Undergraduate student contribution

Home > Encyclopedia > Placeography > Streets

Grub Street

roseAgas Map
roseList documents mentioning Grub Street
roseList variant names and spellings
Grub Street could be found outside the walled City of London. It ran north-south, between Everades Well Street in the north and Fore Lane in the south. Grub Street was partially in Cripplegate ward, and partially outside the limits of the City of London.
Alhough John Stow offers no explanation of the street’s name, some scholars suggest that it possibly meant a street infested with worms, or more probably it was named after a man called Grubbe (Weinreb and Hibbert 353). One of the street’s famous denizens was John Foxe, author of The Book of Martyrs, who lived there from 1571 until his death in 1587 (Weinreb and Hibbert 353).
In London: The Biography of a City, Christopher Hibbert writes that Grub Street was where bowyers, fletchers, and bowstring-makers practiced their trades (Weinreb and Hibbert 37). This source of this information is likely Stow, who admits that the area had fallen into ill repute by his day. He says of Grub Street that it was of late yeares inhabited for the most part by Bowyers, Fletchers, and bowstring makers, and such like, now little occupied, Archerie giving place to a number of bowling Allies, and Dicing houses, which in al places are increased and too much frequented (Stow 2:79). Kingsford offers an explanation of the archery trades locating themselves in Grub Street: It was convenient for bowyers, since it lay near the Archery-butts in Finsbury Fields (Kingsford 2:370).
Grub Street is now known as Milton Street; it was renamed in 1830 (Weinreb and Hibbert 353).

References

Cite this page

MLA citation

Campbell, James. Grub 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/GRUB1.htm.

Chicago citation

Campbell, James. Grub 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/GRUB1.htm.

APA citation

Campbell, J. 2021. Grub 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/GRUB1.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  - Grub 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/GRUB1.htm
UR  - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/xml/standalone/GRUB1.xml
ER  -

TEI citation

<bibl type="mla"><author><name ref="#CAMP1"><surname>Campbell</surname>, <forename>James</forename></name></author>. <title level="a">Grub 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/GRUB1.htm">mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/GRUB1.htm</ref>.</bibl>

Personography

Locations

Variant spellings