10 London Street Names That Are Not Quite What They Seem

I think London’s street names are fascinating. They have often been passed down through the centuries and you can use them to read the history of the city around you.

The stories behind some names are pretty obvious, for example, Milk Street was where medieval Londoners once purchased their milk. Wood Street and Bread Street are similarly obvious. Some however sound straightforward but are, in fact, not. Read on for 10 examples of when London street names are not quite what they seem…

If you think I have missed any, let me know in the comments!

1. Pudding Lane

Pudding Lane is, of course, famous for being the location of the bakery in which the Great Fire of London started in September 1666.

Puddings… a bakery… you would be forgiven for thinking ‘Pudding Lane’ refers to a place that sweet treats were sold. It, in fact, refers to the street having once been the location of butchers in medieval London. Let me explain.

The butchers would carry their unwanted offal down the street to barges waiting at the end, by the river, to be transported away. ‘Boudin’ was the French word for a type of blood sausage. ‘Boudin’ was corrupted (butchered you could say) by Londoners to the easier to pronounce ‘pudding’ and became a general word for offal. This is also why we call black pudding, black pudding and why we call Pudding Lane, Pudding Lane.

2. Mincing Lane

Nearby to Pudding Lane you will find another street that on the surface seems to be related to meat: Mincing Lane.

‘Mincing’ is actually a corruption of ‘mynchen’ or ‘minchery’, old English words for a nun/nunnery. A ‘mynchen’ was the female equivalent of a ‘monk’. There were tenements on this site owned by the Benedictine nuns of St Helen’s Bishopsgate.  

3. Leather Lane

Leather Lane runs North from Holborn up to Clerkenwell Lane.

The name sounds pretty simple, where Londoners once purchased their leather, right? Wrong! Leather Lane is actually a corruption of Le Vrunelane, probably named after a local merchant here in the medieval period, with the surname ‘Leofrun’. The street changed later on to Lovrelane, Lither Lane, Liver Lane and finally Leather Lane. 

Every weekday from 10am-2pm there is a street market on Leather Lane. It is actually the oldest street market in Camden, going possibly as far back as the late 17th century.

4. Cloak Lane

Another clothing related name: Cloak Lane near Cannon Street station.

The history behind it has nothing to do with cloaks. In fact it is thought that ‘cloak’ comes from ‘cloaca’, meaning an open air sewer.

A sewer once ran along this route and drained into the now lost, buried River Walbrook. One of London’s lost rivers, the Walbrook once flowed through the heart of the city and is now subterranean. You will find the street ‘Walbrook’ along part of the route today. 

5. Shoe Lane

As with Cloak Lane, Shoe Lane does not have anything to do with shoe-making or shoe-selling or horse-shoeing etc.

Shoe Lane can be found in Holborn, just by Farringdon Road and the name is actually thought to have come from a well that once was located at the end of the street called the ‘Sho Well’, possibly the name coming the shoe-like shape of the land, created by a bend in the River Fleet.

Another theory is that it comes from ‘Scholanda’, meaning ‘show-land’, i.e. a place to display goods for customers and/or tax-collectors. 

6. Cannon Street

The origins of the name Cannon Street actually go way back before the cannon had even been invented. It is, in fact, a corruption of ‘candelwrichstrete’, meaning ‘candlewright street’, first recorded in the 12th century.

It was, therefore, a place where candle makers were based and there are a couple of clues to this on the street today. 

7. Gutter Lane

Gutter Lane can be found just off Cheapside, near to St Paul’s Cathedral.

Considering that lots of streets in medieval London would have essentially been open gutters, this one seems pretty fitting. In reality, the name Gutter Lane is thought to come from a merchant called ‘Guthrun’ or ‘Goderoune’. In the 12th century it was recorded as ‘Godrun Lane’. 

8. Little Britain

Little Britain is a street that runs from Aldersgate Street to Smithfield, near the Barbican.

It has nothing to do with the early 2000s comedy duo (this would be very unlikely to be fair), but is actually a reference to someone who used to live here.

You have a Petty France (near Buckingham Palace), a Petty Wales (by the Tower of London), relating to immigrant populations that lived in those areas. Little Britain refers to the Duke of Brittany, who had a manor house here in the early 15th century. Brittany is sometimes refers to as ‘Little Britain’. 

9. Trump Street

We now move on to Trump Street.

Nothing to do with a certain ex-US president, it is thought to probably be a reference to trumpet-makers who were once based here. Trump Street continues and becomes Russia Row further along the road, thought to have been renamed after the Napoleonic wars to thank Russia for their role in that conflict or due to a Russian immigrant population that lived on the site.

10. Sherborne Lane

Finally we come to Sherborne Lane, found just by Bank Station in the City of London. This one sounds innocent enough until you learn it used to be called ‘Shittborwelane’ and the later ‘Shiteburn lane’, both referencing the nearby presence of public toilets, casting a stench over the street. 

It was changed in later years to something more palatable.

Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed! More of London’s quirky history below…