A History of London through Fascinating Street Names
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- Опубліковано 11 вер 2024
- You are welcome to join me for another fascinating online talk, exploring a history of London through various weird and wonderful street names.
Lombards setting up shop 900 years ago in Lombard Street, the ghost of a Roman 'barbacane' watchtower in Barbican, the candle-makers of Cannon Street, religious monks and nuns in Crutched Friars and Mincing Lane, medieval knights riding out to joust along (you guessed it) Knightrider Street....and many many more!
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I worked in London for a few years back in 80s-90s, Commuting from the north, We would work Sunday mornings with the afternoon off, so we would wander around the city, it was deserted except for the people who live there, most pubs and shops closed, I found loads of amazing places, little courtyards and squares, tiny narrow pedestrian only streets, great architecture and street names, the average person would never know they are there if just visiting, It's like a hidden city,
84 Charing Cross Road: [Helene Hanff in cinema, watching "Brief Encounter", thinking to herself] Please write and tell me about London. I live for the day when I step off the boat-train and feel it's dirty sidewalks under my feet. I want to walk up Berkeley Square, and down Wimpole Street. And stand in St. Paul's where John Donne preached And sit on the step Elizabeth sat on when she refused to enter the Tower, and places like that. A newspaper man I know who was stationed in London during the war says that tourists go to England with preconceived notions, so they always find exactly what they are looking for. I told him I'd go looking for the England of English literature. And he said that it's there.
Nobody lives in the city. The people you saw were probably office cleaners.
I worked for Harrods when owned by Sir Hugh Frazer. Must be 1967 -70 I too from Windermere in the north. I had something of your experience of London too. I went back to London shopping and found it over run with peoples on Strand ,Oxford Street and Trafalgar areas . I retired in 2016 and left UK as too expensive .Built house and English gardens abroad
You lie about your real name: I don't believe you.
Love this. Love London, wonderful historic city.
Excellent, I was a cycle courier in London for 18 years ( know every street and alleyway ) and to get a history lesson like this is 'magic' thank you👌
Having a Swedish Mum I often wondered whether there was a connection between The Strand and the word for beach, but I always thought it was a bit too far from the river. You have just put me right.
Very interesting. I'm a clock restorer. Knightrider street was known as "Little Knightrider Street" until the late 19th century. I had a lovely English Fusee clock with that address on the dial.
What a really well-presented and narrated documentary. Thank you very much!
Perfect video; enjoyed immensely. I worked off Fleet Street for few years, at nights, in the Solicitors Law Society press hall printing parliamentary documents overnight. During our lunch break we would sometimes wander around the back alleys climbing forbidden railings to see where places went and in the '70's we didn't get arrested as terrorists. We would also go into the Daily Mirror building across the road that fronted onto Fleet Street and get a good meal, cheap, in their canteen. On an early Friday morning some of us would go to the meat market for weekend fare and sink a pint in the public house that was open (only!) for market porters. Miss the ancient history; although, where I am now, the first Australians can go back 50,000 years.
Wonderful company, fascinating and such a treat. Thank you for posting.
This was like having a little holiday break this afternoon. Thank you! So enjoyable.
I enjoyed this very much, thank you Edward. I lived in London in the 70’s and I found it fascinating as I knew nothing of this. You have a lovely natural way of communicating which I like and a good sense of humour😁 Glad to have found you.
You missed out the original name of Threadneedle Street. It too was a place of ill repute called Gropecunt Lane. Eminently descriptive and i think my favourite old London street name!
Or Sherbourne Lane in the city, which used to be Shiteburne, but was changed to make it sound nicer!
@@edwardcalcutt3417 god bless Thomas Crapper eh? 😆
Passing Alley in Farringdon too
😱
@@sm3296 There were many Gropecunt lanes, roads etc. across the country. They worked the same as Market Street, Chandler Road or or Mill lane. The name of the road became known for the goods and... ahem, services were available down that particular thoroughfare.
