Great Distaff Street

Great Distaff Street ran east-west from Friday Street to Old Change and was located in Bread Street Ward. The main structure of note along the street was Cordwainers’ Hall. It was also known as Mayden lane and is labelled Maidenhed lane on the Agas map (Stow 1633, sig. 2L6r). According to Stow, the name Distaff was a corruption of Distar Lane but Harben and others have found this to be an error as the earliest form was Distaue, not Distar (Stow 1633, sig. 2L6r; Harben). Great Distaff Street is not to be confused with Distaff Lane, the lane which ran south out of Great Distaff Street toward Knightrider Street.

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