London Stone
Most modern readers of Shakespeare will recognize London Stone as the place where Jack Cade declares
himself lord of London and christens himself Lord Mortimer. 4.6 of Henry VI, Part 2 begins at London Stone, where Cade proclaims:
Now is Mortimer1 lord of this city. And here, sitting upon London Stone, I charge and command that, at the city’s cost, the Pissing Conduit run nothing but claret wine this first year of our reign. And now henceforward it shall be treason for any that calls me other than Lord Mortimer. (4.6.1–6)
The 1594 stage direction in the first quarto (Q1) text of The First Part of the Contention Betwixt the Two
Famous Houses of Yorke and Lancaster reads
Enter Iacke Cade and the reſt,and ſtrikes his ſword on London ſtone(sig. G1v). In the 1623 Folio stage direction, Cade
ſtrikes his ſtaffe on London ſtone(sig. O1r). The incident is recorded in contemporary chronicles. Fabyan’s Chronicle records that Cade
rode thorough dyuers ſtretes of the cytie / and as he came by London ſtone, he ſtrake it with his ſwerde, and ſayd now is Mortymer lorde of this cytie(sig. 2I5r). Likewise, Holinshed’s Chronicles record that
After that, he [Cade] entred into London, cut the ropes of the draw bridge, & ſtrooke his ſword on London ſtone; ſaieng, Now is Mortimer lord of this citie(sig. 3O3v). Clearly, London Stone had some cultural significance that made it an appropriate place for a royal challenger to stake his claim. (See also Stow 1.25.)
London Stone was, literally, a stone
that stood on the south side of what is now Cannon Street (formerly Candlewick Street). Probably Roman in origin, it is
one of London’s oldest relics. On the Agas map, it is visible as a small
rectangle between Saint Swithin’s
Lane and Walbrook, just
below the
ndconsonant cluster in the label
Londonſton.
Stow frequently assumes his readers’ familiarity with London Stone. He invokes it as a landmark to orient
his readers when describing potentially unfamiliar places. In fact, he
mentions it at least five times in A Survey
before giving a detailed description of London Stone when he gets to Walbrook Ward, where Candlewick Street marks the boundary between Candlewick Street Ward on the north side of the
street and Walbrook Ward on the
south:
On the south side of this high streete, neare vnto the channell2 is pitched vpright a great stone called London stone, fixed in the ground verie deepe, fastned with bars of iron, and otherwise so strongly set that if Cartes do runne against it through negligence, the wheeles be broken, and the stone it selfe vnshaken.The cause why this stone was there set, the time when, or other memorie hereof, is none, but that the same hath long continued there is manifest, namely since (or rather before) the time of the conquest: for in the ende of a faire written Gospell booke giuen to Christes Church in Canterburie, by Ethelstane king of the west Saxons [925–940 A.D.], I find noted of landes or rentes in London belonging to the sayd Church, whereof one parcell is described to lie neare unto London stone. Of later time we read that in the yeare of Christ 1135. the first of king Stephen a fire which began in the house of one Ailward, neare vnto London stone consumed all East to Aldgate, in the which fire the Priorie of the holy Trinitie was burnt, and west to S. Erkenwalds shrine in Paules Church: and these be the eldest notes that I reade therof.Some haue saide this stone to be set, as a marke in the middle of the Citie within the walles: but in truth it standeth farre nearer vnto the riuer of Thames, then to the wall of the Citie: some others haue saide the same to be set for the tendering and making of payment by debtors to their creditors, at their appoynted dayes, and times, till of later time, payments were more vsually made at the font in Powles Church, and now most commonly at the Royall Exchange: some againe haue imagined the same to bee set vp by one Iohn or Thomas Londonstone dwelling there agaynst, but more likely it is, that such men haue taken name of the stone, rather then the stone of them, as did Iohn at Noke, Thomas at Stile, William at Wall or at Well, &c.
(1.224–25)
Even in Stow’s day, then, the stone was a bit of a mystery. According to
A Survey, early modern Londoners thought
it might have been a marker of London’s centre, a place for debt repayment,
or a personal memorial erected by a man named
Londonstone.Stow discredits the first and third theories on the origins of the stone and reserves judgement on the second theory. He is probably most correct when he asserts that there is no cultural memory of the origins of the ancient stone.