Know that I’m a year late but this was utterly fascinating 🧐. Thank you for the history lesson. Enjoyed your video, well done 👍
Hi this is an outstanding piece of work I am so pleased I clicked on it just by chance is so well put together it must’ve taken you forever thank you so much for taking the time to produce such a professional piece of work well done👏👏🇬🇧🇬🇧
Great video. I’m a dedicated Anglophile from the States and really enjoyed learning the origins of the words and history of the street names. Another testimony to the UK’s exceptional history.
Same here. England's history is fascinating!
I’m English, live in the south east in Kent and spent many years working in central London. I think that most cities in most countries of Europe have fascinating history. What makes the UK more accessible is of course the common language (well, it was the same until Americans got hold of it). If anyone from the States is coming to the South East and can give me their general interests (galleries, museums, country houses etc.) I’d be happy to come up with a list of places for the travellers to consider visiting.
London is a fascinating, rich in history city. Knew snippets of what you have spoken about but I have learnt a lot more!
I lived in a street in Tuai, New Zealand called Rotton Row, and was told it was a street in London. I have just Googled it. Very interesting, and a lovely street alongside Hyde Park and used by royalty, and was lit up at night by torches to discourage highway robbers, before street lighting was an everyday thing g!
Rotten Row , Hyde Park believed to be a corruption of La Route du Roi, or King’s Road, Another likely possibility as to the name comes from the materials of the road made of a mix of gravel and crushed tree bark to create a firm, yet pliable surface. Some definitions of “rotten” are”friable,” “soft” or “yielding” which describes the surface ideal for horses’ feet and legs.
I was absolutely rivetted by the narration !! It was very enjoyable and I've saved it so that I can go back to watch it again. I cycle to London from Enfield for pleasure and love exploring the different areas of the square mile. You've given me so many new places to visit !! Thank you.
I'm a new visitor to your channel and found it wonderfully educational! Incidentally, I was born in Soho and have a genuine affinity to London.
Thank you so much for sharing. Hearing the historical details really puts the different areas of London into context. So interesting!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it :)
Thank you ! That was an interesting selection of history in street name form :) Haven't been to London since the late '90's (unfortunately) so a "tour" is always lovely.
Superbly interesting and well documented video! It came up on my home page, presumably because I enjoy videos about history among other things, and I thought "That looks interesting! I'll save that to my Watch Later list." Very glad I did!
Well I'm only halfway through the video. I assume the second half is just as fascinating.
I sure wish there were more videos like this, with great illustrations and fascinating narration
Thank you Linda!
Amen! History is wonderfully interesting and absorbing, when delivered this way.
Excellent and so informative. Enjoying the sense of humour too this adds a lightness to the documentary. Bravo!
This was really fascinating! Thanks for all the work put into it. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
Thank you :) Glad you enjoyed it.
Fantastic history, simply told and presented, like a good book that you can't put down, l couldn't stop watching. I worked in Fleet St years ago.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comment James :)
Thank you so much. A really interesting narrative on the origins of London Street names... 🙏
Many thanks, Edward!
Even though I grew up in London, I found this video fascinating and very enlightening.
While not perhaps relevant to ‘the History of London through it’s Streets’ I was delighted to find during my family history research, that a street name in the Islington area, Beversbrook Road (1884) was, according to ‘Streets with a story’ by Eric A Willats (Islington Local History & Education Society - 1986), named after my Great Great Grandmother’s family home in rural Wiltshire, ‘Beversbrook’.
Built by her father, an Architect and at one time the Wiltshire County Surveyor. When she moved from this house on marriage to my Great Great Grandfather in 1861, they moved ‘up to London’, to the Islington area (he had a Medical Practice and Hospital Consultancy) and named their London home ‘Beversbrook’.
This house was most likely demolished, but the name ‘lived on’ as a road, probably to the total puzzlement of past and present residents!
Very enjoyable, interesting and informative. Thank you very much.
