Friday 22 May 2009

Street names, and their Meanings

During medieval times, the name of a street was a handy label which gave an indication as to its function. 'Baker Street' would be where all the bakers hawked their wares, for example. Some were particularly direct, e.g. 'Grope Lane' in Shrewsbury was, indeed, where prostitutes were to be had (in every sense of the word) and the original name was erm, even more Anglo-Saxon than the existing one.

Isn't history a wonderful thing?

However, I couldn't help noticing the address: 'Old Queen Street'. The offices of 'The Spectator' are situated on it. What do you make of that?

1 comment:

Paul Chokran said...

It's a sign of The Times ...