Its original purpose has been the subject of much speculation by
archeologists and historians. It may have been a Roman measuring marker.
Smith notes that in 1833, during the construction of London Bridge a section of Roman road was
discovered that led in the direction of London Stone (33). Theories
going back to the historian William Camden (1551–1623) have it that the
Romans measured all distances throughout the island from London Stone (Kingsford 2:316; see also Weinreb
and Hibbert 477). Camden took London Stone to
have beene a Milliary, or Milemarke, ſuch as was in the Mercate [i.e., market] place of Rome: From which was taken the dimenſion of all journies every way, conſidering it is in the very mids of the City, as it lyeth in length(sig. 2M6r). Camden thought the stone predated the wall, thus implicitly addressing Stow’s objection that the stone was not at the midpoint of the city’s north-south axis. Weinreb and Hibbert wondered in 1983 if the stone might be
the rounded top of an early wayside Roman funerary monument, whose base may still await discovery on the south side of Cannon Street(Weinreb and Hibbert 478). They describe the stone’s current appearance as
weathered Clipsham limestonewith
no markings except a pair of grooves worn in the top(Weinreb and Hibbert 478). However, archeological evidence from the 1980s seems to confirm Camden’s theory. Shepherd notes that it stood on
the line of the central axis of the supposed [governor’s] palace and on the probable site of the principal entrance to it, where may well have stood a monument or milestone from which distances throughout the province were to be measured(29n).
The first mayor of London, Henry Fitz-Alwin, lived at London Stone, and the site of his house has been
associated with the temporal governance of the city and the livery until the
twentieth century. Kingsford traces the history of the site back to Henry
Fitz-Alwin (1189?-1211) (Kingsford
2.315–16; Stow 2.149–52). In
the possession of the Prior of Tortington for a time, Fitz-Alwin’s house
passed to the Earls of Oxford at the dissolution of the religious houses in
the sixteenth century. The fifteenth and sixteenth Earls of Oxford (both
named John de Vere) made their London home here. Stow tells us in
Of Customs and Ordersthat the latter rode to this house with a great retinue of
80. Gentlemen in a liuery of Reading Tawny Gap in transcription. Reason: Editorial omission for reasons of length or relevance. Use only in quotations in born-digital documents.[…] and 100. tall yeomen in the like liuery(Stow 1.89). The earl’s homecoming must have been quite the spectacle, sure to have made an impact on the denizens of Candlewick Street. Known to Stow’s contemporaries as
Oxford Houseor
Oxford place by London Stone(Stow 1.224, marginalia), the house was then home to two other mayors. Stow tells us:
In this Oxford place sir Ambrose Nicholas [a Salter] kept his Maioralitie [1576–76], and since him the said sir Iohn Hart Sheriff in 1579-80, Mayor in 1589–90](1.224; see 2.184 for dates of office). Sir John Hart’s daughter married Humphrey Smith, Alderman of Walbrook Ward (Kingsford 2.316), and they continued to live at the London Stone address. The house was purchased by the Salters’ Company in 1641 and became the site of their company hall until 1941 (Kingsford 2.316; see also the Salters’ Company online history of their hall).
London Stone was a convenient
shorthand address for nearby shops and houses. Stow reports several times
that in 1136
a fire began in the house of one Ailewarde, neare vnto London stone.This fire burned much of London, spreading to Aldgate in the east and to Paul’s Church in the west, and damaging the timber bridge over the Thames (1.22; see also 1.139 and 1.224–25). At least two seventeenth-century booksellers lived near London Stone, as we can learn from the addresses they included on the title pages of their stock. Phillip Waterhouse had a shop
at the signe of St. Pauls Head in Canon Street neare London Stone(sig. π1r). The title pages of books dated from 1629 to 1631 indicate the proximity of his shop to London Stone. A slightly later bookseller worked in the vicinity from at least 1643 to 1649. George Lindsey sold books from
his shop overagainst [sic] London-stone(sig. A1r). Richard West’s Newes from Bartholmew Fayre indicates that there was a tavern named the
Bores head, néere London ſtone(sig. B1r).