I have a theory about the name London. The Lon comes from Lón wich is a lake or a small reservoir and don from tún which means a field or pasture. I’m Icelandic and the etymology fits for me. Icelandic is not only norse but in large part Celtic. Lóntún means the field by the lake or water.
Proto-Celtic *Londinyom (“place that floods”)
Fascinating stuff, thank you! I love the juxtaposition between old and new architecture in London too, I find it evokes a sense of pride in the rich history of the city and the fact that it’s still vibrant today. Although of course not all of the history is either to be remembered favourably or worthy of any sense of pride whatsoever… nevertheless exploring the origin of these strange place names is so interesting. ☺️
Wonderful history and photos. I worked in and around London for many years, including the City, Gracechuch Street and Thameside too. My family has a long history of working in London, from Huguenot silk weavers in Spitalfields to costermongers and rug weavers in Hoxton. I love London and miss going there as much as I used to when I was younger. Thanks for this so much. :)
Thank you for comments and great to hear from you :) Glad you enjoyed it.
There is a legend about King Lud, he is supposed to have been the father of King Lear. A history of Aviation states that there were several early legends of flight in ancient times. The story is that King Lud thought that he could fly, and one day climbed the Temple of Apollo in London. He then threw himself off the tower and killed himself. Lear was supposedly crowned the next day.
Absolutely fascinating!
Tremendous information, extremely well put together, flawlessly presented
Thank you!!!!
what a fantastic video I thank you for taking the time to do it absolutely brilliant more please
Truly excellent history! 😊👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏😊 I love to visit London and explore it, so this was very educational and helpful😊👍👍
Thank you. This was most enjoyable, I worked in the City in the eighties. Wonderful times.
This was a most excellent chat! I thoroughly enjoyed learning all the quirky details about London street names. Thank you so much for posting this!
Really well done thanks for the time and energy to put it together.
Quite the best "tour" of auld, sometimes very old, London - superbly presented in a clear, relaxed, literate yet historical context. I'm left amused, profoundly respectful of the overlay of history, chuffed to be better educated. Thank you, Mr Calcutt, for this delightful sojourn. I'll be checking out your channel forthwith!
Throughly enjoyed the video, thank you! Live in North Carolina, US and have always wanted to visit London. Don’t know if I will ever get the chance but feel like I have had an excellent tour having seen your post! So again, thank you!
I adore my city- and adore working in London (Shaftesbury Avenue) would not swap it for all the tea in China! And I love tea😂
That was a great video. Lovely narration and fascinating content. Thank you!
Very informative, thankyou for taking the time to bring it together
Old Holborn was the Jewish money lending area. It was there that a lender served Duke of Wellington with loan to fight Napoleon. Later he paid it back and as Prime minster had the lender made a title of Baron for his faith in Wellington who saved Europe from servitude. The lender was De Rothechild . Baron De Rothechild from that very day
Thank you very much for presenting this, it was so interesting!
I love your videos. I used to live in Berkshire and went to London often but it's so overwhelming that it's really easy to miss these things and even if not, to know their origin stories. Thank you. 💖🏏
A fascinating programme. beautifully filmed. thank you.
Interestingly explaining! Thanks a lot! It makes me love London more and more!
Prob the best single source of info on London’s lanes, streets, roads, various inns, taverns, etc, is H.A. Harben’s behemoth dictionary c.1916, it is suitable for all serious and casual research and I have found him to be invaluable. Enough that I have two copies, having highlighted to the point of ruin the first one. His thoroughness is exhausting but worthwhile to cross check with the Historic Towns Trust maps created for London (to 1520) - the richness of the history behind London’s street names is barely suggested here altho thru no fault of Edward’s efforts, Harben’s dictionary runs over 600 pages and obviously ended before WW1 concluded!
My own area is London c1300-1500 so I virtually live in Harben’s book, it has been a fascinating and utterly unexpected experience!
i am pleased to find your you tube channel edward. thank you for putting together these very interesting and informative videos.
