, a one-way street near the present-day Guildhall, was a Jewish settlement in Anglo-Saxon times. Soon after the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror encouraged Jews to come to England, and many ended up settling on or around Old Jewry in the city's Jewish quarter.
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Pall Mall
Pall Mall's name is derived from the popular game of the same name that was imported from France and Italy in the 16th and 17th centuries. The game, in which a mallet was used to hit a ball through a hoop hanging aboveground, was commonly played there. Today Pall Mall serves as the address of choice for London's most celebrated and exclusive gentlemen's clubs.
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Pudding Lane
Belying its charming sounding name, "pudding" was actually the medieval term for animal guts, and Pudding Lane was a riverside street that housed many a butcher shop. Animal innards were tossed out the overhanging windows; gravity, time, and the occasional broom would funnel the "pudding" down the sharply pitched street to the flowing waste removal system known as the Thames. But Pudding Lane is most notorious as the site where the Great Fire of London started in 1666.
Credit: ALAMY
Rotten Row
The story goes that Rotten Row, the mile-long (1.6 km) bridle path running along the southern edge of Hyde Park, derives its name from "Route du Roi," French for the King's Road, as this was the path William III built to travel to and from Kensington Palace. Debate prevails on the truth of this oft-repeated explanation... but let's just go with it.
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Sherborne Lane
Running south of King William Street in the City, Sherborne Lane was formerly known as Shiteburne Lane - the street was a longtime public privy. London needed quite a few Sherborne Lanes; the human and animal inhabitants of medieval London produced 50 tons (45 tonnes) of excrement a day.
Taken from National Geographic London Book of Lists: The City's Best, Worst, Oldest, Greatest, and Quirkiest (National Geographic Books; ISBN 978-1-4262-1382-3; $19.95) by Tim Jepson and Larry Porges.
Credit: GETTY
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