London Stone is mentioned throughout
the literature of the period. One of the odder texts in the corpus of early
modern London literature is a poem anthropomorphizing London Stone and the Boss at Billingsgate (a water conduit) as a man and woman
wishing to marry. London Stone,
described as
curtes and gente(i.e., courteous and gentle) (sig. A5v), defends the reputation of the Boss from those who would slander her. Another text tells us that London Stone was known across the country to be one of London’s principal sites. The
honeſt Country foolein Samuel Rowlands
A straunge ſighted Trauelleris taken by his tour guide to the main tourist attractions of London, which included
Great tall Pauls Steeple and the royall-Exchange: / The Boſſe at Billings-gate and London ſtone(sig. D3r).
Stow’s frequent invocations of the stone indicate its importance as a literal
and imaginative landmark for Londoners. Like Jack Cade, the fictional
Cavaliero Pasquil in Thomas Nashe’s Marprelate countertracts takes London Stone as the ideal place to
launch a challenge. At the end of Pasquils retvrne
to England, Pasquil asks his imaginary interlocutor Marforius to
post a challenge to Martinists on London
Stone:
ſet vp this bill at London ſtone. Let it be doone ſollemnly with Drom and Trumpet, and looke you aduance my collours on the top of the ſteeple right ouer againſt it [St. Swithin’s church steeple], that euery one of my Souldiers may keepe his quarter(sig. D3v). The bill that follows is
Pasqvils Protestation Vppon London Stone:
I Caualiero Paſquill, the writer of this ſimple hand, a young man, of the age of ſome few hundred yeeres, lately knighted in Englande, with a beetle and a bucking tub, to beat a little reaſon about Martins head, doe make this my Proteſtation vnto the world, that if any man, woman, or childe, haue any thing to ſay againſt Martin the great, or any of his abettors, of what ſtate or calling ſoeuer they be, noble or ignoble, from the very Court-gates to the Coblers ſtall, if it pleaſe them theſe dark Winter-nights, to ſticke vppe their papers vppon London-ſtone, I will there giue my attendance to receiue them, from the day of the date heereof, to the full terme and reuolution of ſeuen yeeres next enſuing. Dated 20. Octobris. Anno Millimo, Quillimo, Trillimo, Per me venturous Paſquill the Caualiero. (sig. D3v)
This passage suggests that London
Stone might have functioned as a gathering place for popular
protest and dissemination of information, even though Pasquil does
characterize his act of
diſplaying my Banners vpon London-ſtoneas an act of
Soldateſcha bravur(sig. D4r; i.e., soldier’s courage or bravura). The Earl of Bulloigne’s sons in Thomas Heywood’s The Four Prentices of London (performed 1594; printed 1615) also represent London Stone as a gathering place, although they imagine it as a military recruiting point. When the four brothers, who have left their city apprenticeships to fight for distinction in the crusades, wish for London reinforcements in the battle to come, they think of Eastcheap, Candlewick Street, and London Stone as places where young men might be found in abundance:
Oh that I had with meeAs many good lads, honeſt Prentiſes,To end this battell, as could wiſh themſeluesVnder my conduct if they knew me heere;The doubtfull daies ſucceſſe we need not feare.
(sig. D4v)
In the subsequent city comedies and citizen romances that stage London in
topographical particularity, the site is a common point of reference. In
William Haughton’s Englishmen for My Money
(performed 1598; printed 1616), a play widely taken by modern critics to be
the first
city comedy,a central development of the plot entails leading the foreign suitors away from the usurer Pisaro’s house. Once the English suitor Heigham has misled the Italian and French suitors to believe they are in Leadenhall Street and Fenchurch Street respectively, Frisco (servant to Pisaro), although outwitted himself, has a bit of fun with the foreign suitors’ lack of local knowledge. Pretending to lead them from Tower Street to Crutched Friars, Frisco can tell them that their route takes them past London Stone (south-west of Pisaro’s house), Ivy Bridge Lane (far west of the city, running south off theStrand en route to Westminster), and Shoreditch (far north of the City, accessed via Bishopsgate Street). In the late evening dark, Frisco finds his way by touch and smell.
I haue the ſcent of London-ſtone as full in my noſe, as Abchurch-lane of mother Walles Paſties: Sirrs feele about, I ſmell London-ſtone. (sig. G1v)
Frisco is here representing local topographical knowledge as being imbricated
in sensory experience that the foreigners do not have.3 In Thomas Dekker’s
The Shoemaker’s Holiday (1599), Firk
invokes the ubiquitous knowledge of London
Stone. Having been told that his nephew intends to marry the next
day, Oatley questions Firk’s knowledge:
OatleyBut art thou sure of this?FirkAm I sure that Paul’s Steeple is a handful higher than London Stone?
