Place Names in the East End
Do you know any stories to go with East End
Street Names?
Let us know & we will put them up here.
hec@gn.apc.org
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If you want to look at old images of the East End, take a trip to
Bancroft Library, phone them on 020 8983 4114
Aldgate.
Ealdgate in Saxon English means "old gate", a reference
to the 200 AD Roman gate which was the chief focus of the area. The
underground stations called Aldgate and Aldgate East were built in
1876 and 1884 respectively.
Bethnal Green
Said to be a contraction of Bathon Hall, which was named after
the family who lived there in the time of Edward I. Alternatively,
it may have come from 'Blida's Corne' or even 'Blithehale' meaning
'happy retreat'.
Billiter Street.
Derives from the Old French for the bell-founder - this was already an
area for bell-founding in medieval times.
Brick Lane. The lane along which carts carried bricks from the brick
kilns in Spitalfields to Whitechapel and beyond.
Blood Alley
So called because the dockers’ shoulders and hands bled as a result
of heaving up the sugar sacks.
Bonner St
After Bishop Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London in the 16th Century. A Catholic
Bishop, who persecuted Protestants. He refused to take the Oath of
Supremacy, that would make Queen Elizabeth I Head of the Church of
England. Because of this he was deposed and imprisoned in Marshalsea,
until his death in 1569. Don’t feel too sorry for him, as he
sent many Protestants to the flames during the reign of Bloody Mary!
Brick Lane
Bricks were made there.
Cavell Street
Named after the nurse, Edith Cavell. She trained at the London
Hospital in Whitechapel, and later developed a nurses’ training
programme at Shoreditch Infirmary, where she remained until 1907. When
the First World War broke out in 1914, the Belgian hospital was taken
over by the Red Cross. However, in August 1915, Edith was arrested
and shot by the Germans, who accused her of hiding people. A statue
of her stands in St Martin’s Lane, just opposite the National
Portrait Gallery, in Central London.
Cheapside.
Derives from the Old English chepe, meaning market.
Christian St.
Named after King Christian V of Denmark, it and other names reflect the
large Scandinavian community which lived in the area in the C17th.
Cubitt Town
Named after William Cubitt, a builder who bought and rented spaces from
Island Gardens to Blackwall. He built Christchurch & the streets
of Cubitt Town. There the streets followed the lines of the marsh drainage
ditches.
Fournier Street.
Name of George Fournier, of Huguenot extraction, who in 1834 left money
for the benefit of the poor of Spitalfields.
Isle of Dogs
There are various accounts for the origin for this name. One is that
Henry VIII couldn’t sleep when at Greenwich because of the barking
of his hunting dogs, so he had them rowed across the river each night!
Another tale is that a young nobleman and his bride drowned in the marshes
around the island whilst hunting wild boar, and their dogs wouldn’t
stop howling [from hunger, perhaps?!].
Alternatively, it could be from Isle of Dykes, as dykes were built to
stop the marsh flooding [no trace of them remains].
A more prosaic version is that as the tides swept around the island.
Bodies (including dogs) were regularly washed up on it.
Finally, it may be a version of Docks – as whilst docks weren’t
built until the C18th on the island, there was Blackwall (basin), and
docks around it…
It used to be part of Stepney – Stebunhithe Marshes.
William Blake, in his poem "Jerusalem", in 1804, refers
to it as the Isle of Leutha's Dogs:
"He came down from Highgate thro' Hackney & Holloway towards London
Till he came to old Stratford, & thence to Stepney & the Isle
Of Leutha's Dogs, thence thro' the narrows of the River's side,
And saw every minute particular, the jewels of Albion, ...."
Limehouse
From the lime burning which took place there. Lime is used to make mortar.
Millwall
After the 7 windmills along the river wall.
Minories
From the ‘Minoresses’ or ‘Little Sisters’ or ‘Poor
Clares’, nuns who founded a convent close to the Tower in 1293.
Poplar
Most of the area of the original parish of poplar is in the Isle of Dogs,
once known as Stepney Marsh. Poplar takes its name from the poplar
trees which were planted to provide a windbreak and were particularly
suitable trees for growing in the rich, damp soil.
Spitalfields.
The name refers to the fields next to St Mary Spital, founded in 1197
("spital" was a medieval abbreviation of "hospital").
John Stow tells us that in about 1576 one of the fields was broken
up for clay to make bricks and they found many Roman antiquities.
Stepney
From Stebunhithe, meaning the landing place of Stebba or Stephen.
Whitechapel
Apparently got its name from a whitewashed chapel of ease built in the
C13th.
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