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Budge Row

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Budge Row ran east-west through Cordwainer Street ward. It passed through the ward from Soper Lane in the west to Walbrook in the east. Beyond Soper Lane, Budge Row became Watling Street. Before it came to be known as Budge Row, it once formed part of Watling Street, one of the Roman roads (Weinreb and Hibbert 107).
The first recorded mention of the street comes from a 1342 document that names Bogerow (Bebbington 63). Boge or Budge as it is now spelled, is lamb-skin fur. Historical evidence suggests that this part of the city was the centre of the London fur and skin trade; an Ordinance dated 1345 required all free men of the trade of furriers to dwell in Walbrook, Cornhill, or Budge Row (Bebbington 63). Stow confirms this in his 1598 Survey of London, stating that the Skinners from Saint Marie Pellipers, or at the Axe, [moved] into Budge Row and Walbrooke, (Stow 1:81) and that the street is so called of Budge Furre, and of Skinners dwelling there (Stow 1:250).
Apart from skinners, two churches stood in Budge Row . The first was the parish church of St. Anthony, on the north side of the street. Stow writes that this church was lately reedified by Thomas Knowles Grocer, Maior, and by Thomas Knowles his sonne who are both buried there (Stow 1:251). The second church, located on the south side of the street at Cordwainer Street, was called Aldemarie Church. It gained that name from the fact that until the 16th century when a new building was constructed, it had been the oldest church dedicated to Saint Mary in London (Stow 1:251–52).
Today, the Skinners’ Hall is located in nearby Dowgate Hill (Bebbington 63).
See also: Chalfant 50.

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