(16.110–11)
Firk’s reply contains a truism of London cultural knowledge, that Paul’s Steeple is the highest
structure in the City. The second item in his comparison has to be equally
well known – and known to be much shorter than Paul’s Steeple – in order for his question to be
rhetorical.
Over the centuries, London Stone has
been moved several times. Stow’s description suggests that its location in
the middle of Candlewick Street was
a hindrance to traffic flow, but it remained in place until after the Great
Fire, which it survived intact. A 1666 elegy for the burned city, Londinenses Lacrymae, mourns the loss of
All things of beauty, ſhatter’d loſt and gone; / Little of London whole but London-ſtone(sig. A3v). In the post-fire rebuilding, the stone was moved to the north side of Cannon Street, where it was embedded in the wall of St. Swithin’s Church (designed by Sir Christopher Wren). St. Swithin’s was destroyed by bombing in 1941, but London Stone survived (Weinreb and Hibbert 766). (Note that the footnote to the Jack Cade passage in Ronald Knowles’s Arden3 edition of Henry VI, Part 2 erroneously indicates that the stone is still embedded in the wall of the now non-existent St. Swithin’s Church [317 n.0.2].) The Stone was moved to the south side of Cannon Street, where it can be seen today, embedded in a case in the wall of a bank building. Now relegated to a foot-level display case, London Stone has nonetheless played an important part in the cultural imagination of Londoners over many centuries.
Notes
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Cite this page
MLA citation
London Stone.The Map of Early Modern London, edited by , U of Victoria, 15 Sep. 2020, mapoflondon.uvic.ca/LOND2.htm.
Chicago citation
London Stone.The Map of Early Modern London. Ed. . Victoria: University of Victoria. Accessed September 15, 2020. https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/LOND2.htm.
APA citation
The Map of Early Modern London. Victoria: University of Victoria. Retrieved from https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/LOND2.htm.
2020. London Stone. In (Ed), RIS file (for RefMan, EndNote etc.)
Provider: University of Victoria Database: The Map of Early Modern London Content: text/plain; charset="utf-8" TY - ELEC A1 - Jenstad, Janelle ED - Jenstad, Janelle T1 - London Stone T2 - The Map of Early Modern London PY - 2020 DA - 2020/09/15 CY - Victoria PB - University of Victoria LA - English UR - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/LOND2.htm UR - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/xml/standalone/LOND2.xml ER -
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Janelle Jenstad
JJ
Janelle Jenstad is Associate Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director of The Map of Early Modern London, and PI of Linked Early Modern Drama Online. She has taught at Queen’s University, the Summer Academy at the Stratford Festival, the University of Windsor, and the University of Victoria. With Jennifer Roberts-Smith and Mark Kaethler, she co-edited Shakespeare’s Language in Digital Media (Routledge). She has prepared a documentary edition of John Stow’s A Survey of London (1598 text) for MoEML and is currently editing The Merchant of Venice (with Stephen Wittek) and Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody for DRE. Her articles have appeared in Digital Humanities Quarterly, Renaissance and Reformation,Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Early Modern Literary Studies, Elizabethan Theatre, Shakespeare Bulletin: A Journal of Performance Criticism, and The Silver Society Journal. Her book chapters have appeared (or will appear) in Institutional Culture in Early Modern Society (Brill, 2004), Shakespeare, Language and the Stage, The Fifth Wall: Approaches to Shakespeare from Criticism, Performance and Theatre Studies (Arden/Thomson Learning, 2005), Approaches to Teaching Othello (Modern Language Association, 2005), Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate, 2007), New Directions in the Geohumanities: Art, Text, and History at the Edge of Place (Routledge, 2011), Early Modern Studies and the Digital Turn (Iter, 2016), Teaching Early Modern English Literature from the Archives (MLA, 2015), Placing Names: Enriching and Integrating Gazetteers (Indiana, 2016), Making Things and Drawing Boundaries (Minnesota, 2017), and Rethinking Shakespeare’s Source Study: Audiences, Authors, and Digital Technologies (Routledge, 2018).Roles played in the project
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Contributions by this author
Janelle Jenstad is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
Janelle Jenstad is mentioned in the following documents:
Janelle Jenstad authored or edited the following items in MoEML’s bibliography:
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Jenstad, Janelle.