Peter Ackroyd, in 'London, The Biography', wrote that there was a street in London called Gropecunt Lane. Can't find it on Google Maps, however, so presumably it was changed at some point.
Its called Milton Street now - got its new name 1830. Apparently Gropecunt Lane was in towns everywhere to advertise where certain ‘workers’ were.
I believe it’s now Threadneedle Street.
@@edwardoleyba3075 Oh right! Thanks.
37:37 I believe Maypole dancing came from pagan fertility rituals, literally dancing round a big phallic representation.
Great video by the way, I worked in the City of London for several years and also know the West End quite well. Fascinating stuff and extremely well presented. Thank you
Interesting about the pagan fertility rituals:) quite surprising in a way that some pagan things lasted so long into the Christian era.
@@edwardcalcutt3417 on the contrary, most Christian festivals are based on pagan predecessors such as:
Easter - the vernal equinox/fertility rites,
All Hallows/All Saints - Samhain,
Christmas - Saturnalia/Yuletide.
Even the harvest festival has pagan roots. When the Roman Empire adopted Christianity it was thought that making the Christian holidays the direct equivalent to Pagan holidays, would make them more easily accepted by the people.
@@Greg_Romford Right. Great examples. I meant more blatant, apparently unchristianised things like maypole dancing. But maybe they had a Christian spin on it that I don't know about.
@@Greg_Romford
Lots of theories regarding the maypole. Obviously part of the celebrations to welcome in Spring. Origins possibly Roman, possibly from the Germanic areas of Western Europe.
No evidence at all that it is a phallic symbol. Sorry, but that theory just doesn't stand up.
@@Wotsitorlabart From what I've seen of Maypole Dancing it's done by young maidens...
My family lived in the slums just north of St. Clement Danes for many generations. The area was cleared to make way for the L.S.E.
Was completely engaged and most interested all the way.
Thank you for this gem of little known origins of place names.
Very welcome!
Remember getting off the tube at Aldwych in the sixties to work at Holborn at a solicitors. Didn’t realise they had closed the line as I don’t live in London now.
Thanks for this very interesting video.
This was absolutely wonderful! Thank you so much!
Wonderful Edward, thank you. I live in California so this is quite another world. The present architecture looks so prosaic and dull next to your pictures of the past, I think. Maybe many people feel like that about whatever their contemporary architecture and time are like. Thank you 🌿
Thoroughly enjoyable! Lived and worked in the Covent Garden/Fleet Street area in the mid 1980s so knew a lot of these places.
I'm so happy I found your channel and videos! Absolutely a delight to listen to your lectures. Thank you for doing them! I've subscribed and now looking forward to more!
Fascinating and most interesting !... It's appreciated time the time you must have spent researching and producing this video.
Fantastic tour... learned so much. Very well presented. I look forward to more.
What an awesome and well prepared presentation.loved the comparison of the old and new london in each place 👏👏👏👏👏
The Maypole was an offshoot of the spring fertility rites from anglo saxon invaders to England. The maypole dance was originally setup to ask for good crops and fertile births for the new year. It was a pagan origin that greatly offended many Bible believing Protestants of the 17th century. Some of these people became the Puritans and Pilgrims of American history. Some became the origins of the Methodists and other dissenter clergy in England.
Well done! Many thanks for an interesting angle of presenting history.
I'm a Brit migrant child of the 60's, growing up in wilds of Queensland and now living in Sydney. A 500 year old church and Roman ruins, just sitting in the city, blows my mind.
I remember going to covent garden when it was a fruit and veg market late 60s early 70s it was a great place
That's a cool memory!
Fascinating video, many thanks for sharing it
I visited London in 1970 and Covent Garden was a great shopping location.
Just about the perfect video - and extremely well presented. I think that, to understand the positions of these places, people who don’t know London would do well to have a street map in front of them so that they can physically place all these streets, alleys etc. Its all confined into a remarkably small area. I would often walk from Charing Cross to Moorgate; choosing slightly different routes so that I came across different experiences and sights.
