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Provider: University of Victoria
Database: The Map of Early Modern London
Content: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
TY - ELEC
A1 - Chernyk, Melanie
A1 - Jenstad, Janelle
ED - Jenstad, Janelle
T1 - Knightrider Street
T2 - The Map of Early Modern London
ET - 7.0
PY - 2022
DA - 2022/05/05
CY - Victoria
PB - University of Victoria
LA - English
UR - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/KNIG1.htm
UR - https://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/edition/7.0/xml/standalone/KNIG1.xml
ER -
Dowgate Street is a high street that runs north-south from Candlewick Street to the Thames. According to Dowgate
(Harben, Dowgate Hill). According to downe going or descending
, because the street descends to the Thames (Stow 1633, sig. Y4r).
Addle Hill or Athelyngstrete ran north from Knightrider Street up to Carter Lane (Stow 1633, sig. 2M4v).
College Hill was located on the boundary between Vintry Ward and
Dowgate Ward. It is visible on the Agas map and marked as Whythyngton College
.
Garlick Hill ran north from the
Thames. Before it reached Cheapside Street,
it became Bow Lane. The name Garlick Hill
preserves a memory of
the steep incline (now partially flattened) leading away from the river.
Like Bread Street, Garlick Hill was built in the ninth
century; it provided access from the haven of Queenhithe (just to the west of
Garlick Hill) to Cheapside Street.
Trinity Lane ran north-south between
Old Fish Street (Knightrider Street) and Thames Street, between Garlick Hill and Huggin Lane, entirely in the ward of Queenhithe. On the Agas map, it is
labelled Trinitie lane
.
Huggin Lane ran north-south between Thame
Street and Knightrider Street.
Although
Bread Street ran north-south from the Standard (Cheapside) to Knightrider Street, crossing Watling Street. It lay wholly in the ward of Bread Street, to which it gave its name.
Old Fish Street Hill ran north-south between Old Fish Street and Thames
Street. old
Fishstreete hill
and Saint Mary Mounthaunt Lane
.
Lambeth Hill ran north-south between Knightrider Street and Thames Street. Part of it lay in Queenhithe Ward and part in Castle Baynard Ward. The Blacksmiths’ Hall was located on the west side of this street, but the precise location is unknown.
Paul’s Chain was a street that ran north-south between St Paul’s Churchyard and Paul’s Wharf, crossing over Carter Lane, Knightrider Street, and Thames Street. It was in Castle Baynard Ward. On the Agas map, it is labelled Paules chayne
. The precinct wall around St. Paul’s Church had six gates, one of which was on the south side by Paul’s Chain. It was here that a chain used to be drawn across the carriage-way entrance in order to preserve silence during church services.
Formerly Mountjoy’s Inn, the Doctors’ Commons, Knightrider Street was the
meeting place for the where they kept a common table and built up a precious library of
foreign law books
(Baker
180). Eventually, the Doctors’ Commons,
Knightrider Street housed five courts: the
Located in Farringdon Within Ward, Ludgate was a gate built by the Romans (Carlin and Belcher 80). for his owne honor
(Stow 1:1).
Smithfield was an open, grassy area located outside the Wall. Because of its location close to the city centre, Smithfield was used as a site for markets, tournaments, and public executions. From
Bread Street Ward is east of Castle Baynard Ward and Farringdon Within Ward. The ward takes its name from its main street, Bread Street, ſo called of bread in olde time there ſold
(Stow 1603).
Cheapside Street, one of the most important streets in early modern London, ran east-west between the Great Conduit at the foot of Old Jewry to the Little Conduit by St. Paul’s churchyard. The terminus of all the northbound streets from the river, the broad expanse of Cheapside Street separated the northern wards from the southern wards. It was lined with buildings three, four, and even five stories tall, whose shopfronts were open to the light and set out with attractive displays of luxury commodities (Weinreb and Hibbert 148). Cheapside Street was the centre of London’s wealth, with many
Distaff Lane was in Bread Street Ward. It is not to be confused with Great Distaff Street, the street which crossed the northernmost end of Distaff Lane. There is some discrepancy in the exact length of Distaff Lane between the Agas Map and the information in
Diſtaf la.) appears to run south off Great Distaff Street, labelled
Maidenhed lane, terminating before it reaches Knightrider Street.
runneth downe to Knightriders street, or olde Fishstreete(Stow 1:345). Our map truncates Distaff Lane before Knightrider Street.
New Fish Street (also known in the New Fyſhe ſtreate
. Variant spellings include Street of London Bridge
, Brigestret
, Brugestret
, and Newfishstrete
(Harben 432; BHO).
Do Little Lane was a small lane that ran north-south between Carter Lane in the north and Knightrider Street in the south. It ran parallel between Sermon Lane in the west and Old Change Street in the east. It lay within Castle Baynard Ward. It is labelled as Do lytle la.
on the Agas map.
Carter Lane ran east-west between Creed Lane in the west, past Paul’s Chain, to Old Change in the East. It ran parallel to St. Paul’s Churchyard in the north and Knightrider Street in the south. It lay within Castle Baynard Ward and Farringdon Ward Within. It is labelled as Carter lane
on the Agas map.
Thames Street was the longest street in early modern London, running east-west from the ditch around the Tower of London in the east to St. Andrew’s Hill and Puddle Wharf in the west, almost the complete span of the city within the walls.
St. Paul’s Cathedral was—and remains—an important church in London. In
Queenhithe is one of the oldest
havens or harbours for ships along the Thames. landing place
. Queenhithe
was known in the ninth century as Aetheredes hyd or the landing place of
.