Building a Gazetteer for Early Modern London, 1550-1650.
Placing Names. Ed. Merrick Lex Berman, Ruth Mostern, and Humphrey Southall. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana UP, 2016. 129-145. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
The Burse and the Merchant’s Purse: Coin, Credit, and the Nation in Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody.
The Elizabethan Theatre XV. Ed. C.E. McGee and A.L. Magnusson. Toronto: P.D. Meany, 2002. 181–202. Print. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Early Modern Literary Studies 8.2 (2002): 5.1–26..The City Cannot Hold You
: Social Conversion in the Goldsmith’s Shop. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
The Silver Society Journal 10 (1998): 40–43.The Gouldesmythes Storehowse
: Early Evidence for Specialisation. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Lying-in Like a Countess: The Lisle Letters, the Cecil Family, and A Chaste Maid in Cheapside.
Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 34 (2004): 373–403. doi:10.1215/10829636–34–2–373. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Public Glory, Private Gilt: The Goldsmiths’ Company and the Spectacle of Punishment.
Institutional Culture in Early Modern Society. Ed. Anne Goldgar and Robert Frost. Leiden: Brill, 2004. 191–217. Print. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Smock Secrets: Birth and Women’s Mysteries on the Early Modern Stage.
Performing Maternity in Early Modern England. Ed. Katherine Moncrief and Kathryn McPherson. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007. 87–99. Print. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Using Early Modern Maps in Literary Studies: Views and Caveats from London.
GeoHumanities: Art, History, Text at the Edge of Place. Ed. Michael Dear, James Ketchum, Sarah Luria, and Doug Richardson. London: Routledge, 2011. Print. -
Jenstad, Janelle.
Versioning John Stow’s A Survey of London, or, What’s New in 1618 and 1633?.
Janelle Jenstad Blog. https://janellejenstad.com/2013/03/20/versioning-john-stows-a-survey-of-london-or-whats-new-in-1618-and-1633/. -
Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. Ed. Janelle Jenstad. Internet Shakespeare Editions. Open.
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Stow, John. A SVRVAY OF LONDON. Contayning the Originall, Antiquity, Increase, Moderne estate, and description of that Citie, written in the yeare 1598. by Iohn Stow Citizen of London. Also an Apologie (or defence) against the opinion of some men, concerning that Citie, the greatnesse thereof. With an Appendix, containing in Latine, Libellum de situ & nobilitate Londini: written by William Fitzstephen, in the raigne of Henry the second. Ed. Janelle Jenstad and the MoEML Team. MoEML. Transcribed. Web.
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Stewart Arneil
Programmer at the University of Victoria Humanities Computing and Media Centre (HCMC) who maintained the Map of London project between 2006 and 2011. Stewart was a co-applicant on the SSHRC Insight Grant for 2012–16.Roles played in the project
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Programmer
Stewart Arneil is a member of the following organizations and/or groups:
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Martin D. Holmes
MDH
Programmer at the University of Victoria Humanities Computing and Media Centre (HCMC). Martin ported the MOL project from its original PHP incarnation to a pure eXist database implementation in the fall of 2011. Since then, he has been lead programmer on the project and has also been responsible for maintaining the project schemas. He was a co-applicant on MoEML’s 2012 SSHRC Insight Grant.Roles played in the project
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Locations
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Candlewick Street
Candlewick, or Candlewright Street as it was sometimes called, ran east-west from Walbrook in the west to the beginning of Eastcheap at its eastern terminus. Candlewick became Eastcheap somewhere around St. Clements Lane, and led into a great meat market (Stow 1 :217). Together with streets such as Budge Row, Watling Street, and Tower Street, which all joined into each other, Candlewick formed the main east-west road through London between Ludgate and Posterngate.Candlewick Street is mentioned in the following documents:
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St. Swithins Lane is mentioned in the following documents:
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Walbrook Street is mentioned in the following documents:
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Little Conduit (Cheapside)
The Little Conduit in Cheapside, also known as the Pissing Conduit, stood at the western end of Cheapside outside the north corner of Paul’s Churchyard. On the Agas map, one can see two water cans on the ground just to the right of the conduit.Little Conduit (Cheapside) is mentioned in the following documents:
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Bride Lane is mentioned in the following documents:
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Walbrook Ward
