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Wood Street

roseAgas Map
roseList documents mentioning Wood Street
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Wood Street ran north-south, connecting at its southernmost end with Cheapside Street and continuing northward to Little Wood Street, which led directly into Cripplegate. It crossed over Huggin Lane, Lad Lane, Maiden Lane (Wood Street), Love Lane, Addle Lane, and Silver Street, and ran parallel to Milk Street in the east and Gutter Lane in the west. Wood Street lay within Cripplegate Ward. It is labelled as Wood Streat on the Agas map and is drawn in the correct position.
Stow is uncertain of the origin of the street’s name and offers two possibilities: [i]t séemeth therefore that this stréet hath béene of the later building, all of timber, or it take[s] the name of an ancestor of Thomas Wood, whose predecessors might be the first builders, owners, and namers of this stréet after their owne name (Stow 1598, sig. Q6r-Q6v). Kingsford, however, explains that it is probably so called from the sale of wood there (Kingsford 2:338). Important sites on Wood Street included the Wood Street Counter, a small debtors’ prison, on the east side of the street, and St. Alban’s Church, located at the intersection of Wood Street and Love Lane (Stow 1598, sig. Q6v).
Wood Street still exists in modern London, but covers more territory, running all the way from Cheapside Street in the south through Cripplegate and up to Fore Street in the north.