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TY - ELEC
A1 - Patterson, Serina
A1 - Zheng, Can
ED - Jenstad, Janelle
T1 - Leadenhall
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/LEAD101.htm
UR - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/6.6/xml/standalone/LEAD101.xml
ER -
Leadenhall Market was located at the junction of Cornhill and Gracechurch Street. On the Agas Copperplate (Ledden hall
) is featured as an open, square courtyard structure with four towers at each corner (Prockter and Taylor 25). This large, central building functioned as a market, a granary, a storage facility, and a mustering place. It is known to students of pageantry as the place where the pageants were stored between days of triumph, and to students of English Renaissance drama as the building that
Project Manager, 2020-2021. Assistant Project Manager, 2019-2020. Research Assistant, 2018-2020. Kate LeBere completed her BA (Hons.) in History and English at the University of Victoria in 2020. She published papers in
Programmer, 2018-present. Junior Programmer, 2015-2017. Research Assistant, 2014-2017. Joey Takeda was a graduate student at the University of British Columbia in the Department of English (Science and Technology research stream). He completed his BA honours in English (with a minor in Women’s Studies) at the University of Victoria in 2016. His primary research interests included diasporic and indigenous Canadian and American literature, critical theory, cultural studies, and the digital humanities.
Data Manager, 2015-2016. Research Assistant, 2013-2015. Tye completed his undergraduate honours degree in English at the University of Victoria in 2015.
Research Assistant, 2010. MA English, University of Victoria. Daniel Powell’s research focused on linguistic anxiety in the mid-sixteenth-century play
Director of Pedagogy and Outreach, 2015–present. Associate Project Director, 2015–present. Assistant Project Director, 2013-2014. MoEML Research Fellow, 2013. Kim McLean-Fiander comes to
Janelle Jenstad is Associate Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director of
At the time of her contribution to MoEML, Serina Patterson was an MA student in English at the University of Victoria. She is now a PhD student at the University of British Columbia with research interests in late medieval literature, game studies, and digital humanities. She is also the recipient of the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada CGS Joseph-Bombardier Scholarship and a four-year fellowship at UBC for her work in Middle English and Middle French game poems. She has published articles in
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.
Student contributor enrolled in
Queen consort of England
Playwright, poet, and author.
Silkweaver and author.
Sheriff of London
Fourth Earl of Arundel and Ninth Earl of Surrey. Executed for treason. Buried at Austin Friars.
Member of the
Chronicler. Member of the
Husband of
Wife of
Historian and author of
Knight, religious writer, and historian.
Flemish and German painter, engraver, and cartographer.
Flemish and German painter, engraver, and cartographer.
Mother of
Figure present at the crucifixion of
The
Cornhill was a significant thoroughfare and was part of the cityʼs main major east-west thoroughfare that divided the northern half of London from the southern half. The part of this thoroughfare named Cornhill extended from St. Andrew Undershaft to the three-way intersection of Threadneedle, Poultry, and Cornhill where the Royal Exchange was built. The name Cornhill
preserves a memory both of the cornmarket that took place in this street, and of the topography of the site upon
which the Roman city of Londinium was built.
Note: Cornhill and Cornhill Ward are nearly synonymous in terms of location and nomenclature - thus, it can be a challenge to tell one from the other. Topographical decisions have been made to the best of our knowledge and ability.
Gracechurch Street ran north-south from Cornhill Street near Leadenhall Market to the bridge. At the southern end, it was called
New Fish Street
. North of Cornhill, Gracechurch
continued as Bishopsgate Street, leading through
Bishop’s Gate out of the walled city into the
suburb of Shoreditch.
Leadenhall Street ran east-west from Cornhill Street to Aldgate Street. All three form part of the same road from Aldgate to Cheapside Street (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).
The city of London, not to be confused with the allegorical character (
Fenchurch Street (often called pork and peas
after her sister,
Located in Broad Street Ward and Cornhill Ward, the Royal Exchange was opened in
Aldgate was the easternmost gate into the walled
city. The name Aldgate
is thought to come from one of four sources:
Eastern gate
(Ekwall 36), ale
, public gate
or open to all
, or old gate
(Bebbington
20–21).
As the only bridge in London crossing the Thames until
Lombard Street was known by early modern Londoners as a place of commerce and trade. Running east to west from Gracechurch Street to Poultry, Lombard Street bordered Langbourn Ward, Walbrook Ward, Bridge Within Ward, and Candlewick Street Ward.
Our editorial and encoding practices are documented in detail in the Praxis section of our website.
The Leadenhall area is, according to classicist John Morris, the most excavated and best understood place in Roman London (Morris 99). When Sir Horace Jones began excavations to rebuild Leadenhall market in 1881–1882, the architect unwittingly discovered part of a Roman basilica that was buried beneath the original seventh-century building (Hanson 15; see also LAARC GM326). In fact, further excavations undertaken in the 1930s revealed that Leadenhall market covered the east side of a 153.924 by 45.72 metre basilica (Hanson 15), which lay north of a 152.4 metre open forum that stretched east bordering Leadenhall Street and extended south to Fenchurch Street (Marsden 99).
Built in approximately administrative and legal functions of the state
(Sorrel 48). Far from a simple marketplace, the Roman forum and basilica represented, as Mary Cathcart Borer writes in her history of London, the heart of business life of the city
(Borer 19).
While numerous fragments of Roman walls and Italic pottery have been uncovered at Leadenhall, archaeologists know little about the Leadenhall site in Anglo-Saxon and Norman London. Scholars do reason that a building must have occupied the site (Gomme 94). The earliest mention of Leadenhall market occurs in in the yeare
, Leadenhall belonged to
(Stow 1598, sig. I2v).