Castle Baynard Ward is west of Queenhithe Ward and Bread Street Ward. The ward is named after Baynard’s Castle, one of its main ornaments.
Cordwainer Street Ward is east of Bread Street Ward. The ward takes its name from its main street, Cordwainer Street, so named of
Vintry Ward is west of Dowgate Ward. The ward is named after the a part of the banks of the Riuer of Thames
within Vintry Ward used by the merchants of Bordeaux for the transporting and selling of their wines (Stow 1603).
Dowgate Ward is east of Vintry Ward and west of Candlewick Street Ward. Both the ward and its main street, Dowgate Street, are named after Dowgate, a watergate on the Thames.
Knightrider Street ran east-west from Dowgate Street to Addle Hill, crossing College Hill, Garlick Hill, Trinity Lane, Huggin Lane, Bread Street, Old Fish Street Hill, Lambert or Lambeth Hill, St. Peter’s Hill, and Paul’s Chain. Significant landmarks included: the College of Physicians and Doctors’ Commons.
The Julian calendar, in use in the British Empire until September 1752. This calendar is used for dates where the date of the beginning of the year is ambigious.
The Julian calendar with the calendar year regularized to beginning on 1 January.
The Julian calendar with the calendar year beginning on 25 March. This was the calendar used in the British Empire until September 1752.
The Gregorian calendar, used in the British Empire from September 1752. Sometimes
referred to as
The Anno Mundi (year of the world
) calendar is based on the supposed date of the
creation of the world, which is calculated from Biblical sources. At least two different
creation dates are in common use. See Anno Mundi (Wikipedia).
Regnal dates are given as the number of years into the reign of a particular monarch.
Our practice is to tag such dates with
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, 2004–2008. BA honours, 2006. MA English, University of Victoria, 2007. Melanie Chernyk went on to work at the Electronic Textual Cultures Lab at the University of Victoria and now manages Talisman Books and Gallery on Pender Island, BC. She also has her own editing business at http://26letters.ca.
Director of Pedagogy and Outreach, 2015–2020. Associate Project Director, 2015. 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
Programmer at the University of Victoria Humanities Computing and Media Centre (HCMC) who maintained the
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.
Historian and author of
In the universal law of the sea
(Baker 132). For an accessible overview, see Wikipedia. Records surviving from the
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Knightrider Street ran east-west
from Dowgate Street to Addle Hill, crossing College Hill, Garlick Hill, Trinity
Lane, Huggin Lane, Bread Street, Old Fish Street Hill, Lambert or Lambeth Hill, St. Peter’s Hill, and Paul’s Chain. The Agas Map labels it Knyght Ryder ſtreat
.
The etymology of the street’s name, first documented in 1322 (Ekwall 82), is obscure. so called (as is supposed) of Knights well armed and mounted at the Tower Royall, ryding from thence
through that street, west to Creede
lane, and so out at Ludgate towards Smithfield, when they were there to turney,
picturesque
etymology of
the street’s name (83).
The middle section of Knightrider
Street was known as Old Fish
Street, not to be confused with the Old Fish Street in Bread Street Ward off Cheapside Street. Knightriders streete, or as they call that part thereof, Old Fishstreet
(Stow 1:344). His references suggest that Old Fish Street
ran from at least
Distaff Lane to Bread Street. Ekwall notes that this
portion of Knightrider Street was
sometimes known as New Fish Street
(74), and argues that the other
Old Fish Street was the earlier
instance of the name (75). It seems
clear from twelfth-century references to St. Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street
(50). This church, numbered 13 on the
Agas map, is west of
Two significant landmarks in Knightrider
Street are the College of Physicians and Doctors’ Commons. The College of Physicans was
founded in 1518 in a building known as Stone House, the personal house of
Thomas Linacre. The College (now the Royal College of Physicians) indicates
on its website that Stone House stood on the site of what is now the Faraday
Building, a large complex spanning Knightrider Street, and bounded by Carter Lane, Godliman Street (formerly Paul’s Chain), Queen Victoria Street
(formerly Thames Street), and Addle Hill. The College’s website
includes pages on the architectural history of its buildings and its
institutional history. Chirurgerie
to be read in the Colledge of Phisitions in Knightriders streete
was founded in 1582. The
first lecture took place on to be continued for euer twice
euery weeke, on Wednesday, and Fryday
(Stow 1:75).
Doctors’ Commons was the lodgings and
workplace of a society of lawyers, founded in 1511, who practised in the
ecclesiastical and [o]n the west side of this streete [Paul’s Chain], is one other great house builded of stone, which
belongeth to Powles church, and was
somtime letten to the Blunts Lordes Mountioy, but of latter time to a
colledge in Cambridge, and from them to the Doctors of the Ciuill law and
Arches, who keepe a Commons there, and many of them being there lodged, it
is called the Doctors Commons
(Stow 2:17). The complex burned in the Great
Fire of 1666, was rebuilt shortly thereafter, and was eventually demolished
in 1867 (see Smith 113–14; Kent 249). The site is now occupied by the sprawling
Faraday Building, which boasts a plaque indicating that the Commons once
stood there. (See also Thornbury 281–93.)
Knightrider Street passed through Queenhithe Ward and Castle Baynard Ward. It marked the boundaries between Bread Street Ward and Queenhithe Ward, between Cordwainer Street Ward and Vintry Ward, and between Cordwainer Street Ward and Downgate Ward. The street is now in EC4 (Smith 113) and, truncated in the east, now runs from Addle Hill to Peter’s Hill. Ekwall suggests that it runs to Queen Victoria Street (82); it no longer does, if it ever did. The street, once a major thoroughfare and ward boundary, is now an insignificant alley between buildings.