Many thanks for your fascinating talks. Most informative and presented in a very natural and communicative way.
Thank you Edward, I thoroughly enjoyed your tour..................Ray in Dublin
Really interesting tour around London's streets. Thank you!
Super interesting.I enjoyed every second of that. Thank you !!
I really enjoyed. Watched 3 times in a row.
Hi Edward from Australia just loved watching your presentation I thought it was a lovely way of walking through London just remember people overseas don’t understand things so interact a bit more Ike what they ate wore drink how much things would cost wages keep up the good work susie b
It was all so interesting. I thought I knew London but apparently I’ve still plenty to learn.
Fantastic video. Thoroughly enjoyed
Thanks Kelly.
Fabulous. I used to walk from Bank to St Paul's in my lunch hour, when the weather was fine.....or slope into the Green Man if it wasn't. Happy days. Many thanks
Covent Garden was used until the early 1970s.
The new market in Nine Elms (no trees in sight!) opened on 11th November 1974
Construction works at Nine Elms began in 1971, by which time the businesses in Covent Garden were well organised and prepared for the closure.
The final day of trading was Friday 8th November 1974
Very interesting, and exciting to hear that my surname Cross could be Huguenot! Also great to see the Barbican mentioned, as my father in law was one of the team of architects from Chamberlain, Powell & Bon who designed it…I could never bring myself to tell him how much I hated it!
CONGRATULATIONS - on a fascinating lecture. Best wishes. Kenneth.
I just woke up from a nap, and I'm still going to sleep. This is snooze-worthy.
My favorite city. Can’t wait to go back.
This is a wonderful video about the history of London!
This was wonderful. I did enjoy learning about the streets and their names. I love London and have been to visit 3 times. Wish I had known some of these names before. A great job 👏 Thank you.
Fascinating - thank you.
Great Video! @47.25;
Wasn't St Giles the patron saint of the disabled, hence the name cripple gate?
I think it was also the site of a laser (leper) house?
Yes could be Asher :) I remember reading somewhere that it wasn't known for sure. But St Giles and the presence of lepers does make a lot of sense. And maybe it is known for sure, and I didn't do enough research! 😁
Thank you for the tour.
It was educational - and depressing at the same time - to hear the stories of the street names alongside the pictures of the city today. Fire and bombing seem of little devastation compared to bad taste.
I thoroughly enjoyed that Edward .. I shall subscribe and watch you other videos .. I lived in London between 1994 and 2006 and used to love going exploring all the old rads and yards and obscure areas .... thank you
Thank you I like your material it is with a pinch of humour that's why isn't boring 😉 👏
This came up on my feed as something I might like to watch, and the algorithm is not wrong! I love history, and your video is fascinating. I don't visit London nearly enough
Glad to see you talked about the Duke of Buckingham and the Embankment area street names. Another local detail is that Samuel Pepys lived there after the Great Fire on Buckingham St. apparently because the construction of the new properties there were built with a design to resist fire.
Well done and very interesting.
Thanks for posting your informative, interesting and entertaining video. It's really enjoyable to find out how London places got some of their weird and wonderful names. And a valuable history lesson included. 👍
Thanks Paul! Appreciated.
Very interesting.
My insomnia: Oooo, play this one! You love dozing off to Brits narrating all manner of miscellany.
My insomnia, 48 minutes later: Fascinating!
Good stuff man. I didn't need that sleep anyway.
Wow, that's a great video. I will always cheer for you in Korea I'm looking forward to a great video. Have a nice day.
Thank you for a wonderful presentation.
That was very interesting thank you.
Fascinating and beautifully presented.
The King's Wardrobe was where the young Richard II took refuge at the height of the Peasants' Revolt because the guards - sympathetic to the cause - had let the rebels into the Tower of London. From the Wardrobe, Richard went out to Smithfield to meet with Wat Tyler where he promised to accede to all the rebels' demands. To cut a long story short, when they'd dispersed having achieved all they wanted, Richard had all their leaders slaughtered and changed nothing.