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Bishopsgate Street

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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. Bishopsgate Street was one of the original Roman roads in the city of London.
The street is named after Bishopsgate, the gate in the northern city wall through which it passes. The gate also gave its name to Bishopsgate Ward. Stow states that the segement of Bishopsgate Street that extends outside the wall was of old time called Bearewardes lane (Stow 1598, sig. C6r).
Just inside the gate on Bishopsgate Street was the church of St. Ethelburga, which was built in the middle ages. St. Erkenwald, who, as legend has it, rebuilt the Roman gate, was her brother (Smith 24). The church in her name on Bishopsgate Street is the only church in England dedicated to Erkenwald’s sister (Bebbington 48). Two other churches stood on Bishopsgate Street, St. Helen and St. Botolph, Aldgate.
During the Tudor and Elizabethan periods, several wealthy merchants had homes on Bishopsgate Street. These rich residents included Sir Thomas Gresham, Sir John Crosby, and Sir Paul Pindar. Gresham in particular left his mark on the street and the city in its entirety when he left his house as the location of Gresham College (Weinreb and Hibbert 67, Stow 1:76).
There were two more buildings of historical and literary importance on Bishopsgate Street. The first of these is Bethlehem Hospital. Located just outside the city walls, Bethlehem, commonly corrupted to the short form Bedlam, was a mental hospital. Bethlehem Hospital is the origin of the nickname Jack o’ Bedlam or Tom o’ Bedlam, a common literary and dramatic name for a madman.
The second important site on Bishopsgate Street was theBull Inn, where plays were performed before Shakespeare’s time (Weinreb 67). The Bull Inn’s early staging of plays is historically significant because one of the actors, Burbage, obtained a licence from Queen Elizabeth to erect a building specially designed for theatrical performances (Weinreb and Hibbert 67). This licence would permit the creation of the Theatre, which was the first playhouse in London, and the one with which William Shakespeare and the Lord Chamberlain’s Men became associated.
Bishopsgate Street led to Shoreditch Street, where Burbage’s Theatre stood. Close by was another theatre, the Curtain, which the Lord Chamberlain’s Men rented when Burbage lost the lease on the Theatre in 1597. Anyone passing out of the city to see a play by Shakespeare at the Theatre or the Curtain in the 1590s would have travelled along Bishopsgate Street.
Bishopsgate Street still exists, and now consists mostly of Victorian era office blocks (Weinreb and Hibbert 67).

References

Cite this page

MLA citation

Campbell, James. Bishopsgate Street. The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 6.6, edited by Janelle Jenstad, U of Victoria, 30 Jun. 2021, mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/BISH3.htm.

Chicago citation

Campbell, James. Bishopsgate Street. The Map of Early Modern London, Edition 6.6. Ed. Janelle Jenstad. Victoria: University of Victoria. Accessed June 30, 2021. mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/BISH3.htm.

APA citation

Campbell, J. 2021. Bishopsgate Street. In J. Jenstad (Ed), The Map of Early Modern London (Edition 6.6). Victoria: University of Victoria. Retrieved from https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/editions/6.6/BISH3.htm.

RIS file (for RefMan, RefWorks, EndNote etc.)

Provider: University of Victoria
Database: The Map of Early Modern London
Content: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

TY  - ELEC
A1  - Campbell, James
ED  - Jenstad, Janelle
T1  - Bishopsgate Street
T2  - The Map of Early Modern London
ET  - 6.6
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/06/30
CY  - Victoria
PB  - University of Victoria
LA  - English
UR  - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/BISH3.htm
UR  - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/xml/standalone/BISH3.xml
ER  -

TEI citation

<bibl type="mla"><author><name ref="#CAMP1"><surname>Campbell</surname>, <forename>James</forename></name></author>. <title level="a">Bishopsgate Street</title>. <title level="m">The Map of Early Modern London</title>, Edition <edition>6.6</edition>, edited by <editor><name ref="#JENS1"><forename>Janelle</forename> <surname>Jenstad</surname></name></editor>, <publisher>U of Victoria</publisher>, <date when="2021-06-30">30 Jun. 2021</date>, <ref target="https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/BISH3.htm">mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/BISH3.htm</ref>.</bibl>

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Bishopsgate Ward contained Bishopsgate and Bishopsgate Street.

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