MoEML is aware that the ward boundaries are inaccurate for a number of wards. We are working on redrawing the boundaries. This page offers a diplomatic transcription of the opening section of John Stow’s description of this ward from his Survey of London.Walbrook Ward is mentioned in the following documents:
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Candlewick Street Ward
MoEML is aware that the ward boundaries are inaccurate for a number of wards. We are working on redrawing the boundaries. This page offers a diplomatic transcription of the opening section of John Stow’s description of this ward from his Survey of London.Candlewick Street Ward is mentioned in the following documents:
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Aldgate Ward
MoEML is aware that the ward boundaries are inaccurate for a number of wards. We are working on redrawing the boundaries. This page offers a diplomatic transcription of the opening section of John Stow’s description of this ward from his Survey of London.Aldgate Ward is mentioned in the following documents:
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Holy Trinity Priory
Holy Trinity Priory, located west of Aldgate and north of Leadenhall Street, was an Augustinian Priory. Stow notes that Queen Matilda established the Priory in 1108in the parishes of Saint Marie Magdalen, S. Michael, S. Katherine, and the blessed Trinitie, which now was made but one Parish of the holy Trinitie
(Stow). Before Matilda united these parishes under the name Holy Trinity Priory, they were collectively known as the Holy Cross or Holy Roode parish (Stow; Harben).Holy Trinity Priory is mentioned in the following documents:
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St. Paul’s Cathedral
St. Paul’s Cathedral was—and remains—an important church in London. In 962, while London was occupied by the Danes, St. Paul’s monastery was burnt and raised anew. The church survived the Norman conquest of 1066, but in 1087 it was burnt again. An ambitious Bishop named Maurice took the opportunity to build a new St. Paul’s, even petitioning the king to offer a piece of land belonging to one of his castles (Times 115). The building Maurice initiated would become the cathedral of St. Paul’s which survived until the Great Fire of London.St. Paul’s Cathedral is mentioned in the following documents:
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London Wall (street)
London Wall was a long street running along the inside of the northern part of the City Wall. It ran east-west from the north end of Broad Street to Cripplegate (Prockter and Taylor 43). The modern London Wall street is a major traffic thoroughfare now. It follows roughly the route of the former wall, from Old Broad Street to the Museum of London (whose address is 150 London Wall).London Wall (street) is mentioned in the following documents:
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The Thames is mentioned in the following documents:
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Royal Exchange
Located in Broad Street Ward and Cornhill Ward, the Royal Exchange was opened in 1570 to make business more convenient for merchants and tradesmen (Harben 512). The construction of the Royal Exchange was largely funded by Sir Thomas Gresham (Weinreb, Hibbert, Keay, and Keay 718).Royal Exchange is mentioned in the following documents:
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London Bridge
As the only bridge in London crossing the Thames until 1729, London Bridge was a focal point of the city. After its conversion from wood to stone, completed in 1209, the bridge housed a variety of structures, including a chapel and a growing number of shops. The bridge was famous for the cityʼs grisly practice of displaying traitorsʼ heads on poles above its gatehouses. Despite burning down multiple times, London Bridge was one of the few structures not entirely destroyed by the Great Fire of London in 1666.London Bridge is mentioned in the following documents:
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Billingsgate Ward
MoEML is aware that the ward boundaries are inaccurate for a number of wards. We are working on redrawing the boundaries. This page offers a diplomatic transcription of the opening section of John Stow’s description of this ward from his Survey of London.Billingsgate Ward is mentioned in the following documents:
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Billingsgate
Billingsgate (Bylynges gate or Belins Gate), a water-gate and harbour located on the north side of the Thames between London Bridge and the Tower of London, was London’s principal dock in Shakespeare’s day. Its age and the origin of its name are uncertain. It was probably built ca. 1000 in response to the rebuilding of London Bridge in the tenth or eleventh century.Billingsgate is mentioned in the following documents:
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Eastcheap
Eastcheap Street ran east-west, from Tower Street to St. Martin’s Lane. West of New Fish Street/Gracechurch Street, Eastcheap was known asGreat Eastcheap.
The portion of the street to the east of New Fish Street/Gracechurch Street was known asLittle Eastcheap.