The function of Leadenhall changed over its early history. Leadhall Market was initially a food market. The courtyard was a meeting place for all poultry brought to London had first to be taken to Leadenhall for sale
(Barker and Jackson 71). In
doing ſo notable a worke for the common weale, alſo left example to other Citizens comming after him, whõ God likewiſe exalteth with ſuch temporall bleſſings(Stow 2S5r). Completed in
Just as it had expanded Eastcheap market, the City maintained Leadenhall as an important centre of commerce. In
The vſe of Leaden Hall in my youth was thus: In a part of the North quadrant on the Eaſt ſide of the North gate, was the common beames for weighing of wooll, and other wares, as had béene accuſtomed: on the weſt ſide the gate was the ſcales to way meale: the other thrée ſides were reſerued for the moſt part to the making and reſting of the pageants ſhewed at midſommer in the watch: the remnant of the ſides and quadrantes were imployed for the ſtowage of wooll ſackes, but not cloſed vp: the lofts aboue were partly vſed by the painters in working for the decking of pageants and other deuiſes, for beautifying of the watch and watchmen, the reſidue of the loftes were letten out to marchantes, the wooll winders and packers therein to wind and pack their wools
Archaeologist Christopher Thomas observes that the ground floor (partially covered with arcades around the perimeter) was a common market selling butter, cheese, poultry, grain, victuals, and eggs. The first and second floors were used to store grain for the City, and a spiral staircase was situated at each corner to allow sacks of grain to be transported up and down (Thomas 124).Ledden hall
) is featured as an open, square courtyard structure with four towers at each corner. Scales for weighing meal and the chapel also appear on each map (Prockter and Taylor 25).
Leadenhall’s importance as a centre for trade is demonstrated by the numerous negotiations regarding the use and governance of the site. In
While certain tradesmen, such as foreigners, could sell only on specific days, other sellers were permitted to sell each market day. In his historiography
Butchers ſhould ſell their meat by weight, Beef for a half-peny the pound, and Mutton for three farthings, alſo at this time forraigne Butchers were permitted, their fleſh in Leadenhall-market, which before was not allowed(Baker 3H4r). But not every company was pleased with the City’s market policies. In
Perhaps due to its spaciousness, Leadenhall Market was used as a place of storage. Besides grain, it stored timbers for reparation of tenements, artilleries, guns, and other armors for the safeguard and possible defense of the city (Stow 1598, sig. I5r). Guns were stored in the Market since at least all the stockes for Guns
(Stow 1598, sig. I4r). Sacks of wool were stored in the remnant of the sides and quadrantes
of Leadenhall Market (Stow 1598, sig. I6r). It was responsible for keeping the donated largess and dole for the poor as well (Stow 1598, sig. I5v).
Leadenhall functioned as a place for assembly. Because its location near the major east-west route and the major north-south route through the city made for a direct march towas at the pivot of Aldgate, Newgate, Bishopsgate and London Bridge, the city could be mustered in Leadenhall for military purposes. there is none so conuenient méet and necessarie a place to assemble them in, within the said cittie, as the said Leaden hall, both for largenes of roome, and for their sure defence in time of their counselling together about the premises
(Stow 1598, sig. I5r). In his
my lord mayor did warn all the crafts to bring in their men in harness to Leadenhall with pikes and guns and bows and bills in blue cloaks bordered with red(Machyn 1562-09-18). When
any triumph or noblenesse were to be done(Stow 1598, sig. I5r), Leadenhall Market was used to prepare and order celebration. About the year
As an integral part of London life, Leadenhall was featured in various pageants and plays. Leadenhall was situated on the royal procession route, so it was a main location for pageants. In
From thence the Quéene wyth hir traine paſſed to Leaden hall, where was a goodly Pageaunte with a tipe and heauenly Roſe, and vnder the tippe was a goodly roote of Golde, ſette on a little mountaine enuironed wyth red Roſes and white, oute of the typpe came downe a Faulcon all whyte, and ſette vppon the roote, and incontinent came downe an Angel wyth greate melodie, and ſette a cloſe Crowne of Gold on the Faulcons head: and in the ſame Pageant ſateSaint Anne wyth all hir iſſue beneath hir: and vnderMary Cleophe ſate hir foure children, of the whiche chyldren, one made a goodlye Oration to the Quéen of the fruitefulneſſe ofSaint Anne , and of hir generation, truſting, that lyke fruite ſhoulde come of hir.
Midsummer pageants were also held at Leadenhall. When the City prepared for processions, pageants, or festivals, they also used Leadenhall’s second floor as both a year-round storage area and as a place where painters, carpenters, and other craftsmen could prepare for the upcoming festivities (Thomas 124; Stow 1598, sig. I6r).
In his
that in the middeſt thereof there ſhould bée a Market place kept euery Monday for Leather, where the Shoomakers of London, for their more eaſe, might buy of the Tanners, without ſéeking any further(Deloney J4r). Although
wéele haue it cald, / The Leaden hall, because in digging it, / You found the lead that couereth the same(Dekker K3v). The king also illustrates his supremacy by passing policies regarding Leadenhall’s business. Speaking for the plight of his fellow shoemakers,
[t]o hold two market dayes in Leden hall, / Mondayes and Fridayes(Dekker K4r). As we know, Leadenhall was a public building owned by the City. If the king wished to pass any policies regarding the marketplace, he would have had to consult the City council first. By allowing the king to name and pass policies regarding Leadenhall,
Leadenhall continued to prosper as a central marketplace until the fire of