Gracechurch Street
Gracechurch or Gracious Street was a late Anglo-Saxon street. It
seems to have been built around the same time as London Bridge (tenth or eleventh century), to which
it provided access.
Gracechurch Street ran north-south
from Cornhill Street near Leadenhall Market to the bridge. At
the southern end, it was called "New Fish
Street." North of Cornhill, Gracechurch
continued as Bishopsgate Street,
leading through Bishop’s Gate out of
the walled city into the suburb of Shoreditch.
When the Burbage brothers (Richard and
Cuthbert) dismantled the Theatre
at Christmas 1598 in order to
rebuild it as the Globe in Southwark, it is very likely that
they brought the timbers on carts from Shoreditch down Bishopsgate
Street, Gracechurch
Street, and New Fish Street,
and thence across the Thames to their new property on the south bank of the
Thames just west of the bridge.
Gracechurch Street was on the royal processional route. When a
king or queen entered the City from the Tower, he or she stopped in Gracechurch Street to witness the first of a series of pageants
prepared by London to welcome the new monarch.
See also: Chalfant 88.
References
- Chalfant, Fran C. Ben Jonson’s London: A Jacobean Placename Dictionary. Athens, GA: U of Georgia P, 1978. Print.
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