Eastcheap (Eschepe or Excheapp) was the site of a medieval food market.Eastcheap is mentioned in the following documents:
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Leadenhall Street
Leadenhall Street ran east-west from Cornhill Street to Aldgate Street. All three form part of the same road from Aldgate to Cheapside (Weinreb and Hibbert 462). The street acquired its name from Leadenhall, a onetime house and later a market. The building was reportedly famous for having a leaden roof (Bebbington 197).Leadenhall Street is mentioned in the following documents:
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Fenchurch Street
Fenchurch Street (often called Fennieabout) ran east-west from the pump on Aldgate High Street to Gracechurch Street in Langbourne Ward, crossing Mark Lane, Mincing Lane, and Rodd Lane along the way. Fenchurch Street was home to several famous landmarks, including the King’s Head Tavern, where the then-Princess Elizabeth is said to have partaken inpork and peas
after her sister, Mary I, released her from the Tower of London in May of 1554 (Weinreb, Hibbert, Keay, and Keay 288). Fenchurch Street was on the royal processional route through the city, toured by monarchs on the day before their coronations.Fenchurch Street is mentioned in the following documents:
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Tower Street
Tower Street ran east-west from Tower Hill in the east to St. Andrew Hubbard church. It was the principal street of Tower Street Ward. That the ward is named after the street indicates the cultural significance of Tower Street, which was a key part of the processional route through London and home to many wealthy merchants who traded in the goods that were unloaded at the docks and quays immediately south of Tower Street (for example, Billingsgate, Wool Key, and Galley Key).Tower Street is mentioned in the following documents:
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Crutched Friars
Crutched Friars was a street that ran east-west from Poor Jewry Lane to the east end of Hart Street above Seething Lane. When Stow wrote, most of Crutched Friars was known as Hart Street, so Stow only uses the name Crutched Friars to refer to Crutched Friars Priory (Harben). Since Stow does not name the street that ran from Aldgate to Woodroffe Lane, it could have been known as Hart Street, Crutched Friars, or something different.Crutched Friars is mentioned in the following documents:
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Ivy Bridge Lane is mentioned in the following documents:
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Strand Lane
Strand Lane wasa narrow and rather winding thoroughfare leading to the Embankment a few yards to the east of Somerset House
(Thornbury).Strand Lane is mentioned in the following documents:
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Westminster is mentioned in the following documents:
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Shoreditch
A suburban neighbourhood located just north of Moorfields and outside Londonʼs City Wall, Shoreditch was a focal point of early modern theatrical culture. Following a boom in Londonʼs population from 1550 to 1600, the neighbourhood became a prime target for development. The building of the Theatre in 1576 and the Curtain in the following year established Shoreditchʼs reputation as Londonʼs premier entertainment district, and the neigbourhood also featured a growing number of taverns, alehouses, and brothels. These latter establishments were often frequented by local players, of whom many prominent members were buried on the grounds of nearby St. Leonardʼs Church. Today, Shoreditch faces the potential revival of its early modern theatrical culture through the efforts of the Museum of London Archaeology and the Tower Hamlets Theatre Company.Shoreditch is mentioned in the following documents:
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Bishopsgate Street
Bishopsgate Street ran north from Cornhill Street to the southern end of Shoreditch Street at the city boundary. South of Cornhill, the road became Gracechurch Street, and the two streets formed a major north-south artery in the eastern end of the walled city of London, from London Bridge to Shoreditch. Important sites included: Bethlehem Hospital, a mental hospital, and Bull Inn, a place where plays were performedbefore Shakespeare’s time
(Weinreb and Hibbert 67).Bishopsgate Street is mentioned in the following documents:
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Abchurch Lane
Abchurch Lane runs north-south from Lombard Street to Candlewick (Cannon) Street. The Agas Map labels itAbchurche lane.
It lies mainly in Candlewick Street Ward, but part of it serves as the boundary between Langbourne Ward and Candlewick Street Ward.Abchurch Lane is mentioned in the following documents:
Mentions of this place in Internet Shakespeare Editions texts
- staffe on London stone. (Henry VI, Part 2 (Folio 1, 1623))
- And heere sitting vpon London Stone, (Henry VI, Part 2 (Folio 1, 1623))
Variant spellings
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Documents using the spelling
London
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London ſtone
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London stone
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London Stone.
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London-stone
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London-ſtone
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London. ſtone
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Londonſton
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Londonſtone
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Oxford place
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Documents using the spelling
ſtone